[Suggestion] Lizard 's Laboriously Longwinded Rebalance Report (218 Cards Reviewed!)

Fair enough. I see leagues as pretty competitive, especially if pizza entries come back.

 

Well, here begins another rant about balance and card changes. It's going to start great and then degenerate into shorter and less intelligible ideas. But try and get through the first couple anyways.

Let's face it, we're not sure about what to do with several cards. Do we enhance them, or do we change the effect or the cards themselves entirely? I'd like to propose a mixture of both.

Let me start off by explaining the format I am using sometimes:
Card Name
Card effects
Damage/Range (if changed)

Simple effect change

*Replacement card name*
*Replacement effect*

For some cards, a simple effect change is well, simple. But for other more powerful cards, it would be a good idea to have access to them in the future with an appropriate point value on some balanced items.
For now though, the item which lost the card will get a replacement card with a new effect which reflects the old card's quality. Makes sense right?

Two quick notes:
-I insist on the Interruptable keyword here. I find the effect to be most helpful when dealing with .... certain cards.
-Free Move ignoring encumber effects would be an excellent change as well. Maybe we'll see some use out of Ulrin's Scuttling Socks.

Let's start with everyone's favorite card (sarcasm):
Whirlwind Enemies.
Place all enemy characters on a random unoccupied square.

Change: Interruptable.

*Twister*
Range:5
Place target on a random unoccupied square.

Let's face it: Whirlwind Enemies is valued way too low for the effect it has. So I propose changing the card on ALL items into Twister. It still has a useful effect, but it isn't game-breaking anymore. Whirlwind Enemies can become a Silver or even Gold quality card which can appear on new items. Problem solved.

Whirlwind
Place all characters on a random unoccupied square.

Change: Interruptable.

*Cyclone*
Range:5
Place yourself and your target on a random unoccupied square.

Now, by changing all copies of Whirlwind into a new rare card, Cyclone, you can still use it as a tactical nuke to go up, up and away for yourself but now you can either bring an ally for the ride or send one enemy flying. Again, Whirlwind in it's Interruptable (or unmodified) form can appear on some new items once it's quality becomes silver, possibly gold.

Let's move onto a very special card.
Nimble Strike
Step 4.

Change: Step 3.

*Ninja Strike*
Step 4. Discard your oldest move card when you play this.

My suggested fix for Nimble Strike is this: For problem items (I'm looking at Lochaber Axe, Whiteglow Flail and Vibrant Pain), change the Nimble Strike on them into Ninja Strike.
As for other items with Nimble Strike, they can stay the same, whether it is step 3 or 4.

Moving onto some less drastic changes... you can stop reading anytime now...

Firestorm
Affects all characters on the board. Burning 2, Duration 1.
Added effect: Interruptable. If this card is blocked, you still take 4 fire damage.
Firestorm is a dangerous card, especially to yourself.

Mass Frenzy
Each ally and yourself gain Frenzy 2, Duration 2.

Reducing this card to Frenzy 2 is a bare minimum for what Mass Frenzy does. Adding a requirement that you can see the targets would hurt it's playability on certain maps very strongly.

Resistant Hide
Effect: you know this don't you?

?

*Resistant Robe/ ___hide Robe*
If this armor would prevent Fire, Electrical, or Cold damage it prevents twice as much damage.

For a long, long time Resistant Hide has bothered me. Resistant hide is like a gold-quality card in disguise. Sure you can only get 1 per wizard, period, but the card is game-breakingly strong against dozens of enemies in campaign and against players in MP to boot. Plus why would wizards equip something so gross and smelly looking?

Impenetrable Nimbus
Prevents all damage. Duration 1.

Attach to target, duration 2. Reduce all damage taken to 0. Each time this card prevents damage, reduce the duration by 1.

Here's another card, that wouldn't hurt (much) to exist with the current, invincible effect but at a different quality. At silver quality it takes 2 hits and then bites the dust.

Telekinesis
Range 4
Slide 2. Unblockable.

Improved Telekinesis.
Range 4.
Slide 2 up to 2 targets. Unblockable.

I feel like Telekinetic attacks should have some edge over regular magic, so I suggest making them both unblockable.

Teleport Self
Move 3, Teleport. Each move card you play gains Teleport.
Simple enough.

Reflexive Teleport
Move 2, Teleport.
4+: When targeted by any attack, Move 2 Teleport. Keep.

Surging Shield Block
Block any 4+. When this card blocks, Move 2.
Move 2.

Hard to Pin Down
Block any 4+.
Move 3.

That's one way of doing it.

Pushback Parry
Block Melee 4+. Add 2 to block rolls against Step Attacks. If this card blocks a Step Attack, Push 3 the attacker.
Parry: Block Melee 3+. Draw a card.
Weak Parry: Block Melee 3+. If this card blocks an attack with 4 or less damage, draw a card.

Acrobatic Flip
Switch places with the attacker. Does not affect facing. (???) Still not good enough...

Don't get me wrong, I love Acrobatic Flip. Problem is, despite it's usefulness in the right situation, it's rather lacking in quality in comparison to Parry. I don't know what to do with this card, other than making it a Silver.

Shield Block
Block Any 2+ seems fair.

Absorbing Block
Block any 3+. If this card blocks damage, add that damage to your next melee attack.
Block any 3+. If this card blocks damage, Heal half of that damage.

OK so maybe that effect is a bit much. But considering that people like to test with weak or even no-damage attacks...

Desperate Block
Block Any 3+. Damage 5 or more.

Unreliable Block
I'd like to see this as Block Any, 6+, Draw a card. Keep the flavour of the card.

Shrug it Off
Discard all cards attached to yourself. Cantrip. You may play this card while stunned. If you discard two or more enemy cards when you play this, draw a card.

My suggestion is a bit extreme, but for the niche card that Shrug it Off is, and the fact that it is a rare card- it should have a good, complex effect!

Lateral Thinking
Discard a card. Draw two cards. You can't play this card if it is the only card in your hand.

Forward Thinking
Draw 2 cards. Discard one.

Inspirational Thinking
Draw 3 cards. Discard one.
Finally, human skills have a chance of doing something useful. Identical to Lizard's .

Battlefield Training is really nice in Oozeball, but in everywhere else.... it's pretty useless. I do like the idea of being able to "teach" an ally, giving them a copy of a card in your hand without losing it.

Wall of Illusion
Target 5 adjacent squares become Illusion terrain. (Enemy characters may not see through this square.) Duration 2.
Let's admit right now- that Wall of Illusion is a terrible card. To give it some flare, I added two extra squares and longer duration, however it no longer restricts movement.

Stone Spikes
I like the idea of Stone Spikes inflicting 4 Penetrating damage instead of boring old 6 damage.

Short Perplexing Ray
Target discards two cards at random.
? Can it be fixed ?

Perplexing Beam
Linear. Range 4?
I actually like the suggestion made that we get Perplexing Beam out of this. Althought I would suggest a range of 4 or even 5 for Perplexing Beam.

Forgetfulness
Target up to two magic cards at random. If target has no magic cards they discard their oldest move card.

Forgetfulness is a powerful force against magic but useless against everything else. I figure hey, if they don't know any magic maybe they can forget how to walk.

Glob of Flame
When you play a move card, take 3 fire damage.

Flame Spit
If target already has a Burning card attached, increase this card's damage by 2.

Just some flavor added to existing attacks.

Punishing Bolt
Yeah, punishing bolt is too strong. It should either only count revealed cards, or only count hidden cards but not both.

Kindler and Firestarter: I would suggest something like this:

Kindler: When a burning attachment you control burns and would be discarded, re-attach it instead with duration 1.

This makes Kindler into a fire-control card. At least, it attempts to keep all of your fire attachments active.
Firestarter can stay normal.

Spark Inductor/Generator
I would actually leave these two alone for now. In the future, having a card (spark conductor) that added electrical damage and allowed you to ignore armor (except Grounding Plates/resistant hide) would be cool.

Reaching Swing
Damage: 5 Range:3
Add 3 to block rolls against this attack.

A Melee attack with 3 range? Yes please!

Polearm Slash
3+ Armor 3 Melee seems like a bare minimum upgrade, seeing how useless the card is currently.

Shredding Strike/Sundering Strike
I like Lizard's suggestions, but I would suggest that Shredding Strike discard the target's oldest armor card immediately while Sundering discards every armor card that triggers.

Violent Overswing
Damage 14, or Hard to Block 2 would justify this card being used!!

Raging Strike
I'm on the fence with this card. Should the damage done really be reduced, or is it fair?

Twin Heals definitely needs a buff. Heal 3 is a minimum change, however it shouldn't self target IMO.

Healing Benediction is so much better than Healing Presence. Healing Presence could use a little love.

Martyr's Blessing
Attach to target, duration 3. Each time you take damage from an enemy card, draw a card and reduce the duration by 1.

Mind Worm
Attach to target. Target cannot play any card unless they drew that card this turn. Duration 2.

I also agree on Healing Spirit healing a little extra for ST heals.

And Holy Presence having 2 range.

Soothing Darkness should Encumber 2.
Also, target cannot be healed by any other effect.

Entangling Roots with range 5? Yes please.

When it comes to Auras, I like that it's harder to lose them.

However, Horned Plates is currently Frenzy 3 Keep /Armor 3 4+.
So it would become Frenzy 2 Keep/ Armor 3 4+ Keep. (because Armor 3 3+ Keep is a bit much!).

Making Arcane Shell a unique and useful card is a great idea. However, I would have suggested Penetrating on Arcane Shell and leave Arcane Aura alone.

Vulnerable : When you take damage, add 1 to that damage. Your armor cards cannot trigger. Duration 2.
Take that, Perfect Toughness.

Sparkling Cloth Armor: This card should have to trigger (3+) in order for your character to move. Seriously.

I think I covered everything I meant to. Probably not though.

 

Does it need to be limited to certain cards? What about a general rule: Blocking a card will block the whole card. That gives us nice, simple, already existing counters to Whirlwind, Nimble Strike, Bungled Heal, etc.

 

Sorry Kalin but that doesn't fix everything. Just because you might block Whirlwind Enemies doesn't mean it isn't broken . And what does it do about Nimble Strike??

 

So I disagree with other suggestions but the 3 above are too far.
Glob of Flame does upto 10 in it's base form and can be buffed by Firestarter and triggered by Instant Burn. No need for help here, a good card.

Punishing Bolt can be strong, but that is part of the appeal. It also can be quite weak especially if you dont get it during the firts couple of rounds when people tend to have more cards. Also puts a risk on the "Diva Draw" decks (decks where 2 priest buff and cause draws for a single warrior who typically has either a numbus or a martyr on it) to having a character with 6+ cards.

Soothing Darkness... WHY does this need a nerf? except for FS builds this card is very difficult to use with encumberance being such a major penalty.
With that in mind Freeze should be duration 1.

 

No offense intended guys, but I hope most of these changes aren't incorporated. I hope BM goes mostly with small incremental changes (with lots of testing in between) to maintain the basic feel of the game, but bring it more into balance.

 

No offense taken. I hope that most of these changes aren't incorporated all at once! That's for sure. But I still feel like there are so many bum cards (Human skills come to mind) that could really use a boost, and not to the point of being broken but just enough to level the playing field a little.
If you're a new player , Healing Presence is a bad joke compared to Healing Benediction. Keep in mind you can stack the effects of these cards( you can also attach them to different allies) but it still is no competition.

You'd also be crazy to keep using Steel Shield as soon as you get Slippery Shield. I want, more than anything to have a real choice when picking items. Some effects are so black-and-white that you really don't have a choice when picking shields, helmets, and skills.

Back to you, doog, I wanted to do something with Soothing Darkness to make it more playable, both on allies and on enemies. Now that I have had more time to think about it, I would suggest something like Encumber 2, Duration 1 -2 , with Heal 6-10. Maybe add an effect that the target must discard card(s)?
Most unholy effects are instant and force either discards or card draws, with damage (a negative effect) involved. The Encumber is a valuable asset if you choose to target an enemy or you target an ally who doesn't need to move.

Glob of Flame doesn't need a boost, you're right. Neither does Flame Spit necessarily, I simply liked the flavor of the cards, my bad.

But Punishing Bolt is nasty. It is hardly affected by Reliable Mail, every Officer's Harness adds 1-2 points of damage, and it commonly does 6-10 and even 12-14 damage (!) when it hits someone stacked with 2 officer's harness. Let's just say it consistently deals 6 damage or more. But for a silver card, it has 8 range and deals 1-2X as much damage as Deadly Spark (which is drastically affected by armor). Maybe it doesn't need a nerf now but the more people that get it, the more obvious it may be.

 

Seems to me that the jerk here is the one who plays Wall of Stones.

FS farming in a part of this game. It's allready hard enough to build a collection.

Deadly Spark can be buffed by the attachments, and the most commonly used arcane skill item, Electroporter Novice, has two of them.