Thursday, September 30, 2004

A Look At the Future of the Chaotic Good Faction

Greetings to all. Today I'm going to be taking a look at the future potential of the Chaotic Good faction. As many of you may know, Chaotic Good (CG) has suffered in terms of quality figures vs the other factions since the days of Harbinger. I would like to start by taking a look at the history of CG and how it has advanced over the last few months.


The Past


Harbinger

This era was by far the worst for CG. With the best front line fighter being the 15 ac, 55 hp, single attack Axe Sister, CG could not stand up to units such as Human Blackguard, Displacer Beast, Mummy, Troll, and swarms of Dwarf Axefigthers. Often times a lone Hound Archon was enough to give many CG warbands fits due to the high concentration of caster and archery based units in the faction.


Dragoneye

A slight improvement over the Harbinger days but nothing compared to the monstrosities that are the Ogre Ravager and Red Samurai. The Drunken Master, Halfling Outrider, Bladesinger, and Brass Dragon (although difficult 3, low attack, and low damage make this a hard unit to use) show up to strengthen the front lines and the Silver Sorcerer to strengthen the rear (although at 48 points it was restrictive). The Elf spearguard improves the weenie front although at 6 points (twice the cost of the speed 6, 10 damage orc warrior while having speed 7, 10 damage and melee reach 2 itself) it was no where near as efficient as the orc warrior.


Archfiends

Archfiends was the first wave of strength for CG. Bringing in such staples as Drizzt, Clay Golem, Moon Elf Fighter, and Champion of Eilistraee to add a drastic boost to the front lines. The low cost figure front improves with the Halfling Ranger, Halfling Wizard, and Greycloak Ranger. Unfortunately, Lawful Good bands get to pull over the Halflings with its Cleric of Yondalla giving it access to CGs best archer to date (Archfiends era). CG still has a hard time competing against the other factions due to the fact that their staple figures are mostly commanders and are restrictively priced to prevent using multiples of any of them.


Giants of Legend

This is a step in the right direction for CG but still offers restrictively costed melee units in the Githyanki Renegade and Half Giant Psychic Warrior at 42 points each. The Fire Genasi Dervish adds some power to the 30 points and lower pool (though it really should have had a second attack) and the faction gains some utility in Aramil and Eberk.

In the 500 point game CG gains one of the most powerful figures in the Storm Giant. If huges were legal in non 500 point games, the Treant would be a huge player and a welcome boost to the front ranks of CG. But alas, it was not meant to be.


The Future

Abberations

Abberations just may be the savior of the CG faction with the options that it offers. I will go in depth and discuss each figure that has been revealed to lend a tremendous boost of power to the faction.


Frenzied Berserker

This figure has been stated by WotC staff as hitting harder then any other non huge CG figure to date. That would put it at a minimum of 30 damage to surpass the Half Giant Psychic Warrior's 25 damage. Taking a look at the Frenzied Berserker prestige class (Complete Warrior) we see that the class offers several upgrade to the power attack feat and we may just see it at a higher damage then even 30! The drawback of course is that if she invokes power attack, her attack bonuses will be lower as a result. She also has the tremendous drawback of taking 5 damage every time she activates. I feel because of this drawback the Frenzied Berserker will be very aggressively costed and may be the Ogre Ravager/Orc Champion the faction has needed for a while.

Fearlessness also seems to be an ability of this class. I suspect that they will give the figure Deathstrike to simulate its "Deathless Frenzy" ability that allows it to keep attacking even while at negative hit points, instead of falling unconscious as normal. Also, this would allow it to get one last attack off if its current activation would reduce its current hit points to zero (a fair trade IMO).


Adventuring Wizard

The Adventuring Wizard has been stated as having "one big damage spell" (I suspect this may be the new fire cone spell), "a couple empowered magic missiles, and a couple spells that help it team up with heavy hitters".

This sounds like a good support unit. Hopefully it is not overcosted as I feel the Silver Sorcerer was.


Crow Shaman

The Crow Shaman has potential to be a staple in every CG warband with its FOUR castings of snakes swiftness. It also heals, Casts Cats Grace, and has two castings of a swift cast spell that grants flying movement speed for one turn (implied to be self only). All in all this sounds like a tremendous support unit. I suspect though that it will be costed somewhere around 40 points.


Cleric of Garl Glittergold

This Cleric commander effect has potential to cripple your opponents forces: "Enemies within 6 squares that miss with a ranged or melee attack cannot make any other attacks that turn". Denying Ogre Ravagers and Orc Champions their sencondary attacks is very good in my eyes. We may see Ogre Ravagers fade in popularity in favor of Orc Champions (with the higher attack bonus) because of this figure. The cleric is also said to have new spells never seen in the game before.


Ryld Argith

Ryld is an iconic dark elf character from the War of the Spider Queen series of novels. His official D&D stats place him at 18th lv. He will most likely be toned down as Drizzt was, and is a commander much to my dissapointment. Regardless, Ryld is a very strong fighter in the novels and even if toned down, should be a strong force in CG (he is also usable in CE). He sets new trends in the game by actually having a different commander effect based on what faction your warband is. If your CG, humanoid followers gain melee attack +2. This is subpar as it only boosts a specific type of creature and its not a very big boost. I would much rather have had the CE commander effect: Evil humanoid followers score critical hits on a 19 or 20. He also has the improved initiative feat which in skirmish, adds 4 to all initiative rolls. So on top of Ryld's commander 4, you can a +8 bonus on initiative checks! CG and CE currently have the highest initiative modifier in the game! Hows that for crazy? I suspect though that there will be a figure in the lawfuls that surpass even this because it would be strange to have the "low commander rating" guys have advantage on initiatives. Then again, it just might be allowed to fly unchallanged since the lawful factions will still have the advantage in the morale department.


Valenar Commander

This figure will change the face of archery bands in CG forever. His commander effect is as follows: "Followers making ranged attacks can target any noncommander enemy". This is a very powerful effect. The next gen of Selective Shot. No more putting your feeble units out front to stop ranged attacks. CG archers now get to hit what ever they want as long as its not a commander.


Wyvern

A strong cousin of the dragon, he is most likely going to have a version of the new "strong poison" as is typical of wyverns. This may make for a good assassin unit. Fly in, poison the commander, and fly out.


Conclusion

As you can see the Chaotic Good Faction is getting a tremendously large boost in Abberations. Chaotic Good fans everywhere rejoice! Your time is coming!

Thanks for reading. Feedback is always welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow Fox, signing off.