Frosthaven Deathwalker Class Overview

Today I’m going to be covering the class that my wife, Wendy, played during our Frosthaven demo. The Deathwalker. A very intense name for a class that is, in some ways, a lot simpler than the Geminate. The Deathwalker’s key mechanic revolves around placing shadow tokens on the board. Once placed, the Deathwalker can use these tokens to do things like teleport across the board, buff and heal allies and attack enemies.

And you will want to get those shadow tokens out as fast as possible. You’re damage potential and utility are going to be directly proportional to how many tokens you’ve got out and where they are placed. As such the Deathwalker is a class that can really benefit from a party that can buy her some time while she gets set up.

With only six health to start with, you’re going to rely heavily on your shadow tokens to warp around the map and quickly escape combat range. You’ll also have a range of powers that let you deal damage to enemies that just happen to be next to one of your tokens. This is great. Because unlike a ranged attack, you don’t need line of site.

But let’s get into the cards!

We’ll start with Black Barrage. A fairly straightforward card with a nice, speedy 28 initiative.

The top half lets you deal 2 damage to anyone up to 4 spaces away from you. Like I said, pretty straightforward. You may consume a dark element, if available, to boost your damage and range by one each, and get an experience point.

The bottom half is something we’re going to see repeated on a few of your cards. It lets you move all of your shadow tokens up to two spaces. Again, since you’re going to be relying on those tokens to both warp around and deal damage to distant enemies, being able to reposition them will be important.

Next we’ve got Lingering Rot.

A bit slow with an initiative of 64. But it packs a punch.

Three damage and a poison debuff on all adjacent enemies. But here’s the tricky bit. Rather than being adjacent to you. You get to pick one of your shadow tokens and hit the enemies adjacent to it. This consumes the token, for now. But, hopefully, you just debilitated a pretty significant group of enemies without moving near them.

The bottom half is a straightforward movement of three, with the added bonus of being able to poison anyone 1 space away from where you stop.

Did I mention that in addition to everything else you can use shadow tokens for, you can also use them to summon shadow beasts?

The top half of Sunless Apparition lets you do just that. Consume an adjacent shadow token and you’ve got yourself a summon that can move three spaces and deal three damage. They’re quite squishy, though, with only one HP. So be careful how you deploy them.

Bonus. You also get a XP for using this power.

The bottom half lets you pick up loot. But it also lets you teleport to one of your existing shadow tokens.

The big drawback here is the incredibly slow 96 initiative. Basically guaranteeing that you’ll be going last.

Remember when I said you would want to get as many shadow tokens out as quickly as possible?

The top half of Strength of the Abyss lets you boost your attack damage, based on how many tokens you’ve currently got out on the map.

The bottom half is similar, but it’s an ongoing buff. Once activated, it lets you consume a shadow token within three spaces of you to gain an experience and buff either your movement or damage by two.

Everything about this card is more powerful, the more shadow tokens you have on the map.

With an initiative of 50, placing it squarely in the middle.

Call of the Abyss is a reliable way to get some of those shadow tokens on the board.

With an initiative of 86, it’s another very slow card.

The top half lets you mark a target. If that target dies, you get a place a shadow token in the hex it just occupied or one next to it. The great thing here is that this work for both you and your summons.

The bottom half just lets you place a token within two spaces of your character.

Next up, we’ve got Fluid Night. Possibly the MVP of the bunch here.

A very speedy 24 initiative means you’ll be going pretty early in the turn order.

The top half of the card is a devastating five damage attack. But, again, you get to use this attack as if you were occupying a token space. You also put a dark element on the board and get an experience point.

The bottom half is an equally impressive buff. Once activated, if you would take damage, you can teleport away to a shadow token, instead and negate the damage. The token is consumed in the process.

The fact that this card gives you options for using shadow tokens to both deal a pretty significant hit and avoid damage altogether, make it a must use.

Next we’ve got Eclipse.

Another very slow card with an 86 initiative.

The top half is a burner. But it lets you place three shadow tokens at once, all within 3 hexes of your character. Plus, it puts a dark element on the board.

The bottom half is a no-frills four movement. Not very exciting. But it’s a significant single movement card.

Anger of the Dead, however, is very exciting.

At 14 initiative, this is the fastest card in your deck.

The top half is a pretty standard two damage at up to two range. However, you can consume any number of shadow tokens within three hexes of your character to buff this attack. For each token consumed, you get to add one damage, once range, one armor piercing and one XP. Again, with enough shadow tokens on the board, this could turn into a pretty devastating hit.

The bottom half lets you wound all enemies currently standing on a hex with a shadow token. That’s not all though. Any enemy who enters a hex with a shadow token, this round, will also get wounded.

A great card!

Next we’ve got Shadow Step.

Another very fast card at 19 initiative.

The top half starts with a movement of three. However, you must end in a space with a token. Then, you can perform a three damage attack.

The bottom half is a burner. But it lets you perform a huge, six movement. Dropping a shadow token in the space you land on.

Call of Doom has a respectable 32 initiative.

The top half allows you to perform a single damage hit on all enemies adjacent to one of your tokens. Additionally, you can consume a dark element to muddle those same enemies.

The bottom half is a pretty standard three movement, with the bonus of adding a dark element to the board.

Finally, we’ve got Dark Fog, with a slightly above average initiative of 46.

The top half is a burner. But you get a very respectable hit out of it.

A three damage area of effect attack, hitting up to three targets in a three hex pattern up to three hexes away from your character. That’s a lot of threes. You also get to curse any enemies that you hit, put a dark element on the board and grab an experience point.

Not bad for a burner. But you’ll likely want to hang onto this one for the bottom half.

It lets you move one of your tokens up to five hexes. Again, given how reliant this character is on those tokens, this ability could be fairly strategically important.