Sadist
Alert
Destroy
Control
Type
Power to Torment
Gains Power By Inflicting Pain
After each warpfall, use this power to target one alien and ravage one of their ships. Gain one boon for every four ships that alien has in the warp.
As the invader, if an alien’s power is deactivated, you may ignore destiny and target that alien’s system for invasion.
Legacy: After every warpfall, aliens with fewer than 8 ships in the warp must each destroy a ship.
A merciless blackguard that likens the screams of innocents as ambient background music, the Sadists wish to rule only to increase the total amount of suffering they can inflict. All else is a secondary concern.
Any: Warpfall
Mandatory
Wild Flare
Whenever you would destroy one or more other aliens’ ships, either through an aspect or the result of an encounter, you may discharge this flare to draft one pod per alien that loses ships.
Any: Any
Super Flare
When using your power, you may discharge this flare to target an additional alien and ravage one of their ships before gaining boon(s).
Any: Warpfall
Modifications
- Original Sadist has the power to “Inflict Pain.” It reflects original Masochist’s power to “Hurt Yourself”, but I opted to go for something snappier for both.
- Original Sadist’s power is an alt-win condition that lets Sadist declare victory if all other aliens have 8 or more ships in the warp. I modified it in accordance with my “no alt win powers” edict.
- Original Super Sadist activates during warpfall to choose any alien to revive ships while choosing a different alien to lose one in its place. It’s effective for the original Sadist power, but I don’t think it fits the power to have Sadist helping other aliens, even if it can target itself.
- Sadist’s legacy honors the tradition of inflicting pain by making everyone lose a ship until everyone has at least 8 ships in the warp. I like it as a throwback to the original power that wants all aliens to have 8 ships in the warp, and it works pretty well as a legacy, giving everyone effectively 8/12 ships but at a slow enough rate that someone could win before feeling the full force of it. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- Sadist gets the most boons from focusing down a single alien with a large number of ships in the warp. It can also choose to spread out the destruction to maintain its
- When opposing Sadist, be very careful with your ship count. If you get into the danger zone, Sadist can focus you down and deactivate/eliminate you, especially with other ship destruction aspects in effect.
- Sadist’s primary power leads into the secondary aspect. Since deactivated aliens are likely to be weaker, Sadist may wish to target them. However, Sadist still has the choice to follow destiny if it doesn’t like its odds.
- Since Sadist’s ability to focus down an enemy cannot be avoided, the only way to get around it is to either win before Sadist can take you out or earn ships through warpfall, lucre, or boons to nullify it. If you don’t have the most ships in the warp, Sadist is more likely to ignore you. Take advantage of that to try and fly under the radar. Or get on Sadist’s good side to make it choose to target someone else.
Development Notes
- If Masochist and Genius cannot take the crown for worst alt-win alien, then it would definitely go to Sadist. While it does have the ability to work toward both of its win conditions at once, the destiny limitation makes it unable to focus down an enemy without drawing the right pods. Especially with my version, where sponsors aren’t known until after arrival. Sadist is also hard-countered by too many aliens that either protect ships or easily pull them from the warp, such as Benefactor, Healer, Zombie, Wormhole, Love, Observer, original Bulwark. It doesn’t have much going for it, and mechanically it raises questions about why its win condition gives it a win.
- When redesigning this power, I wanted to ask myself what kind of Cosmic match a sadist would love. It would probably be one where everyone else was losing a bunch of ships and Sadist, by comparison was not. The ability to pick at someone’s ship count is what came to mind, making ships more valuable as a resource if Sadist is involved.
- I also wanted to make sure Sadist and Masochist had a good dynamic, as the two parallel well with each other. Sadist inflicts pain while Masochist loves being in pain. So if Sadist keeps inflicting pain on Masochist, both end up rich in resources.
- I had to ask myself the same question I asked Masochist. Inflicting pain makes Sadist “happy”, but what does that mean mechanically? Do they get dominion? Combat power? Authority? Lucre? I ultimately decided boons make the most sense for both in the same vein as Ghoul. If their power grants them the same kind of energy that Ghoul gets from feasting, an energy that can either be forged into a pod or revive a ship from the warp, I think that makes sense as a means of framing these sorts of boon-granting powers universally. It makes them distinct from bonuses, in that they’re creating the energy themselves instead of being granted something as payment.
- Sadist and Assassin have an interesting dynamic, since both take the role of destroying one ship per encounter. Unlike Assassin, Sadist isn’t limited by destiny and actually gets something for its effort. However, Sadist cannot snipe, and the ability to choose a target makes Sadist more targetable as an enemy. A Sadist is more hateable than a natural disaster.
- Sadist makes any ship-destruction power more of a threat, which extends to special destruction powers like Void and Fungus. Sadist’s power activates on “loss”, not specifically destruction. Also, poison damage destroys two ships instead of one.