Playable Races Deep Dive Pt. 3: Mahorii & Athak-uul

Vrahode is a world teeming with life and full of creatures and characters that you've never seen before in any fantasy world.

But what does that actually mean in practice?

This is part 3 of a 5-part deep dive into the playable races of Vrahode. We'll be talking about the Mahorii and Athak-uul, the smallest warriors in the world of Vrahode!

Vrahode will be coming to Kickstarter most likely in quarter one of 2024. When that campaign goes live, you will not only be able to buy the core game, Vrahode: The Calteeryn Ascension, but its three expansions as well.

 Trailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy5rapu8Dd4

Learn more about Vrahode on the website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.     

Transcript

Jeff Irving: My name is Jeff Irving and this is the Vrahode Tavern podcast. I am the creator of the Vrahode Game System. And in this podcast, we're going to do a deep dive into the lore and gameplay of Vrahode. I'm joined by Brandon Rollins, who will be acting as a stand in for you, asking many of the questions you might be curious about yourself.

Brandon, what are we talking about today? 

Brandon Rollins: All right. So this is the third of five episodes in which we're doing a deep dive into the crafted races of Vrahode.

Now there's 10 of them in total. We've already done two episodes. We're going to do another two after this, which makes this the, uh, of course, the third of five. In this one, we're going to be covering the Mahorii and the Athak-uul. So these are both really interesting ones to talk about at length, especially the Athak-uul. So I think this is going to be a good one.

Jeff Irving: Yeah, I agree. I really like these races.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. You've already spoken about your affinity for the Athak-uul and how much play that in the campaign.

Jeff Irving: Oh, I just, I absolutely love, I love this idea of these kind of little, almost vampiric looking creatures being heroes. I just, there's something really, really fun about that.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. It's a clever subversion of what you would normally expect.

Jeff Irving: I mean, not that I don't love the Mahorii too, I mean, I kind of think of the Athak-uul as these little like gremlins, almost like, like, you know, cave dwelling gremlins. And I think of the Mahorii almost like these kind of savant children. I mean, they're these little bitty kid looking things kind of, but they're so intensely savage by virtue of how they live.

It's, I don't know. They're, they're both kind of cool. I love them both.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. And I think, in terms of how to do this particular episode and the ones to follow, I think it would be smart to actually read off the cards before we do a deep dive into each of them. Just so that we start with that basic info and then go from there. 

What do you think?

Mahorii description and pregenerated characters

Brandon Rollins: So let's uh, yeah, let's start with the Mahorii.

So, what's the description from the card?

Jeff Irving: Okay, it says, many had scoured the deep forests of Duwora before it was known that a people dwelled there. Had they never revealed themselves, the inhabitants of Akhana Village might remain a secret still. Diminutive and lithe, the Mahorii spend their lives among the limbs.

They watch over their kin, the animals, to whom they are connected by the spirit of the forest. But there is another whom they worship above all, a fickle one. A dangerous one called the great spirit, Brask Sharga.

Brandon Rollins: That's already a really interesting hook.

Jeff Irving: I know I'm like, I want to know more. Who's this Brask Sharga?

Brandon Rollins: Yeah. And I've seen the, I've seen the art of it, but I'm curious how that, um, how that's going to link in here. So you, you've got, of course, each individual crafted race has two pre generated heroes. So who do we have for the Mahorii?

Jeff Irving: Okay. So Mahorii. All right. So, um, let's start with Mapali. Uh, Mapali is our Warden. He is the male pre generated hero from the Mahorii and our warden role in Vrahode is a very similar to the hunters of say World of Warcraft. It is a role where you do well with a bow and to attack from distance so that you can remain out of the fray and maintain control of your pet.

So, Mapali is able to, his main skill is Bestial Mastery. It costs him half of his ruhl for the day to do it, but it allows him to tame an enemy, uh, that has left less life than himself. For the day. So, um, you know, he gets up in the morning. If they go into battle, he's probably going to try to tame one of the enemies that he's fighting.

And then he's going to keep that enemy under his control for the day unless he chooses to release it and do it again, but the cost to do it is expensive. And so he's likely to keep that tamed enemy for the day. There are, there are exemptions to this powerful skill.

In other words, if we come up against, uh, something that has a defined race, like, for example, a Ju'Airne, he will not be able to tame a Ju'Airne enemy, nor will he be able to tame mythic, um, or legendary creatures, or ocean creatures.

And then of course, having a pet is really cool and fun in battle. We limit the number of wardens in play to one. There will never be more than one warden in a party, because if you allow more than one, uh, warden, then you end up with lots of extra pieces on the board that get cumbersome for all players concerned.

So if you're playing the warden, you will be the only warden in your group.

Brandon Rollins: There's a rich history of, as you called it, pet classes in other games like this, right?

Jeff Irving: Oh yeah, definitely. And it's just for us, since everybody in, in the world of Vrahode, all heroes are in a sense, casters, um, you get, to me, you get the fun of the casting classes and you get the fun of the more melee oriented classes from other games, but you actually, it's all baked in, it's all baked into each hero.

And like, I always, I always despised fighter warrior classes. I just hated them. I thought they were so two dimensional, so boring, but in Vrahode. They're, to me, they're one of the most interesting type of heroes because they're, not only are they great in melee, they can wear the best armor, but they're also able to cast and enhance, um, enhance their, their attacks through their particularly brutal melee.

Um, deck, which is the body deck. Um, the way we offset that to make the, those classes not be too powerful is that whenever you're specifically targeting enemies, um, let's say you've imbued a sword with, with magic to make it better, well, you still have to have a success role to be able to, to land that, to be able to land that strike on an enemy.

And so that's how we offset that. If you're not using melee attacks, you're using things that are less targeted, um, then the chances of that damage being automatic are there. So it's, it's, it's definitely a delicate balancing act.

Let's see, let's, let's talk real quick about the warden. His, his focus is. The highest, his focus ability. And that's where he's going to be focused on, uh, no pun intended, his ranged abilities with his bow. And he's got a 10 in presence, which is giving him the mental capacity to control that pet for the day.

So that's, that's his stats. His movement is seven. So very mobile. His life is a little lower, uh, again, because he's a diminutive race and he's also not a big melee attacker. Um, he's going to start with a bow, a simple short bow, some leather armor, and some food. Um, his skills are, um, in focus, forked tongue arrows and void mantra.

Um, and his presence, uh, skill, which we talked about is his Bestial Mastery, his ability to tame enemies. And then as far as his role restrictions, he's limited to fine chain armor or less. So he's not a melee attacker, so he's not going to be wearing the heavy armor that slows him, is going to slow him down.

He doesn't want that. So that's the, that's the warden. Uh, do you want to talk about the, the other, uh, pre gen?

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, let's go ahead and get into the other one.

Jeff Irving: And this is one that you've played. So, so it's Corive the Syrin. What do you think about? 

Brandon Rollins: Mm hmm. A fan favorite so far from the early demos.

Jeff Irving: Yeah. So Corive is, uh, she's a Syrin, which means she has some, uh, a power to enchant or control the battlefield with her voice through her singing.

And, and so, um, that is, is pretty cool. Again, she's a Mahorii, so she's only got 13 life to start, but she's mobile with seven movement. Um, she starts out with a stone spear. Um, some rusty chain mail and some bandages, um, her skills, um, in presence, uh, which is her primary stat. She's basically a single stat, uh, hero.

So, so presence is a 12. She's got a really high presence because she, she does a lot to influence the minds of others with her voice. And so she's got the Confused Allegiance, um, skill, which is brilliant. It's a little bit pricey, uh, but it causes one enemy to attack an enemy closest to it for two rounds, um, it's indispensable, especially when you're fighting large numbers of enemies to be able to turn an enemy and get them on your side for a couple rounds is invaluable.

She has an ability called Aura of Adoration, which will make the enemies, uh, think of her as a friend for a bit. And then she has another one called battle hymn. This is a buff debuff. Um, so she's able to buff, uh, come up, come up behind the front line, sit down, begin seeing and, um, buff her, her friends and debuff the enemies.

Um, and so she's only going to wear chain armor or less. Um, but she's not one to be up in melee. She's just, it's just not her thing much. Like she can come up and do one attack. Um, and then she's going to back, back up so she can sing because when she gets her voice going is when she helps the party the most.

Brandon Rollins: Mm. And that, that ability, the Confused Allegiance, is, um, that's a really powerful one to have. Just, like, cause often you'll have a situation where you really just have two enemies out there, and if you've got one attacking the other, I mean, it's like, you're dealing with two problems at once, and that's fantastic.

Jeff Irving: Yeah, now that's going to enlarge your parties. Uh, I mean, obviously, um, if you've only got two enemies, but when you've got larger groups of enemies, um, it, it may not, it's not quite as potent to turn one against another, but it still really helps.

Where do the Mahorii live?

Brandon Rollins: So, where, where do they live? The Mahorii.

Jeff Irving: Well, they're, they're the most, um, isolated race of all the races. They live on Duwora, which is the tailward, most, um, island of Vrahode and one of the main reasons why they're so isolated is because they don't possess a world stone. There's three world stones known in existence, and two of them are on the main Island of Renduur and one of them is located on the island of Prahaar, which is leafward on the map, if you're looking, but unfortunately, Duwora does not possess a world stone. And so getting there requires that you are able to hail a ship and sail over there to Duwora. So, because of that, there's not been a lot of interaction with the Mahorii.

The Mahorii are pretty much unknown to the other races.

Brandon Rollins: Has that affected their own culture?

Jeff Irving: It is. It, well, it's just, they're, their culture is so different anyway. Um, just because they are, are, they're raised in a very, very dangerous tropical, you know, climate full of top tier predators. In their, in combat, they can emulate what they've seen these top tier predators do as they hunt, which I think is really, really cool. It also is one of the main reasons why you might choose one of the, uh, the Mahorii to be your, your hero, whether you're playing a pregen hero or you're making a custom hero is.

One of their racial abilities, and we'll get to that.

Brandon Rollins: Hmm. Sure. So, before we get into their abilities, what are their traits?

Jeff Irving: These diminutive people are used to living deep within these tropical forests on the Island of Duwora. And so they have minus one skill rolls on ocean battles. They are not at home on the ocean. They do not like it. So they're, they're, they're going to have a look. They're going to struggle a little bit on ocean, uh, ocean battles.

Um, they have plus one movement in forest battles. So they're going to get around quicker because they're so used to navigating these thick forests that they live in on Duwara and, and like. All above ground, uh, races in Vrahode, they have a minus one on their rolls in Underland battles, which can be easily mitigated as long as one person in the party has a light source, whether that be a torch or, or a lantern or some other form of item that generates even a little bit of light, then everybody can at least have some reference to what's around them.

Mahorii abilities and restrictionsz

Brandon Rollins: That makes sense. I think this is where they really shine, is their abilities.

Jeff Irving: Yeah.

Brandon Rollins: So let's talk about that.

Jeff Irving: Okay. So they've got two racial abilities, just like every other race. Um, these are abilities that can be used without costing you any ruhl because you get these abilities by virtue of being this given race. And so the first ability is, is very popular. People love using it. I had to gank it a little bit because it was too powerful.

Um, and so now we have it in line with, with everything else in the, um, in the game. So, basically, the first one is called Feral Kinship. And this he allows this hero to utilize any present enemy actions once per Overland battle. And while that may not seem like that big a deal, okay, let's say I'm in a party and I'm fighting a Niveus Adder, that's a snake, and its action, which is its most powerful attack, is called venomous fangs, okay, which is going to do, say, base five plus a poison effect.

Okay. Well, because the Mahorii have spent their entire lives watching top tier predators and emulating their actions in order to make their hunts successful. Well, I can do that action. I can do venomous fangs. As long as that enemy is in play in the battle, I can use it. Not just against that enemy, but I can use that snakes attack against another enemy.

Uh, and so I'm going to be able to do base damage plus a poison effect on somebody. And that, that can be any action of any enemy present in the battle. So major, major ability to use. The second racial ability they have is called Corrupted Wounds. So this is going to add a poison effect to successful melee attacks this battle.

So, so instead of let's say the, um, for example, they have energetic assault that adds shock damage to their, to their weapons that cannot be mitigated, right? The corrupted wounds is going to add poison effect to successful melee attacks, this battle for a Mahorii. Now, if someone's immune to poison, it's not going to get through, but not, you know.

Enemies in almost every case are not going to be immune to poison unless you're talking about maybe a legendary creature or something.

Brandon Rollins: Now, I mean, these abilities are pretty remarkable. Like there's a lot of different uses of them on the battlefield.

Jeff Irving: Yeah. And it's mostly offensive. You'll notice it's not real defensive. They're about, they're about copying top tier predators and doing odd types of damage because of the way they've been brought up.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, they're pretty aggressive.

Jeff Irving: Yeah. 

Brandon Rollins: So with that in mind, where, where do they fall short? What are their restrictions?

Jeff Irving: They're low on life, so the Mahorii only start with 13 life, so that's pretty, that's pretty delicate, you know, um, and the other thing is, let me go back to the Mahorii, again, you're going to notice here, um, under their racial restrictions, they cannot use heavy weapons because they're just too, they're just too small to be able to wield those heavy weapons, um, and you'll also note that under their racial traits, there's no immunities like they're not immune to poison. They're not immune to something.

So, so that's, that's a little bit, this is, I'll put it this way to me, this race is really well suited to a shadow build. Okay. The shadow is our kind of our thief antecedent and thieves are more in role playing games and in video games and stuff.

They tend to be more about damage output and a little bit less about defense. And I would say that if I'm going to do a custom build. With a Mahorii, the first one I would try is a shadow Mahorii, because I'm going to want to try those thief type abilities, um, because they're so offensive. They're so offensive in their skills that it would help a thief build.

So, I know we've talked about cus, or, you know, in the past, we talked about what custom builds might work. That's the first one, that's the first one that comes to mind for me. 

Brandon Rollins: So when you're, when you're stealing an ability. You're going to steal it from whatever enemy you're going up against, which is going to be whatever spawns in a given region. Now, these enemies, their abilities, are they based on the regions that they are likely to spawn in?

Like, for example, if you have a Plains Shrike and it tends to spawn in the plains, does that mean you're going to naturally end up stealing an ability that is more useful on the plains?

Jeff Irving: Okay. I would say in a very subtle sense maybe, but most of the time it's going to be an enemy's actions are going to be more based on its own physiology, its own, just its own makeup. For example, birds, a lot of times when we're coming up, like you mentioned a plane strike. Well, it's going to have the plane strike is going to have an ability called Razor Beak.

So it's going to bite, but it's got this extremely sharp beak. So that when it does bite you, it does damage, but it also causes a bleed effect. So I would say that when you're emulating enemy skills or actions, a lot of times you're going to be, you're going to be mimicking the physiology as opposed to... For example, we've got a group of enemy types that exist in the plains. Well, I would say this, I would say the likelihood of an enemy in the plains, having the action of charging would be more common, right? Cause they're, they're living in open spaces where they're able to charge.

So sometimes I would say sometimes that's possible, but it's more, I would say it's more based on the physiology of the enemy than it would be where they live.

Brandon Rollins: Okay.

Jeff Irving: That...

Brandon Rollins: interesting. These guys are, are, it does help. These guys are, they're the classic low defense, high offense kind of character, it... 

Jeff Irving: yeah. And what would be, what would be better for, for, uh, you know, a low defense, high offense than a shadow build, you know, someone that can move silently, someone who can't stand toe to toe, but is easily going to be able to sneak in, do that special kind of damage and then get out. Only, the Athak-uul are better suited, the shadow role than the Mahorii. So, so that's going to be, I think that's going to be a custom one that I play early on when I'm, when I'm rolling up a custom hero is going to be that.

Brandon Rollins: Now, which environments do you think they're going to do best in?

Jeff Irving: Well, forests, I mean, these guys, yeah, cause see, you know, the Mynoc get plus one to their skill rolls in forest. The Toreln, they get plus one mitigation. So they're better protected in the forests. Well, the Mahorii get plus one movement in forest battles, so they're even more mobile. So again, that kind of speaks to this idea that a shadow build might be just dead on.

Athak-uul description

Brandon Rollins: On the whole other hand, we've got the Athak-uul, who I know you're looking forward to playing a lot. Let's just start with the straightforward description right off the card.

And then we can get into pre gen heroes. 

Jeff Irving: All right, let me find it. Okay, here we go. Gone are the bloodiest days of the Athak-uul, when only the bravest crossed the Howling Mesa without fear of these Shadow Dwellers traps. Now, many speak of a new era, a new Brood General with more interest in trade and diplomacy than glory and gore.

But the wary traveler still takes care before the throne of Lynhilth Hold. For there is a deep dungeon there called the Cut. And the Cut, they say, is always hungry. So that's, yeah, it's, it's a neat society. It's a really neat society. Um, I would say of all the race, you know, of all the races on Vrahode, the one that has the most self loathing is the Athak-uul. They hate each other. They just, they just, they don't trust each other. And in fact, when Athak-uul, um, heroes are traveling with other races, they trust them more than their own kind because they know how conniving they are.

Brandon Rollins: That is such a strange...

Jeff Irving: isn't it?

Brandon Rollins: society. Mm hmm.

Jeff Irving: Well, I consider the Athak-uul, uh, not an antecedent, but similar to the Drow Elves of D&D. Um, you know, they've got, uh. They're just, it's a very stratified, classified, divided society, you know, full of mistrust and suspicion. So...

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, now, where do they live, exactly?

Jeff Irving: Okay, well, if you, if you're, um, able to look at the map with anybody can bring up the map, um, on the website. Uh, under world, the world tab, you can bring up the Overland map. And if you look to the stormward side of Renduur or the main island of, uh, of Vrahode, you'll see a huge expanse of deserts and badlands.

And so, uh, on the tailward end of that, of that desert called the Saheer Reaches, we have the Howling Mesa and Linhilth Hold is their home village. And it exists under the Howling Mesa. And so. Um, yeah, so you're going to find them over there. And the thing that's really nice about, um, this secretive race, uh, subterranean race is they have a world stone at, at their, at the ready, at their, at very close by where they live.

And so if they wanted to travel the world stone elsewhere, um, to other world stones, they are able to do that without being detected. So that's nice.

Athak-uul restrictions and traits

Jeff Irving: So we, you want to talk about their, their, um, racial restrictions and traits?

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, let's get into traits, restrictions, and then I think conclude with abilities, because I think that's gonna be best.

Jeff Irving: Okay. Um, well on again, uh, short diminutive races like the Athak-uul and the Mahorii, um, are not expected to use heavy weapons because they just, it's too much for these small races to, to wield effectively and, and even long weapons for the Mahorii are prohibited. So if you're a Mahorii, you will not be using any, uh, long or heavy weapons at all.

Um, trait wise, one of the, I think one of the, um, the, the biggest things about the Athak-uul is that they're short flyers. They're the only race that is able to fly. Um, and what does it mean to be a short flyer? Well, it just means that if you are. If you have to cross difficult terrain or if you have to cross deep water, um, as long as you can cross that in your movement rate, it doesn't affect you at all because you're not touching that terrain.

You're over it. Um, so I think it's, I think it makes the ethical race extremely versatile, uh, to be able to be short flyers. Um, and I think it's a, it's such a huge and versatile benefit that. You know, it definitely offsets any negatives about the Athak-uul. Um, they have minus one fatigue when they are hit with a bleed effect.

So if an enemy puts a bleed effect on an Athak-uul, they actually enjoy it. Um, they do. They love blood. They love gore. And to them, the only proper battlefield is one that is entirely red. And so, so when something hits them with a bleed effect, they're still going to suffer the consequences, the damage of the bleed effect, but their fatigue will go down 1.

There is no darkness penalty for the Athak-uul because they are used to complete darkness. Their eyes are, um, extremely sensitive to light. And therefore their movement is at minus one in the overlands. So when they are above ground, they move a little slower because it's hard for them to see.

And so they have to take a little more care as they pick their way along. Um, so that's the racial traits. Um, I'm a big fan of the racial abilities of the Athak-uul. Their first racial ability is called Shadow Mastery, and they have the ability to kind of wrap themselves in shadows, giving them plus one mitigation for under land battles.

And so that's nice. It's just a little buff that they can, because they know the dark and the shadows so well. Um, their second racial ability is called Gore Fest. And again, they love blood, um, Gore Fest, it's going to add bleed effects to their successful melee attacks, um, for the entire battle. So they're going to hang that Gore Fest, um, on, put it on and then any weapons that they use in melee that are any hits that are successful, we'll add a bleed effect. So lots of fun and unsavory. 

Brandon Rollins: Yes. Oh, definitely. What a dark and strange creature.

Athak-uul pregenerated heroes

Jeff Irving: Oh, they are. They're bizarre. Look, we, we haven't even talked about the pre gen heroes for these guys.

Brandon Rollins: Okay, okay, let's get into the pregen heroes.

Jeff Irving: Okay. So, um, the first pre gen hero we're going to talk about is Grendlem and he is a shadow, which is our thief antecedent. Um, one of the things that's most important is that the life total, the max life, starting life for Athak-uuls is the lowest of all the, all the races. They only have 12. So they're even less than the Mahorii, um, their movement is seven and keep in mind that movement of seven is not just on the ground.

It's also in the air. Okay. So Grendlem is going to start with a stone dagger, leather armor and lock picks. Um, his main skill is focus. And so he is going to focus on his skills are that he starts with our inner workings and that allows him to have a really, really big benefit on his focus rolls to unlock doors.

Um, and, and things like that. Oh, and to disarm traps. So, um, whenever we run into doors that we need to unlock. Traps we need to disarm, um, the inner working skill is invaluable. I think it's a plus six to your focus rolls. So it's massive. Um, he also has a Gloom Cloak skill, which enables him to, to become invisible for a certain amount of time at a, as long as he doesn't move very quickly or attack, um, it's only effective in the underlands though, because he is employing the help of the shadows and the darkness around him to become invisible.

And the darkness is complete there. Um, and then he also has a skill called Bloodlust. Um, Bloodlust is another blood oriented battle skill. I think that one is going to give him, um, ah, I know what it is. Okay. The way Bloodlust works is, uh, kind of like to get hurt a little bit. They're a little sadistic.

And, but when he is successfully attacked in a battle. So he, he, he uses his Bloodlust skill and then for the rest of the battle every time he is successfully hit, his next attack adds a two X bleed effect. So not just a bleed effect, it's two X. So instead of doing one point of bleed damage for the next three rounds, he does two points of bleed damage for the next three rounds.

And so his desire to paint the battlefield red, um, he's going a long way to that with his combination of skills. Um, and then again, we talked about, um, role restrictions and the fact that, um, whenever you're not, not playing a hero that is a frontline hero, they, they wear lighter armor and, um, Grendlem is able to wear fancy studded armor or less, nothing.

He can't wear any chain, banded or plates. 

So he's a little vulnerable, but for example, if he could cast Gloom Cloak, then he could attack from being invisible and then fly away the next round. So, so you can see that his ability to get in and out undetected and to do serious damage is always there. Okay.

And then let's talk about, I want to talk about Drista. Drista is, um, another one that people have enjoyed playing in demos and she is our spark. And what does that mean? She is the antecedent of a, a mage or a wizard. And so Drista is going to be doing direct damage from a distance. Um, her life is 12.

She's delicate. Her movement is seven, but she can also fly and her, she's a one skill. Um, primarily a one skill hero and it's mind. Um, she starts with a stone dagger, cloth, armor, and food. And she has three mind skills, Armor of Ruhl. That lets her buff her defenses with magic. She has one called Concussive Blast.

This Concussive Blast is a way for her to do damage to all enemies within an area. Really nice ability. And then she has the ability to sleep enemies. So she can put enemies to sleep. Which is great crowd control. And that's what we count on our magic users in, in any party to do is crowd control and direct damage for us.

She can only wear fancy studded leather armor or less. And, um, obviously her, her racial restrictions are about no heavy or long weapons, right?

So that, that's, that's basically it. Um, I love both Drista. I love Grendlem. I think Grendlem is probably one that's been nearest and dearest to my heart as I've created the 12 initial pregenerated hero. But what I have to tell you is this, I pulled out all the stops for the remaining four crafted races that don't join the battle to save Vrahode until the second expansion.

And I'm really excited to not only talk about the races. And the, the peculiarities in particulars of those races. I'm also really excited to talk to you about the roles that I created for these late comers to the battle. Um, and I think fans will be excited, uh, to

Brandon Rollins: hmm. Mm

Jeff Irving: play them. One of the things that's cool is, a neat wrinkle in these last two podcasts that we're getting ready to do on these last four races is that the pregenerated heroes.

Okay, for the, um, the last four races start with the gear and the life and the stat points and everything so that they're ready to start playing at that point in the story arc. In other words, all of their stats have been bumped up. Their life has been bumped up. Their gear has been bumped up because you can begin to play those in the story right there without feeling like they're at a disadvantage.

Okay. But the the custom, the custom heroes of those last four races are just like the custom heroes in the core box. They start with the base life of that hero based on their race. They start with the base stats. They start with starting gear. They start with the, with three skills that we. Uh, no, no, no, no, the skills you get to pick the skills and the stats.

No, the only thing, yeah, the life, that's what it is. The life starts out at base. So in other words, if you buy the whole, if you buy the, um, the all in, you can take, let's say a Greenleng hero or a Toreln hero. And play it in the core box and start out just like everybody else. Okay. But you only get the ability to play those four races.

If you're, if you've bought expansion to be aware of that. So, so if you, if let's say I bought the all in, don't forget that you have access to play the additional four crafted races from the very beginning of the storyline. 

Brandon Rollins: Now, I want to learn more about that because that's actually totally new to me because that's a relatively recent addition.

Jeff Irving: Oh yeah, no, you can, we can talk about the same topics to make sure everybody understands the roles and the races, but, but it'll be neat because I don't think, you know, much about these.

Brandon Rollins: No, not at all.

Why choose Athak-uul?

Brandon Rollins: One quick thing, did we cover when you might want to play a custom Athak-uul?

Jeff Irving: No, we didn't. And I would say this, if I'm looking at the Athak-uul, the best thing to do is, you know, you want to look at the back of their card. Okay, so you, you look at it this way, no longer heavy weapons. All right. So, you know, that long weapons provide a little bit of protection, a little mitigation.

So, you know, that the Athak-uul are not going to be good frontline fighters, right? They're not, they're just a little more delicate than that. Their life is a little bit less. Um, these are going to be, if I want to play an Athak-uul to me, it's about mobility, it's about advantage in under lands and it's about just this.

It's yeah. If you just like the unsavory kind of characters, the Athak-uul is amazing. And I mean, the Mahorii. You know, we talked about the Mahorii to me when you, you want to play a Mahorii because you can emulate an enemy, you know, that, that racial ability to be able to do what the enemies can do, especially in a tough situation, I think that's, I think that's invaluable.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, that seems like that would come in handy and it would also just inject quite a bit of variety too. Make you a very interesting character to have in a party.

Jeff Irving: Yeah. All the races play different differently. I like, I like the differences. And I like that, you know, a lot of the restrictions are more role based. So if you take a, you know, if you take an Athak-uul and you create one, that's more of a, of a warrior, I think you think you're so, okay, well, his health, his life is lower as a warrior, which is dangerous to have him up there, right, but he's got other things that can kind of help protect him.

You know, this idea that fatigue goes down when he's hit with a bleed effect, that's a positive. I don't know. And then I would say he'd be a great underlands warrior, you know, an underlands warrior build because you're getting that plus mitigation, uh, through that racial ability of Shadow Mastery. 

I'll be honest with you. I'm really excited to see what people do with custom builds because, because this, this game system is designed to give players way more freedom than a lot of the ones that try to lock you in to a, to a particular build as you advance, we give you three predefined skills.

If you're playing a pregen hero from there, where you take it is up to you. It's totally up to you.

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and I think that the further along we get in testing, the more that we're going to see people use characters and custom characters, in particular, in ways that we could have just never, never seen coming.

Jeff Irving: I think the biggest, the biggest thing that I am still wanting to kind of make sure that we get perfect is. Because there's so much writing on your primary stat in, in, in our game system, you know, your, your physical attacks, um, you know, when you have to make skill rolls, sometimes they're against your primary stat is that that primary stat. And be, you know, it's, it advances as you, as you gain rewards in the game, but I don't want it to be, I don't want it to advance too quickly where it causes imbalance. And that's one of the things we'll be looking at here towards the end is making sure that there's nothing, there's nothing that can advance too quickly.

Brandon Rollins: Absolutely. I think with that in mind, is there anything else you want to cover about these two?

Jeff Irving: No, I just, I love them. Don't be afraid of playing these little races. They're fun. They're different. Um, they have really cool uniqueness to them. That is, is, is a blast to play. And everybody that's done the demos says the same thing. They just, they love these guys. And, um, I think you guys will too.

Brandon Rollins: Awesome. So I think with that in mind, next time we will cover the Sahrhune and the Ju'Airne, which are both relatively new additions that are unlockable in expansion two.

Jeff Irving: Yep. Sounds good. 

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