Battle of the Bards Devlog

Objective

For Red: Eliminate other players.

For all other players: Reach the tavern you started from with your main hero at level 30 (level requirement TBD).

Player Setup

Each player except for Red starts with a level 1 bard (Basic Herbalism and Basic Stealth) and a town with nothing constructed (not even a Fort). The town allows heroes to retreat.

The player alignments are fixed.

• Purple: Life
• Green: Nature
• Orange: Chaos
• Teal: Death
• Blue: Order
• Red: Might

Global Events

• Day 1 - zero resources for all human players but Red

Map Structure

• Players start near the center of the map and can explore outwards or toward each other.
• Players start with only a level 1 hero. No towns, money, or creatures.
• Free resources and campfires are scattered around to reward exploration.
• There are placed events scattered around the map that give XP to the first hero to encounter them.
• Each player starts near a Sanctuary so they can resurrect heroes who die.
• Each player starts near a town that they should be able to capture within a few weeks.

Ideas

• scroll of Town Gate
• a higher-level combat hero who can help you through the early battles (but takes half the XP!) and resurrect you if you die.

Victory Script

if (current army has hero named Bob) AND (experience level of most powerful hero in this army >= 30) {
    if number of heroes in current army > 1 {
        display "Bob must enter the Battle of the Bards alone (there are too many heroes in your army)."
    } else {
        display "You wow the judges with your epic performance and your tales of
        daring-do. You are, hands down, the winner of the Battle of the Bards!"
    }
}

Connascence

The level needed to win is hardcoded in the "(Color) Victory" scripts, and in the "Explain Special Rules" timed event.

Likely Hero Classes

• Bard (nature + scouting)
  • Hero always has maximum luck
• Demonologist (nature + death)
  • +50% to all demon summoning spells
• Enchanter (nature + order)
  • +20% to all summoning and illusion spells
• Summoner (nature + life)
  • +20 XP of creatures per day (slightly less than 2 wolves or 3 sprites), or slightly more than 1 water elemental every 4 days
• Fire Diviner (scouting + chaos)
  • +20% to fire-based spells
• Prophet (scouting + life)
  • always has spiritual armor, defense +25%
• Seer (scouting + order)
  • +2 scouting radius
• Guildmaster (scouting + nobility)
  • stunning attack
• Beast Lord (nature + nobility)
  • +20% summon wolf and white tiger
• Warden (nature + tactics)
  • +10% creature defence
• Field Marshal (scouting + tactics)
  • +10% creature attack
• Beastmaster (nature + combat)
  • +20% summon wolf
• Warlock (nature + chaos)
  • +10 spell points, regen +1 per day
• Ranger (scouting + combat)
  • +5 ranged attack
• Ninja (scouting + death)
  • poison attack

Strategic Artifacts

These are artifacts that synergize well with a particular hero class, strategy, or army composition. They should be available (or at least visible, via Windows of the Magi) somewhat early in the game so players can plan a strategy.

• Demonary
  • Doubles the effect of demon summoning spells
  • with Scarab of Summoning — triple the effect
  • with Crown of Enchantment and Mage's robe, spell costs reduced by 33% + 1 point
• 4x Viewing Crystal, Breeze the Falcon
  • gives the maximum scouting bonus (GM Scouting + Seer + these items = +17 scouting radius)
• Seaman's hat, sextant, logbook of the master sailor
  • lets the hero have a sea-based army - only good with lots of connected seas, lakes, rivers, islands.
• Boots of Travel, Equestrian's Gloves
  • with Pathfinding, gives ridiculous movement bonus
  • Wayfaring Boots
    • strictly better than Boots of Travel
• Ring of health, ring of regen, breastplate of regen
  • +50% health
  • 40 HP regen + 4 per level
• Adamantine Armor, Neener's Invulnerable Cloak
  • makes hero nearly unkillable — probably very OP combined with regen items above.
• Ring of Flares, Supreme Crown of the Magi
  • +10 spell points, -2 to all spell costs
• Ankh of Life + Saint Ranan's Staff
  • resurrects 25% of creatures after combat
  • with GM resurrection and Nobility + Life (Cardinal), 80% resurrection total
• Ring of Greater Negation
  • Counters Neener's Invulnerable Cloak - probably the only way to kill a high-level combat hero.
• Druid's Chain
• Staff of Summoning, Ring of Elementals, Scarab of Summoning
  • Reduces cost of summoning spells by 50%
  • +100% effect of elemental summoning spells
  • +100% power of summoning, raise, illusion spells
  • Crown of Enchantment and Mage's Robe reduce cost further, making it dirt cheap to summon elementals.
• Bow of the Elf King
• Mayhem Staff
  • Chaos direct damage spells do +50% damage
• Shackles of War
  • TODO: does this prevent Town Gate from working?
• Harmonic Chainmail, Necklace of Muses, Aiffe's Mandolin
  • The TGS expansion has special rules for this combo. The hero's attack casts Song of Peace on the target.