Special Abilities Compendium

[Rev. Sylvanus]

Thanks for the continued input, everyone...keep em coming!

So it is time to come clean.  This project to compile special abilities has been born of an effort to convert some of my "traditional" wargaming friends to play Brickwars.  Most of them have/have had an infatuation with the Games Workshop(r) game Mordheim.  These special abilities are part of my attempt to adapt Brikwars (for them) into a campaign-ish system as found in the other game.

For anyone familiar with this other system or for more context on how our group is specifically using this list, here is a link to the document we put together.

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=451924

[lrdofbricks]

just a suggestions, auras should be restricted to heros only. otherwise they wopuld become overpowering, especially if you got a group of figs with the same aura.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

Nice catch; noted.

They'll probably also be restricted in that aura's targeting the same attribute do not stack...

[*CRAZYHORSE*]

Tell us if you needs anything for specific sections.
Also I had some trouble with opening the file.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

I don't that anything "specific" is necessary; I'm just using this thread as a holding place for useful special abilities my group uses and that anyone else would like to contribute to.

The file isn't working for you?  Works fine for me on multiple computers; its .docx in Word...

[*CRAZYHORSE*]

Can't see it in the list of programs, doesn't matter.

Also:

Extreme Douche:
The owner of this skill gets +1 to all skill rolls while all friendly players within 6" of him get -1 to all skill rolls.
WARNING: this may cause all other players to avoid you/attack you/ drink your beer/ steal your noms/ think you are a total douche and also have the right to.

Heroic Inspiration:
The owner of this skill gets -1 on all skill rolls while all friendly players within 6" get +1 to all skill rolls.
ATTENTION: Opposite effects from Extreme Douche may occur.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

Major special ability update (+12 new ones!)

Including: Finish Him, Shield Smash, circle of death, exhale slowly, headshot, supreme cowardice, free-runner, hide-and-seek, stop trying to hit me, and dark ritual.

Aura size has been reduced, may only be taken by heroes, and do not stack when they target similar attributes (i.e. aura of heroic inspiration's armor bonus will not stack with aura of kevlar's bonus).

I'm batting around the idea of letting heroes take aura's twice, though, in order to increase the power of the aura by ones step...thoughts?

[*CRAZYHORSE*]

Add some kind of level system and then certain aura's have a lvl minimum.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

Well, the lvl system is still as described: bought with experience CP from completing battles.  The amount of "XcP" a skill costs is 1+(# of already owned abilities).

While most special abilities are only taken once, I think i'll write in that an aura like "aura of kevlar" can be taken more than once.  "Aura of Kevlar (II)" would now grant +2 armor bonus, (III) would grant +3 and so on.

The catches remain, however.  Only heroes can get auras, and auras that target the same ability do not stack.  So two heroes with aura of kevlar still only grant a total of +1, even when overlapping.  Likewise, aura of heroic inspiration and aura of kevlar wouldn't stack for the armor bonus.  The aura bonus only stacks when one hero takes the same aura multiple times.

Anyway, that's i think i'll treat it for our games out here.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

It has been a while, but the list has been updated with some more shooting and pirate specials, and I have overhauled some of the weaker abilities to be more useful.  Others have been modified for the sake of balance.

[trebnos1]

Good stuff! I'm definitely going to snatch some of these.
Here are a couple from my Consortium postings. Master Tactician is based on an ability from a Star Wars miniatures game, and offers some really zany options. Sabotage was just for chaos' sake .
-Master Tactician (+3 CP): Once per turn, two allies or allied vehicles of roughly equal size (within half an inch) within 8" of this character may switch places.
-Strategic Genius (+? CP): The controller of this unit gets to choose the order in which players take their turns each round, so long as s/he doesn't take more than a few seconds to decide.
-Sabotage (+1 CP): When next to an opponent's vehicle or structure, the Consortium Scout may use his action to attempt to sabotage said construction. When doing so, roll 1d6. On a roll of 1, the Scout electrocutes himself, falls underneath the wheels, or something similar and dies messily without damaging the construction. On a roll of 2 the Scout miscalculates and is either electrocuted again or somehow manages to hit himself with a blunt tool, and is stunned for the next round. On a roll of 3, nothing happens. On a roll of 4, the Scout is moderately successful, and the construction loses 2" of move or 1d6 armor (his commander chooses, keeping some common sense). On a roll of 5, the construction's move is reduced to 1", or its armor is reduced to 1d6 (again the commander's choice). On a roll of 6, the Scout triggers a nuclear meltdown (for reasons unknown, this occurs even when sabotaging a low-tech construction, such as a dung cart) that destroys both the construction and the Scout and deals 3d10 exp. damage to everything within 3".
I haven't read all of the abilities yet, so apologies if these ideas are already in use.

[IVhorseman]

Yo I'm working on a similar list and I'm picking and choosing several of these abilities and shamelessly copying them/re-adapting them for what I consider to be balanced.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

Yo I'm working on a similar list and I'm picking and choosing several of these abilities and shamelessly copying them/re-adapting them for what I consider to be balanced.

Good to hear!  I'm glad people are still getting some use out of them

[Legofighter]

Really like it!
Here's my own:

My name is May, James May:(1cp)(like the Top Gear presenter) This minifig is so annoying, that, well, each turn, it gives a -1 skill penalty to
both a friendly (ally) and an enemy unit!

[Voin]

I recently took another look at the Hardy Boy ability and realized how under-priced/overpowered it was.

Hardy Boy
Attacks do -2 damage to this minifig.

It's actually way better than +2 Armor which if you're getting it from equipment costs 1 CP, and carries "Move -1", can't swim" penalties.

Consider these 2 examples:

Example 6: Armored Archie wears Body Armor (1 CP), putting him at Armor Rating 6, and suffering the penalties that come with it. He gets whacked with a pair of Combined Damage attacks (3+4=7), which is enough to kill him. The waylayers take his armor, his wallet, and his head to use as a projectile.

Example 7: Meanwhile, Hardy Hal (Armor Rating 4), can take four 3-point attacks of Combined Damage in a single round, lowering them all to 1 measly point of damage, and 4 being not quite enough to kill him.

The thing is with Armor vs. Damage is that the Armor value (especially with minifigs) tends to stay static. A "+2 to Armor" adds to the AR once, but a "-2 to attacks" subtracts from every attack and is massively skewed in the direction of the defender.

Unless I'm reading this incorrectly and it actually was intended as "add up all the damage, and subtract 2 from that sum".