Great game! Here are some (well, a lot of) suggestions...

3

First of all - kudos! Another great game from your team. I loved WH40K Inquisitor, and this game is also a hit for me. A fun, solid campaign, good graphics with outstanding art design (I love the knight design, particularly those on the less fantastical end, like Pelleas), great sound design and music, solid tactical game play, great replayability bolstered by a varied roster and morality system, good overall atmosphere, and that much-beloved setting of Arthurian tales.

As I did with Inquisitor, I prepared a "wall of text" style post with my suggestions for future development of this fine game, as well as assorted thoughts on it. I hope this is the right venue and developers read this, if only for them to know their efforts are appreciated (while the forum seems inactive, Discord doesn't suit me and long form posts are better anyway).

I haven't finished the "End Game" post-campaign so my apologies for the resulting errors. Expect this already huge post to grow as I play through the entire game and test different things.


Bugs:

  • The cursor sometimes disappears after a Quickload by hotkey (F9).
  • (Bug or feature?) Sir Lucan has Globe of Protection fresh from recruitment. I have a save game after his recruitment quest and he already has it on list (as read on save file properties).
  • Either Yvain's Perception trait is bugged, or Bors has an undocumented perception boost (for me, Bors has no trait and has the same perception stat on screen, with both having one level of Scout).
  • Not technically a "bug", but there are many typos and grammatical errors on the game text, some sadly affecting voice acting (specially common in intro/outro mission text, and to a lesser degree on dialogues and events). A full spellcheck and human review of all text strings would be very welcome.
  • This is already known, but Lancelot is missing his banter voice overs. For such an iconic character, this feels wrong - I hope you can manage to complete missing voiceovers or recast everything.
  • Some decals (particularly snow effect on some missions) render erratically on camera rotation.

"Easy" tweaks and pet peeves:

  • Unlocked heroes should not go to free hero slots on the Round Table, rather to the Aspirant pool to be manually placed by the player.
  • This has been brought up by many players, but Aspirant slots should be two way. To dismiss a hero who fought for your life, without so much as a pat on their back, feels horribly wrong. Not to mention that it makes killing them by neglect a superior choice, as it leaves them open for resurrection later on. Not chivalrous at all, to say the least! This is probably the number one annoyance in the game for me, so much so that I used save game editing to work around it (and I don't like "cheats" in general). So, my proposal: if you "Dismiss" a Hero, you remove it from the Round Table, but it remains in the Aspirant slot and gets -1 Loyalty and a "Rebuked" flag. Dragging heroes thus flagged to empty slots places them on the roster with that status and they're inactive for one turn. This discourages willy-nilly swapping but is tolerant enough to let you test heroes at least a couple of missions.
  • Option to disable Temporal Anti-Aliasing. To me, its cost in graphical fidelity is too high. I disable it on Inquisitor: Martyr and graphics look crisp and great.
  • Allow character screens to be checked within missions (read-only, disabled item management).
  • Allow replaying cutscenes from the Story section of the Journal (under the entry for the appropriate missions).
  • Some buildings (e.g. Enchanted Tower, Merchant, Soul Merchant) don't get a highlight when hovering the cursor over them like the others do.
  • Not game related, but the game website doesn't link to the Neocore Forums, nor does it send the Mordred Armour email correctly.

Recommended additions:

When expanding the game, I suggest mechanics and content that can be integrated seamlessly into the main campaign. For instance, the Skirmishes, while nice in theory (it's quite cool to play as Tewelyn!), don't give much motivation to the player, as combat without context is much less satisfying (though I appreciate that you made them a sort of mini campaign with thematic consistency and, to be fair, haven't got to playing them and may enjoy them immensely). A similar development effort integrated with the main campaign would increase replayability and enrich the core of the game.

Also, the varied, fun character roster is a among the main strengths of the game. However, sometimes it isn't exploited as well as it should. Future development should prioritize anything that strengthens this, making knights more unique and memorable, both in mechanics and personality. This includes dialogue/banter, unique traits, skills and mechanics (some detailed in this text).

Finally, don't neglect the Camelot strategy layer, half of the fun comes from it: it gives context to the missions and is a great source of player agency.

Where you to add more content for the game, my preferences would be as follows:

  1. Expansion adding to all aspects of the Main Campaign (extra missions, events, dialogues, story, etc.). Preferably not an entirely independent storyline, but more of a continuation or parallel thread in the main story (using the same character progression). But if a separate storyline/progression is preferred (for instance to avoid high level stat distortion), the expansion should add mechanics that apply to all campaigns and make the entire package deeper and more replayable.
  2. Extra missions on Main Campaign (as above, but less ambitious).
  3. Extra Mechanics on Campaign Map (integrated with events and quests).
  4. Extra Events on Main Campaign.

Note that you've already worked on 2 and 3 with the "End Game" campaign developed for the Chained God patch, which tells me you're in the right direction. I would love for you to reinforce this campaign with events, voice-overs and more story development, but as it is, it's a lovely addition.

In that line, I would love for you to further explore the plot, for instance expanding on Arthur's plan to deny Avalon to Balor, specially if you can throw a few twists around (for example, Arthur could come back and try to depose a Tyrant Mordred or join Rightful one, thus becoming playable, or he could try to reclaim his Kingship, giving players the choice to either reignite the Civil War or look for an alternative).


Recommendations - General:

  • Steam Deck support. I've played WH40K on it with some success, Knight's Tale is an even better fit being turn-based. Not something to waste huge resources perhaps, but a modest effort would be nice.
  • More music tracks! The ones we have are great by the way, kudos on the soundtrack. But a bit more variety wouldn't hurt (in particular in Camelot and Combat themes).
  • Currently, character voice lines are repeated for all those sharing a single religion. This sometimes results in out-of-character comments, and is a lost opportunity for characterization. I think each hero should get a unique line at least. Specially since I'd wager writing time is quite cheaper than recording time.
  • On that line, add some banter between characters (not just monologues). Specially where it just makes sense from a legend/plot perspective: Mordred and Morgawse, Tristan and Isolde (e.g. Isolde first rejecting his advances, then warming up to him), Dindraine and Percivale, Bors and Lancelot, Balin and Balan, Pelleas and Gawain, among Grail Knights, etc. Just adding a combat "bark" related to a companion adds a lot of life (as its repeated in multiple missions). I know this is relatively expensive, but it pays off for a character-focused game.
  • On the same line, more dialogues with your characters. Once you recruit your characters, they stay strangely unresponsive. Having them respond to situations on the campaign, or just talk after resting (easier to set up), would go a long way in making they more lively. Again, expensive, but worth it.
  • As in WH40K Inquisitor, you're heavily incentivized to stick to a given morality on all choices. This game fortunately offers more leeway in the points, so that you can roleplay within your chosen morality. That said, the game would benefit from systems and events making choices more natural and less "forced upon". For instance:
    • More events/conversations with multiple choices of the same morality (rightful, tyrant, etc.), having different effects.
    • More events/conversations where hero personalities, besides morality, affect their impact (e.g. Lucan and Kay could get offended at some choices dismissing Arthur's legacy, regardless of their alignment).
  • Neutral Morality/Religion. Related to the above, the game could offer new missions and events to those players who stay N missions with less than M in a given morality axis. They could even bestow new Laws and Decrees that bolster this style of play.
  • Skills or passive effects enabled by having a specific set of characters on a missions. They can be displayed on a corner of the skills interface under "Companionship Skills", once the relevant characters have been unlocked. For example:
    • Tristan and Isolde - Unrequited love: (Passive Skill, Tristan only) Hero receives +10% Weapon Damage, +10% Vulnerability.
    • Balin and Balan - Brotherly Rivalry: (Passive Skill) Hero receives +30% Weapon Damage against an Enemy engaged by his brother.
    • Lancelot and Guinevere - Love and Betrayal: (Passive Skill) Hero receives +1AP/+1MP at Encounter start and -10% Mental debuff resist.
    • Dindraine and Percivale - Fraternity of the Grail: (Percival Passive Skill) Dindraine gains +1AP +5% weapon damage from Encourage, (Dindraine Passive Skill) Percivale gains +50% HP from Maiden's Blood (see below).
  • When you reduced install size, did you compress textures? If so I suggest you add a "HD Textures DLC" as Kingdom Come: Deliverance, so that people who want it (me!) can have the higher-quality textures. If the compression was lossless, I'd still consider it if it boosts load times.
  • The game in general (plot and art design, etc.) would benefit from closer adherence to Arthurian legends (it helps there are many versions of each character and event, so you can pick and choose what you think best serves the plot). This is useful to make the heroes more unique, as each has a turbulent story with relations to many other characters you can draw on inspiration on missions, skills, traits and so on. Also, it gives the game a lot of personality, as the tales are usually quite alien and bizarre from our perspective.
  • Related to the above, some character portrayals are quite perplexing. Ector is totally evil but if I recall nothing in the myths points to that. Balin also seems specially evil but in the legends he was just brash (he was supposed to be the best knight in the table, after all!). Guinevere could hardly be considered Rightful, even on the more favorable portrayals. Brunor wasn't bloodthirsty. Perhaps this is related to earlier games' character development. But anyway, you could use those differences as a hook to missions were those characters get their chance to embrace or rebuke their legendary selves.
  • Knightly Quests: as hinted above, the game has a distinct lack of Damsels in Distress, Magical Beasts and Knightly Quests, which is an opportunity to create a new mechanic, "Knightly Quests". In those, a particular Knight gets a tailored event where he starts a personal quest (according to personality, to woo a lady, hunt a monster or pursue mystical enlightenment), and is given a specific gameplay challenge in regular missions to achieve it. Once achieved you get a new event with the results and a reward (e.g. unique Trait, Essence-style passive effect, wooed lady joining the Court, unlocked mission related to the Quest, etc.).
  • Talking about the legends, the roster is quite large but you can add some variation with the formerly-pagan knights Palamedes the Sarracen (Grail Knight and killer of the Questing Beast) or his father Esclabor the Unknown (old knight with many adventures and even more dead sons), which come from Babylon or Galilee and could have interesting armor design. For example, Palamedes could have:
    • Class: Defender (formally - he's a hybrid character, see below).
    • Faith: Christian.
    • Traits.
      • Hunter of Beasts: may use a Ranged Weapon up to Common quality in addition to his One Handed Weapon.
      • Convert: While appointed as Master of Faith in the Cathedral, grants +1 Loyalty to Neutral Religion Heroes (increases by 1 every 5 Levels).
    • Skills: no Taunt, Shield Charge nor Recuperate, but with hunting-themed skills Monster Hunter, Bear Trap and Shoot (with damage and properties dependent on the item on the Ranged slot).
  • Ector's Artificer trait makes him an almost obligatory Master of Magic (and thus, member of the Round Table). It would be nice to have some flexibility on this, perhaps by giving other potential Masters of Magic traits with alternative methods of Relic Dust acquisition (e.g. X Relic Dust per Old Faith Hero after Missions, possibility to sacrifice Uncommon Items for Relic Dust, etc.).

Recommendations - Camelot (Strategy Layer):

The strategy layer in particular is one that would greatly benefit from any addition, not only including new mechanics, but just more content. It's here were you'll find the best bang-for-buck on replayability. Some suggestions on this regard:

  • More events! They're relatively easy to include, but add a lot of replayability. Consider also:
    • Different trade-offs on events (more resources and mechanics would be welcome for this). For example: Relic Dust vs. Building Materials, Loyalty vs. Building Materials, some sum of Gold now vs. much more many turns later, events to give Loyalty to unaligned iconic characters (e.g. Merlin) at a significant cost, etc.
    • Multi-stage events that unlock Laws, Decrees or give Relic Dust.
  • Missions: extra missions in each Act, while resource intensive in development, are the best additions you can make, bar none. Specially since you can consider:
    • Types: more variety is better! For example:
      • Missions where a hero goes alone and is joined by a small army of NPC soldiers.
      • Missions where you choose a side in a huge free for all.
      • Missions where you hunt a dangerous beast (High Perception allows you to start encounter at favorable locations).
      • Missions where you control two different teams converging on a final location and encounter.
      • Missions where you have to choose a team from your Aspirant pool (level is adjusted according to Aspirant character level).
    • Rewards: more missions give opportunity for different rewards: Relic Dust, unique Traits for a required character, new court NPCs, etc.
    • Activation method: more missions should be unlocked by specific choices in events, having specific character(s) on the Round Table, etc. This helps make each play through more unique. Examples:
      • Round Table composition: having Balin and Balan on the Round Table in Act III unlocks a quest where they can come to terms or further drift apart. This can grant a story Trait for them.
      • Decisions in past events: if you let the Picts live on Act II, you unlock a mission on the next Act where they give you trouble again, but if you destroyed them, you get an event that grants a lot of Building Materials and a useful Court NPC.
    • Quests/Missions to change alignment: when on the Round Table of a player of opposite alignment, some characters could get a quest to modify their own alignment. Some examples: Balin to Neutral Morality, Merlin to Neutral Religion, Kay to Tyrant/Rightful Morality (user choice), Morgana to Tyrant, etc.
    • More mission chains, continued between acts (such as those for Tewelyn), for important Knightly Quests related to the legends. For instance, The Return of the Questing Beast, about the tragic origin and hunt or taming of this beast.
  • Add a Siege Perilous "title" in the Round Table after getting Merlin. Each turn, heroes placed there have a chance to die by sickness in an Event, but may also randomly trigger a new quest where they get closer to the Grail (perhaps they don't get it, but they do get a powerful Trait as a consolation price!). Hidden features: Rightful heroes and Grail Heroes (Dindraine, Galahad, Bors, Percivale) get respective boosts to their chances for a good outcome, while Tyrants are barred and will eventually die.
  • More Laws unlocked by Events and Missions (ideally, the player is given an option between two different Laws, or a Law or Relic Dust / Building Materials). Examples:
    • Heavy Tariffs: 500 extra Gold, one less Item at the Merchant on next refresh (per turn ended with the Law Active).
    • No Customs: -10% money mission reward, one extra item at the Merchant (per turn ended with the Law Active).
  •  More Decrees (for unlocking, see Laws above). Examples:
    • Kingly Joust: cost 1000 Gold, creates a mission where you can select knights of different level. The higher level one must be at full vitality and have no injuries, the lower level is the challenger controlled by the player. If the challenger wins, his level is raised to that of the other hero. Both keep any injuries received in the fight (but no vitality damage). 
  • The new Skirmish mode added in an update and DLC could be integrated to the campaign. For instance, you could present skirmishes as "interludes" and give a campaign reward for their completion (e.g. Tewelyn  becomes playable if you give him the Bridge Castle and finish his skirmish campaign).
  • Camelot would greatly benefit from a new resource or mechanic that can be tied to events and missions and make the trade-offs more complex. Currently I  have no specific ideas about this, but I hope to think about something interesting.
  • More events and mechanics with potential Loyalty loss (Wartime Levies are a good example).

Recommendations - Missions:

Sometimes, missions are too combat focused for their own good. Those few respites that exists are much welcome. Please add more like the following:

  • Secret doors (discovered with Perception and/or closeness) leading to extra rooms with fights, chests, etc. Ideal for Catacombs maps...
  • More NPCs with dialogue. They can offer choices to the player grating him potential benefits to tackle the mission (e.g. combat "buffs", reinforcements, etc.), offer the occasional Relic, a Morality/Religion changes, or even joining the Court after the mission ends.
  • As mentioned before, more dialogue from your heroes. This can be mission related or character related (upon rest), and have the accompanying decisions.
  • Larger maps with more exploration, objects and room to breathe (not just encounter after encounter).
  • Dialogue-style interactions where sometimes your heroes can use their skills to reach an optimal solution (e.g. Shoot, Scout, Master Alchemist, etc.).
  • Some puzzles and riddles. I love them, but for those who don't, make them optional and playful (e.g. reward - get a Court Jester NPC that does nothing but tell a bad joke related to the last completed main mission).

Thoughts on Balance:

After finishing the campaign and playing through the endgame, I became increasingly aware that there are some problems with the general combat system (which at it's core is very solid and fun).

The main such problem is that the game is "balanced" on the assumption that the player will have and use a specific set of classes, items and skills that grant damage disproportionate to anything else in the game. This usually consists of having a damage dealer (Vanguard/Champion) maximized with AP regeneration/damage on kill skills (Rage, Killing Spree, etc.), loading him with Relics with the same features (Action-point, On-kill damage, etc.), and using the rest of the party as cheerleaders maximizing this damage (typically, Sages with Bless and Inspire).

In order to give a tough challenge to players using this setup, the encounters become increasingly over-the-top, featuring one nasty trick on top of another: ambushes, reinforcements, heals, stuns, pulls, almost all enemies hitting like a truck and having a gigantic health pool (which can only overcome with above strategies) and, above all, having massive amounts of enemies (which has the side effect of making battles a slog, unless you really go all-in with the above "tricks").

Any attempt to deviate from the setup (even involuntary, e.g. not having the right relics), and you're toast. No matter how tough your Defenders are, they'll be fried in a single turn, drowned in a sea of enemies throwing nasty tricks like they're candy.

While I admit the damage maximizing mechanics are fun, the whole setup shoots itself in the foot by trivializing 90% of the game's mechanics. With late game balance, the following mechanics become increasingly useless:

  • Defenders. They can buy you an extra turn, but then they get swamped and die, or are unable to save other teammates.
  • Marksmen. Zero group utility, fragile and simply laughable damage. Should have brought a Sage and boosted your MVP.
  • Any honest-to-goodness frontal assault (the humongous hit-points of most enemies require some combination of Backstab, Surprise, Juggernaut, etc. to overcome).
  • Overwatch. See above.
  • Damage Over Time effects (Burn, Bleed and Poison). You don't have the luxury of having these insane enemies alive for, say, three turns.
  • Retribution effects and high-risk/reward skills like Vengeance (they're oftentimes suicide - high risk, null reward).
  • Traps: if you're not killing them NOW, it's almost useless. So, any AP not spent on backstabing (or positioning to backstab) feels wasted.

Note that the beginning encounters, not balanced with crazy damage boosts and one-turn board deletion, are interesting and see all of the above elements come into play.

Now, there is a bit of hyperbole above - I understand you have taken measures to rein-in the most excessive items and skills, and slightly reduced the lethality of enemies to account for that, but the game still is not where it needs to be to make all sensible tactical approaches shine. I encourage more changes in that direction, as in the following suggestions:

Boost the alternatives:

  • Overwatch: attacks should be cheaper (say, one per 2AP reserved) and have a hefty damage bonus (e.g. +50%). This indirectly boosts some Marksmen and Defender builds. Also, boost related skills such as:
    • Ready: +50% Overwatch Damage.
    • Vigilance: +35% damage and 20% Vulnerability on Overwatch and Opportunity Attacks (instead of, or in addition to, current effect).
  • Opportunity attacks should have bonus damage (around +30%).
  • Bleed: increase damage (per action and per turn) to 25%.
  • Poison: increase damage reduction to +30%.
  • Burn: boost damage of "some" skills causing it (e.g. Trial by Fire +100% burn damage, Flaming Strike +60%). Arcanist skills should be boosted to a lesser degree, as they have items which can make Burn useful.
  • Traps: should get a significant boost to make the huge opportunity cost (given Vanguard is one of the "munchkin" classes) worthwhile. For example:
    • Bear Trap: 125% weapon damage.
    • Lightning Trap: 190% weapon damage
    • Gas Traps: 40% damage at turn start and per tile of movement (up from 25%).
    • Master of Traps: +1 range and +25% damage.
      • Deactivate Trap: 1AP to deactivate (down from 2AP).
      • Serrated Traps: +30% trap damage (up from 10%).
      • Barbed Traps: +2 turn duration to ALL multi-turn effects, including Bleed, Poison, Slow and Weakened (up from 1).
      • Better Tools: +2 traps (up from +1).
  • Cover: there is in general a lack of Cover in most tough encounters. This, combined by the tendency to surround the player, makes Marksmen a poor(er) proposition. Some tweaks to the map design could aleviate this. Also, you may consider a "pavise" style skill for Marksmen to bring their own (half) cover.
  • Marksmen:
    • All ranged skills should get bonus damage against unarmored targets (e.g. +50%).
    • All Ranged Weapon Runes should get a hefty damage boost (around +50%).
    • Adrenaline: +2AP when killing a unit (up from 1).
    • Pavise self-Cover skill (see above). This shield breaks after N hits directed to the character.
  • Defenders: they're tricky to improve, as the main means of defense is just to kill everything in few turns, and in this they're a liability. They can do their job, it's just that it's not advisable to do it. A few tweaks however might help them:
    • Improvements to Overwatch (also affects Guard skill) and Opportunity Attacks mentioned above.
    • Relics, Accesories, and Armor with +1AP for N hits received.
  • General Skill review: while most skills are decent, some of them don't offer utility competitive with the alternatives on the tree. See for example, Ready and Vigilance (improvement proposals above), as well as Vengeance (suggestion, increase bonus to +25% damage, Avenger: +1AP for each hit over 2). I recommend making a general sweep and tweaking the less popular skills.

Downgrade the heavy hitters (a bit):

It's pretty difficult to tone down the AP recovery / damage bonus stacking of Vanguards/Champions without upsetting the system too much, so I don't have a good recommendation here. If you lower offensive potential of both these classes AND the nastier enemies, you can have a lot of tactics open up. But if you don't get the balance right, probably everything becomes either a chore or a cakewalk.

Manageable encounters:

Just not being so over-the-top on some encounters would go a long way in ameliorating the problem. I know the game is well appreciated for it's tough difficulty, so it's best not to overdo this, but at least up to Hard you could loosen up a bit on the more insane encounters, which can only be overcome by "gimmick override" as described above (leave VH for honest munchkins). In particular, I recall an encounter in "Wild Hunt Returns" that was just impossible unless you brought a Vanguard/Champion capable to destroy half the enemies the first turn. Not having these stumbling stones I believe is an overall positive, though I'm sure some would disagree.



Recommendations - Hero Distinctiveness:

The game's roster of heroes is huge, so it's a challenge making each unique and useful. I think overall it does a great job, and this is one of the main draws. However, more can be done. Some heroes can feel underwhelming because of a lack of distinctiveness, "cool factor" or effectiveness. When this happens on hard-to-recruit ones, it's particularly disappointing. While perfect balance is not needed nor desired, each hero has to bring something unique to the fore.

My top adjustments on this regard are as follows (note that they are not necessarily balanced):

Tegyr: 

This character, though rather interesting conceptually/story-wise, needs a bit of a rethink in game play terms.

  • Skill-wise he's a duplicate of Balin (even sharing religion), just that Balin comes earlier and has more interesting traits.
  • His traits are either boring or useless. He gets Mordred's "Veteran" trait (Mordred is a permanent character and duplicate office-holder titles are entirely useless), and Loyal (which only relevant for C/T and O/R alignments).

Please give Tegyr something, preferably inspired by the plot, and that differentiates him from Balin. My suggestions:

Remove all traits and add instead:

  • Tolerant (New): While Appointed as Master of Faith in the Cathedral, halves all Loyalty penalties for Faith.
  • Dejected (New): Sending this Hero to a Knight's Tournament at the Training Ground costs 100% more.
  • Righteous: -1 Loyalty after missions if there is a Tyrant Hero in the party.

Add new skill:

  • Inconspicuous (New): (Passive Skill) Can place traps while Hidden.

Lucan:

Probably most disappointing in that while he's a mixed morality hero with a difficult recruitment mission, he's probably the weakest Sage. Also, he seems to have a rather unfocused tree (e.g. seems to belong to the front line, but has a ranged skill and less Injury Tokens while missing Frost Armour). That said, he's original and I like him. But to give him an edge, I'd double up on his jack-of-all-trades role somehow. For instance, adding one of these skills:

  • Lord's Grace (New): (Passive Skill) Magical Armour is re-applied after receiving N hits.
  • Melee Expertise: (Passive Skill) While Outnumbered, the Hero gains 1 Unbreakable Armour for each Adjacent Enemy.
  • Evasion: Dodge the first incoming Melee Attack each Turn (Can't touch this!).
  • Defensive Stance: The Hero gains +X Armour for N Turn(s).

  Or to reinforce the fire theme:

  • Wall of Flame: (Active Skill) Create a 4 Tiles long Wall of Flame (...).
  • Cleansing Fire: (Active Skill) (...) Suffers 100% Damage at the Start of their Turn (up from 40%). Upgrade of a very underwhelming skill (this also affects Galahad, which is nice).

Leodegrance:

Feels underwhelming, as skill-wise he's an Isolde without Ice Lance and Ice Aura. He's not weak, but sorely needs a skill (or skills) that sets him apart from her. For instance:

  • Mindstorm: (Passive Skill) If at least 3 Skills are on Cooldown, casting a Skill reduces all currently running Cooldowns by 1 Turn.
  • Low-Profile: Enemies prioritize attacking any other Unit if the Hero is farther than 6 Tiles away.
  • Master Alchemist (Potion effects on the Hero are increased by 50%).

Balin:

He's good, but needs something to stand-out from Tegyr and other Vanguards. As the Knight of the Two Swords, I recommend an extra skill:

  •  Twofold-strike (Passive skill): Strike allows to target two adjacent enemies at decreased cost (5AP total) and damage (75% per hit).

Pelleas:

Apparently most players say he's worthless, but I like him a lot (best character model in the game!). But he certainly could use a unique skill to set him apart, such as (up to two of the following):

  • Composed (New): (Passive Skill) When an Enemy hits the Hero, that Enemy receives -15% Weapon Damage against the Hero until the end of the Encounter. This effect can stack up to 3 hits.
  • Wall of Steel (New): (Passive Skill) 25% chance to deflect blocked melee attacks, making them hit an adjacent enemy instead.
  • Counter Attack: (Passive Skill) The Hero responds to every Frontal Attack received with a Strike.
  • Melee Expertise: (Passive Skill) While Outnumbered, the Hero gains N Unbreakable Armour for each Adjacent Enemy.

  And a Trait upgrade:

  •   Armor Tinker: When resting, recovers an additional 25% of their maximum Armour (up from 20%).

Dindraine:

Besides problems with Marksmen in general, she doesn't get much to differentiate her from the rest of the profession. I still like her, but it's best to add at least one unique skill, perhaps related to her legendary role. For example:

  • Maiden's Blood (New): (Active Skill) The Hero donates 10HP to the target Ally at the cost of 3HP of her own (increases by 10/3HP respectively per 5 levels). Masteries:
    • Miraculous Healing: Removes Chill, Freeze, Slow, and Stun from target Units.
    • Sacrifice: damage healed is doubled, damage received is tripled.
    • Holy Wound: base effect is passively triggered twice per Encounter when suffering damage higher than the HP cost in a single hit.
    • Determination: Hero receives +25% damage on Next round after activation.
  • Soothing Words: (Passive Skill) Restores X HP to the Hero and each Ally after each Encounter (...).

Balan/Lanval/Brunor:

These three Champions have the same skill set (though at least Balan has mixed skill tiers), though admittedly it's a strong one. They  also have interesting traits and different alignments, so it's not too bad. That said, to favor distinctiveness, I'd recommend granting them skills such as:

  • Balan-  Assassination (Passive Skill): +20% Weapon Damage against Units with less than 25% Vitality.
  • Brunor - Master Bleeding (Passive Skill): Bleeding triggers twice on Units at the start of their turn.
  • Lanval - Recuperate (Active Skill): The Hero gains 40 Temporary HP for 1 Turn. The amount of Temporary HP increases by 2 per Level.

Percivale/Galahad:

They're decent characters, but being extremely similar and sharing an alignment (Christian), most players will leave one (usually Galahad, who comes later) on the bench. They need to be further differentiated, preferably by strengthening their themes (Percivale seems a martyr willing to sacrifice his HP - see Vengeance and Ascetic, while Galahad is imbued by the Holy Spirit). For example:

Percivale gets a trait upgrade and a pick of one/two of the following skills:

  • Ascetic: (Trait) +50% XP gained if Vitality was lost in a Mission (up from 10%). (This sets up an interesting mechanic were you want him to get a bit beaten up, but not that much!).
  • Precious Blood: (Passive Skill) Enemies inflicting Vitality Damage receive back N times that Damage (increased by M each 5 levels).
  • Unburdened: (Passive Skill) When the Hero's HP drops to zero, all Cooldowns are reduced by 2 Turns.
  • Divine: (Passive Skill) Regain X HP when HP drops to zero. Can only activate once per Encounter. The amount of HP regained increases by 1 per Level.

While Galahad gets a new skill:

  • Holy Spirit (New): (Active Skill) Adjacent Allies get 15 Temporary HP and 2 Unbreakable Armour for 1 Turns, adjacent Enemies Burn for 100% damage for 1 Turn. On the next turn, the effect is passed to the Allies and Enemies adjacent to the original recipients. Masteries:
    • Holy Flame: Burn last for 2 turns.
    • Divine Radiance: the effect propagates twice (on two subsequent turns).
    • Shield of Faith: Allies get 4 Unbreakable Armour.
    • Secret of the Grail: the Hero gets N% of the burn damage inflicted on the first turn back as HP.

Gawain: 

He's a nice character, but the Faery Knight is a strong competitor both in "cool" and effectiveness, so I wouldn't mind a boost to good ole Gawain. Some examples:

  • Juggernaut: (Passive Skill) The Hero gains +5% cumulative Weapon Damage for each Tile of movement until the End of Turn. (Synergizes with Shield Charge).
  • Adrenaline: (Passive Skill) The Hero gains 1 AP when killing a Unit.
  • Rage: (Passive Skill) Gain +10% stackable Weapon Damage for 2 Turns after every Kill.

White Knight:

He's a solid champion, but it'd be nice to give him a "Blind" skill, since it fits so well (the shine! my eyes!).


That's it. Thank you to all who read this mighty wall of text. It will get updated if and when I get the time (and new ideas).


This post was edited 357 days ago by Chacumbele
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Great game! Here are some (well, a lot of) suggestions...
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1 year 9 days ago

Updated original post with:

  • Tailored voice lines ("barks") for characters.
  • Changes for Galahad/Percivale.
  • Upgrade to Cleansing Fire (under Lucan section).
  • Skill/Mastery name adjustments.
1 year 8 days ago

Updated original post with:

  • Some competition for Ector in Relic Dust generation.
  • More potential sources of Loyalty loss.
357 days ago

Updated original post with many changes, including:

  • Replaced "Thoughts on Class Balance" section with longer, more critical "Thoughts on Balance".
  • Some changes on characters (included White Knight and Gawain, tweaked Lucan, Leodegrance, etc.).
  • Reference to typos/grammar errors, bug with snow decals and missing voices for Lancelot.
  • Comments on Chained God expansion and hypothetical Arthur-related expansion.

Anybody here? (Echo).