V9: Change Log - 240209

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This page is part of the Official Amtgard V9 Alpha-Playtest Rulebook.
  • The Amtwiki is the official home and primary source for Amtgard V9 Rules as of February 25, 2023.
  • These rules are currently in Open Alpha Playtest. See the Playtest Disclaimer for more details.
  • To learn more about Amtgard V9 Development, please visit Amtgard.com.
  • To view the current Amtgard V8 ruleset, please see the Amtgard V8 Rulebook.




February 2024 (9A.6.240209) - Caster Sustain & General Balance Update

Contents


Read Me First

Hello Amtgard and welcome to the February Update! (V9A.6)

As many of you already know, this month’s update is mostly focused on the casting classes. While this update contains changes to many things, our primary goal is to improve the casting classes. Each one has had significant adjustments made to their spell lists, updates to their archetypes, and/or changes to specific abilities. However, these classes do not exist in a vacuum, and we’ve made changes to all parts of the rules to help facilitate this goal - as well as some extra balance changes to address priority issues.

NEW: EXPLAINER TEXT
We’ve heard the desire for more information about the why of each update. Now that things have settled down into a more regular update cycle, we have a bit more time to devote to this.

The first bit of text in each extry will outline the reasoning behind some of the changes in this update.

Text in the purple box will show the specific changes made.


EXPERIMENTAL CHANGES
Anything listed with a 🌶️ is a potentially spicy change that we are looking to explore and get first-hand playtest data about. Many of these experimental changes are inspired by player feedback and we feel there is genuine merit to exploring these options sooner than later so we have time to iterate and/or roll them back within the alpha period.

OTHER ICONS
🔴 = Important and Significant changes.
🟡 = Functional-but-minor changes.
🟢 = Changes that alter text with no functional impact on the rules.


Over-Arching Game Mechanic Changes


🔴🌶️ Remove Enchantment Strips

By far the most common feedback we’ve received about Enchantment Strips (aka Indicator Strips) is that people do not look at them to identify enchantments. For simplicity’s sake, and to save people the effort of making many different colored strips to use for their enchantments, we’re going to try removing them. (Strips will remain as an option for people wishing to identify their Specialty Arrows that way!)

This is a very spicy change so please let us know how it affects your games!


  • Remove indicator strips from the game.
    • This includes all “enchantment strips” and the red strips for SC/AB weapon variants, relics, and natural armor.
    • Optional Strips for Specialty Arrows will still exist and be specifically defined in the section about arrow covers.



🔴🌶️ Allow Enchantment Pre-Casting

Many classes have per-life self-enchantments that somewhat resemble traits, however they remain enchantments rather than traits because we want it to count against their enchantment limit and to be declared during combat. Unfortunately, many players feel the process of casting these per-life self-enchantments each life is a bit of a process, especially for the classes that can enchant themselves twice. With this update, we’re letting players simply spawn with their self-enchantments already active, so a Barbarian could come alive and say, “Berserk! Blood and Thunder!” and immediately get back to fighting. This is something many folks have been asking for so get out there and let us know how it feels!


  • Players can now start the game / respawn with any of their self-targeting enchantments pre-cast on them.



🔴🌶️ Remove 10ft Restrictions

We originally kept the 10ft distance requirement for V8 “Kill Trigger-style”. The logic was that suddenly regaining abilities or wounds mid-combat could be surprising or confusing. However, most of these effects in V9 simply give back abilities, which shouldn’t matter much to opponents in the area. For consistency’s sake, we want to try removing this requirement from all relevant abilities (including Adrenaline and Scavenge) and see where it goes from there.


Fun Fact: V8 had never tested Adrenaline and Scavenge without the 10ft rule so we don’t actually know if this would be problematic in practice! Get out there and let us know!


  • Remove 10ft restrictions from all ‘Motivation’-style abilities.
    • Prerequisite: Cannot be used while there are living enemies within 10ft.
    • Affected abilities: Adrenaline, Conviction, Cunning, Inner Fire, Insight, Mulch, Scavenge, and all new abilities created in this style.



🔴🌶️ Remove Natural Armor

For this update, we’ve decided to remove natural armor from all classes. While the Natural Armor option has been popular for many players, we’ve found that its widespread use has colored a lot of the feedback we’ve received about V9 as a whole. Natural Armor was intended to be an accessible option for players who couldn’t utilize the physical armor of their class, but it has proven strong enough to draw people to it even if they would otherwise wear physical armor. Those playing classes without natural armor access - including all four spellcasting classes - have reported quite a bit of difficulty. One of our goals is to make physical armor more accessible and commonplace, so we’ve decided to change tacks for now. Depending on what we learn, we may return to Natural Armor with some modification, continue without it, or find a middle ground. (The rules for Natural Armor will remain on the Amtwiki, though unused for now.)


  • Removed natural armor options from all classes and monsters.



🔴 New Universal Ability: Dragging

This is an old-but-new rule by which dead or wounded players can be moved by their living allies, which may help enable more commonplace resurrection of players.





🟡 Proliferate Low Armor Compensation

After the feedback we’ve received in January, we’ve decided to implement the ‘low armor compensation’ system that we piloted with the Monster class. We feel that this system does a better job of encouraging people to use what armor they have than our previous method. Previously, players felt incentivized to wear only their gambesons or other light armor for the ‘lower maximum’ system, where this system gives players who own a few high-point pieces some incentive to utilize them. The presentation for this system isn’t as straightforward as we’d like it to be, yet, and improving that is something we’ll be aiming for! As always, we’re looking forward to any feedback or suggestions to streamline this system.


  • Implement Low Armor Compensation mechanics (previously seen on Monsters) to all classes.
    • See the class-specific entries for what this looks like on each class.



🟡 Allow Meta-Magic vs Enchantment Abilities & Magic Items

Meta-Magics are now universal! It was sort of odd to delineate when it was allowable to use Meta-Magics on abilities you acquired through items, enchantments, or spells you’ve cast. We’re going to try allowing meta-magics to be used on any valid ability, regardless of its source (unless an item or enchantment specifically states otherwise, like the Staff of Doomsday!)


  • Allow meta-magics to be used on abilities granted by enchantments or magic items unless specifically listed otherwise.
    • Related update to Staff of Doomsday
    • Firestorm, Discordia, and Pestilence will continue to disallow meta-magics from being used on their respective abilities. (No change to existing text).



🟡 Create 'Shoved' State

A few different abilities utilize the ‘you move back X feet’ effect, and the ability to resist Shove and Shove Strike is something that people have been missing from the most recent iteration of Adaptive Blessing. With Shove as a state, you can now opt to resist it with Adaptive Blessing and game designers also have a new codified keyword for “move back X feet”.


  • Created the “Shoved” a state.
    • Includes all the text from the Shove ability, except the distance and direction traveled will be left up to the ability text. This allows a quest effect to say something like “You are Shoved 50ft sideways!” and make sense.



🟡 Traits Turn Off While Dead

Since custom traits are often created by slapping (T) on an existing enchantment or effect, we wanted to make sure that this didn’t cause any problems down the line by making traits also become disabled when the player is dead. The only effect this has on the current ruleset is that Monks are no longer immune to Sever Spirit.


  • Traits now become disabled while dead unless otherwise noted, similar to enchantments.



🟡 Engulfing Clarification

It was unclear whether arrows, throwies, and other non-blocking equipment counted for engulfing. Now it should be clear!


  • Add the highlighted text:
    • Strike-based effects with the Engulfing keyword will impart their effects even if attack strikes carried equipment such as a weapon or shield. This includes arrows stored in quivers, and other similarly carried projectiles.



🟢 Pink Sash Tweak

We’re clarifying the Non-Melee Participant sash color to “Light Pink” (Color Swatch unchanged) to better express in text what we are expecting for Non-Melee Participant sashes, especially when compared to Magenta, which could be considered a “dark pink”. If you’re a non-melee participant or have such players on your field, we would love to hear more feedback about the mechanic as a whole!


  • Clarify Non-Melee sash color from Pink to “Light Pink”.
    • No change to actual color swatch.



🟢 Layout Changes

In addition to working on functional changes, we are always considering feedback and working to improve the way players interact with the rulebook, to improve clarity and create a better experience overall. Here's some of changes we're making towards that end!


  • Class Customization Layout Improvements
    • Visual improvements and icon legends in more visible places.

  • Simple Summaries
    • All abilities now have very simple summaries included in their text. Excellent for getting the gist of an effect without worrying about the specific details.



🟢 Updated Precons & Improved Cheat Sheets

We have updated the preconstructed builds on every class and expanded them to include the simple summaries mentioned above. These should be really fast and easy ways to print out a cheat sheet and get right into the game, no choices required! These are especially good for newer players!


  • Preconstructed Builds for each class has been updated to match the new update.

  • Simple Summaries are now part of the preconstructed lists.


Equipment Changes


🔴 Allow 1-Handed Rocks

Not many people were trying to use Rocks as a 2-handed option, and we would like to find out if they are an attractive option if they can be more easily thrown while holding other equipment.


  • May be thrown with one hand. Remove the following:
    • Rocks must always be thrown with two hands. A rock thrown single-handed is rendered harmless.



🟡 Measure Tower Shields by SQFT

The maximum dimensions (length and width) proved odd to explain to those who are used to the traditional square foot method, so we have decided to roll Tower Shields into this method and see how it plays out. Break out your towers and let us know how it feels!


  • Define tower shield size by sq.ft.
    • “Shield Size must not exceed the bounds of 54" x 40"” → Shield Size is no larger than fifteen square feet (52.44 inch diameter).



Magic Item Changes


🔴 New Yellow Curio Effect

This Curio, which granted Break Concentration, proved to be obnoxious and very common. It now offers Innate instead, which should be more of a personal benefit for the player instead of a nuisance for the enemy.


  • Change ability on Yellow Curio:
    • Curio of Disruption (Grant Break Concentration 2/Refresh) → Curio of Power (Grants Innate 2/Refresh)


🟡 Doomsday Cannot Be Swifted.

This change is in light of our decision to let meta-magic affect items… Swift-Doomsday bad.


  • Add: Doomsday cannot be affected by meta-magic.



Ability-Specific Changes

The following updates are listed in alphabetical order instead of by scale of change.

🔴 Incantation Changes

We’re continuing to work towards more ideal incantations for many spells. Our goal is to make sure each incantation is clear in its effect, not too awkward to say, and a reasonable length for its effect. Thank you for bearing with us through this process! We are very interested in feedback on these, since we’d like to settle these into their final forms as soon as we can.


  • Change Banish incantation:
    • “"I banish thy spectral form" x3” → “I banish thy ghostly form” x3


  • Change Cowardice incantation:
    • “"Envision death and become a coward" x3” → “Cower and be afraid of all” x3


  • Change Dimensional Rift incantation:
    • “"Thy spectral form shall disperse and die" x3” → “Aether consume thy ghostly form” x3


  • Change Flame Blade incantation:
    • “The element of fire shall infuse these weapons.” x3 → “The element of flame shall infuse these weapons” x3
    • Normalizing the use of the word 'flame' across all fire-based abilities.


  • Change Lightning Bolt incantation:
    • “The strength of storms is mine to evoke” x2 → “The power of storms is mine to evoke” x2
    • Normalizing the use of 'power' across all spellballs.


  • Change Suppression Bolt incantation:
    • “The strength of suppression is mine to evoke” x2 → “The power of suppression is mine to evoke” x2
    • Normalizing the use of 'power' across all spellballs.


  • Change Iceball incantation:
    • “The strength of ice is mine to evoke” x2 → “The power of ice is mine to evoke” x2
    • Normalizing the use of 'power' across all spellballs.


  • Change Entangle incantation:
    • “The strength of earth is mine to evoke” x2 → “The power of earth is mine to evoke” x2
    • Normalizing the use of 'power' across all spellballs.


🟡 Adrenaline

Adrenaline granting Renew instead of just a resistance makes it clearer and a little more versatile.


  • Replace one of the options:
    • Target declares and restores an expended resistance. → Target is affected as per Renew.



🟡 Aegis, Harden, and Ward

We would like to see how these abilities plays without being exclusive from one another.


  • Remove the prerequisite from each ability.
    • Prerequisite: Cannot be cast on a player already affected by Aegis, Harden or Ward.
    • Note: Players are still unable to have two of the same enchantment, so no stacking Harden with another Harden.



🔴 Ancestral Weapon (New)

Like Imbue Shield, but for weapons. A more defensive replacement for Vorpal Blades on Warrior.





🔴 Bravado (New)

A motivation ability for Swashbuckler that encourages them to Taunt players and then fight them. Notably this is the only way to restore confidence faster than resting at normal speed.





🟢 Barkskin and Stoneskin

Clarifying to avoid oddities when players remove these enchantments and reapply them, notably with the new Wildborn archetype.


  • Add Prerequisite:
    • Cannot be cast on a player already affected by Barkskin/Stoneskin.
  • Adjust the armor-boost text to the following:
    • +1 to current and maximum armor points in each hit location with physical armor. This does not count as restoration.
      If this enchantment is removed while the bearer is still alive, reduce both the current and maximum armor points by 1. This does not count as damage.



🔴 Contagion (Removed)

We’re removing Contagion from the game since it was somewhat out-of-role and unpopular on Wizard and no other classes were using it.


  • Removed Contagion from game.



🔴 Dark Pact(New)

Steal Life Essence was an effect like Adrenaline but it had to be used immediately (rather than within 30s) because it also Severed the victim. This placed a lot of immediate mental load on the caster and we found that many folks were playing it more like Adrenaline or Scavenge anyway so we’ve split Anti-Paladin’s sustain engine into two parts - Dark Pact (below) which gives immediate benefit in exchange for your soul - and Steal Life Essence, which now only severs the target and removes sever from the caster. This will hopefully make the mid-combat interaction much cleaner while also providing Anti-Paladin’s with a very unique devil-deal style of self-sustain.





🔴 Elusive (Removed)

The Archer rework has made this ability obsolete.


  • Removed Elusive from game.



🔴🌶️ Feel No Pain (New)

Feedback has indicated that people would like for Barbarian to have more unique abilities, and for something to fulfill the fantasy of the raging berserker who is simply too angry to die. This ability allows a Barbarian to push past the point where they would normally die and survive - but only if they either keep up the chant or get enough kills to heal their wounds. This is a bit of an unusual ability, so please let us know whether its effect is clear and easy to play with.





🔴 Gift of "X" Enchantments

Doubled uses of granted abilities to make the enchantments more attractive options.





🟢 Imbue Shield (Renamed)

With the introduction of Ancestral Weapon, we have renamed this ability to line up with the rest of the 'set'.


  • Rename to “Ancestral Shield.
    • No functional change to effects.



🔴🌶️ Incinerate Armor

We would like Incinerate Armor to be viable as a way for verbal casters to consistently damage armored targets, but previous iterations have not cut the mustard. This iteration does not require locational targeting and should be easier to say, though it’s more complicated for the recipient to take. We’d really like to hear whether this ability feels like it will work intuitively on the field, or whether the effect is too complex in chaotic games. Let us know!


  • Change effect:
    • “Target is affected as per Armor Destroying in the chosen location.” → “🌶️Target suffers 1 point of damage to armor in each hit location.”


  • Change incantation:
    • "Flames destroy thy armor" x3 → “Flame and fire damage thy armor” x3


  • Add Reminder/V8 Transition Note:
    • Immunities and resistances extend to carried equipment. This means immunity/resistance to verbals will protect against this effect.



🟢 Inner Fire

Quality of life change, removing the use of emoji where it isn’t currently necessary


  • QOL Tweak to effect line:
    • “...restores one use of a Monk ability with the ⚔️ tag.” → “...restores one use of a Power Strike ability.”
    • Remove the ⚔️ tags from Monk as appropriate.



🔴 Mana Harvest (New)

A new spell meant to provide an option for active sustain for spellcasters in a vein similar to what the martial classes already have. (It is a way to get spells back by playing the game rather than just Resting!)




🔴 Meditate (New)

A way to make Resting more efficient in a pinch, for those who prefer the rest method for recovering spells.





🔴🌶️ Mulch

We decoupled this from Innate so that people wouldn’t necessarily need to interact with a lot of uses of Innate to play Greenwarden, though they do have some synergy. Also upped the “witness” range and allowed for personal kills to count, for the Bow Druid enthusiasts.


  • Buffed the Prerequisite:
    • “Can only be used within 30s of witnessing an ally bearing one of your enchantments kill an enemy within 20ft” → “Can only be used within 30s of killing an enemy or witnessing an ally bearing one of your enchantments kill an enemy within 50ft.”


  • Allow restoration without needing innates:
    • Restores an innate → Declare and restore one use of a ♻10 ability.
      • Add Reminder: Innate is a ♻10 ability.



🔴 Rescue / Safeguard

Most classes with access to Rescue could already Heal and/or Release allies. Further, an effect that sent the target back to base made this ability impractical and rarely desired by the intended targets. As such, Rescue has been reworked! You can now make an ally Insubstantial to protect them temporarily, hopefully making it a better representation of the ‘bodyguard’ concept we were aiming for.

  • Reworked Rescue into Safeguard.
    • Safeguard has replaced Rescue anywhere it was previously located.



🟡 Shake It Off

Shake It Off has been reworked to be much easier to summarize and explain while still providing the same essential effect.


  • Reworked text to be more similar to the V8 version, with less loopholes. See Shake It Off.



🔴 Sphere of Annihilation

Sphere of Annihilation was coming in a little too hot so we’re cooling it down a bit to see if it falls into a more reasonable use rate after the caster buffs kick in.


  • Remove Sever effect:
    • Secondary Effect (Status): Players killed by Sphere of Annihilation are Severed until they respawn.



🔴 Steal Life Essence

Steal Life Essence was an effect like Adrenaline but it had to be used immediately, rather than within 30s, because it also Severed the victim. This placed a lot of immediate mental load on the caster and we found that many folks were playing it more like Adrenaline or Scavenge anyway so we’ve split Anti-Paladin’s sustain engine into two parts - Dark Pact which gives immediate benefit in exchange for your soul - and Steal Life Essence (below), which now only severs the target and removes sever from the caster. This will hopefully make the mid-combat interaction much cleaner while also providing Anti-Paladin’s with a very unique devil-deal style of self-sustain.


  • Streamlined Steal Life Essence.
    • Removed all the caster-side options except for removing your own Severed status.



🔴 Sunder Arrow (Removed)

Removed for now while we assess the need for it in the new Picks-system Archer.


  • Removed Sunder Arrow from game.



🔴🌶️ Swift

We have removed the restriction on using Swift on self-cast spells. We’d like to find out if this is actually too strong or not in the V9 metagame, so let us know!


  • Allow casters to Swift abilities targeting themselves:
    • Cannot be used to modify verbals and enchantments that target the caster.



🟡 Teleport

Teleport has long since been an oddity among verbals by having a x5 incantation without being a restoration ability like Heal, Mend, Release, etc. With Flight being a similar effect on a x3 incant, we are bringing down Teleport to match.


  • Change amount of repetitions required:
    • "Travel through the aether" x5 → “Travel through the aether” x3



🔴 Undead Minion

The goal for this ability is to make it as simple as possible to execute for the enchantee. We were running into some issues with how complex it was to explain where and when someone could be revived. Now these minions can just run back to the caster each time they die, and all they have to watch out for is being severed. There’s also some nice quality-of-life bits that come with using the Raise Dead spell for the revive instead of a declaration.





Class-Specific Changes


🔴 Anti-Paladin

Steal Life Essence has been reworked! - see it and Dark Pact above for details. Beyond that, we’ve rearranged their ability choices somewhat. Fireball is better balanced against Wounding and Curse Strike than Raise Dead and Dying Breath as a major offensive ability, and the frequency of Incinerate Armor has been modified to match its new effect. Curse Strike’s Rest timer has been brought in line with all of the other sources of Power Strikes across melee classes, to 20 seconds. Finally, Dragoon’s upside has been tweaked a bit to feel like a more meaningful increase in ability frequency.

  • Armor
    • Implemented Low Armor Compensation style
    • Removed natural armor option.
    • Reward for low armor is now +1 use of Fear.

  • Curse Strike
    • 2/Life ♻10 → 2/Life ♻20

  • Dark Pact
    • New ability added at Row B - Unlimited.
    • Archetypes adjusted to refer to Dark Pact instead of Steal Life Essence.

  • Dying Breath
    • Added 😱 back.
    • Duration: “Until they die” → 30s

  • Dragoon
    • Changed bonus to:
      • “Gain double uses from all abilities with 🔥 (Fireball and Incinerate). Flame Blade, if chosen, becomes ♻60. Cannot wield Short or Long weapons.”

  • Fear
    • Moved to level 1

  • Fireball
    • Added 🔥

  • Incinerate Armor
    • Ability reworked.
    • 2/Life ♻10 → 1/Life ♻10

  • Rearrange Customization:
    • Swapped Fireball and Incinerate Armor so that Fireball is competing against Wounding and Curse Strike.
    • Fear is now the level 1 ability.
    • Steal Life and Dark Pact are now row B.

  • Steal Life Essence
    • Ability reworked
    • 2/Life ♻20 → 2/Life ♻10

  • Undead Minion
    • Ability reworked

  • Wounding
    • 2/Life ♻20 → 1/Life ♻20

  • Other Related Changes:
    • New incants for Cowardice and Flame Blade.

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Assassin

We’ve rearranged some Ninja abilities, and done some work to make sure that none of the abilities were totally locked behind using a bow. As such, there is a choice to be made between Poison Arrows and Poison Bolts. Decoy, as thematic as it was for Ninja, has been moved to the Shadowcloak column where it found greater synergy, and in its place the Ninja has gained Pass Without Trace as a stand-in for smoke bombs. Shadowcloak and Saboteur also received some love to make their downsides a bit less impactful.


  • Armor
    • Implemented Low Armor Compensation style

  • Restructure Customization
    • Merged Poison Bolt and Poison Arrow choice into D1.
    • D1 = Poison Arrow & Poison Bolt: Any combination of 2 Arrows/Balls
    • D2 now grants Blink 👻 1/Life ♻20
    • Swapped the position of Decoy and Pass Without Trace

  • Ninja
    • Updated the archetype to account for the inclusion of poison arrows into the mix.

  • Shadow Cloak
    • Lessened the downside:
      • "Cannot wear armor. → “Cannot wear more than 1pt in each location.”

  • Saboteur
    • Added the following:
      • May wield a buckler.

  • Related Changes
    • New incant for Dimensional Rift and Teleport

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Archer

After a few months of experimenting with a point-buy method for ability selection, we’ve decided to move Archer to the ‘Picks’ method of choosing abilities. This method is much more straightforward for the archers who just want to choose some arrows and play, but still offers some flexibility for the folks who liked the evasion or melee-focused options from Point Buy. We’ve decided to try some bold options for their archetypes, and we’re excited for a fresh start for this class.


The goal with the rework was to make it much easier to read for Archers who just wanted to pick some arrows and get on the field - and to do that, they can just take the middle column. Archers who want to be more evasive or focus on one-shot kills might take abilities from the Sniper column, and those who are more interested in crossbows and/or the front lines might be interested in the Pavesario column. Those who wish to focus on one particular type of specialty arrow may decide to take the Mystic Archer archetype. As with any totally new class build, this will probably require some tweaking as we go, so please let us know what you think!


  • Armor
    • Implemented Low Armor Compensation style.

  • Reworked to use the Picks system

  • Related Changes
    • Elusive and Sunder Arrow removed from the game.

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Barbarian

We’ve received a decent amount of feedback that Barbarian just didn’t feel right, and the verbal magic options stuck out to people as a bit out of place. We’ve removed Taunt, Suppress Aura, and Cowardice from the class, and instead focused on abilities that are simple to activate, such as Power Strikes and Shake it Off. We also gave the Warboss column extra uses of Blood and Thunder, so that they could have one for themselves and some for their friends. Additionally, we decided to remove the ‘can’t be enchanted’ limitation on Berserker and Warboss to help provide more enchantment targets for spellcasters.


One of our goals with this update was to give Barbarian a new unique ability to help fill the flavor hole created by the loss of v8’s Fight After Death. See ‘Feel No Pain’ for more details, and let us know what you think!


Lastly, we’re putting Large Thrown back on Barbarians in addition to the Rock changes to help us feel out where the sweet spot is for Barbarians with projectiles. Happy hucking!


  • Armor
    • Implemented Low Armor Compensation style.
    • Removed natural armor option.

  • Weapons
    • 🌶️Add Large Thrown access
    • 🌶️Rocks buffed

  • Customization Adjustments
    • Taunt, Suppress Aura, and Cowardice removed.
    • Additional Blood and Thunder 2/Life option
    • Added option for +1 use of already chosen power strike
    • Rearranged options for balance and archetypes

  • Added Feel No Pain

  • Berserker
    • Berserk (T) → Berserk 1/Life
    • Cannot be enchanted by other players → Cannot use shields.

  • Warboss
    • Downside changed:
      • Cannot be enchanted by other players → Cannot use projectiles

  • Related Changes:
    • Reworks to Adrenaline, Shake It Off and Enchantment Pre-Casting.

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Monk

With the loss of Natural Armor, we decided to allow Monks to wear one point of physical armor. Like Barbarian, we wanted to stick to fairly simple abilities. Flight was moved into a choice slot so that people weren’t forced to interact with a more complex ability, and Transfer Life moved to take its place. Giant Strength was removed because it let Monks step too far into Barbarian’s “thing”, and we replaced Inspired Soul with Rebuke to decrease the number of classes looking to hand out enchantments, while also giving Monks a simpler way to defend itself or escape a heavily armored foe. We also removed Undying Will to give more resurrect targets for support classes and replaced it with the new Meditate ability which is highly thematic and allows Ascetic Monks a lot more access to their abilities.


  • Armor
    • Natural Armor removed.
    • May now wear up to 1pt of Physical Armor
    • May now receive +1 use of a per life ability if wearing no armor.

  • Customization Adjustments
    • Giant Strength and Inspired Soul removed.
    • Transfer Life returned to its own choice.
    • Flight moved into a choice slot.
    • Rebuke access added.
    • One option simply becomes +1 use of the chosen power strike.

  • Ascetic
    • Undying Will 2/Refresh ♻30 → Meditate (Unlimited)
    • Cannot wear physical armor. May still gain Low Armor compensation

  • Related Changes:
    • Non-functional changes to Inner Fire.

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.


🔴 Paladin

The largest change to Paladin is that their Release (Other) was replaced with Renew (Other) - this is partially to differentiate them more from Scouts, but also because Release was proving to be far too common on the field. While we want Paladins to be able to support their teams, we want to be careful to make sure that they don’t totally supplant dedicated spellcasters. Avenger has been afforded the ability to wear small shields for a bit more kit variety, and their Taunt and Shove Strike frequencies were brought more in line with other martial classes. We’ve also decided to try bumping up Paladin’s armor maximum to five points to see how that feels for a martial class - please let us know how this compares to playing a 4 or 6 point maximum class!


  • Armor
    • Implemented Low Armor Compensation style
    • Removed Natural Armor option
    • May wear up to 4pts..." → "May wear up to 5pts..."

  • Replaced Release with Renew
    • Release (Other) → Renew (Other)
    • Frequency unchanged.

  • Rescue is now Safeguard

  • Shove Strike
    • 1/Life ♻20 → 2/Life ♻20

  • Taunt
    • 1/Life ♻10 → 2/Life ♻10

  • Avenger
    • Removed the ability to exchange shove strike:
      • “Shove Strike, if picked, may be replaced with Curse Strike during class customization.”
    • Reduced downside:
      • “May not use shields” → Can only use up to small shields.

  • Cleric
    • Added to downside:
      • “Cannot wear more than 3pts in any single location”

  • Guardian
    • Armor increase was moved to class as a whole.
    • Reduced downside:
      • “Cannot be enchanted by others” → “Cannot bear enchantments that grant offensive abilities or strike enhancements (such as armor breaking).”

  • Related Changes
    • Changes made to Swift and Shake it Off

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Peasant

Peasant players felt a little silly being unable to carry the burdens (equipment) of their landed liege, but we wanted to make sure that the ‘one weapon’ mechanic wasn’t broken by a peasant ‘wielding’ a single javelin while carrying ten more to throw. Their pitchforks can no longer be thrown but at least they can carry as much gear as they want! …And there was much rejoicing!


  • Replace current weapon text with:
    • “Choose one: Dagger, Short, Long, or Stab-Only Great. Cannot Dual Wield”

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Scout

Most of Scout’s abilities were rearranged to better suit the modified archetypes. Ranger and Hunter swapped downsides, and we’ve introduced the Wildborn archetype to replace Infiltrator. Infiltrator came across as a sort of odd Assassin-style archetype, so we’ve moved towards something that should resemble V8’s Avatar of Nature, while calling back to V8 Scout’s long legacy of enchantment-stacking in a way that works for V9. Hunter has gained the ability to reload and a better drawback.


Ultimately, this ended up being a pretty substantial rework of the class, so please let us know how it feels to play! (Shout out to all the scout playtesters who contributed to this new design).


  • Armor
    • Implemented Low Armor Compensation style
    • Removed Natural Armor option

  • Customization Adjustments
    • Choices shuffled around to better fit balance and archetypes.

  • Rescue is now Safeguard

  • Ranger
    • Changed downside:
      • Cannot use shields → Cannot use great weapons.

  • Infiltrator reworked into Wildborn
    • Gain Teleport (Prepared), Cannot use Projectiles. → Gain ⬗Barkskin (Self)(Prepared). May wear up to two enchantments from other players and only one from themselves. Total limit is still two. Cannot use Projectiles.'

  • Hunter
    • Change downside:
      • Cannot use great weapons → Cannot use shields
    • Also add:
      • Gain Reload (Prepared)

  • Related Changes
    • Changes to Swift and Barkskin

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Warrior

Beyond the loss of natural armor that affected most martial classes, the notable change for Warrior is the removal of Vorpal Blades. While it was somewhat thematic for a mighty warrior to cut down their foes in a single blow, it pushed Warrior too far outside of its intended niche as an extra-durable front line fighter. It has been replaced with Ancestral Weapon, which makes that row a choice between Ancestral Armor, Ancestral Weapon, and Ancestral Shield - the newly renamed Imbue Shield. Each allows you to defend yourself against magic with your preferred method.


Temper Armor and Runic Armor swapped positions, as Temper Armor has felt like the enchantment most focused on durability, which suits Juggernaut a bit more. Taunt and Undying Will were swapped so that resurrecting oneself was a ‘sometimes’ thing for warriors, rather than a feature of every Warrior - similar to Monk, the goal with nerfing Undying Will here is to create more targets for support classes looking to resurrect their allies since the current environment has a bit too many people self-rezzing.


Additionally, Taunt enthusiasts can now select both Taunt and Taunting Strike. Huzzah!


Ironhearts are no longer a font of Harden enchantments, but can instead recover Taunt, Reforge, or Safeguard to better control the field and support their team. Juggernaut’s downside should feel less ‘feast or famine’, as there’s now a way to get back your Shake it Off if you can’t seem to kill anyone. Finally, Blademaster lost the ‘no outside enchantments’ downside since they are no longer able to combine Vorpal Blades with something wacky.


  • Armor
    • Implemented Low Armor Compensation style
    • Removed Natural Armor option

  • Rescue is now Safeguard

  • Customization Adjustments
    • Swapped Undying Will and Taunt.
    • Swapped Temper and Runic
    • Added 🖤 to Taunt, Safeguard, and Reforge.

  • Vorpal Blade Removed
    • Replaced with Ancestral Weapon 3/Refresh ♻60

  • Ironheart
    • Changed upside:
      • “Whenever you use Scavenge, you may declare and restore one use of Harden instead of the normal effect. Harden becomes Range 5ft." → Whenever you use Scavenge, you may declare and restore one 🖤 ability instead of the normal effect.

  • Juggernaut
    • Changed downside:
      • Shake It Off becomes Per-Refresh instead of Per-Life. → Shake It Off becomes ♻20 instead of ♻10.

  • Undying Will Frequency Change
    • 2/Refresh ♻30 → 3/Refresh ♻60

  • Related Changes:
    • Changes to Shake It Off.

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Bard

With the aforementioned new sustain abilities and easy access to constant double-speed resting from Song of Power, several rest timers have been increased for Bard’s abilities. That said, Song of Power is now free for Bards so that we could balance the class around them always resting twice as fast as usual.


Swashbuckler has been reworked into a Taunt-focused archetype that turns fighting into fuel. Troubadour no longer restricts access to Release and Ambulant, which should allow them to perform a support role more effectively. And Coryphee can now use Extension if they need a break from dancing! Rock on!


  • Armor
    • Implement Low Armor Compensation style

  • Coryphée
    • Now has access to Extension

  • Cowardice
    • ♻20 → ♻30

  • Innate
    • Moved down to Novice tier.
    • No more freebies at level 1.
    • Grants 2 per purchase → Grants 1 per purchase

  • Song of Power
    • Adept tier → Novice Tier
    • Cost 1 → Cost 0
    • Changes made to Song of Power itself.

  • Suppress Aura
    • ♻10 → ♻20

  • Suppressing Strike
    • ♻10 → ♻20

  • Swashbuckler
    • Now also grants Bravado (Unlimited)

  • Taunting Strike
    • ♻10 → ♻20

  • Troubadour
    • Now has access to Release and Ambulant

  • Related Changes:
    • Changes to Swift and Cowardice

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Druid

In addition to the new Sustain abilities, several of Druid’s archetypes gained access to more abilities to increase the variety of spell lists available to each one. Greenwarden no longer grants free Innates - equal to four free spell points - but Mulch itself is much stronger now. Shamans are now able to buy a Short weapon or a Bow, which should enable them to play a more offensive role if they choose. (As well as gaining Entangle, a mid-line field control option.) Tempest has gained all Meta-Magics and Hold Person to give them more reason to switch between verbals and spell balls. Many Druid spells have been tweaked in this update, so please go check them out!


  • Force Bolt
    • Replaced with Poison Bolt

  • Giant Strength
    • Expert Tier → Adept Tier

  • Greenwarden
    • No more free Innates.
    • Now has access to Poison Weapon
    • Now has access to Ambulant

  • Innate
    • Moved down to Novice tier.
    • No more freebies at level 1.

  • Mana Harvest
    • New ability at Novice Tier - Cost: 1 Max: 4 - 2/Life (No Rest)

  • Meditate
    • New ability at Novice Tier - Cost: 1 Max: 4 - 1/Life (No Rest)

  • Meta-Magics (Ambulant, Extension, Swift)
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Poison Weapon
    • 1/Refresh ♻20 → 1/Life ♻20

  • Rescue is now Safeguard

  • Shaman
    • Can now purchase Short/Bow
    • Now has access to Entangle
    • Lost access to Force/Poison Bolt

  • Teleport
    • 1/Refresh ♻20 → 1/Life ♻20

  • Tempest
    • Now has access to meta-magics (Swift, Extension, Ambulant)
    • Now has access to Hold Person

  • Word of Mending
    • Max: 4 → Max: -

  • Related Changes
    • Changes to Mulch, Barkskin, Stoneskin, Swift, Gift of Fire, Earth, Water, Air; Incinerate Armor
    • Incantation changes to Lightning Bolt, Teleport.

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.


🔴 Healer

In addition to the new sustain abilities, several enchantments grant multiple uses per purchase now to make them a more attractive choice when compared to more powerful or commonly-useful enchantments in their tier. Heal is now free so it isn’t a functional ‘tax’ of one spell point upon every Healer list. Hold Person and Teleport were made Per-Life to give Healers some more juice without Resting. The cost of Small Shields was reduced to 2 points because 3 felt a bit excessive. Lastly, Undead Minion and Rescue (now Safeguard) were substantially reworked.


  • Ambulant
    • Moved down to Novice Tier
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Blessing Against Projectiles
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Blessing Against Wounds
    • Cost 2 for 2 uses → Cost 1 for 2 uses

  • Extension
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Harden
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Heal
    • Cost: 1 → Cost: 0

  • Hold Person
    • 1/Refresh ♻20 → 1/Life ♻20
    • Max: 4 → Max: 2

  • Ice Barrier
    • ♻20 → ♻10

  • Inspired Soul
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Lay Curse
    • Expert Tier → Adept Tier

  • Mana Harvest
    • New ability at Novice Tier - Cost: 1 Max: 4 - 2/Life (No Rest)

  • Meditate
    • New ability at Novice Tier - Cost: 1 Max: 4 - 1/Life (No Rest)

  • Phoenix Tears
    • Max: 4 → Max: -

  • Rescue is now Safeguard

  • Resurrect
    • Max: 4 → Max: -

  • Small Shield
  • Cost: 3pts → Cost: 2pts

  • Swift
    • Moved down to Novice Tier
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Teleport
    • 1/Refresh ♻20 → 1/Life ♻20

  • Ward
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Related Changes
    • Changes to Undead Minion and Swift
    • Incantation changes to Banish, Teleport

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.


🔴 Wizard

Wizard has lost its few enchantments but gained a number of new tools, including the new sustain abilities. Notably, Battlemages have gained access to per-life Wounding as well as Swift.


Mend and Release were moved to Adept tier to nudge Wizard lists towards more offense, and several offensive spells have been granted additional uses per purchase, changed to per-life instead of per-refresh, or were moved to a lower spell tier.


Some of the most powerful kill spells have had their Rest timers increased, but they should be a bit easier to set up. The Lich archetype has been wholly replaced by a reimagined Warlock, which focuses on Extended and Swift spells, featuring utility spells and pure offense.


  • Battlemage
    • Now has access to Wounding.
    • Now has access to Swift
    • Now has access to Extension

  • Contagion
    • Removed from Wizard (and the game) entirely.

  • Coup De Grace
    • ♻30→ ♻60

  • Dragged Below
    • ♻30→ ♻60

  • Evoker
    • Now has access to Ambulant
    • Now has access to Release

  • Expose Weakness
    • Moved down to Novice tier

  • Firestorm
    • Add to Expert Tier - 1/Life ♻30

  • Giant Strength
    • Removed from Wizard.

  • Ice Barrier
    • ♻20 → ♻10

  • Innate
    • Moved down to Novice tier.
    • No more freebies at level 1.

  • Lay Curse
    • 1/Refresh ♻10 @ Adept → 1/Life ♻10 @ Novice

  • Lich has been reworked into Warlock
    • Upside: Extension and Swift become Per-Life and Max:4 instead.
    • Downside: Can only purchase abilities with the 🔮 tag.

  • Mana Harvest
    • New ability at Novice Tier - Cost: 1 Max: 4 - 2/Life (No Rest)

  • Meditate
    • New ability at Novice Tier - Cost: 1 Max: 4 - 1/Life (No Rest)

  • Mend
    • Moved up to Adept Tier

  • Meta-Magics (Ambulant, Extension, Swift)
    • 1 per purchase → 2 per purchase

  • Poison Bolt
    • Max: 2 (4 balls total) → Max: 4 (8 balls total)

  • Release
    • Moved up to Adept Tier

  • Short Sword
    • Moved down to Adept Tier

  • Suppression Bolt
    • 1 Ball per purchase → 2 Balls per purchase

  • Teleport
    • 1/Refresh ♻10 @ Novice → 1/Life ♻10 @ Adept

  • Wounding
    • 1/Refresh ♻20 @ Adept → 1/Life ♻20 @ Expert Tier

  • Related Changes:
    • Changes to Sphere of Annihilation, Swift, Incinerate Armor.
    • Incantation changes to Dimensional Rift, Banish, Lightning Bolt, Suppression Bolt. Teleport

  • New Preconstructed Lists!
    • We have updated the preconstructed list to reflect the new update.



🔴 Monster

As part of the Natural Armor changes, all monsters have lost their natural armor options as well. We know natural armor is pretty iconic to monsters but we want to get a grasp of the game without any sources of natural armor before making any further decisions in that regard.


Goblins have small shields now to better match their V8 capabilities, and ‘Shiny’ has been renamed to ‘Show and Tell’ to avoid unintended negative real-world cultural stereotypes often associated with Goblins.


Gorgons now have a limited number of Poison Arrows to avoid them scaling overmuch with the number of arrows a player can amass.


Red Drakes have been adjusted to have their fireballs scale inversely with the defenses. Less armor = more fireballs. In addition, we’ve upped the rest timer so that each barrage feels like more of a commitment. We have also decided to remove the ‘must remain still’ requirement from Breath Weapon to avoid oddities where it could be interrupted via Shove, but we’re very interested to hear how this affects the power of this monster.


Shroomkin’s Contagion has been replaced with Poison Weapon now that Contagion has been removed from the game.


Entangling Mass
  • Remove Natural Armor option:
    • 2pt Natural Armor → None.
  • Add: Amorphous - Blessing Against Wounds (Self) 1/Life
  • Remove Fragile.
  • Scavenge → Adrenaline
  • Shadow Step & Tracking:
    • 2/Life ♻20 → 1/Life ♻20

Gargoyle
  • Remove Natural Armor option:

Goblin
  • Buckler → Up to Small Shield
  • Renamed ‘Shiny” → “Show and Tell”

Gorgon
  • Poison Arrow
    • Unlimited → 1 arrow per level

Red Drake
  • Remove Natural Armor option:
  • Firebreathing
    • “...the effect of their Elemental Barrage ends if they move from their current location or aggress with anything other than a Fireball.” → “...the effect of their Elemental Barrage ends if they aggress with anything other than a Fireball.”
  • Elemental Barrage
    • 1/Life ♻10 → 2/Life ♻20
  • Fireball
    • 2 per Level → 1 per Level
  • Low Armor Compensation
    • Up to 5pts Physical Armor per hit location.
      - 16-25pts = No compensation.
      - 6-15pts = +2 Fireballs or +1 Elemental Barrage
      - 0-5pts = +4 Fireballs or +2 Elemental Barrage

Shroomkin
  • Contagion is removed.
    • Replaced with Poison Weapon (Other) - 1/Refresh ♻20

Werewolf
  • Remove Natural Armor option:


What's Next? - Future Plans!

This update contained a lot of major changes and we will be eagerly waiting for playtest feedback to let us know if we're moving in the right direction. In addition, there are many more changes in the pipeline that didn’t make it into this update; whether for lack of time or because of a desire to see how this current batch of changes will affect the overall experience before going any further.

With that in mind, the focus for our next update will be the Roleplay rules! These will include rules and abilities associated with questing, scenario games, and non-combat roleplay.

After that, our next major focus for the battlegame rules will optimizing the accessibility and readability of class customization. This will include examining the success or failure of many of the 🌶️ spicy decisions we've made along the way, including horizontal progression (being able to pick almost any ability from the start).

We are also going to be taking a look at how the loss of natural armor affects the game and what changes will be necessary to compensate for that, such as by adjusting armor-affecting abilities, reintroducing natural armor to some degree, or something else we discover along the way.

In the same vein, with the removal of enchantment strips we will also be taking a careful look at the Color Code, including whether it has achieved its colorblindness accessibility goals, its accessibility to the average player, its impact on field clarity, and more.

As always, progress on V9 development is closely tied to participation from players across the continent and the involvement of the various Kingdoms and their Rules Reps. We hope you can see some of the fruits of your efforts in the changes we've made so far, and we look forward to working with you all in the months to come!

THANK YOU for the contributions you've made, and thank you for all the playtesting and feedback you will continue to provide in the future!

- The Amtgard V9 Committee




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Change Log Index
Click here to view the master list of all change log entries for the Amtgard V9 Ruleset.
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