New Oni - Fan-made

[InvokeChaos]

So I was originally going to attempt to go for the design position open at Wyrd... but after a lot of really thinking about it... I determined that my personal life doesn't allow me the ability to uproot and move to Marietta.  Not saying I would even have gotten the job... but that was a major requirement. I will have to keep dreaming! 

Anyways, I'd already designed the model I wanted to submit... and it seemed a waste to just design it and do nothing with it.  So I thought I'd post it here in case someone wants to use it. Hope someone gets some joy out of it! 

PAINTED DEMON – 7ss
Oni, Minion
Df 5 / Wp 6 / Wd 6 / Wk 5 / Cg 6 / Ht 2

Mesmerizing Skin – Ml attacks from enemy models against this model suffer (negative flip).
Hard to Kill

Attack Actions

(1) Ink-Covered Claws (Ml 6/ Rst: Df / Rg: 1): Target suffers 2/4/5 damage.
Cruel Slash: This attack’s damage cannot be reduced. 

(1) Wreath of Onibi (Ca 5 / TN: 10 / Rst: Wp / Rg: 10): Target model gains the Slow condition.
“Such beautiful lights...”: After succeeding, push target model up to 3” towards this model.

Tactical Actions

(0) Life-like Tattoos: Discard a non-joker card. This model gains one of the following effects, as determined by the discarded card:
Mark of the Kitsune: Push this model up to 5” in any direction.
Mark of the Gyuki: Until the end of the turn, enemy models damaged by this model’s attacks gain Poison +1 condition.
Mark of the Kasha: Until the end of the turn, enemy models damaged by this model’s attacks gain the Burning +1 condition.
Mark of the Reiki: Until this model's next activation, this model gains the Spirit Characteristic and Incorporeal. 

40mm base

Design Notes

Concept – I wanted to create a model in the 7-8ss range that could be used to enable some of our other Oni/faction tricks, thus being enticing to bring in other crews. I wanted minor synergies with each master as well, if possible. Lastly, I was looking for a way to incorporate the ability to deal with armor, as that is a major roadblock for 10T in general. I really liked the idea that it had a moving diorama of tattoos on it, and based its ability around that. I also thought it might be neat for painters to get the model knowing that there are tattoos that belong on it (like Shen and Yu).

Stats – I don’t feel there is anything standout about the stat line here other than the wounds. I intentionally kept them a tad low (as well as keeping Df5) to compensate for Mesmerizing Skin, Hard to Kill and the fact that it’s 7ss. Lots of 5s and 6s in Thunders, so I felt no reason to deviate for this model. I left the WP a bit higher as a 5/5 seemed too light for it’s cost.

Mechanics - My initial design route with this model was to make it an enforcer/henchman and create “tattoo” upgrades that it could equip that gave it various benefits. I quickly abandoned it. I tried putting triggers on the attack action (tattooing its enemies) but that felt kind of weird and not in the flavor I intended. So, I changed it to a zero action that triggered on a discard. It felt cleaner. I imposed that restriction to help keep the model’s ability in check. 10T brothers flip a random card for an effect and it’s potent if not chaotic. I didn’t want that level of randomness. Nor lack of cost. Plus, the Lynch synergy was a nice bonus. It also allowed me to make this model a minion so it could be summoned.

Each of the tattoos represent another Oni type and I tried to choose abilities that were representative of their mark.

The two attack actions I knew I wanted to be one damaging, one condition dealing. I wanted to bring another bit of Oni flavor to this model in the form of “demon lights”, a trait in Asian mythology that indicated something was of the other world. In Japanese mythos, the Onibi are basically will-o-wisps, so I wanted to give them a small lure (mask trigger felt appropriate) and handing out slow seemed both effective and flavorful to the concept of an Oni that has hypnotic features.

I chose reduction over ignores armor because there are a few abilities (including in the mirror match) that I wanted to be able to bypass, and for 7ss and a 2/4/5 track, I didn’t feel that was overpowered. Though I left it built-in because I wanted counterspell to matter.

A couple of master notes:

Asami gains an moderately aggressive summon that has more utility and accuracy then the jorogumo, at the cost of survivability. The Painted Oni can be taken down quickly. I wanted it to be able to make an impact regardless of it popped in and flickered out and the slow cast does exactly that. The idea of being able to summon one with an Obsidian Oni and have a little combo there felt great without being too good.

McCabe grants some much needed survivability to the Painted Oni and giving this model reactivate allows it to potentially hand out a lot of slow, thus enabling McCabe’s net gun/AP control style of play. This may be too good, but as I feel his net gun is fairly underused, I was willing to keep it as is.

Yan Lo’s Fury of the Yomi was why I added in the spirit characteristic to the Tattoo of the Reiki. Not only was it flavorful (Reiki are spirit Oni), but made the minion a bit more useful in a Yan crew.