New Passive Abilities

[EvaRia]

Passives.

One of the more disregarded elements of card design, the vast majority of Card Ideas in the CIA section focus on active abilities.

However, the introduction of more passive abilities has the potential to provide more querks and uniqueness to various creatures.
Subtle insertion of passives can also be the difference that makes a card balance.

There are 3 basic goals of this project:

1. Brainstorm ideas for new passive abilities.
2. Discuss possible ways of applying these passives into the game. (New cards or existing cards).
3. Generate card ideas that successfully use these passive abilities.

Here's a start -

Some basic passive abilities that could add another layer of uniqueness to some cards in the game.

Swift: Creatures with the Swift ability are not affected by Summoning Sickness.
Stumble: Creatures with the Stumble ability take an extra turn of Summoning Sickness.
Evasive: Creatures with the Evasive ability are missed 50% of the time when targeted.

[OldTrees]

Important Details about Passive abilities (although all members probably know these)
1) They cannot be lobotomized (Web vs Airborne is an exception)
2) Creatures can have any number of passive abilities
3) Passive Abilities must be Named

Great Idea for a thread EvaRia.

From my point of view, passive abilities rarely are the center of a card and thus do not make a good starting point for designing a specific card. However a list of well thought out passives with estimated Cost adjustments would be a valuable asset to card design.

I would suggest that we also split the list up between Buff, Neutral and Debuff types of passives.

Debuff
Infected X: Starts the game with X infection. Typically X would be 1.
Hungry X: Absorbs X random quanta per turn. Typically X would be 1.

Some select past ideas from here (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,5921.0.html)

Recall: At the beginning of your turn, this creature returns to your hand.
Armor: Creatures with Armor have incoming damage reduced by X per source, just like a shield for a player. (Grav, Earth, Light)
Run Away: If this creature has 1hp at the end of your turn its returned to your hand.
Lucky Shot: Flip the coin if heads the attack is doubled if tails it misses

[Flayne]

Regeneration: heals itself for 1 hp per turn

Phase: constantly becomes invisible every second turn

Immunity list:

Toughness: Immune to damaging spells/abilities
Uniqueness: Immune to stat changing spells/abilities
Barrier: Immune to status spells/abilities (frozen, poison etc.)

[OldTrees]

A good question to ask is: How powerful is too powerful for a passive ability?

[Flayne]

A good question to ask is: How powerful is too powerful for a passive ability?

When it does something direct, like for example: does 1 damage to a random enemy creature every turn.
thats direct and strong for a passive ability, best left for a high ability cost and once a turn use or an expensive spell that gives it that passive ability.

things like that are strong imo since they could possibly overshadow spells such as thunderstorm or rain of fire even; no cost and immediate? too strong.

[ZephyrPhantom]

More ideas:
Hard Hit - Might deal 1-2 extra damage per turn.
Haste - Can use ability when played - no summoning sickness.
Fragile - Dies in X turns.

[OldTrees]

A good question to ask is: How powerful is too powerful for a passive ability?

I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?

[Flayne]

A good question to ask is: How powerful is too powerful for a passive ability?

I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?

Like i said, when it does something that generally involves direct effects such as damage or effects such as Maxwells demon.
An OP passive ability version of Maxwells demon ability would be:

Paradox: If a creature with an attack higher than its defense enters the game, it dies instantly.
 
If that was the original design of its ability and had been implemented into the game, It would have been considered too strong for a passive and have been preferred to be an active skill with a cost, therefore it would have been changed.

[OldTrees]

A good question to ask is: How powerful is too powerful for a passive ability?

I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?

Like i said, when it does something that generally involves direct effects such as damage or effects such as Maxwells demon.
An OP passive ability version of Maxwells demon ability would be:

Paradox: If a creature with an attack higher than its defense enters the game, it dies instantly.
 
If that was the original design of its ability and had been implemented into the game, It would have been considered too strong for a passive and have been preferred to be an active skill with a cost, therefore it would have been changed.

Flayne, you misread the question so I rephrased it in a clearer manner.
I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?
Example Automatic Active: Momentum, Scavenger

[ZephyrPhantom]

A good question to ask is: How powerful is too powerful for a passive ability?

I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?

Like i said, when it does something that generally involves direct effects such as damage or effects such as Maxwells demon.
An OP passive ability version of Maxwells demon ability would be:

Paradox: If a creature with an attack higher than its defense enters the game, it dies instantly.
 
If that was the original design of its ability and had been implemented into the game, It would have been considered too strong for a passive and have been preferred to be an active skill with a cost, therefore it would have been changed.

Keep in mind that some passives are more powerful than actives - for example devourer's drain outclasses RoL/Damselfly/Gnome Rider/Ash Eater in most denial cases, with some differences like Adrenaline. Obession is also an example of a direct skill that can cause lots of damage.

I think a passive is sufficiently powerful enough that it does not overide the active's strength by too much (like Devourer), does not necessarily limit the card to just one use (GoTP is a good midhitter as well as a burn damage-type card), or only causes an impact when dealing with another card (for exampe Poisonous is only a slight immunity to Otyugh and some mutants, and Airborne is good against Vanadium Wardens and Wings).

In most cases, a passive ability should not need to be directly lobotomized in order to cause a turnaround in the game. For example Devourer and Ghost of the Past's passives can be stopped by Sanctuary (GoTP Nightmare combo can - played GoTP's can be eliminated with Fire Shield and AoE CC), while Poisonous creatures can be killed by other means of CC. Airborne creatures are the exception with Web, but I believe this is more Zanz's idea to get Airborne more involved in general into the metagame unlike most passives.

[Flayne]

A good question to ask is: How powerful is too powerful for a passive ability?

I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?

Like i said, when it does something that generally involves direct effects such as damage or effects such as Maxwells demon.
An OP passive ability version of Maxwells demon ability would be:

Paradox: If a creature with an attack higher than its defense enters the game, it dies instantly.
 
If that was the original design of its ability and had been implemented into the game, It would have been considered too strong for a passive and have been preferred to be an active skill with a cost, therefore it would have been changed.

Flayne, you misread the question so I rephrased it in a clearer manner.
I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?
Example Automatic Active: Momentum, Scavenger

You mean:
A passive ability = airborne, not lobotomizable
Automatic active ability = momentum, lobotomizable

am I correct now?

[OldTrees]

A good question to ask is: How powerful is too powerful for a passive ability?

I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?

Like i said, when it does something that generally involves direct effects such as damage or effects such as Maxwells demon.
An OP passive ability version of Maxwells demon ability would be:

Paradox: If a creature with an attack higher than its defense enters the game, it dies instantly.
 
If that was the original design of its ability and had been implemented into the game, It would have been considered too strong for a passive and have been preferred to be an active skill with a cost, therefore it would have been changed.

Flayne, you misread the question so I rephrased it in a clearer manner.
I mean when is a passive too powerful that it should become an Automatic Active ability instead of a Passive abiltiy?
Example Automatic Active: Momentum, Scavenger

You mean:
A passive ability = airborne, not lobotomizable
Automatic active ability = momentum, lobotomizable

am I correct now?

Yes.

@ZBlader could you give hypothetical examples of when a Passive is just barely too powerful to remain a passive?