Well, why not?..1. Pawn 2/13 - when kills creature, turns into Queen 8/44.
2. Knight 5/16 - when enters the game, deals 4 damage to neighbors of neighbors of opposite creature.
3. Bishop 3/23 - when attacks, deals the same damage to neighbors of opposite creature.
4. Rook 8/30 - no abilities =)
5. Gambit - sacrifices target creature, destroys strongest (by level) enemy creature.
6. Castling - player and target friendly creature switch hp.
7. Queen 8/44 - when enters the game, instantly attacks all enemies.
8. King 4/49 - gives to owner 2 power of his lowest element every turn (and when summoned) When killed by creature, halves hp of his owner.
Modified by Sinist on 2014-08-20 08:36:16
Very cool ideas; possibly my favorite implementation of Chess creatures I've seen in a class suggestion (because there have been a lot of them). But most of the creatures are way too powerful, and there are a couple of other playability problems.
1: Perfect concept for a pawn - but way too powerful. Compare to Timeblazer, 4/11 and gives you 2 special mana. This could easily become a Queen or King instead. Even a Rook would be insanely good. Way, way too good. How about making it a 1/15 that automatically becomes an 8/44 Queen if it kills a creature? That would make it much harder to set up, and offer an appropriate reward. (Also, what happens if it kills a level 5 or 6 creature?)
2: I'm assuming that as long as there are creatures in the "L-targeted" slot, it will do damage (that is, your opponent does not need three consecutive creatures in play in order to trigger the damage). If I'm correct, this effect is too powerful. Compare the 4-cost Fire Drake, which requires you to have the opposing slot open. Knight does all this and more, with its ability to support another creature by dealing damage to that creature's opposing slot. 3/17 with 3 damage would probably be fair. I do think the idea is cool.
3: It's dealing damage to your creatures too? If so, it's almost unusable. If not, it's a bit overpowered.
4: 9/35 for 4 special mana? Really? This guy is way too beastly! Compare Wolverine (Cost 3, 6/22), Death Falcon (Cost 5, 7/42), Bargul (Cost 8, 8/25), Angel (Cost 4, 8/42, with a malus of needing to bottle 7 mana), Emissary of Dorlak (Cost 4, 7/45 with a strong malus) and Troll (Cost 8, maybe 6/40 in practice). These are the closest "beefy creatures with neutral or no effects" that I can come up with, and they all pale in comparison to Rook. 8/30 would be quite strong.
5: I think the balance is about right, but I'm not really crazy about this kind of direct creature destruction, especially since it doesn't play well into the damage theme in Knight and Bishop. It's not a bad idea, but it's not great, either.
6: It's a very interesting concept in that you can sacrifice your own health to buff an important creature like Astral Guard if you really need to. More often, it will probably be used as a Rejuvenation type of effect, at the cost of a beefy creature's health. I think it could stand to be a little cheaper to bring out its more creative uses, but you'd have to be careful with the balance. Still, it's an awesome idea.
7: So 8 damage to all enemies when it comes out, and then an 8/44. Reminds me of an underpowered Master Lich or Steam Tank. Kind of ho-hum.
8: Giving power to the lowest element is neat and it would certainly jump-start Elementals. I don't like the "halves HP of owner when it dies" effect - I know you lose Chess when you lose your King, but fun, balanced gameplay is a lot more important than aesthetic theming. Maybe only have it do this effect if the King dies to a creature attack. But in any case, I think it's a little underpowered. The closest thing I can compare it to is Insanian Lord (a relatively weak card), and even though the two are different in some ways, I think I'd prefer the I-Lord in most cases. By the way, the "when dies" effect gives it horrible synergy with Castling. Was this intentional?
I think I came off more negative than I meant to. Several cool ideas are in this class and I think it can be made into something very good.
Note: This review is based off of an older version of the class before changes were made.Modified by Wavelength on 2014-08-21 04:07:45
Okay, I think the class is looking a lot better now, balance-wise. Thanks for taking so many of my suggestions. Queen's probably okay; I didn't realize that "all enemies" included the opponent's life as well.