Greeting,
Since there were so many posts relating to possible new abilities these days, I would also like to join this interesting party.
Most of my ideas, explicitly or implicitly, come from the game that I played before : Gloomhaven, Mythgard, Hearthstone, Kard, Starcraft, etc.
(1) Baneling :
Ability Type : After Death
Ability : Baneling : die after its attack, having some negative effect on all adjacent units
Possible race : arachnids
I’ll start with those I might have discussed somewhere else. Like the banelings in Starcraft II, this card could force the opponent to separate their army, or even sacrifice some of their unit beforehand. However, to balance this new ability with old Infection Zone Steadfastness, which both belong to the ability type after death, perhaps we could add that their negative effect would damage or reduce the states of our own units. It would be fun if we have some units whose attack or ability are nondiscriminatory.
(2) Plague:
Ability Type : After Death
Ability : Plague : negative effect on adjacent (enemy’s) units, this effect would spread under certain conditions.
Possible race : arachnids
I also mentioned this one on Timber’s stream once. This ability could bring counter measurement against tank build in nowadays, by forcing the enemy to split up their army. The condition to spread depends on balancing reason, I think something like staying together over two rounds might be an option.
(3) Parasite:
Ability Type : After Death
Ability : Parasite, put a parasite on adjacent units after its death. The Parasite will grow for two or three turns, after that, it would come through the victim’s body and take over the control of that unit.
Possible Race : Arachnids
Like the parasite in the alien movie or something similar, it would be fun to play if there are some mechanics that could make units change side. For balancing issues, the parasite should need some period to grow, which makes the opponent have time to deal with it rather than have a huge threat right in the middle of his/her army. I should, of course, add that this ability should not affect the hero or the guardian.
(4) Summoner :
Ability Type : Fellowship influence (follow Erbol’s idea)
Ability : Summoner
Possible race : Naphas or Arachnids?
Cards would create a summon when deploy on the board, it should be in the adjacent hexagon. Only one of them can act in each turn, they both can attack or move. Summon will die if the summoner is killed, but not in reverse. Summoner should have relatively poor states.
(5) Solidarity :
Ability Type : Fellowship influence
Ability : Solidarity
Possible race : all?
Cards in fellowship relationship could also add some interaction between them in the game. For example, they should feel grief when their important others perish : they could thus suffer from states drop (since their moral has been destroyed), or perhaps enhance their states (since they want to revenge), or even just die together (since their relationship is that indivisible)
(6) Aura :
Ability Type : enhancement
Ability : Aura
Possible race : all
Not longing to be as an exclusive ability for guardians, we could add something more on this ability type. We could for example give an areal enhancement to some pioneer, master, or hero so that they can enhance their adjacent allies whenever they go, such as one damage buff, one damage shield (comes from Pugnobon’s idea). This enhancement is not permanent. The states will change whenever the unit leave the aura or the aura carrier is dead.
I just found out that most of my proposition are for arachnids. Vive les arachnids!