I'm glad you like the sword
.
You are right, your wording with Such Malice counts every
condition on a companion, regardless of who bears more. But my point is that you can pile up many conditions on the same guy, and actually
Men conditions don't have a limit so you can pile up to 4x on the same guy (
Desertion,
Banished,
Leechcraft,
Rohan is Mine,
Wounded; there's also
Many Riddles if you pack some Uruk Trackers; those are 6*4 = up to 24 conditions!), and that isn't in the line of "promoting discordance amongst the fellowship". So my idea was to spread the conditions to reflect that discordance.
How would you word it to achieve that effect?
Perhaps something like this: "Grima is strength +X, while X is the highest number of
conditions borne by the same companion". That wording might be useful for a condition or event to support him. Or to support any
Man of
Wizard.
Concerning the line, I like the inclusion of Saruman in the picture, but shouldn't it say wizard? Otherwise Gandalf's strength can't be reduced by the conditions, which gives another dynamic like Throne of Isengard being a double-edged sword. Or was that the whole point?
You are right, it should be "
Wizard".
Men Will Fall too wouldn't be able to reduce Gandhi's strength. No, that wasn't my intention. But Gandalf and the Ents should be able to counter Saruman, they were above the reach of his
treachery. But the
Throne of Isengard will still be a double-edged sword, as was meant to be from the beginning by Decipher itself.
I'd love to see some
spell events portraying the Duel of Wizards at Orthanc. An
event to reduce strength, called perhaps "telekinesis" or so, struggling with Gandalf's
Servant of the Secret Fire...
• An Already Troubled Mind,
Condition • Support Area
Each time you play an Man, add a threat. Each card that plays on a Free Peoples Man may be played on any companion (Except the Ring-Bearer).
"Late is the hour in which this conjurer chooses to appear. ‘Lathspell' I name him. Ill news is an ill guest.
Rare
I like this condition.
Men jumping into the wagon of threats!
That will be very destructive given their exerting power. And the point of making
conditions bearable by any race is pretty good, makes those otherwise meta-useless cards into factible tools to silence the annoying skills of
Manager of Wizards,
Lady Redeemed,
Greenleaf... even
Feared Axeman. But Ket is right when saying
"Saruman didn't have anything over the Elves and the Dwarven peoples weren't even in his radar."So to balance both things, I'd make Saruman strain a bit more to extend his arm towards the other races:
An Already Troubled Mind
Condition • Support Area
Shadow: Play an
Man to add a threat.
Shadow: Remove 2 threats to play an
card that plays on a Free Peoples Man on any companion instead (
except an Ent or the Ring-bearer).
If the first part is changed from passive to active, you can make this a non-unique condition as the effect won't accumulate (and will be much shorter by the way, which saves 1 card line if you ever turn these DCs into card images). Being non-unique, you don't need to worry so much about being discarded.
The second skill was too powerful without a cost IMO. To remove 2 threats can correct that problem, and by the way give use to threats in the
Men subculture (alternatively, an exertion might do). The exceptions are the Ringbearer as you stated, and Ents given their remoteness to the affairs of power and the troubles of other races (and later their aversion to the "Tree-Killer" blocks any influence on them). Besides, blocking the use of the Assignment ability of Unhasty Ents ("discard 2 cards or exert an UB Hobbit...") will destroy them too easily, and their only condition removal in Movie Block (
Crack Into Rubble) is insufficient at most.
Don't know if
Leechcraft should act on non-RB Sam, preventing him from taking the Ring if Frodo dies. In respect of RB companions, there are only 3 Hobbits, Smeagol and a lot of Men. Men are Decipher's original target. So in case you change "on
any companion instead (except the Ringbearer)" to "on any
unbound companion", that leaves only Smeagol and 3 Hobbits as Ringbound companions that won't bear those conditions by any means.