TOPIC: 2023 Participation Tokens < New Images added Monday

Thanks all for your feedback on these Participation tokens. The URs are for 1-2 possible Patron runs.

Here is the next round of proofs after changes are made with your feedback. I killed a few of them and made another matching Ioun Stone.

truedungeon.com/files/Participation23b.jpg

I think the change to participation tokens is a great idea. Losing the pressure of working up to NM, however small, will be more enjoyable for many people.

I’m not really sure how to rate Completion tokens other than “Something a new player would be happy to receive and “below printed URs in power” so other than the +2 damage ISs I think the rares are fine.

Charm of Biting, although I love the name, doesn’t feel like a worthy patron UR. It’s not powerful nor is it fun/unique.

Charm of Sacrifice feels extremely weak. But the Patron completion tokens seem to fluctuate quite a bit, so I'm not certain if it is just due to that or if it is truly underpowered. As a 1/game effect, I'd question if maybe it should be an FoP instead of a Charm. Even as an FoP though, it still feels weak, considering FoP Dog is a 3* that gives someone else 4 without sacrificing but at the cost of being limited classes. It feels like a UR should probably be healing more in exchange for the sacrifice aspect. Maybe heal 15 at a cost of 10? Yes, a full party could chain them so that everyone has netted 5. Or they could have used a Free action with a Grunnel Funnel to each suck down a 10pt heal instead.

I feel like you could take the three different +2 damage ioun stones and roll them into one general UR +2 damage one to give to volunteers.

Thoughts:

Primary Power Concern:
The +2 damage Iouns. These may undermine your PYP sales of a +2 Ioun in Ur. Additionally, we've had a +2 Ioun for melee already in completion, and we've had a +2 Fire Ioun in UR. I'd recommend either picking Ranged to be in completion token OR UR this year, not both.

General balance

Earcuff of the Garden is similar to Earcuff of the Sacred. Add -2 fire damage to it (for your fire theme) and it would be right in line with Earcuff of the Sacred.

bead of Health could be like the Charm of Good Health - +2 hp, +1 fort

Googles of Protection is an odd bonus for the eye slot. What about making them like Heimdal Sight, which is a staple in many current builds? +1 melee hit and see invisible if you want an exact duplicate, but could be something like Goggles of Anticipation: +1 melee hit, +1 ref save.

Maybe we should have a beryl prism type ioun in completion? Just +1 all saves, but it gets a different name out there. I don’t think the most recent reprint girl terribly well distributed either, given 2021 tokens limited release.

I feel like the Ring of Shadows needs more shadows, maybe put +1 Sneak Attack damage on there as well?

If you want to do three Ion Stones I would make them a set and give them a bonus:

+1 Fort Save
+1 Ref Save
+1 Will Save

+1 fire damage if you equip 2, +2 fire damage if you equip 3

I don't know if this is too powerful or too weak, but I think collecting the set through the year would be a lot of fun.

Edit: Anything that makes completion tokens fun is a good thing and should be the goal.

The Charm of Sacrifice does feel a little weak. But overall, it's a good batch of tokens and the change in participation tokens is probably for the best.

I really do like the split of the Ruby Ioun Stones. Too many "ranged" attack tokens lets wizards 'double dip' on casting spells or using a physical ranged weapon. It's at a point where I can throw Thor's hammer and do almost as much damage as casting a spell. At least splitting them between melee, missiles and spell damage requires a more definitive choice.

I like this set a lot!

The Expert bracers / gloves seem really great for new players; I might be tempted to add a third Expert item with +1 to STR/DEX and make a set bonus.

Thanks for the changes to the damage Iouns, I appreciate spell and missile getting a bite at the apple.

I'm not too worried about proliferation of Ioun damage boosters, because at some point you run out of slots to equip them all, and I think we're just about there:
* If you equipped all melee boosting Iouns prior to this one you'd already be taking up 7 Ioun Slots, and you probably also want to use 3 treasure Iouns outside of Grind
* So even today if you max out all your Ioun's expanders up to 9 slots, you still can't equip all the TE nuggets and all the Melee boosting Iouns, so adding more +2 damage Melee Ioun's doesn't really change much in my opinion, other than make them more accessible to new players (who don't have access to stuff like Ioun Stone Onyx Cube/Sphere).

One of the UR’s has stars around the token, the other has circles…

Lots of great rare options coming!

Charm of Biting - This needs stars along its border instead of pips. It is also weak for a UR regardless of source. If there are 3 rares doing +2 damage for one type of attack, this feels like it would be fine at +2 damage.

Charm of Sacrifice - At UR and only 1/game, I think this should be an instant action. I think of sacrifice like the Paladin power, so if 5 damage were to about to kill another player, I could leap in the way and save them, but taking 10 myself.

Phil

Charm of Sacrifice is similar to ...

Bring back Gem of Fiendish Bargain!

It looks cooler, has a cooler name, has a more interesting cost. Being slotless is kind of bad, but why would I use a charm slot on this?

Since there is already a rare earcuff which grants +2HP and a completion earcuff which adds 2HP and reduces Darkrift damage, it feels like the Earcuff of the Garden (and Bead of Health) could do with a bit of a boost. Could they be increased to grant 3HP instead of 2?

Charm of Biting is interesting, but it feels closer in power level to a Rare than an UR. Would it be too good if it added +1 to hit as well?

Charm of Sacrifice might be good if it were a loss of 10HP to heal another character for 10HP. It would still likely not see much play since it takes up a charm slot and those are pretty competitive, but would be an interesting and fairly unique ability which I think would be about the right power level for an UR if this change were made.