I'm not sure if I ever really went into what the various classes in Draw Steel do, per se. While almost all nine extant classes correspond roughly with familiar classes in 5E D&D (the Talent doesn't have a clear equivalent until the Psion class is published - unless you count MCDM's own 5E Talent,) the mechanics of the game and the design approach differ wildly, so the underlying mechanics are going to be quite different.
Shadows are the game's sneaky thief/assassin/rogue class. Your primary characteristic is Agility, which will automatically upgrade at certain levels. Shadows have a healthy mix of melee and ranged abilities, so you can be a long-range marksman sniping foes from afar or stalk from foe to foe and slice at them from up close.
Heroic Resource: Insight
Shadows gain 1d3 Insight at the start of their turn (each class either gains 1d3 or a flat 2, a subtle chaos/order theme). Shadows also gain a bonus Insight the first time in a round that they deal damage incorporating 1 or more surges.
As an aside, Surges are mechanic I don't think I've touched on very much: various abilities can allow you to accumulate surges, which you can then spend to enhance your attacks in various ways. You can increase the potency of an ability by spending two surges, or, more frequently, you can spend a surge to add damage equal to your primary characteristic to an ability, using a maximum of 3 surges at a time. A Shadow starts with an Agility of 2, so if you spend a Surge to boost your attack's damage, you get 2 extra damage. Shadows in particular have a lot of ways to generate Surges.
Broadly speaking, Shadows have a lot of single-target damage abilities, as well as a lot of ways to evade foes and get out of danger.
Subclasses:
Shadows have three subclasses (at least in the core rules):
The College of Black Ash incorporates abyssal magic to teleport across the battlefield. Even at level 1, you're going to be able to teleport both as a maneuver and as a triggered action, so if you want to "bamf" all over the battle like Nightcrawler, this one's for you.
The College of Caustic Alchemy uses poisons, smoke bombs, corrosive fluids, and the like in their fighting, and even some beneficial substances for your allies on occasion. (Note that the game doesn't worry about having to work to produce all the things required for these abilities - you're assumed, for example, to carry an ample supply of smoke bombs that let you hide even when observed).
The College of the Harlequin Mask incorporates illusion magic to trick your foes into thinking you're one of them, sowing confusion amongst their ranks as a mischievous trickster.
Core Features:
As a note, I'm not listing every subclass feature here, nor the improvements to resource generation that every class gets. Likewise, I'm not going through the various new Heroic Abilities you can learn, which you'll get at most levels.
At level 1, every Shadow gains a free triggered action (meaning they can use it without taking up their triggered action as long as nothing is preventing them from using triggered actions) called Hesitation is Weakness. Normally, the rhythm of battle has players alternate with the Director on taking turns, but a Shadow can potentially jump in right after a fellow party member has gone - you might go right after the first party member in the round and potentially wipe out a bunch of foes before they can act.
At level 3, you get Careful Observation, a maneuver that lets you automatically gain both an Edge and a Surge to use on a strike against a target.
At level 4 (the first level of the 2nd Echelon) you gain a couple new features:
Keep it Down lets you communicate with any creature you share a language with in a manner that only the intended recipient can hear what you're saying, even if you're yelling to them.
Night Watch is a triggered action that allows you to halve the damage of an ability against a creature you can see while you're hidden, which does not break your hidden status. (The flavor here is like you're tossing a dagger that deflects an arrow or a sword.)
At level 6, you get Umbral Form, a maneuver that puts you into a kind of separate "mode," transforming into a shadow creature dripping with ash (yes, Draw Steel classes get hardcore). This lasts until you're dying or spend an hour of quiet focus to leave the form. The form lets you climb at full speed while moving, pass through enemies spaces without treating them as difficult terrain and dealing corruption damage to them if you pass through them, gain a surge at the start of each of your turns, and gain corruption immunity equal to 5 plus your level. However, creatures gain an edge on strikes against you and you take a bane on Presence tests to interact with other creatures.
At level 7, you get a few improvements to various other features, as well as Ventriloquist, which lets your voice sound like it's coming from a creature or object up to 10 squares away, without revealing you if you're hidden.
At level 9, you get Gloom Squad, and can choose, at the start of each of your turns, to make 1d6 shadow clones of yourself by forgoing gaining insight. The cones act on your turn and use your statistics, but they have 1 Stamina and don't have insight and can't use Careful Observation, Umbral Form, or any triggered actions. They can only use their action to make a free strike, and only against a target you or other clones aren't targeting with a strike. (In other words, if you were worried about having limited multi-target abilities, how's this?)
Finally, at level 10, you get various improvements to existing features, as well as the new Epic Resource, Subterfuge (which you get instead of XP given that you don't need that anymore) that can be spent as if it were Insight. You can also spend Subterfuge to get additional maneuvers on your turns, spending 1 per maneuver (meaning you could potentially get a lot of maneuvers on a single turn).
While features like Gloom Squad and Umbral Form are pretty far out there, I do think the Shadow is likely to be one of the simpler and more straightforward classes to play. The key, I think, is using your abilities to hide or otherwise avoid getting hit by your foes, striking hard and fast. While some abilities can help set up allies, I think generally the strategy for most groups for a Shadow would be to make sure that they're setting the Shadow up for success. Naturally, the abilities you choose (not to mention your kit) will have an impact on what particular role you might play - there are, after all, some AoE abilities, but in my opinion, the thematics here are probably better suited to really burning down high-priority targets quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment