Monday, January 26, 2015

D&D Dice Masters WizKids Unveil!

It should not be a surprise for TRP listeners that I've been looking forward to D&D Dice Masters.  Well, for me, and other D&D fans, today is a good day - Wizkids just put up its D&D Dice Masters, subtitled "Battle for Faerun", site.  And from looking at it...boy howdy, I'm excited, because not only are we learning a lot about the set there, it looks pretty awesome!

Da' Rulez!


First thing first is that link to the rules PDF.  While my glance through didn't show too much in the way of changes to the basic mechanics, there are a few things of note outside of card reveals - which there were several of, but we'll get to that in a bit:
  • D&DDM sidekicks are called NPCs
  • D&DDM characters have alignment in addition to affiliation
  • D&DDM adds a few more ability keywords to the ones we've already heard about: Breath Weapon X, for which you pay X energy to deal X damage to each of your opponent's characters and your opponent; Swarm, which lets you draw an additional die for each distinct character (i.e., not the same die) with Swarm you have active; Experience, which gives a stacking, persistent +1/+1 token to all of that character's dice every turn an opposing monster is knocked out and a die for that character is active; Energy Drain, which is shorthand for 'spin stuff engaged with this down'; and Equip, which attaches a die to an appropriate character.
Now, the first two are pretty straightforward, but let's talk about those new keywords.  Breath Weapon looks pretty nasty; you can bet most dragons will have this, and that makes me think that we'll be seeing a lot of side-clearing AoE in this set.  Aggro teams will have their work cut out for them.  Swarm looks like a prime new drawing mechanic, and while we haven't seen anything with it yet, I imagine if there are dice to support it it's going to be popular.  Experience seems like a pretty nifty mechanic, but it assumes your opponent will have monsters; judging from how many of them there are, and how good they seem to be, this seems like a safe bet, but we won't know where the meta goes till more of the set is revealed.  Energy Drain is, like Overcrush and Regenerate, a term for an existing mechanic but makes me think that we'll be seeing more spindown this set.  Equip seems pretty neat, and logical given what those cards represent; it makes me think a lot of the basic action dice will be assorted magical gear (though all the ones shown in the rulebook are actually spells).

I'll get this out there right now: WizKids, please make an Apparatus of Kwalish action die.

Rules Card Reveals!


Cardwise, the rules identify six of the eight dice in the starter, and one or two cards for them.  I'll transcribe the stats and abilities as best I can:
  • Halfling Thief, Minion Harper - Mask, 2; Good; Harper; 1/1/1, 1/2/2, 1/3/3; Experience, When fielded, draw a die; if it is an NPC, place it in your used pile, otherwise, roll it.
  • Blue Dragon, Master Dragon - Bolt, 6; Evil; Monster; 1/3/3, 1/4/4, 2/6/6; Breath Weapon 3
  • Blue Dragon, Apprentice Dragon - Bolt, 4; Evil; Monster; 1/3/3, 1/4/4, 2/6/6; Breath Weapon 1, When active, whenever you use an action die's ability, choose an opposing character.  That character can't block this turn.
  • Human Paladin, Minion Order of the Gauntlet - Shield, 3; Good, Order of the Gauntlet; 0/1/2, 1/2/3, 1/2/4; Experience, When fielded, your paladins and NPCs take no damage for the rest of the turn.
  • Vampire, Apprentice Undead - Mask, 4; Evil, Monster; 1/1/4, 1/2/4, 2/2/6; Energy Drain, The first time each turn an attacking Vampire die damages a character, gain 2 life, then draw a die and place it in your prep area.
  • Vampire, Minion Undead - Mask, 3; Evil, Monster; 1/1/4, 1/2/4, 2/2/6; Energy Drain, The first time each turn an attacking Vampire die damages a character, gain 1 life.
  • Troll, Master Humanoid - Fist, 5; Evil, Monster; 1/3/3, 1/4/3, 2/5/5; Regenerate, When Troll regenerates, knock out an opposing character and deal 1 damage to your opponent.
  • Gelatinous Cube, Master Ooze - Shield, 3; Neutral, Monster; 0/1/3, 1/2/4, 2/3/5; Whenever a character is knocked out during the attack step, you may pay a shield to capture it.  This capture lasts until it is used again.  Gelatinous Cube may block any number of NPCs.
We also get three basic actions, though it mentions three more - Cone of Cold, Polymorph, and Magic Missile - without showing their full cards (or any of their card, in Polymorph's case).  Edit: Thanks to barbain in the comments!  I'd previously identified Magic Missile as Polymorph, which is mentioned in the rules - apparently its global lets you spin down one of your creatures to spin up another, which is pretty cool - but not shown.
  • Dimension Door - 4 - One target character you control cannot be blocked this turn.
  • Finger of Death - 5 - Move a level 1 character from the field to its prep area.  *: Instead, move a character of any level.  **: Instead, move a character of any level to its bag.
  • Stinking Cloud - 2 - Deal 1 damage to all characters.  Level 1 characters can't attack or block this turn.
  • Cone of Cold - ? - Deal 1 damage to one character, 2 damage to a second character, and 3 damage to a third character.  You may only use this ability if there are at least three characters in the field.  Global: Pay a fist.  One blocked attacker gets +2A.
  • Magic Missile - ? - ...the level of your highest-level adventurer in the field.  Global: Pay a bolt.  Deal 1 damage to a character.
And one of the super-rares!
  • Red Dragon, Epic Dragon - Bolt, 7; Evil, Monster; 1/5/5, 2/7/7. 3/8/8; Breath Weapon 3, While active, once per turn when you use an action die effect, you may use a second copy of its effect.  Global: Once per turn, pay a bolt.  When you purchase your next action die this turn, it costs 2 less (minimum 1) and you deal 1 damage to your opponent.

So...where to begin.

Halfling Thief looks like Gambit 2.0, except that it can get nice and tough if you KO some monsters with one of them out.  Master BD looks like a nice, stompy midrange monster, but his apprentice version trades out some AoE power for some field control and a cheaper purchase cost.  Personally, I think it's the stronger version.  The Vampires look amazing, bringing both spindown and life gain to the table, with the Apprentice version *also* functioning as a draw aid.  I'm not sure if we'll reach Mutate #666 levels of saturation on her, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a lot of her.  Troll seems pretty cool - he's tough to begin with, and even when you KO him he's got a good chance of coming back and taking a chunk out of you.  Gelatinous Cube is your one-stop-shop for dealing with annoying sidekicks, and ALSO works as a particularly vicious semi-assassination option against on-fielded cycling.  I do wonder if you get to use its ability on one die per GC die you have out, or just once overall?

Red Dragon looks like something you'd want to use with Dr. Strange, for total action die mayhem.  Given that Blue Dragon also does stuff with action dice, I wonder if monkeying with action dice will be a common thread across all the dragons?

The action dice all look decent.  DD's a nice, if expensive, tactical option, and FoD is a nastier, more expensive, Smash.  Stinking Cloud, though, is the real gold. messing with cheap, smaller characters in multiple ways and only costing 2.  Cone of Cold might be good depending on its cost; a targeted AoE always has its uses.  We don't  know what Polymorph does yet - dollars to donuts it has something to do with swapping dice or levels - but that its global is pretty cool for manipulating who on your side gets churned or not while maybe squeaking out some more damage elsewhere.  We also don't know what Magic Missile does, though the safe bet is 'direct damage;' it's global, though is downright scary.  Imagine that in conjunction with Pyro - average shelf life of characters would probably be measured in seconds.

All in all, it's looking like we're getting a lot of interesting - and strong - abilities to use.  It's making me really look forward to the rest of the set!

Boxes and Splash Images


The website also has some box images, as well as some splash images with dice, around.  Dice on the splash images, and the gravity feeds, are a little too small for me to get much out of them - maybe a more eagle-eyed reader would like to educate me in the comments - but we can get a few things out of the box art:
  • The seventh starter die is a Beholder (who will almost assuredly be an Evil Monster)
  • The eighth starter die is *probably* a Green Dragon (again, likely an Evil Monster).  It could be a Black Dragon, but I'm pretty sure that die is green, and the silhouette looks like it's missing the forward-pointing horns characteristic of black dragons.
  • We can make out a few other probables for the set from the art - the black and pink die at the upper left is almost certainly a mind flayer, The...pink?  tan?...die with the humanoid figure further down the left side strikes me as maybe a zombie or ghoul, but there's plenty of gaunt humanoid-shaped things it could be.  The yellow and white die at the top center looks like a unicorn, and that white die with a black skull at the right side is most likely either a skeleton or a lich - I'd say skeleton, except unless it's the level 3 face, 3 attack seems a bit high for popcorn undead. The back of the box has a green die with a brown tree on it, which is probably either a dryad, a druid, or some kind of elf.
So based on this, we can be pretty sure that the starter set characters are: Human Paladin, Halfling Thief, Beholder, Blue Dragon, Gelatinous Cube, Green Dragon, Troll, and Vampire.  Pretty monster-heavy!

...And more cards!


The website gallery also gives us a few more cards to gawk at.  One of them is another one of the starter cards, but the other looks like a common from the rest of the set:

  • Human Paladin, Lesser Emerald Enclave - Shield, 4; Good, Emerald Enclave; 0/1/2, 1/2/3, 1/2/4; Experience, While active, your characters in the field cannot be affected by global abilities used by your opponent.  Global: Pay a shield.  Reduce the damage you take from a character's ability to 1.
  • Carrion Crawler, Lesser Abomination - Bolt, 3; Neutral, Monster; 0/2/1, 0/3/2, 1/5/2; When fielded, knock out an opposing NPC.  Global: Pay a bolt.  Deal 1 damage to an NPC.
Looking at some of the globals we've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised if this version of the Paladin got a good bit of play.  The global is not amazing, but maybe with all the breath weapons flying around it'll be more useful than I'd think.  Carrion Crawler looks like it continues the anti-NPC trend we've been seeing, though it makes me wonder - do abilities that target sidekicks work on NPCs, and vice versa?  I'm still not sure how much intended crossplay there'd be, but having that not translate would put the kibosh on a few options.

We also get another look at the promo card (for buying the starter at your LGS, so make sure to ask for it there!), Minsc & Boo; if you're as much a fan of the Baldur's Gate series as I am, you're probably drooling for more info on this one, but alas, we don't have the ability for it yet.
  • Minsc & Boo, "Go for the Eyes, Boo!" - Fist, 5; Good, Unaffiliated; 0/3/3, 1/4/4, 1/6/6, ???

More to Come!


Outside of that, there's not a lot else to be gleaned, outside of that it looks like they're sticking to that February release date.  It's a little hot on the heels of Yu-Gi-Oh, so hopefully there won't be too much wallet shock among fans.  I'll certainly be getting my share; expect commentary a-plenty once I have it in my hot hands.  Till then - rest assured, I'll be getting on any more news we hear.
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18 comments:

  1. Used Pile works a little different with this set. I wonder if the other sets will follow suit.

    Used Pile: Dice here have been used up. They’ll return to your bag later. Dice that enter your used pile from your field or paid from your reserve pool during either player’s turn are out of play until the end of your turn. Dice you buy and dice you do not use (e.g., characters you did not field) do not go out of play; they go directly to your used pile.

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    1. Actually Dave, the rule that you are quoting is the update for the general rule of the Used Pile so right now is in effect to use on all Dice Masters expansions.

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    2. People are going to think we're the same Dave. But yeah, this is for the transit zone, which was added a few months ago. It's codified now but has been in the game for a bit.

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    3. Slight difference. Now the energy you pay for globals or abilities on your opponent's turn do not enter the used pile until the end of their turn. Notice it says "either player's turn". ....am I correct?

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    4. Yes you are correct, Randy. Also confirmed in the language on page 7 in the "using global abilities" section. This is an enormous change. And it's even huger than you might think. Consider the following text from page 5 that Dave references above: "Dice that enter your used pile from your field or paid from your reserve pool during either player’s turn are out of play until the end of YOUR TURN." YOUR TURN!!! That means that if you have 5 masks in reserve and 1 sidekick in used, PXG on the other guy's turn is going to net you exactly one sidekick. That's it. Not only that, the mask paid to activate PXG isn't going to be in your used pile until the end of YOUR TURN. So it is out of commission for any drawing or bag refilling. This is drastically different that what we've been doing, and I gotta say, a big improvement.

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    5. Just sent a fairly detailed question to the WizKids rules forum on this. This honestly changes the calculus of Dicemasters in a big way.

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    6. While I don't think I'd been viewing on-your-opponent's-turn PXG chaining (i.e., using it on sidekicks used to pay for the global on the same turn) as allowable, I definitely had been thinking of them hitting the used pile then. Assuming this is the case, this does change up things quite a bit, good catch!

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    7. It change how you play but it'll also change how you work the system to benefit you too. Given the above example with a side kick in your used pile and 5 masks in reserve, let's say 3 sidekicks and a mask character die on double mask. You now get to decide how you want to use this energy or hold in reserve to be added to your used pile during clear and draw. You still have the ability to keep dice out of your bag due to the stays in transit till the end of your turn by spending resever dice on your opponent's turn. Yes its not as good for ramp/churn as before but thats just looking on how we currently use the transit zone as is. It also just really puts a bit of Nerf on your Prof x global ramp doesn't stop it from being very useful just no longer a complete broken I'm rolling all my dice again and again.

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    8. Totally agree, barbain - it would allow for the strategic "quarantining" of specific dice and a whole other level of bag management.

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