Our beloved Pretenders!

[Xietor]

He still needs a good bit of work on his descr., but the shield will have to stay. While he usually hunts with his bow,
now that he is coming out of the forests to establish world domination, he has decided that a one handed spear and shield combo is superior to the 2hed boar spear.

Taking away his hand slots is a very good idea! I like it.
That way I do not have to worry about someone giving him a charcoal shield and him still having entangle. May give him an extra misc to compensate.

[thejeff]

The only trouble with taking away hand slots is limiting path boosters. Thistle mace at least since he has Nature.

[Tifone]

Mmh, that pretender seems so much a SC, i think it would be a very big opportunity-cost to set him on casting. But it isn't up to me questioning how a player wants to use his pretender god

I was just thinking about some people playing a noble born Samurai in some RPGs, which stop using the Ancient Katana of the Family Clan and Ancestors of their character, because the Flaming Barbarian Axe they just found gives more damage. I mean, that's just unthematic so maybe Xietor would like his creation always mantaining the thematic hunter's and nature weapons of his character, instead of a charcoal shield and tartarian chains o.O If this solves him even some technical problems, even better ^_^

[thejeff]

Probably not battle casting, there he'd be more useful as an SC, but there are times outside of battle when you might want him to cast summons or forge things your native mages can't. It would nice if he could use a hammer, for example.

You might just want to give boost him in Nature so he can cast Faery Trod to get to the front.

It's a limitation, that should be kept in mind. That's all.

[Tifone]

Anyway, a thing like that would be really unbalanced in the basegame

[MaxWilson]

Meh, I don't care as much about balance as thematicness and coolness. Balance can be fixed by changing point costs. Besides, I would like Man to have a strong pretender.

-Max

[Tifone]

Totally right Max. Thematicness and coolness. That was what I was talking about when I opened the thread, I must admit for first I was driven elsewhere ^_^

[cleveland]

MaxWilson said:
I would like Man to have a strong pretender.

[Wrana]

Something along these lines from my non-finished mod which splits LA Bogarus nation:
#newmonster 2049
#name "The Great Bear"
#descr "The Father of All Bears is an enormous beast with shaggy fur. Just a slap
of his paw can easily send several men flying and his roar is terrifying to hear. He is seen by his subjects as a manifestation of primal forces of nature, but he also
possesses a surprising cunning and wisdom and is said to be able to converse with spirits.
The Bear is somewhat lazy, but beginning wars of other Pretenders cause him to rise from his slumber and understand that he may only have his rest if he banishes them all..."
#pathcost 60
#startdom 3
#copyspr 1951
#ap 22
#mapmove 2
#hp 181
#prot 16
#size 6
#str 30
#enc 3
#att 15
#def 10
#prec 8
#mr 18
#mor 30
#gcost 90
#rcost 1
#weapon "Paw"
#weapon "Paw"
#eyes 2
#magicbeing
#coldres 50
#forestsurvival
#startage 1000
#ageold 1500
#heal
#fear 5
#berserk 6
#magicskill 3 1
#magicskill 5 1
#magicskill 6 1
#itemslots 28672
---3 miscs
#goodleader
#okmagicleader
#restrictedgod 71
#selectnametype 146
#end

(it can be somewhat changed still, and I probably will modify a picture to add a crown on bear's head. Paw attack has aoe 1 - I wanted to avoid trample here. There is also a thought to add Polar Bear as well - with probably Water and Nature as magic paths...)

[Tifone]

A big black bear and a polar bear? Interesting! It reminds me somehow the two great bulls pretenders, which I personally love for their flavour.
The idea of an AoE paw which kills several men at once is very nice. The (mental) image of this great bear sending people fly around with its furious hits is epic - I think this Pretender would fit very well Marverni too. But aren't AoE attacks not influenced by strenght? This would be weird applied to the bear, as it is definitively its strenght to send people around...

P.S. nooo, please, no crown on a bear, noo, please. it stops being a king and becomes the dancing bear of the old gypsy circuses if you really want to make him appear dominant, a giant alpha male, you could maybe consider giving him a mane of dishevelled, wild black hairs around his neck and shoulders (not as a lion but quite, you got the idea) Just my humble suggestion of course