Our beloved Pretenders!

[MaxWilson]

cleveland said:

That was in response to a comment that Xietor's new pretender for Man might be totally unbalanced in base game.

-Max

[Xietor]

Umm, no. The Master of the Hunt would certainly not unbalance the base game. He is not a Gorgon after all. And we are not talking about this pretender for MA Ermor or Pythium either.

[Sombre]

Tifone said:
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...

Aoe attacks use strength unless stated otherwise.

They never use attack.

[Tifone]

Sombre said:
Aoe attacks use strength unless stated otherwise.

They never use attack.

Ouh sorry. My bad.

[Zeldor]

Hmm... anyone knows what "fimbultyr" is? That is one of the titles available for pretender. And google gives me only some metal band...

[Endoperez]

Wikipedia claims:
The prefix 'fimbul' means "the great/big" so the correct interpretation of the word is "the great winter".

The name Tyr meant "god" (cf. Hangatyr, the "god of the hanged" as one of Odin's names; probably inherited from Tyr in his role as judge) and goes back to a Proto-Germanic T�waz, earlier Teiwaz, continuing Proto-Indo-European *deywos "god" (whence Latin: deus, Sanskrit: deva and Lithuanian: dievas).

From articles about Fimbulwinter (Illwinter, three winters without summer in-between that mark the beginning of Ragnar�k) and T�r (the one-handed god of single combat).

[Wrana]

To Tifone:
Thank you for your comment. I was also of mixed opinion considering crown. Maybe modified fur would be better - though this will require higher drawing skills... By the way, it's not black bear, it's brown one - of the same species as American grizzly (but I'm not planning on including all 7 species of modern bears! ). And yes, Great Bulls were among what have given me this idea.

[Tifone]

Oh, ok, dunno what gave me the idea of your bear being a black one consider posting the gif to give us an idea when you feel comfortable doing so ^_^

[Tifone]

I think I've had a nice idea for a pretender to mod into the game. From the 1973 cult movie, the Wicker Man.
It is an enormous wooden idol which resembles a human form. It is a simbol of fertility, and the pagan country community of the island of the movie imprisons inside the idol's body human innocent victims to be sacrificed, as they are burned alive with the idol itself, to provide the community a good harvest for the year.
It seems it would fit well in the mood of many pagan nations as EA Marverni and others.

It should be size 7, inanimate, immobile and needing not eat and blind, immune to shock, poison and fire (as the one I want in the game is ever-burning) but 50% more susceptible to cold (as it weakens its flames), have an heat aura and a fireshield 10, have standard 10, spring power (value?), a supply bonus and fortune teller 10%, but increases the unrest for 5 points per month in its province (all for thematic reasons), no slots, around 120 hp, 0 defence but high on protection and MR, and no attacks. N2F1B1 mage with difficult access to other paths (50 points).

The main problems are that 1) I've never created a mod and 2) I'm not that exceptionally good in making gifs, and this one is difficult

Suggestions? Ideas? Opinions?

[JimMorrison]

Tifone said:
...It wouldn't be logic to give him Fear or Awe or Petrify, but if he was already E4W3 and costing just 70 points...

You have to be very careful with the paths though. While I think there should be more pretender chassis that start with paths at 3, you must bear in mind that starting at 3 drastically reduces the cost to get a major bless, and starting at 4 would make it nearly a foregone conclusion that you would go to 9 if you used that pretender, because of cost efficiency. Starting with 2 paths at 3+4, would make a very cheap dual bless available.

Look at it this way, should cost 288 points to go from 1 to 9, so the Olm as it stands costs you 626 points total, to get W9/E9 bless. Going from 3-9 only costs 152 points, or just over half, and 4-9 should only be 120 - for a total cost of 344 for a good dual bless. I'd say with W3/E4 you'd want to at least push him to 150 base cost, though dropping the E to 4 as well would also be a good idea.

Of course, pushing the paths high and increasing base cost to compensate sort of pigeon-holes him somewhat to blesses, in some people's eyes - even if the base cost of 150 would give you strong buffing paths anyway, making him a little more capable as a potential SC.

Looking at Agartha's mages, I'd be willing to say the Olm would have some really interesting options if he were E3 + either F2/W2, or maybe just F1/W1/D1. This gives him some built in versatility as to which paths you exploit, and gives him the option to be a "semi-rainbow", though at the expense of giving you nothing that Agartha doesn't already have.


I think it can be easy to get a bit carried away. Remember that thematic and flavorful is the primary goal, yes, but without paying some attention to the actual balance, you'll only be making SP content, because no one will allow the mod in MP (though if a mod had really strong national pretenders for everyone, you could start the game yourself ), and if it's not vaguely in line with (though of course slightly more versatile or efficient) what is already available, then it'll never get imported to the base game.

Call me naive but I can't help but think that if enough good input comes from the pretender chassis and late game summons threads, that some of it will be patched in for us. <3