[Submission] Lamian Cultist (HoSk slave)

Juggernaut1981 wrote:

There is an ANY grouping. It is currently used for Anarch Convert, The Horde and New Blood IIRC.

Only Anarch Convert and New Blood is ANY grouping, The Horde is non-unique group 6 vampire.

There's big flaw in all these designs and that being Cultist being slave to her own clan. She can act all the time, because she is her own master.

a-e wrote:

There's big flaw in all these designs and that being Cultist being slave to her own clan. She can act all the time, because she is her own master.

I would call this a feature rather than a flaw. It gives access to the slave mechanics without the limitations (whether intentional or not).

chrisn101 wrote:

Lamian Cultist v2
Clan: Harbinger of Skulls
Level: Basic
Group: 3
Capacity: 6
Disciplines: FOR, NEC, POT, thn

Sabbat. Non-unique Harbingers of Skulls slave. Red List.
For every Lamian Cultist you control, the pool cost to bring another into the ready region increases by 2.
Other minions cannot gain blood from Lamian Cultist.

Could you sketch out what you think a viable crypt would look like? There are no Harbingers with potence in group 2, and only one in group 4 - Zygodat, a six cap with inferior Potence and no Fortitude, making any possible cross-over with the Samedi (from Thanatosis) that much harder.

To make effective use of it, you'd presumably need to have several in your crypt - let's guess at least 3, maybe more?). But since bringing out more than one would be getting really quite expensive, you might well be left with only one vampire who can make use of your Potence or Thanatosis options. That can be fine a star vampire deck, but it doesn't seem like Lamian is intended to be a star in that way. While the Lamian does have Fortitude for multi-acting, there are two potential glitches:

1) not much by way of stealth or pseudo-stealth (e.g. negative intercept, can't block, costs blood to block, block fails etc.), except for Fortitude's unblockable action modifiers which are powerful but awkward, or Call of the Hungry Dead, I guess - though that's more of an either/or, they don't really stack nicely. Edit to add: Oh, I guess there's also Spectral Divination, but the blood costs are starting to tot up fairly rapidly.

2) the Slave rule requires you to be untapped to use it - it's "tap to cancel the combat", so the tapping is a cost (so you have to be untapped), not merely an effect. However, the Slave doesn't become the acting vampire, so the Slave can't play Freak Drive after the combat.

And it lacks Auspex - which may be thematically appropriate, I don't know - but game-wise, being able to act or invoke the slave rule in your own turn, and then wake and block with Auspex at a later point, that might be a viable set-up to build around. But with no Auspex, you have very little intercept capability, so it's hard to rely on that.


So I'm struggling to see a viable, cohesive deck.

I see him as an addition to POT FOR combat deck together with Ignazio Giovanni and Lorrie Dunsirn. But that's has nothing to do with Harbingers. Also, IMO proposed vampire has to big capacity to be non-unique. Still I feel that lamian story is worthy to be used in vtes. Master/ action cards that make your vampire Lamian seems better.
Or you can create few (let's say 2-4) unique vampires with keyword Lamian and create few Thanatosis cards which when played by Lamian minions would have their effect increased.

As a fan of the Lamia I wouldn't want a non-unique vamp as the only one, but I think if they can't be a full clan then making them more of an action card that become a vamp in some way would be better. I was thinking a mortal that prevents a point of damage in combat and if the HoS wants to they can make a hunt action to turn them into a 1 cap, seems more fitting to the theme of protectors of the parent clan. Maybe call it Cultist of Lamia, and have a few women praying to Lilith on the art.

A few points:

1. Too much text, not worth the amount of reading.

2. Lamia herself was eaten, but its always possible some of her progeny survived as Laibon/anarchs.

3. Lamia were centered in Africa and worshipped Lilith. They are Bahari.

4. Assuming scarcety is akin to Abominations, non-unique is a bit reckless. A total of half a dozen across groupings, in clan NEC FOR POT is logical, with intercept bonuses, Bahari traits, and anti Giovanni tech. But, they would be HoS with these features.

Not bad idea with Lamia, I even draftes up a few (and they had Bahari mechanics with Laibon and Anarch variants, which gave hand size bonuses for each Bahari over 6capacity you had in ready region, or gave bonuses based upon controlling 3 or more bahari, etc) but at the end of the day, Laibon made most sense. Anarchs wouldve been noticed, and remaining Lamia wouldve had to lay low by intent or coinsidence since Lamia (proper noun) herself was eaten.

So, vekn tries another Laibon set, ill be posting. Mayne i can beef up mechanics, since LB is still out......

In summary, clans good at fighting and a few other things in vtes, but has to be handled right.