SDE Monsters 05 - Necromancer, Witches and Toads

Here is my first review of the monsters and villains from the Von Drakk Manor set - a Dust Coven Necromancer, 2 Curse Coven Witches and 2 Miserable Toads.

Dust Coven Necromancers can often be seen lurking among the many crypts and mausoleums dotting the land, cackling madly as they go about their grim work. So inevitable is the reanimation of the  dead in the moorlands that many wealthy families employ their own necromancers. Ensuring that if their ancestors are to be counted among the walking dead at least they will remain in service to their kith and kin.

Despite being a Witch Minion, the Dust Coven Necromancer spawns from the Shallow Grave Spawning Point. He is quite a handful with 3 Wounds, 3 Actions per turn and costing 3 Skulls to spawn. His one ability is Magic:8, giving him a range of 8 squares. He has no Special Attacks but 3 Special Actions. First up is Mend Bones. This ability, more commonly known as Raise, has a range of 6 squares and will replace the target Bone Pile counter with a model that has the Risen ability (all skeletons have this ability). The counter is then removed from play. If a model is in the same square as as the target counter Raise has no effect. Tide of Bones works in a similar manner but affects all Bone Piles in a 2 square wave. Finally, Renewed Vigour is an Augment effect which can Compel friendly targets to move up to three squares in any direction away from the Necromancer. This could be useful in moving Bone Piles away from or into the paths of Heroes.

The Curse Coven is a favourite of witches far and wide. Indeed, most witches have dabbled in curses. It is easy to find great pleasure in curdling toddlers' milk, giving a fussy aunt the farts, or just turning someone into a good old fashioned toad.

The Curse Coven Witch is a Witch Denizen and comes with 2 Actions per turn, 2 Wounds and a cost of 2 Skulls to spawn. She starts with three abilities - Fly, Magic:6 and Potion:1. Potion:1 grants her 1 Potion when she enters play. She may spend it in the same manner as a normal potion but once used it may not be regained by dice rolls. Her Potion is especially annoying. It is called Transmogrify and can Shapeshift a target model in melee with her into a Miserable Toad. She also has one Special Attack which costs 2 actions to use - Shocking Bolt. This adds +1 red die to her Will stat and in addition to causing a Wound also Stuns and Knockdowns a target model.

A Miserable Toad cannot be spawned. It can only enter play if the Curse Coven Witch uses her Transmogrify Potion. Also, Miserable Toad is played by the hero who got transformed not the Consul.

A Miserable Toad has 5 Wounds, 3 Actions per turn. Its stats are 1 blue die for Attack (very poor), an Armour value of 0 (ouch!), a Will of 2 blue dice (average) and a Dex of 3 blue dice (above average).

It has three abilities - Dodge, Small and Smooches. Dodge is very useful as it may use its Dex stat when making defence rolls unless it is suffering from Immobile, Knockdown or Stun. Small means it may only be targeted by melee attacks. Finally, Smooches allows it to Shapeshift back to its original form, if a friendly model moves into an adjacent squares and spends one Action point to give it a kiss. And yes, one Miserable Toad can kiss another Miserable Toad.

Finally, Miserable Toad comes with one Special Attack - Sticky Tongue. This is a Missile attack with a range of 2 squares used against Dex and not Armour. If successful, Miserable Toad gains either one heart or one potion in addition to any that are rolled.
The Dust Coven Necromancer has the look of someone who is both mentally unstable and evil. He's a cool villain. To me, the two Witches look far too cute to be bad guys. Perhaps they're just being a pair of rebels working for the Consul. I love them both and yes, I did deliberately paint them very differently for identification purposes. As for the Miserable Toads, again they are great figures and again they are deliberately painted differently. Note that I gave them a coat of gloss version to give them that wet look. In one game I played the Witches used their Transmogrify Potions on both the Sister of Light and Von Wilder the Werewolf in the same turn. That was darned annoying as the Hero player but so much fun as the Consul. Fortunately for the Heroes, the Celestial Herald has able to give them a healing kiss on the following two turns.