[Speculation] New generals: what might they look like?

[raqyee]

At this point I’d rather see more factions than actual generals. There’s lots of unexplored themes after all.

Anyway:

Lyonar - Cool idea, especially how it enables generals to have provoke. I believe the game could really benefit from a mechanic like that. Only issue here is how it works really well with hollow. I’d like to avoid mechanics that make certain neutrals just too good. Current examples being tiger in kara and dioltas in lyonar. And I’d also like to avoid changing the core mechanics of hollow as I see it as a classic card of sort.

Songai - I don’t like it. Having to target two things to make it work is too tiresome and the fact how the latter part of the spell does zero damage doesn’t still well with me. I know it’s supposed to work with spell power but I’m sure there’s better ways to do it.

Vet - Not sure is having both cost reduction and stat buff is fair or not, but I do like the idea.

Abyssian - Also a good idea, but I dislike the value. It’s that kind of BBS that needs to have it’s values tuned perfectly in order for it not to be broken and the 3-7 ratio is too good imo. Honestly it’s such a weird BBS I can’t tell what’s the perfect ratio.

Magmar - I like it, but I’m not sure how balanced it is. I want to say it’s too strong with current egg mechanics but I don’t know how good egg magmar is yet so I can’t say for sure.

Vanar - Too game changing and too complicated. Board is too big of a factor for BBS to have such a huge impact on it.

[deekester]

i think they should make the abbysian general one of the male abbysians, considering both generals are currently female and it could maybe fit a ramp abbysian that people are currently theorycrafting about. maybe something along the lines of, the next minion you summon costs 4 less and is destroyed at the end of your next turn. this could synergise with ramp and dying wish cards and might spawn some new archetypes

[akurane]

I really like your general design ideas, although some could be reworked (maybe have the Vanar one have an effect that generates walls or have it push our pull enemies like mesmerize?). Going off of what @deekester said, maybe have the alternate abyssian and Vanar generals be male and somehow have the Magmar be female (although I don’t know how it would work lore wise. Then again, they do have Taygete and moloki huntress), while at the same time have the ratio of male to female generals be equal. Great concepts, would you mind if I tried to make concept sketches of these designs at some point?

[thefirstgokun]

The Lyonar and SongHai ones definitely have some merit to them (better than anything I could come up with) but the rest are pretty ridiculous for Bloodborn Spells. The Magmar one is also kind of nice considering all the egg synergy we got in Shimzar. That copy spell for the Vetruvian General could very well be a spell for the next expansion but as a 1 mana spell available on every other turn… yeah, its a little ridiculous.

Anyway, here’s the ones I had tucked away in my secret little file:

Vanar: Summon a Bonechill Barrier in a nearby space. (Vespyr and Wall synergy) For the design? Dwarf! Dwarf! Dwarf!

SongHai: Draw a Spell card. (Thin your own deck and draw, invaluable in Spellhai, a nongarbage Starhorn ;)) Obviously, you need to have this General levitate in a meditative stance. Give him a billowing cloak or beard and you have the Ram to further fill the Chinese Zodiac theme.

Lyonar: A friendly unit takes 2 less damage the next time it takes damage. (Thematic ties to Regalia, synergy with Celerity minions and Tempest) Caliber-0. Not even joking, I want Caliber-0 as a Lyonar General.

[polinchi]

Though i really like the idea of more generals in the future, with more BBS and archetypes, i preffer CPG to fix /make viable the currents ones.

ShimZar brought a lot of good and new stuff, while empowering some old ideas. but:
Sajj is only but starting to see play.
Ziran still bottom tier.
Starhorn … well, the only time i play this general is in daily challenges
Kara, in my opinion, still need a fix in her BBs

So yeah, im all in this game expantion, but lets take a look at the present state first.

[deekester]

i don’t think taygete and the huntress are magmar. i don’t read the lore much but i think all of the magmar units are just creatures that live in magaari, not one of the 13 magmar aspects

[deekester]

if you did that as a songhai general, they would need to buff starhorn. no question. that bbs is just better in every way

[thefirstgokun]

Yeah, and a male Abyssian General would have to be a perverted, dangerous life form for lore reasons as well.

Also, @akurane, please please PLEASE make the concept sketches and post them here

[bondish]

I like your ideas exco, I’ll add that I’d like to see a silver lion as a Lyonar General, that’d be cool!

[excogitator]

I would be honoured if you made sketches inspired in some way by these!

[thorrk]

Great topic!

Lyonar:Give ANY character provoke until the start of your next turn.

I don’t know if it will be too good will hollow grovekeeper, but in the dark it might be ok , also the possibilty to give provoke to the general seems interesting.

SonghaiDeal 1 damage to a minion, then deal 0 damage to a minion

As long as it doesn’t deal face damage I am ok with it. I like it because it makes spell damage better.

VetruvianThe next card you draw/ replace into is a copy of target enemy minion. It costs 1 less and has +1/+1

I like the idea, but it might be too strong as it is, either you don’t let the player choose the minion to copy and it will automatically be the last one played or you let the player choose but you remove the cost reduction or the +1+1 bonus.

Abyssian:Deal 3 damage to your general, at the start of your next turn, heal your general by 7

The first BBS I don’t like healing 4 is way too strong IMO even if delayed , also it doesn’t feel very abyssian my suggestion:

Loose 1 life the opponent must discard the last card he drew.

I always wanted to introduce disruption in Duelyst, this BBS is basically a reverse warlock ability.

Magmar:Summon a 0/1 young silithar egg near your general

I love it, just wondering if it would not be too good with the new rebirth rule . Look fine in the dark

VanarReflect the board about the center column. Then, summon a 0/2 bonechill barrier next to your general

I don’t understand sorry ^^. But I like the idea of supporting both vespyr/walls.

[arananthi]

I wanna play, too!

Lyonar:
General: Lucian Ironfist

**BBS:**Dispel the next enemy your General attacks this turn (before damage is dealt).

Songhai:
General: Zanakai Omanand

(Yes, she sits down every time she stops moving.)
**BBS:**Your General is immune to damage from Generals and deals double damage to Generals until the end of your turn.

Vetruvian:
General: Nusar Anteasperian

**BBS:**A nearby friendly minion gains Blast. It dies at the end of your turn.

Abyssian:
General: Bellah Adonai

**BBS:**Replace every card in your Action Bar. (This does not trigger on-Replace effects.) Gain 1 HP per card replaced.

Magmar:
General: Nachetas the Heterodox

**BBS:**Minions in your Action Bar have their casting costs reduced by 1.

Vanar:
General: Aurora Steelgaze

**BBS:**Summon a 1/3 Provoke Vespyr Wall nearby your General.

[akurane]

Alright, so I am not up to date on lore, so these are the design motifs that I am currently settled on for the factions. I tried to design it in a way that would make the gender ratio equal with all factions combined. Feedback and ideas are highly welcomed. I plan on starting the designs at some point tomorrow.

Lyonar
Sense this is the only faction that has a darker skinned general, I’ve been thinking about a dark skinned male general that either uses a Lance and shield, gauntlets, or a reaper/fencing sword. Shields seem to be a trend in Lyonar, so I want to try and include one in the design.

Songhai
The generals are based off of Chinese new year animals (Kaleos is tiger and Reva is dragon), so I was thinking maybe the third would be a brown haired female with either a sheep or rabbit motif. Alternatively, it could be a male based off of dog and have gray hair. they would have some blade as a weapon, but since the other Songhai generations have extra robotic limbs for weapons as well, they would also have some form of unique robotic long for combat add well.

Magmar
Most likely one of the thirteen aspects. I haven’t caught up on lore, so I don’t know the names of the others or which one would be the best to fit this role.

Vetruvian
Not a lot for this, I was thinking of a partial mask, we’re the mask would have a different design on each side. I’m also thinking on being the design on one of the main Egyptian gods, since the faction had an Egyptian theme to it.

Abyssian
I’m thinking of a wraithling like being/male abyssian, with a tortured or scarred look to himself and a violent nature as well. I think this will also fit the BBS design as well .

Vanar
For Vanar, I also had in mind off the idea of a male beast creature for the general. I haven’t decided a lot on this either.

To make the genders an equal 9:9 ratio, 2 of the above generals will be female while the others will be makes. As it stands currently, I will either make Songhai and Vetruvian have female generals or (what will most likely happen) have Songhai and either Vanar or abyssian be female, so that their is both am all male (Magmar) and all female general. Feel free to give your thoughts and opinions, I’ll try to make it resemble @excogitator 's BBS designs as much as possible~

[akurane]

Okay, I have a rough early concept of the Lyonar general. I still need to design the weapon, and I’m currently thinking of giving him more armor and tank like, rather than gladiator like, to make it match his provoke BBS. I’ll upload the Songhai rough sketch soon.

[thefirstgokun]

Already loving it

[akurane]

Songhai general, based on a ram/sheep! I won’t have time to draw the next few rough concepts on my color like the Lyonar one, so expect the rest to be pictures of the sketch from my phone.
@thefirstgokun Thank you for the kind words

She is supposed to have horn like limbs on her back to hold her long sword. He turns can also burn with fire at the tips (possibly as a mark II design).

[thanatos996]

The ones with ‘summon a ___ nearby’ all sound fun.

I particularly like ‘Give ANY character provoke until the start of your next turn,’ although raqyee’s point about the interaction with Grovekeeper is true-- I’d say go for it anyway though, it wouldnt make more people run grovekeeper than already are thanks to kron.

My take:
Lyonar: Move an enemy minion nearby a general two spaces.

I want this to be sort of a parallel to Kaleos, since they’re rival factions. Also, super synergy with sky burial and decimate, both cards that need it. I see the general as a more religious looking person, a nun or a priest.

Songhai: Deal 2 damage to a minion.

Simple inversion of Ziran’s ability. I think making it ‘deal 3 damage’ would be too much, and 1 is just worse than cass. I’d see the general as looking in line with the ranged songhai minions, maybe carrying those giant rings widowmaker has.

Vetruvian: transform an empty tile into a sandstorm tile.
Sandstorm tiles: Friendly minions on this tile may not be attacked. Enemy minions or generals may not pass through it.

I feel like Vet should have a tile effect, and this one suits things like blast a lot and emphazies tactical play. I would expect this to come with a group of cards that synergize with sandstorm tiles. I see the general as being a robotic body (like the others) that is worn and hodgepodge, with a tattered cloak, like it had been in many, many sandstorms.

Abyssian: Give all friendly minions on the board ‘Dying Wish: summon a 1/1 wraithling on this space’ until the start of your next turn.

A power like this could easly be broken, but I wanted something that pushed wraithling synergy in a way different from lilithe that supports swarm playstyles. This makes it much harder to counter a swarming abyssian player, but might overlap niches with lilithe too much. I couldnt think up of a good abyss power

Magmar: Give a friendly minion +1 atk, -1 health. If it dies this turn, summon an egg of that minion in its place.

Straightforward, and fun. Pushes egg synergy something serious. I see the general as being another giant lizard monster, maybe with this one having an egg in its sprite somehow, maybe it sits on an egg, or carries eggs, or is half in an egg, idk.

Vanar: Equip a Vespyr Helm.
Vespyr Helm: Vespyr minions you control gain +1/+1 at the end of your turn.

The Vanar one I kind of wish they’d just replace Kara with… so uh… this general looks a lot like kara…

[ancientmage]

This looks fun.

Lyonar: give a nearby minion +2/-2
Design-wise it would be a knight with a radiant sword similar to sunrisers

Songhai: an enemy minion can’t move next turn.
The kids beholder ability smacked on a general. Would look like an older four winds magi that is floating in a meditative posture.

Vetruvian: restore 2 health to nearby friendly minions, and 1 health to you general per minion healed
Design would be a robed figure with an Egyptian God motiph.

Abyssian: summon a wraithling with rush that dies at the end of your turn
Would look like a royal figure, on a throne carried by wraithlings.

Magyar: turn a friendly minion into an egg, or hatch an egg.
Would look like a robed Molokai huntress

Vanar: summon an 0/2 vesper wall nearby your general.
Would look like an old shaman riding a spirit animal

[thefirstgokun]

Alright guys, I was ruminating over this for a little bit and I think I’ve got something interesting:

Hiziin Sidewinder - Vetruvian General

BBS: Deal 2 damage to all enemies in front of your General.

The BBS is designed with Vet’s Blast positioning games in mind. Your General is expected to stand further back with this ability and position accordingly. Because you can’t Blast in any direction it makes it slightly harder to take advantage of this ability, but in most ways it plays out the same way Faie’s does. Restrict their positioning and force the enemy to lock down your General. Might be overpowered (?), but compared to some of the other ideas I’ve seen here…

This Vetruvian in particular has a slightly weaker Sandshield than the others, but his weaponry is also more advanced. He is particularly better suited for ranged combat, carrying a massive cannon underneath his cloak.

Here’s an early iteration of the sprite:

I realize he looks sort of birdlike, but the design is meant to be more insectoid. The wings on the side would flutter slightly during his idle like beetle wings. I took a lot of the ideas in his design from General Grievous: Underneath the bland cloak, Hiziin Sidewinder is a six armed mechanical menace with a massive cannon. During his attack animation he tosses the cloak back to reveal his inner workings, charges the cannon (beetle wings fully displayed the whole time), fires a blue blast and lets the cloak fall back into place.

Will update in the future with more reference images and hopefully sprite upgrades. Thanks for reading

[atd09]

First thought: Seems REALLY strong, considering you can move your general then use it;

on the other hand if they get behind you it’s useless

Not sure about this one…

Edit: DEFINITELY love the idea tho!