Rising Power in Malifaux: Rising Powers?

I was just listening to one of the podcasts I subscribe to, Gamers Lounge, and there was a little bit of discussion around Malifaux's new book, Rising Powers, specifically regarding the power level of that book in comparison to Malifaux's first book. One of the hosts suggested that the new book's power level, particularly with the new masters, was higher than that of the first book with the exception of a few of the masters (Perdita, Lady Justice and Lilith being the three mentioned). I had a differing opinion, so I figured I'd take some time to talk about what my feelings of Rising Power are.

I took some time trying to formulate the reason I disagree with this point. I'm going to start with the easy part: the minions. I know this isn't specifically what was mentioned in the podcast, but it is part of the whole question as to whether the new book is that much greater than the old. My primary experience is with Neverborn, so I'll be concentrating there mostly, but having talked with another of my friends who plays Ressurectionists, he's of the same opinion.

There are plenty of models in the first book that I believe are on a level with or better than those in the second book. Mature Nephilim are still the Neverborn's king of dealing damage. Terror Tots are still among the best point-for-effectiveness models in the game. Their speed, their triggers, and their defense all make them incredibly good at getting to points and holding them, or coming in to finish off an enemy. Their ability to grow into Younger Nephilim and become models that are worth double their points is solid.

The Doppelganger, the Waldgeists, and the Slurids are all very good models, as are Baby Kade and Candy in their specific roles. Teddy is a hard to hurt heavy-hitter, owning one of the most impressive damage lines in the game (3/5/10) when he gets his teeth on you.

Rising Power likewise has a lot of fantastic choices. Lilu and Lilitu fit easily into a lot of the builds for Neverborn. Coppulus is just frightening. On the lower point level, Alps are a great swarm monster, and Insidious Madness gives us some nice support.

I think where I finally came down to in comparing the two books on the minions level is this: there is very little difference between the top of the class in book one and the top of the class in book two. But the bottom of the class of book two is better than the bottom of the class of book one. What I mean by that is there are a few models in book one I just don't like. Bad Juju. Sorrows. The Hooded Rider has yet to show me he's good. I don't feel like there's anything in Rising Powers that's that bad. As such, I can look through Rising Powers and be be wow-ed by everything in it, but can't do the same for book one. To me, that just shows that they've figured out how to not make crap models anymore.



Moving on to the masters, which is where the crux of the conversation was, I'm still not convinced that they are more powerful than the original models. These models are not more powerful, they're simply working differently than any other master has before. In Neverborn, we had a caster who was fast and attacked in melee (Lilith), a master who attacked willpower (Pandora) and another who makes your enemy's models attack each other (Zoraida). But in all of these, there were other masters in other factions who did similar things. Lady Justice attacked melee. Ressurectionists could create builds that would attack willpower (with terror and willpower-reducing effects).

In Rising Powers, each of the masters is drastically different than other things that have been presented. The soulstone manipulation of Collette is unseen before. The burying/unburying effects of the Dreamer are all new. Hamelin's crew utilizes dying and reviving rats, Kirai uses an entire army of Spirits with lots of movement, healing and summoning, and Hoffman can push his minions differently than we've ever seen before.

But I don't believe they're more powerful. I just believe they're different.

Any time you face a player who is using a master they understand decently well and that you've never seen before, they're going to pull tricks on you that will make you cry foul. I've done it myself. First time I faced Nicodem, he blased a melee I was in with a spell that hurt all my people and healed all his. WTF?! I faced Seamus with his Copycat Killer and saw the massive damage their guns could do. Other people who haven't seen Obey before will face Zoraida and scream broken when their own model smashes their master for half his life on turn one.

But the more people play against these masters, the more people realize how to stop them. If you don't want to be Obeyed, deploy differently. If you don't want a massive gun to the face, kill the Copycat fast even though he's only two points. Stop the Vultures and limit Nicodem's spell casting. All of these lessons come from playing games, and there are lessons for dealing with the new masters too. They just come in time. I'd expect that in several months, these new masters will be right along with the old, once everyone learns their tricks.