Welcome to the Party – new Adventurer options for Maladum

This packed expansion also adds new rules to let your Adventurers craft powerful new equipment, introduces side quests and hidden locations, new types of Denizen, and new Event cards. We’ve got lots for cover in this article already, so check out part two which covers that exciting new content in detail…

Of Ale and Adventure will be available as an expansion for Maladum: Dungeons of Enveron when it releases. If you are one of our Kickstarter backers then it’ll be included in the Kickstarter version of the game.

New faces

Eight Characters are included in the Ale and Adventure expansion, five humans, plus an Eld, a Dwella, and a Tregar.  Each comes with our usual reversible Character Board, so that you can add them to your party or use mix up your pool of Denizens by using them as an extra NPC.

Ariah (Human)

Artain (Human)

Brahm (Human)

Emmerik (Human)

Galen (Eld)

Hendley (Dwella)

Kriga (Human)

Unger (Tregar)

Smash your foes with Kriga

As with the Characters in the core set, each comes with their own strengths, weaknesses, and innate abilities. For example, the formidable Kriga comes with a stack of Health and Skill pegs to help her stay in the fight, and the Relentless ability to smash her way through stubborn foes.  On the other hand, she starts with just one Magic peg and can only upgrade this to three, making her less optimal as a traditional spellcaster.   

Maladum is a versatile resource though, so those Magic pegs will still come in handy, especially if you pair her with the new Class Board that is tailormade for her – the Contender Class.  In addition to skills like Acrobat and Weapon Master that let her hit hard and stay mobile, she can also get an edge by spending Magic pegs to gain additional dice on her attacks through the Channel ability or to cast Hyper Awareness to get an extra action when she needs it.  She also gains access to some of the new skills included in this expansion. For example, the Bombast skill helps your party to earn renown to reflect the fact that she has a personality that is as powerful as she is.

Support your party with Artain

In contrast, Artain is a little less durable, but has a greater pool of Magic pegs. She also has the new Entertainer skill. This allows you to buff your party, for example by removing Fatigue counters, or blessing party members at the cost of increasing the Dread level (you’d be surprised how far away you can hear a lute in a dungeon). When you combine this with the Eudaemon class you get an Adventurer that can support the rest of the party with spells that remove negative effects, and also use magic to boost her own abilities to make herself faster or better protected. As she levels up she can even pick up the versatile Malacyte Aura spell. This allows spells that she can normally only cast on herself to affect adjacent friends, like using her magical armour to take hits for them. This would make her great as a support style Adventurer that can also keep herself out of trouble.

Townsfolk Skills

Speaking of new skills, in addition to Bombast and Entertainer that we’ve mention already, this expansion adds five more to let you play new kinds of Adventurer. 

Herbalism allows you to benefit more from the herbs and fungus that you gather, and lets you create potions and poisons. Loremaster lets you level up certain skills of your party members, and also increases the chances of finding Hidden Locations or Rare items. Blacksmith lets you repair broken items, and to craft new ones more easily. Tactical Gift is another support skill that lets you improve the mobility of your other party members, or to be more effective in combat when they are working together.

Finally, fate leads some people into a life of adventure (often reluctantly) whether they are cut out for it or not. Fortunately, the Lady likes to give the underdog a fighting chance. This is represented by the Unlikely Hero skill which lets the Adventurer use their seemingly mundane skills to aid the party –  even if that is just an ability to start running away before they even realise they are in danger. In game this means that the Adventurer will not be targeted by enemies if other targets are available, can spend Renown as if it was a Skill peg, or to make a lucky strike – or avoid one – at the cost of drawing an Event card.  

New Classes

In addition to having some Class Boards that you’ll be familiar with from the core game, this expansion adds lots more options. This includes the Paladin which combines combat proficiency through skills like Weapon Master and Impervious, with spells and skills to support the rest of the party like the Inspiring skill or Calm spell.

Characters with the Swindler Class honed their dexterity and charisma running cons and scams, but those same skills can give your party the edge when you’re on a quest. For example, their Distraction skill lets them add Fatigue to their foes and move them to somewhere more convenient to the party, while their gift of the gab is represented by the Bombast skill. The Swindler’s old habits die hard too, so the Class comes with the Plunderer ability and Light Fingers skill to help you to relieve unsuspecting Denizens of their property. Finally, when their mundane skills fail, they can turn to the Illusion spell to distract their enemies long enough to get away or pick up just one more bit of loot. If you fancy keeping your foes on the back foot, and letting other Characters do some of the dangerous work of searching the dungeon for you, then the Swindler might be for you.

Character Building

As with the core game, even though some Adventurers are a more natural fit for a Class, you get to decide which they have. If you want Kriga to be an unusually tough spellcaster, you can. If that’s not enough flexibility for you, how about the ability to create Adventurers from scratch?  

This expansion gives you the tools to build an Adventurer to your own taste, perhaps to match a miniature in your collection, or that takes inspiration from your favourite game or TV show. It guides you through the process of setting their starting stats, setting up their career path, and selecting their innate abilities. Pair your custom Character with a Class and you’re ready to play.

An online tool for character creation was unlocked during the Kickstarter to make this even easier. That will be available once the game launches, so follow us to be notified when that goes live.

Dynamic Denizens

This flexibility doesn’t stop with Adventurers, as the expansion also comes with some tips for creating your own Denizens. Before you get carried away, don’t forget that Denizens can be hostile when they arrive!

As you can see, Ale and Adventure provides you with a host of exciting new options for who you can add to your party, the types of roles they can play, and the skills that they have available to them. But this is only a part of the story, read part 2 of our deep dive into the expansion to unpack the interesting new gameplay features that it adds, such as crafting new gear and hidden locations…