And more fame titles

We’ve replaced the swordsman’s punt ability with a bull rush ability.

With bull rush, you can move into a 1 hp monster’s space and shove it backwards, then attack it with your sword (using modifiers based on your new location). Bull rushing requires an unoccupied space behind the monster. You can shove a non-floating monster into a pit to kill it and trigger a feat, but only if there is no space next to the pit into which you could otherwise shove the monster. You cannot bull rush monsters that start with more than 1 hit point or which are larger than humongous in size.

Shamblers, cave trolls and cave troll savages now have 2 hp, but lower stats. (So they are not bull rushable.)

And we added a new set of fame titles for high level players. After fame level 100, you get a new fame title each 5 levels (currently up to fame level 300).

I’ve used the bull rush and like it. You can attack a small adjacent monster and take it’s hex provided that one of the 3 hexes behind it is empty.

My first attack today was a Bull Rush of a hag witch. I think that is very appropriate.
I wonder what happens if you can do the Bull Rush on a hex but have two monsters in between that could be rushed there… In principle, because you have a feat aftwerwards, you can Bull Rush both. So one could do that directly?

Ok, I just created that case. You can choose and that is fine, because it might be better to not Bull Rush both.

Sounds interesting. Punt was always a bit underwhelming; I look forward to seeing how this goes.

It’s just too cool - to push a monster into a pit and then take out it’s comrade. I like it.

I only use the swordsman in the dragon caves, so I won’t get much chance to use it. But it replaces something of zero value, so that’s good.

As for upping shamblers to 2 HP, I’m surprised the dev team decided that the cavern level, with fireball-hurling hags and 2 HP monsters going up against a hero with +1 equipment, needed to be made harder.

Shamblers are very easy to make them work for the right side, so that 2 HP don’t bother me.
I trained Bull Rush yesterday a lot on the kobold hunt. It is indeed not so easy to master and anticipate all the possibilities to gain an additional press or even pit-fall. Especially this “no you can’t do that pit-fall from there, because there is an escape route next to it that belongs to the bullrushables” is complicated to foresee at the beginning. Maybe it is worth a try/discussion (as suggested in the other thread) to allow the pitfall only for straight bull-rushs, but independent of neighbouring fields. I must say, that I hardly had any straight bull-rushs yet, because currently you would need two additional blocking fields. So that new pitfall-rush would be possible for very different cases.
A stronger skill-rule would allow pitfalls for all cases where a pit is given (of course) and the field directly behind the enemy is blocked. That would summarize both cases I discussed before.

I would give the dwarf Bull Rush and the Human Charge. If no other reason than the dwarf’s helmet.

I also thought that one time Dun. But that must be discussed in the whole concept for new skill system. Charge, Press, Free Swing, probably from sneak will be an insane attack and needs some balance. Maybe charge must then be reduced to +1 on attack.

I like how Bull Rush gives the Human more mobility. And being able to reliably trigger a Feat while being surrounded at the entrance to a room (if a pit is nearby) also opens up more options of “crowd control”. With Punt I would most likely not have reached even 60 crocodile teeth in today’s Hunt …

Allowing the pitfall only for a straight Bull Rush would make it useless when the enemy sits in a corner of the room next to a pit (also on the edge of the room). This would not be the case in Rellik Nogard’s suggested rule. And it is easier to understand. But it might make Bull Rush a bit too powerfull … so I’m not sure the rule should be changed at all.

Having played the swordsman with Bull Rush a while now, Bull Rush makes a big difference to the play, especially once you get the hang of anticipating when you can push into a pit. Being able to push out of a crowded attack to where you can get full swing and avoid the remaining hits is a big help. As is being able to advance towards missile monsters while attacking. And if you’re lucky enough to be able to line your monsters up at the edge with a long pit to the side…

(I suspect they upped Shamblers to 2HP so you can’t Bull Rush them into a pit to kill them. They live in the pits - it doesn’t make sense for that to work. Plus they were only 4/2 enemies before like firebugs and spiders; not really worthy of being an unlock part way through the game.)