Light beams down through the trees on what should be a peaceful afternoon. A goblin sneers and chuckles as it scurries away with every valuable and scrap of food a nearby farmhouse had to offer.
An arrow whizzes through the air with fine precision and strikes down its target in an instant. The Ranger is nowhere to be seen, hidden among the trees he knows so well. Now, confident his work is done, he hurries on to go find another minion causing havoc, not stopping for a moment.
This brave hero is not just any Ranger, but our Ranger.
Samil was born and raised in Father Oak Forest. He grew up hearing tales of the Rangers from birth. Their oath to protect the land and the people in it. Their ability to strike down from afar. Their seemingly endless knowledge of how to defend the world around them. The travel and sights they see along the way.
Samil knew it was his calling, and enlisted among the Rangers as the youngest scout yet. Years of training and tireless working later, he’s ready to prove himself as part of this group of noble people.
Today, we’re going to be looking at Samil the Ranger to understand how panels work, as well as discuss a few of the nitty gritty rules and details of Defenders of the Realm: Legends Edition. If you’re excited to check out the campaign, be sure to follow us here! There will be plenty more to come before the campaign goes live.
Like all characters in the game, Samil’s panel has three actions you can take at the top.
Samil’s Actions
Child of the Forest
Child of the Forest Blesses in Green locations, perfect for a Ranger who’s grown up among the trees. Being Blessed allows you to succeed on Trait checks with a 4, 5, or 6 instead of just the latter two. But what are Traits? Thankfully, Samil’s next action helps us there, too.
Fey-Fire Arrow
Fey-Fire Arrow allows him to spend a coin to test his Skill. You can find his Skill and other traits in the top left corner with hand size underneath. In order, all traits are: Arcane, Might, and Skill. To test any of these, you roll the number of dice equal to the number listed. So, to test Skill, Samil rolls 3 dice. If one of those dice land on a 5 or a 6, that’s a win! Unless, of course, you’re Blessed thanks to Child of the Forest. Samil removes a Scourge (an ice or a curse) from a location if he’s successful.
Arboreal Advantage
And finally Arboreal Advantage gives him an advantage on being attacked. If you attack in an adjacent location, all Counter actions are reduced by one. He’s shooting from afar, and well hidden among the terrain. Good luck getting a clear shot, fiends!
Coins
Coins are good for more than just Samil getting rid of scourges! Coins, most importantly of all, let you re-roll dice. One coin equals one die to re-roll. There’s no limit to how many coins you can accumulate or spend in a single round. If you’ve got it and really want to go for those hits? Go for it! Knock ‘em out and take ‘em down!
The Hero Deck
Let’s move on to where the deck would rest. There are consequences for when one goes to draw a card and can’t! These consequences are different for every character, but all of them involve gaining some amount of Darkness, as well as a boon. Samil gains one Darkness for revealing the bottom of his deck, but he also gains 2 coins if he’s in a green location. Then, you shuffle the deck and continue to draw cards as needed. This is also where set-up instructions are!
Health and Heap
To the right of the panel, we have his Health tracker and Heap. Health works exactly like you think it does. One hit means the tracker goes down one point. If your hero reaches zero, you’re instantly teleported to Monarch City and can take no more actions until the next Dawn.
So, that one’s a little obvious, but what’s a Heap? Your Heap is similar to a discard pile, but distinctly different for this game. You do not discard cards until after the Darkness has been calculated at the Dark phase. The Heap is where you keep cards that have been played to be counted towards Darkness at the start of Dark. Discard goes to the left of the deck. That way, you can’t get your Heap and Discard confused!
Discard is where your cards go after they leave the Heap. They don’t go back into your deck until you’ve Revealed your panel by drawing all your cards and unable to draw the next.
Finishing The Panel
Finally, there’s just a little bit more information about characters at the bottom of the panel. Name, species, class. But you already knew all that, didn’t you?
Now that we’re finished with Samil’s panel, you’ll be able to better understand the other panels moving forward. There’s a lot less to define and understand now that you’ve got this under your belt. But! Each hero is different with different actions, traits, consequences, and more.
His cards for example are almost entirely long ranged attacks, shooting from one location away, with some up close attacks thrown in. Makes sense, right? Most of what a Ranger does is going to be from a distance, but still have the skill to be able to get up close and personal with them.
And, of course, he’s got some utility to go around, too. What good would a Ranger be if he couldn’t do anything? Personally, I take great advantage of his card that lets him teleport to any other green location. You’re usually not too far from a minion or boss that way. And, of course a Ranger can travel through the woods at lightning speed!
But, that is all for Samil for today. I know, you’re so excited to hear more! Our next update features the terrible, the terrifying Azzoz the Accursed. Until then, you can check out more about the campaign here! Be sure to sign up to be notified as soon as it goes live!