Evolution of Al-Ashrad

Ke. wrote:

Correct. Which makes some sense as he will be an Inner Circle member (+2 bleed standard).

Ankha wrote:

It doesn't "make sense" since there's no standard for Inner Circles. For instance, Hardestadt has only +1 bleed.

jhattara wrote:

Hardestadt has +2 Strength and Josef von Bauren +1 stealth instead of the second +bleed. Otherwise that +2 bleed is standard.

Looking at the Design Team's discussion thread on Al-Ashrad advanced, it went like:

- Al-Ashrad is the greatest sorcerer amongst Kindred, and that isn't reflected in his current card, so let's try to represent that with an Advanced version.

- He's a Schismatic, so perhaps he could be Camarilla.

- Perhaps he could have a merged special that allows Assamites to become Camarilla. Later amended to allowing only Independent Assamites to become Camarilla, since the Sabbat ones already had their split and stuck with it.

- Gaaah, too much card text. What if he was an Inner Circle Member with +2 bleed?

- Still want awesome sorceror thing, so put that in the unmerged version. Put the Inner Circle part in the merged text, drop the +2 bleed 'cause the base version already has +1 bleed. Send to playtest.

- Couple rounds of playtesting. Seems fine, maybe not quite strong enough. Add +1 bleed to the merged text 'cause we want something really simple for text space reasons, and it's kinda like other IC Members. Thought about using +1 intercept, +1 strength, or +1 stealth instead, but we didn't like those options.

Ben, thank you for this small insight on the design process!