Godtear Community Playtest Packet: Skullbreaker v2, Rangosh v2, and Morrigan v2

Hello Champions!  As I’m sure you all know, the community is working on a balance pass for Godtear.  In this playtest packet, we’ll be presenting proposed changes for three champions: These changes are tuning changes for three champions based on play test feed-back.  First, we’ll give you the changes themselves.  Then for each champion we’ll explain why we chose these champions, how we have interpreted the community's perspective on their issues, and how we arrived at the change proposal.

Rangosh v2 Experimental Nerfs

HP: 7 → 6

Jawbreaker: Damage 7 → 6

Bandits ambush (clash phase only) becomes Sabotage: Range 1. 5 accuracy. Hit effect: Armor blight.

Armor 2 → 2

Bandit Count 5 → 5

Skullbreaker v2 Experimental Nerfs

Dodge: 4 → 3

Protection: 1 → 2

Go for the Belly! new wording: Skullbreaker’s Jawblade skill gains +2 [damage icon] and “Hit Effect: Move target up to 1 hex.” this activation

Club Bash: Damage 4/4/5 → 3/3/4

Setup the Boss! wording returns to original “When a Tooth Bearer damages an enemy, Skullbreaker may gain a boon of your choice or move one hex

Morrigan v2 Experimental Buffs

Forward Minions! becomes: Onward, Minions!: Range 4. Morrigan may use this skill as a bonus action.  Move each Cold Bones that is within range up to 1 hex.

So Cool Mistress! new wording:  If Morrigan is within range, she gains [speed],[accuracy], or [damage]

Chill Out: Base accuracy 1*/1*/1* → 2*/2*/2*

Snowblade Fight! accuracy 1*/1*/1* New wording: Before the hit roll, if Cold Bones are below their maximum unit size, add one to a hex within 1 hexes of the target.  This skill has +1 [accuracy] for each Cold Bones adjacent to the target.

Cold Bones clash phase speed: 1 → 2

Why these champions? What were their issues? Why’d we make the changes we did?

Based on the feed-back forms, we knew rather quickly that we didn’t quite hit the nail with Rangosh V1 and Skullbreaker V1. In the following we will compare Rangosh and Skullbreaker quite a lot because they are currently the two most played slayers and we want to nerf them both slightly while still keeping reasons to bring one over another in your lists.

The reduction in Bandits made hobbyists of the community feel bad about not being allowed to play with all their minis; we want to acknowledge this as a legitimate and valid complaint. We overstepped with this change and are rolling it back.  The reduction in armor made Rangosh quite squishy for a front liner. We still want to  address that the original Rangosh has good mobility, good damage and good defence. Keeping his mobility intact is still the most important thing for his kit, making the council focus on his damage output and tankyness.

Therefore, Rangosh v2 reduces the HP from 7 to 6 while keeping the 4/2 stats. It’s a less significant nerf than -1 armor and furthermore, it makes that stat line different from Skullbreaker. An important thing in order to differentiate the slayers. The reduced damage in Jawbreaker tunes Rangosh damage output while again making it different from Skullbreaker’s Jawblade. Nerfing the Bandits ambush in the clash phase makes them less oppressive against other followers and Mourneblade while almost keeping their ability to benefit from Stolen Treasure over both phases.

The feed-back on Skullbreaker had a few more positives than Rangosh. His banner crushing ability felt over-nerfed by reducing the Set up the boss to once per phase, but his new defensive statline seemed overall well received. Skullbreaker v2 keeps the 3/2/8 statline, while bringing back two opportunities for Setup the boss to counter the fact that with 3 dodge he gets pushed around more easily. In an attempt to address the community’s feeling that the warband’s overall damage output was high, we wanted to try a slight reduction in the potency of Toothbearers’ Club bash.  This also helps to blunt the frequency a single Toothbearer can double trigger Setup the Boss.

This leads us to Morrigan. The feed-back was overwhelmingly positive so we felt she was almost ready for codification, however the Cold bones seemed a bit too strong with their buffs. The auto-recruit on Snowblade Flight! has proven a bit too consistent in its ability to set up a 7/5 (or 7/6 with Intense Cold), and we hope reducing the base accuracy back to 1* is the sweet spot.

A peek behind the curtain: How we course corrected

Here are some of the thoughts and insights that went into our changes for Rangosh v2 and Skullbreaker v2. 

Firstly, we looked for one sentence definitions of their niches and came to the following:“Rangosh is an unstoppable force; he can be anywhere and destroy anything. Skullbreaker is an immovable object; if you run into him, you will be destroyed.”

With that as our guiding ideals, we took a look at the changes we made and how to best rectify our mistakes.  With Rangosh, we realized from playtesting that 4/1/7 with no defensive buffs cannot stand in the front line of a Godtear game.  We also concluded, based on community feedback, that we had overstepped with 4 bandits rather than 5; no matter how clever and elegant that solution was.  Discarding both of these changes, we reset Rangosh to his official stats and looked at him again.  As stated above, we felt his official form was too tanky, mobile, and felt more damaging than other champions.  We decided to drop his health by one to reduce his tanky nature, something that has proven popular and reasonable with our experimental Jaak changes.  We felt his mobility was key to his unique identity in the slayer pool, so we left it alone. 

As for his damage, there’s a lot to unpack here.  12 dice is the “average” unboosted slayer attack in Godtear, it seems.  Lorsann throws an 8/4, Keera a 4/7 with an autowound, Skullbreaker a 5/7 jawblade with no modifications, Maxen a 6/6 in melee, etc.  Rangosh, on paper, seems actually undertuned on his damage, since his attacks only have 10 dice between them.  This is offset pretty intensely by Brutal Master; but it’s an expression of skill with Rangosh to know when to eat a Bandit and when not to.  If you eat a bandit for every dice roll, then you won’t have bandits left when you need them.  Even so, his battlefield manipulation is unique in the slayer pool.  He has a pull and a push; allowing him to Whiplash targets next to him and Jawbreaker them away.  This flexibility and ability to ramp up damage allows him to feel good in every situation.  His official Red Bandits also have access to an autowound in every phase; allowing them to continuously harvest followers or secure Champion kills.  To address this, we reduced Jawbreaker’s damage output and replaced Clash phase ambush.  This should force Rangosh to eat more bandits overall; and reduce their Clash phase damage output while allowing them to contribute with a protection blight and crossbow shot.

Skullbreaker we were closer to the mark with.  But still not on target.  Removing the chance for a double setup the boss play with Tooth Bearers was a step too far; so we restored that line to its official wording.  However, their ability to throw a 6/6 autowound attack with just a little plot phase positioning was a bit too powerful.  So we adjusted their damage profile down a single die.

As stated before, the 3/2/8 defensive profile proved popular.  So popular, in fact, that some were asking for it to become Rangosh’s profile instead or as well (to match his hulking form).  There are multiple problems with that.  Firstly, if both Slayers share a defense profile, then they step into each other’s niche and one becomes a better version of the other.  Secondly, there is precedent for 3/2/8 in the Orc background from Blackjaw.  Thirdly, Skullbreaker has access to double setup the boss, any boon he likes( including dodge and movement), and the ability to move through small followers.  If Skullbreaker gets tossed around by Lily or Shayle, he’s generally fine.  It’ll take him a little bit to get back into position, but preparing for that is part of his player’s skill expression.  Rangosh has none of those things.  Rangosh relies on his 4 dodge to survive and stay in position.  He’s generally outrunning his Bandits and leaving them to fend for themselves, making it difficult to backstop him with them.  Making him easier to hit doesn’t just make him easier to kill, but easier to disrupt and movement blight.  Rangosh cannot move through small followers, only has burst movement on his ultimate, and no innate access to a movement boon.  All of these reasons combined to lead us to keep the 3/2/8 for Skullbreaker, and adopt the 4/2/6 for Rangosh.

We hope this insight into the depth of discussion the Council of Eldritch Judgement takes with each champion and adjustment helps with our goal of transparency.  We also hope it demonstrates that we are listening to and taking direction from community feedback.  Keep those feedback forms coming!

How to playtest these changes?

If you want to playtest these changes, simply play a game with one or more of the champions being playtested. Make sure that your opponent agrees on which version (original or community balance pass) of the champions you are using. If you play on TTS, use the changed cards provided by MightyFinePants. The Godtear Community page will also have an online version of the cards that you can use as a reference or if you are playing a live game:

How to contribute to the project?

To provide feedback, which is essential to the success of this project, you can submit THIS FORM (note, if you are new to playing online, you can learn more from this article).  

If you want to discuss these changes with the community at large, please post in the #playtest-feedback channel of the unofficial community discord server.

If you want to help brainstorm directions for balance changes, please post your ideas in the #homebrew channel of the unofficial community discord server.

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That’s it for this playtest packet.  Check out Objective Hex in one week when we publish the playtest packet for Lorsann and Maxen.  Then two weeks after that we’ll release Helena, Durthax and Halftusk v2!

Wooloolool,

The Council of Eldritch Judgement