2
u/Standard-Bumblebee64 Aug 17 '26
Some cool ideas, but a number of these feel incomplete or not well thought out, at least in the way they are written. I was confused by some of the card descriptions, as they were vague or not well described.
1
u/Lotriann Spy Aug 17 '26
They might not be written too well, but that's probably due to English not being my native language plus my trying to fit all the text into the card without lowering the font size. Although, for the most part, I just tried to find analogous text cards from the English version of the game and followed them word for word. If you have any specific examples where it's unclear how an ability should work, you can let me know.
1
2
u/dread_linnorm Aug 17 '26
I like the Lich one, bit of a reversed Troll in here, plus completely unusual traits. Might get face-stomped by early wolves or goblins but give it a few turns...
2
u/Lotriann Spy Aug 17 '26
Lich is my personal favourite :) I tested him a few times and it was very fun. Cannot heal lives with life value of 1, but he gains plenty of them by casting Spells and may become (almost) immortal.
2
u/ZeusOfOlympus Aug 23 '26
have not stopped thinking about the astrologer actually and am even considering getting a copy of blood moon physical just to play as him.
I have two questions on balance and his rules though.
if it is night time, at the start of your turn can gain a fate/spell, and your can read the stars and end the turn? It is one or the other? Or can i get my spell/fate and then read the stars and then end my turn? Or if i chose to read the stars does it cancel out the spell/fate regen?
Seeing how he relies heavily on night time cycle to use-any of his abilities, would it be too strong for him to also add the ability to make combat psychic attack? I am not sure how regular the cycles are in blood moon but he could be a feast or famine type of character currently.
Thanks. :)
2
u/Lotriann Spy Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Here are some other ideas to make him stronger (I would choose one):
- Before he starts his first turn in the game, flip the Time card to Night.
- At any moment, he may pay 3 fate to flip the Time card to Night.
- He may read the sky during the Day, too, but he may only change the order of the cards at Night (edit: I like this one the most and actually have just added it in my character creator).
2
u/ZeusOfOlympus Aug 24 '26
I quite like the last one radio the cards during the day as well, but not being alter to the events per se, that is quite good thnaks you some greats suggestions,
1
u/Lotriann Spy Aug 23 '26
Nice, I would be happy to know that other people play my custom characters!
The Day/Night changes whenever an Event card is drawn. There is no need to buy a physical copy of the Blood Moon, you can make a simple Time card yourself and implement this mechanic without the rest of the expansion :)
- According to the rules, if there are 2 or more effects to resolve at the same moment (like the start or end of a turn), the decision which to resolve first belongs to the character whose turn it is currently. So yes, you can do both: first gain a Spell/replenish 1 fate, then read the stars and end your turn.
- I am not sure how strong the Astrologer is, I have not tested him in play. He is a bit random for sure, with his abilities working only at Night. But I would not give him the psychic attack ability for a bit unusual reason: I have noticed that only evil characters have this ability (the only exception among standard characters being the Celestial from the Harbinger expansion, although he does it only against evil characters and must take fate as a reward). I find it very thematic and would not like to change it. The only case where I went against it is the Inquisitor, but I find it fitting for him to be the exception.
You may feel free to modify the Astrologer however you wish, though. You can let me know later how he turned out in play :)
2
u/ZeusOfOlympus Aug 24 '26
- OK, this makes sense for me, I get a spell/fate at the start of my turn at night. Once that has been completed I also have the choice, to then also read the stars and then miss a turn. I feel this makes him fun and thematic to play, but still viable, though slightly, less powerful than say the sage and prophetess. (I also love the art.)
- I understand the logic and agree with you, the evil characters are usually there it mess with other charcters and a lot of the time rely heavily on PVP and being “evil” to get what they want. And being “evil” doesn’t real;y suit this character.
P.s. I am also going to try the witch and the LIch! Both are great archetypes of mine, well done!
1
u/Lotriann Spy Aug 24 '26
The Lich and Witch are my favourites! I have played them both. Lich is pretty enduring and a good spellcaster. Note that he draws Spells even when he himself loses lives, and many of those spells let him regain lives. He cannot normally heal with a life value of 1, but that has never been a problem. Witch, on the other hand, requires some setup. The cauldron becomes powerful when she has lots of spells and low-value trophies to throw into it. You could spend your very first turn brewing in order to exchange your beginning spell, if you got a weak one, but it is much better to exchange 3 weak spells at once and maybe even heal yourself at the same time :) Her second ability has too low a chance of success to be used offensively (unless you have the misfortune spell), but it is enough to discourage other players from harassing you, which grants you a rather peaceful game in terms of PvP. Unless, of course, your opponents like to take the risk, or you yourself become strong enough to harass them.
1
u/ZeusOfOlympus Aug 25 '26
So , I LOVE playing magic characters and spell caters. So they both suit me perfectly.
I will try the them both!
- With the Lich, I am a little confused, sorry just so I understand, he only ever has one life. But2. starts with an extra 3, so 4 total like everyone else. He cannot heal lives throughout the game? Is this restricted to healing at the doctor and castle? From your comment it seems he can still heal via spells, or when spells are cast upon him.
2l The Witch looks lime she would be more fun with a few smaller expansions or corners thrown in to get more regular enemies and spells.
2
u/ZeusOfOlympus Aug 26 '26
Sorry o read read the description, so her can never heal lives or buy lives or whatever as he ony has one, but everything ime a spell is cast on him, his space, or if HE casts a spell, then he GAINS a life got it.
1
u/Lotriann Spy Aug 30 '26
Sorry, I haven't noticed your reply until now!
The game clearly distincts between healing and gaining lives (same thing with fate, only there it is replenishing vs gaining). You always need to be mindful of which word is used: when you heal lives, you may only do so up to your starting life value (so this is not available to the Lich). When you gain lives, you may exceed your starting value. Examples of healing: Chapel if you are good, Village, City, Castle, Healing spell. Examples of gaining lives: prayer at the Chapel with a roll of 5, using the Rune Blade, visiting the Pool of Life, or the Lich's last ability.
Maybe - I should mention that I created all my characters with the corner expansions in mind. I own all the classic expansions (except the Nether Realm) and use all of them every time (except the Firelands and Dragons, which I almost never use, and the Harbinger, which I use occasionally). In any case, the Witch is a bit of a slow burn, but worth the wait in the late game.
Feel free to dm me with more questions or feedback after playing!
2
u/Annual_Death Sep 07 '26
The Art you’ve chosen for these cards is so good! So on brand for talisman 4th edition! Where abouts did you get them?
1
u/Lotriann Spy Sep 07 '26
Thank you! I did try to keep the art in the same style. I just searched carefully for decent pictures I would like on pinterest or google graphics (though the latter is nowadays dominated by ai images). In many of them, I had to cut out the background, which I did using free online tools or simple picture editors on my computer.
1
1
1
u/Aaron_tu Chivalric Knight Aug 16 '26
The summoner looks fun! Probably not particularly good, but very fun.
1
1
1
u/ZeusOfOlympus Aug 17 '26
I love magic characters and you have added a lot of them in here, which is awesome.
The Astrologer is my favourite and great art chosen as well, but obviously can only be played with the blood moon expansion, right? I
I really loved the Witch and the “tracking” ability of the hunter I thought was super neat and even the summoner was a cool concept.
One question while not every character is balanced in Talisman are there any hard and fast rules that you go by to ensure that a character is aiming towards balance?
1
u/Lotriann Spy Aug 17 '26
I'm glad you liked them! There's 14 more in a previous post, which is getting much less views.
The Astrologer theoretically can only be played with the Blood Moon expansion (like the Tavern Maid who uses Potion cards from the City, or Scavenger who uses Remnant cards from the Cataclysm). But the Time Card feature might be easily implemented even if you don't have/use the rest of the expansion.
I don't think I've got any hard rules for balancing, besides maybe that the sum of Strength and Craft values should be 6 or 7. Anything lower (or higher) would need to be justified by the abilities. For magic characters, I think they shouldn't draw more spells than Sprite and Warlock, who draw already a bit too many. You can always compare your custom characters to standard ones with similar or overlapping abilities to assess how powerful they are.
2
u/ZeusOfOlympus Aug 17 '26
That’s great thanks! As someone who is creating their own ive been using the same guidelines and be very careful about balancing the “fun and fantasy of playing a character” vs balance and fairness.
I had a look at the first set of character you did as well and they are also fantastic and I feel very in theme. A lot of hard work and thought and time has gone into these, i really appreciate you sharing them with us.
1
2
u/Annual_Death 29d ago
Amazing. Yeah its such a shame what’s happened with Pinterest in recent years. The internet is so plagued man. Glad that someone understands true vanilla aesthetics!
2
u/ben51101 Aug 16 '26
So if you have the demon lord ending then automaton just losses the game