It's no secret that a large proportion of the MCP community are of the mindset that Dr Voodoo is "above the curve" and my opinion is no different. I've come up against Dr Voodoo a fair amount recently and the more I play against him the more I'm convinced he's not just "above the curve" - he's on the verge of being totally broken.
Before I begin, I'd like to point out that my aim here isn't to be totally negative - I want to offer an overview of the character, my issues with him and my suggestions on how to balance him.
The Man Himself
So for those reading that are yet to come across Dr Voodoo, lets take a look at his card.
Doctor Voodoo's card does not change on his injured side - so what we see here on his healthy side is the same as on the flip side. Voodoo is a 4 threat character with 6 health on either side of his card. He's also a medium mover but he's on a medium base so can get across the board fairly quickly and at first glance his defence stats don't look all that impressive at 2/2/4 (more on this later).
Spirit Venom is Voodoo's builder which is a range 3 and 5 dice mystic attack which is fairly average for a 4 threat character. What makes this attack impressive is the Sap Power element - for every wild rolled the target character loses a power and Dr Voodoo gains it.
His spender for 3 power is Staff of Legba which is a range 2 and 7 dice mystic attack - again fairly average for a 4 threat character. This time instead of Sap Power we have Power Burn - the target character still loses power for each wild rolled - but instead of Voodoo gaining that power - the target takes a damage for each power lost instead. The target also doesn't gain power for the damage taken as a result of the power burn.
Moving on to Voodoo's powers the first of which is the infamous Possession. Voodoo may spend a number of power according to the targets threat level - if the target is within range 3 - Voodoo may transfer his Brother Daniel token to the target. The target then cannot interact, hold or contest objective tokens while it holds the Brother Daniel token - the only way to remove this is either by Voodoo recalling it - or by completely KO'ing Voodoo and removing him from the game.
Spiritual Strength is basically a character or terrain throw for 3 power. The size of the throw depends on whether Voodoo is holding the Brother Daniel token. Without the token - this is a Size 2 character or terrain throw. If Voodoo is holding the token, this goes up to a Size 3 terrain throw (but can still only throw size 2 characters).
Recall Spirit essentially lets Dr Voodoo recall the Brother Daniel token back to himself for 2 power.
So Spirit of Brother Daniel is where Dr Voodoo gets even more nutty, whilst Dr Voodoo is holding the Brother Daniel token he adds 2 dice to his defence and dodge rolls. So that pretty awful defence at 2/2/4 now goes up to an extremely good 4/4/6. This superpower also lets Voodoo recall his Brother Daniel token back for free in the power phase and avoid spending the 2 power on Recall Spirit during the turn. There's also a stipulation in this superpower that Voodoo can only hold is own Brother Daniel token - this basically ensures he cannot be Possessed by another Dr Voodoo. This power also lets Voodoo gain additional power for every roll that includes a skull.
So What's The Problem?
So, there's a couple of problems with Voodoo at present. The first is that he literally can do almost EVERYTHING. He can pack a punch, he can drain his target of power, whilst holding the Brother Daniel token he's extremely tanky, his medium move and medium base allows him and with addition of flight allows him to get across the field really quickly, he has access to both a character throw and a terrain throw, he's immune to both Incinerate and Hex (arguably the two best conditions in the game) and he can completely turn off objective play on a character by possessing them.
The next problem, is the fact his power generation is just SO good. The Sap Power on his builder on it's own is very good, but add into that equation the fact he's then getting additional power from rolling skulls in dice rolls (note this is on ANY roll - so this is for attacks, defence, dodges and interacts) means he's never short of power.
The biggest issue for me though is the combination of Possession and Spirit of Brother Daniel. Possession allows Doctor Voodoo to essentially turn a character off from objective play whilst it has the Brother Daniel token and then Spirit of Brother Daniel
then allows Voodoo to recall that token back in the power phase FOR FREE. This combined with the fact that Voodoo's power generation is so good - means that basically he's never short of power to possess. This usually leads into a combo of Voodoo activating last, possessing a target to stop them scoring that round and then simply recalling the token in the power phase so he has the additional defence dice for the next turn making him harder to remove from the board.
So How Do You Make Voodoo More Balanced?
There's a number of changes that could be made to balance Voodoo - the first and most simple change would be to limit his own power generation. At present, it's too easy for Voodoo to generate power through his builder and through rolling skulls - one of these needs to be removed.
OR
Another change I'd personally like to see is a change to the Spirit of Brother Daniel so Voodoo does not gain the additional dice on his defence and dodge rolls. This still allows the majority of Voodoo's mechanics to remain the same whilst also providing a better way to counter him. I also think the free recall of Brother Daniel should be removed thus forcing the controlling player to spend power on Recall Spirit should they want to return the token and move it onto another character.
Do you agree with the points I made in the article or do you feel differently? Do you think the changes I suggested would make Voodoo more balanced? Let me know!
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