Lief is the guardian outdoorsman. He seeks a cure to the disease of nature randinium ravaging his home, and hopes to find out more about his apparent immunity to its effects.
At first glance, you’d think his low wither resistance is a detriment; however, his One With the World allows him to turn the wither penalty into destructive bonus damage. To enhance this further, Bear the Burden can channel incoming elemental damage into his wither stack, making him an unassuming damage-dealing machine.
Stats #
Health: 17
Resistance:
| Burn | Wither | Freeze | Poison |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
Dice:
- 1x Nature D6
- 2x Normal D4
Starting tricks #
One With the World
Bear the Burden
One With the World #
A representation of Lief’s attunement with nature randinium, this passive trick will cause his nature dice will deal additional damage while he’s withered. The bonus damage is capped to the stack, and will reduce the stack on hit. For example, with 4 wither stack, my 6-value nature die will deal 10 damage and reduce my stack to 0, clearing the debuff.
Bear the Burden #
Augmenting the peculiar ability of One With the World, this charge trick allows Lief to channel incoming elemental damage from enemy attacks into his wither stack. The regular effect will move 50% of the stack damage into wither, but the overcharge will move 100% of it, making it an excellent defensive and offensive tool. In addition, the overcharge effect will double the incoming wither stack from enemies’ nature dice.
Strategy #
At first, you’re going to be very tempted to gain as much wither stack as you can in battles, but in practice, it’s a bit more difficult than that. Oftentimes, you’ll be relying on your single nature D6 to block damage, which will raise your wither resistance and thus diminish the effectiveness of One With the World in the next round. Getting additional nature dice will compound this problem, but sticking with just the one may limit your damage output. Moreover, since you’ll be withering enemies a lot, the amount of elemental damage they’ll throw at you is likely to be diminished in the first place. Balancing all these variables is a challenge, but a very rewarding one.
Additionally, burn is absolutely devastating for Lief, and it can become relentless in certain battles. Don’t get too reliant on Bear the Burden to get around it – it is a charge trick after all, so you won’t have access to it at all times. Withering enemies will provide some protection, but definitely consider transforming one of your normal dice into fire to better protect yourself.
Deus Ex Natura #
Lief’s expert tricks pushes his manipulation of nature to the next level. It’s a once per round trick that has two distinct effects – which one triggers depends on whether your wither stack is higher than your resistance, and vice versa.
If your stack is higher, it will transfer your stack into block and resistance. If your resistance is higher, it transfers your resistance into your stack.
This gives you complete control over your wither, and consequently, One With the World. Managed to find yourself with more stack than you can dish back out with your nature dice? No problem; Deus Ex Natura’s got you covered. Have no source of wither stack, but have a nice big nature die still left to allocate? Block with it, then transfer it to your stack ready for next turn.
One thing you’ll have to watch out for is if you manage to get your stack to equal your resistance – that means this trick won’t be usable. This usually won’t be an issue if you don’t upgrade your resistance, but as anyone who’s fought ACACIA as Lief knows, that may not be a wise decision in the long-term.
Upgrades #
- Health +2: Reach the Zero-Sum Singularity
- Health +2: Deal 20 bonus damage with One With the World in one round
- Gems +100: Spend 5,000 gems at the shop
- Gems +100: Spend 20,000 gems at the shop
- Trick (Deus Ex Natura): Divert 20 stack damage to wither in one round with Bear the Burden
- Gambit (Entangle I): Upgrade 25 gambits at the laboratory
- Gambit (Macrocosm I): Activate 100 gambits
- Burn Resistance +1: Wither A C A C I A
- Freeze Resistance +1: Have at least 10 nature dice in your tray
- 1x Nature D6 → 1x Nature D8: Upgrade 50 dice at the forge