Greetings Adventurers!
Welcome to another in our series of articles that looks at party composition.
Today we are going to be building a somewhat unconventional party of four Maladaar.
Why go full Maladaar?
Using magic in Maladum comes with risks. Casting spells increases the Dread tracker which can make a Quest a lot harder, a lot quicker. In a party with only a single magic user, pretty much every time they cast a spell the Dread increases. However, here’s the trick: Dread only increases the first time the party spends a magic peg each turn. Which means a party of four spellcasters can throw multiple spells around in the same turn for the one-time low cost of one Magic peg added to the Dread tracker.
There are some trade-offs to this approach and a Maladaar only party comes with downsides that need to be overcome. Adventurers with a high Magic statistic tend to have the lowest Health, wearing armour increases the Magic peg cost of Spells and they are very experience hungry due to the fact they need to buy Spells as well as Skill ranks.
We will need to bear all of this in mind as we construct our group of wonder wizards.
Step 1 – Adventurer Selection:
This part is fairly easy for us. Since we want as much Magic as possible, there are currently only four adventurers with a Magic statistic of five or higher. Artain, Beren, Emmerik and Moranna.
Artain
Artain has a Skill statistic of four and only requires thirteen experience to reach her maximum rank.
Entertainer rank 2. While taking part in a Quest, this allows her to remove a Fatigue counter from another adventurer and Bless all nearby adventurers when she Rests. It also gives the party access to two really useful Rest Phase abilities in between Quests.
Beren
Beren has a Magic statistic of seven and four starting experience. He can also reach rank 5 and twenty experience points.
Natural Remedies rank 1. This allows Beren, and any other adventurer that Rests in the same turn to restore an additional Health peg and an additional Magic Peg.
Ready for Anything rank 1. Beren has thisin his armour slot which allows him to take an additional action during his turn.
Emmerik:
Emmerik has a Magic statistic of six and is the cheapest Maladaar available at G60.
Loremaster rank 1. Since Maladaar need a lot of experience, this allows us to quickly gain additional Skills or Spells in the Advancement Phase.
Moranna:
Moranna has a Skill statistic of four, a Magic statistic of seven and access to a third Action. She can also reach rank 5 and twenty-one experience points. She is the all-star of the Maladaar, but you pay for that with a staggering G80.
Impervious rank 1. Allows Moranna to discard Status counters with no ill effect.
Malacyte Mastery rank 1. Gives the Maladaar to cast any level 1 non-Forbidden spell whether they have access to it or not.
Acrobatics rank 1. Moranna’s armour slot skill allows her to Stand Up as an effortless action and gives her Scramble to get out of trouble if needed.
[Image – Unger Adventurer board]
Alternatively, we could consider Unger as a member of the team. She only has a Magic statistic of four, however she has a Skill statistic of five a third action later on and starts with Persuasion rank 1 (which can increase to rank 2) which means we would not necessarily need to take a Rook. However, she does cost G73 which, after Class selection, may not leave much for starting equipment.
Step 2 – Role/Class Selection:
At the start of this article series, Welcome to the party pal, we looked at the roles that each Adventurer can fulfil in each party. Looking at the starting Skills for each adventurer above we can already see that some of them are leaning towards a particular role.
Tank:
None of our Maladaar have more than five Health and wearing items with an armour value [ICON] hampers their ability to use their Magic pegs efficiently. A Rook with Deflection, a Prymorist/Druid with Protect, a Eudaemon with Malacyte Shield or a Magus with Hardened Skin would be useful in a pinch, however we are probably rolling without a tank in this party, relying on an abundance of healing Spells and Skills to keep us going.
Healer:
The best choice here would be Beren since he starts with Natural Remedies rank 1. Eudaemon or Druid are the two main healing Classes. Since we are probably going to take a Rook, we don’t really need Distraction from the Druid and Eudaemon has a larger Spellbook which Beren can use with his substantial experience pool. Eudaemon also has access to Cocoon which allows the party to Rest, ignoring enemies, which can be combined with Natural Remedies.
Support:
Rook is the ideal support Maladaar as it has Persuasion and Distraction which are both useful Skills to have in a party. It also has a nice selection of helpful Spells like Bless, Nausea, and Stun. Focussed Energy and Telekinesis also provide some damage potential if needed. Artain or Morana would be the optimal choice for the support role as they both have a Skill statistic of four. Moranna’s large Magic statistic makes her more valuable to the party as a damage dealer so Artain will be our Rook.
Damage Dealers:
With Focussed Energy, Telekinesis, and Fireball, Prymorist is our go-to damage dealer Class. We could add a Magus, however the Rook and Eudaemon have a lot of Spells in common with the Magus class and we don’t really need to double up on them. Magus is a fantastic “do everything” Maladaar and is a good fit for any party that only has one spellslinger, but it doesn’t really find a home here. As such Emmerik and Moranna make for excellent Prymorists. Prymorist also comes with Natural Remedies as a Skill which will give us three adventurers that can use it. Since it stacks from multiple sources and we have access to Cocoon three times we should be able to Rest through most damage.
TOTAL PARTY COST: G336
Step 3 – Starting Build:
Starting Equipment:
With only G14 left to form our party our only real options are clubs and/or picks. These are one die weapons with Forceful Hits which allow all four adventurers to attack Lamentors without the need to throw Spells constantly. They are also useful for taking out Myria as our offensive Spells only roll one die until we rank up. We will definitely need to play Of Coin and Glory before setting off into the Campaign to gear up.
Starting Experience:
Artain:
Since Artain starts with only a single Experience her options are limited to a single Skill or a single Spell. As we have no tank in our party, Deflection is a solid option as a Spell. If any of our Maladaar get surrounded this will dramatically increase their survivability. However, Malacyte Mastery rank 1 offers more utility as it lets Artain cast ANY level 1 Spell even if she does not have access to it. Since she is our support adventurer this makes her a walking Spell toolbox.
Beren:
With a mighty four starting Experience, Beren has a lot of options available to him. Since you can choose up to two level 3 Spells at party creation, Malacyte Aura should be our first pick as it allows Beren to cast all his Proximate Spells on other adventurers. Advanced Healing would be another good pick. Natural Remedies is great for restoring Health and Magic pegs however it requires a Skill peg to use. Advanced Healing, combined with Malacyte Aura allows Beren to restore those Skill pegs to any adventurer that needs them. Malacyte Mastery rank 1 gives him the same versatility as Artain and Reflexes rank 1 lets him get out of combat, crucially avoiding First Strike attacks from Lamentors.
Emmerik:
Emmerik, like Artain, also does not have many options to begin with. Malacyte Mastery rank 1 once again is the best choice to ensure Emmerik can help in any situation.
Moranna:
FIREBALL! Even with just one die, Fireball is an excellent first Spell for Moranna. Since it has Blast it is exceptionally good at taking out Cankers, Split-Tail Rats, and Cursed Vestiges as they have multiple models per square on the board. Although Moranna starts with Malacyte Mastery rank 1, it is still a good idea to spend one of her starting experience on it. Skill ranks from Adventurer boards can increase a Skill beyond your adventurer’s rank which gives Morana Malacyte Mastery rank 2 to begin the campaign and lets her spend a Skill peg to re-roll her Magic Die if needed.
Party Progression:
Every adventurer should be pushing to Malacyte Mastery rank 3 as quickly as possible so that they can all have access to the Magic Die re-roll and then Regeneration 1 to keep the Magic flowing. Moranna, Artain and Emmerik will want to get Power Manipulation 2 quite quickly as this can push the power of their spells (especially Fireball). Beren will want to fill his spell book as quickly as possible. Picking up Cocoon, Malacyte Shield, and Healing. He can skip Healing Hands from his Spellbook as Malacyte Aura turns Healing into the same Spell.
Emmerik’s first Loremaster target should be Beren as he only needs two experience to complete rank 1. After that he should push Moranna so she can complete Malacyte Mastery as soon as she gets to rank 2.
Artain should be looking to pick up Distraction and Persuasion while she is rank 1 and then Weaken Armour when she reaches rank 2.
Conclusion:
With careful planning, clever synergy of Spells and Skills and just a hint of madness, we are ready to begin making a name for ourselves. As unconventional as it is, this all Maladaar party can handle itself even during the early campaign with minimal equipment.
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