Divebomb will probably prevent me calling you over for a question on one of my actions! LOL

These are all really cool. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's still in love with feat cards...

You certainly are not. It gives me the chance to put on a designer's hat and make these characters play the way I think they ought to. Feats are still the best thing HeroClix ever got.

Speaking of feats, here is another: Berserker

First off, Battle Fury. Is there a more reviled power that players insist give you a point reduction because its so useless than Battle Fury? So how do I approach it - as an opportunity for some comic-accurate goodness.

Many characters fly into a rage. Heck, some players do. And they punch walls, cut themselves, break glass - and you know what, the pain doesn't arrive until they regain their senses.

This became my focus on Berserker - to emulate the toughness that a character out of control would have. Pretty straight forward otherwise and helps those older Wolverines who were sporting empty defensive powers or Regen while being tied down from evac my Battle Fury. Priced to match Force Field (I'm all about consistency), its a handy feat that also acts as a little insurance against Outwit on some of those Hulks.

One thing that a lot of shape-shifters are missing is the ability to shrink, become something fast, fly off, etc. Just ask Beast Boy. Heck even those who can channel powers of animals suffer this problem (Vixen and Animal Man). And what about true animals? You mean a Gorilla forgets how to climb after he takes some damage? Grodd and Ultra-Humanite are depressed.

Well my mangy friends, no more. I give you Dexterous:



Fairly straight forward, animals gain the ability to breakaway automatically. I like this feat as it shows how the generic keywords can be utilized. I limited it to and since they had a bigger disadvantage than transporters and .

I priced it a little less than Swingline due to the lack of +1 movement. The ranged option of Swingline versus ignoring figure bases I counted as a push. At 5 points this feat would have been a "duh" feat. 10, I felt, was a little too much and would likely get skipped. At 7 its shown up at times but also lots of animals have never used it.

Personally, I love it on my Tigra and Vixen and I look forward to seeing what the DC75 Beast Boy brings.

:noticed the next one in your album:

I like the idea of Snag very much. It could catch those L/C phasers and fliers, which would be tacticly very useful.....but your blatent attempt to try to give Constrictor(IC) a use (other than to be pointed at and laughed at of course!) is not something I can get behind!

On the other hand looking at the appology treatment Hawkgirl and Wolfsbane just got......the next Constrictor might rip Galactus appart.

Because Feats, in my estimation, are what Special Powers should have been.

Dissolving a wall to walk through has been done many times by many different characters. I focused on a few notable pieces that do this often like Human Torch, Radioactive Man, Plasmus.

Also part of my thinking is there needs to be diversity among the figures and there are some powers that could use some help vs ones that are already pretty solid. Pulse-Wave and EE are ranged attacks and so can be used a lot sooner than Poison in a battle.

So the Poison figure is paying for Poison while moving around the board trying to get near and opposing character. So I thought about that and tried to come up with a way a Poison figure could be useful right off the bat. I tied in some comic-accuracy and voila!

Could the argument be made that certain characters with EE or Pulse-Wave should have a similar ability? Sure. And that is something I'd consider revisiting. But at this stage I have only made Dissolve for figures that meet that requirements.

And just as an aside, these feats are all in a hardcopy format. My collection is 100% presentation paper that look, feel, and are stored EXACTLY like the WK produced feats. There are really no opportunities to change anything other than errata or remaking a new feat.

Love the feedback. Rep to come for showing interest.

Yes, as traitorarmor noticed, sometimes I do focus on certain figures to see how I can make them better (all while keeping accuracy and balance in mind).

So Constrictor is widely called the worst HeroClix figure ever. His cost plus stats combine to be highly inefficient. The reason - he has so much Incapacitate. Its a good power, heck it used to be a great power, but when its coupled with a 7, 6, or 5 attack, its just a huge waste of points.

Incap on Constrictor (and other figures) is used to show their tendrils grabbing onto and holding a figure in place. Great - but even if you hit enough to give that incap token, one on one its frequently a losing battle. So I got to thinking about how Constrictor actually fights. He'd snag opponents with his tendrils and hold them, zapping them with electricity or tying them up for another ally to attack (Sabertooth, for example).

A problem I saw was mobile figures getting in and out with ease. It made sense but game wise, combined with WK developed effects like Maneuver, the combos became overpowering. Being able to manipulate an opponents team for free is a mistake, in my opinion. And so, to provide some balance to this effect I developed the Feat card Snag.



At first it may seem powerful. And it can be in the right hands. But because of the possibility of abuse I had to delve into the finer points of the game to search out the balance.

So while Leap/Climbers and HSS figures can now be caught dead in their tracks, how does this Feat not become a no-brainer.

First I started with the Pre-Req. Incap is costly and so that inherent cost will mean there aren't many "cheap pieces" with the power. Pricing it at 6 seemed fair once I added the second pre-req:

A dice roll. When something is not automatic, especially when it "breaks a rule", it becomes a tad more balanced. Now there is a chance that it just doesn't work and theoretically the player might have paid 6 points for nothing.

Third, placement. When the opposing figure fails the roll and ends up having his movement ended where does he end? Adjacent to the Snagger. If a figure is using Charge, he still gets his attack and will likely end up attacking the guy who messed up his plan. HSS gets really hosed but HSS has so many advantages that one usually just has to go a different route to avoid a figure with Snag.

And that is where the chess match begins. Placement of a figure with Snag versus pieces who want to come and get in on your team. Hopefully some of you are trying these out - even if its just sitting around by yourself. And if anyone wants me to rescan an image due to the crop marks, let me know. I wish I would get them smaller but unfortunately I am not tech savvy to know how. So if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Enjoy.

I think you exaggerate a wee bit. Incapacitate was never really all that great. (requiring a precious action, and then only for the chance to assign an action), but I digress....

I like your Snag improvement to Incapacitate, although I think it is overpriced: Most figures with the ability to ignore characters for movement essentially do it "for free" as part of Flight, so paying an extra 6 points to maybe stop what so many figures already do seems like a lot to me. Since this also relies on what an opponent does to work, I see this as more like a 3 point feat.

My own simple suggestion to make Incapacitate more worth its points would be to allow it to be used with a default 4 range, very much like Mind Control.

Eh Snag seems like something that would work with Plasticity


though this would be great to tag onto Captain Cold

Neat feat.

Think it could go down to 4 points but that is a minor thing ( small # of characters with top loaded incap that'll be played and/or targeted by that character when your character has that feat).

In the current game I would agree. But back in the day, when there was a line dividing street-level and high powered pieces Incap was the great balancer. That is why it is priced so much. You cost a character an action for a turn and even if you had a 0, 1, or 2 damage you could be a fly in the ointment for a figure with damage reducers.

Now its given out to characters with 3 and 4 damage and so its better to damage figures than incap them, but I will never forget how my R CJ Green Arrow laid waste to a KC Magog (with help from about 5 other Rookie pieces I had pulled). Magog would KO a Rookie and Green Arrow would Incap him. Did it through 5 clicks. Without it, it would I would have been slaughtered.

All I can say is this:

I think at 5 points its a no-brainer feat. The chance to stop dead in his tracks Superman Prime is powerful. He doesn't attack, he just stops adjacent and is now stuck until he can push after my turn.

Leap/Climbers, Pouncers, Lungers, are all funneled to this spot and run the risk of getting stuck. I don't see how that is something that could be dismissed.

This isn't a feat for a figure with 1 click of Incap, its for multiple clicks which is what makes the price important. I didn't want every two-bit piece with Incap just getting it. Remember, my feats are not PAC changes but rather a more effective Special Power that allows for certain pieces to become more comic-accurate.

Which brings me to this:

No question Plasticity could have worked, too. But I've given Plasticity a number of options already and was focusing on Incapacitate.

I see you've come around with your own example - exactly right. Captain Cold freezing Flash's feet or setting up a mirror - Snagged!

Other comic accurate figures with Incap:

Invisible Woman - Invisible bubble
Scarlet Spider - Webs
Songbird - hypnotic song
Grey Gargoyle - rock touch
Immortus - Time freeze
Constrictor - Adamantium Cables
Iceman - Freezing
Mirror Master - Mirrors
Batman - Batline
Professor X - Mind Control
Phantom Lady - Black Light
Wonder Girl / Wonder Woman - Magic Lasso
Green Lantern - Power Ring
etc.

Also, as an aside, there at least 45 figures that have Incap and Plasticity on their dial at the same time so it get covered in there.

Thanks all for the comments. Your ideas only help me consider things for future feats (I am working on 3 right now). I look forward to hearing how they work in game for you and see if your results match my play-testing experience.

I also have several Alternate Team Abilities that I will add to this thread.

All great. I highly respect how much equal emphasis you put on flavor and game balance when designing.

Snag and Careful Aim are my favorite, although I wish Snag had a range of 2. The totally accurate pictures are just icing on a very delicious cake.

congrats on your scanning abilities. Thanks for the rep. I enjoy putting them together and contributing to the community.