The Savage Frontier of the Sword Coast can be a dangerous place. At the junction of the Long Road and Evermoor Way, the town of Triboar seeks the aid of heroes. Bandits have begun to assail the small town while the citizens are meant to prepare for the Highharvestide Festival...

Highharvestide 3 sees the beginning of Year 3 Events and the introduction of one of the fiercest and most loyal allies to the Companions of the Hall: Thibbledorf Pwent, Dwarven Battlerager! Our first Y3 Event also brings back the Y2 and Y1 Champions to unlock: Stoki, the Rock Gnome Monk, and Farideh, the Tiefling Warlock. For more information about how Y3 Events work, check out our Year 3 Events Dev Blog.

Players have until Monday, October 7th at 12PM Pacific to complete their Highharvestide 3 unlocks and objectives.

New Champion: Thibbledorf Pwent

Despite a reputation as a loud, gruff, and stinky dwarf who hates bathing, Thibbledorf Pwent is a loyal and beloved member of Clan Battlehammer. Known as 'Pwent' to his friends, he leads the Gutbusters of Mithral Hall, a dwarven battlerager squad focused on direct combat with little regard for their own safety. He wears armor completely covered in spikes to help rend the flesh of his enemies, and in the midst of battle Pwent often falls into a bloodrage, doing anything to protect his allies.

While not an official member of the Companions of the Hall, Pwent will always aid his King when possible — even beyond death...

Thibbledorf Pwent is a Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian and Support Champion. His attacks cause enemies to bleed, he can boost ally damage for adjacent Champions, and he greatly buffs dwarves and Companions of the Hall members in the formation. When you want to add Thibbledorf to your party, you may swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

For more information about our latest Champion, check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: Thibbledorf Pwent dev blog!

Year 2 Champion: Farideh

Abandoned as an infant and adopted by an outcast dragonborn warrior, Farideh grew to adulthood acutely aware of the drawbacks of being a tiefling. Despite doing everything she could to reassure her neighbors, including keeping her wild twin sister, Havilar, out of trouble, the villagers focused on Farideh as the one who would embrace the dark side of herself. They weren’t wrong.

When Havilar tried to summon an imp to practice her blade on, she drew the attention of Lorcan, a cambion looking to make warlock pacts with the descendants of one of the first Infernal warlocks, the Brimstone Angel. But Havilar was always meant for the glaive--and Farideh would do anything to keep her sister safe. While Lorcan, Asmodeus, and the Nine Hells do their utmost to corrupt her, Farideh isn’t interested in power so much as defending the world from demons, the undead, and any other villains trying to bring trouble or drag her friends and family into danger. Even being made the Chosen of Asmodeus--something Asmodeus isn’t going to explain to Farideh or anybody else--just means she has more magic to turn against the powers of evil.

Farideh is a DPS Champion with a tank-synergy twist. She attacks using Scorching Ray and will use Hellish Rebuke against enemies who attack either her or adjacent Champions. When you want to add Farideh to your party, you can swap her with Minsc (Slot 7).

For more information about Farideh, check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: Farideh dev blog!

Year 1 Champion: Stoki

Born Stami Gackle, she fled her home after a terrible accident at a young age and joined a monastery of the Even Hand to study ki. An adept monk and extremely capable adventurer, her thoughtful approach to problems has earned her a reputation as an uncommonly stoic Rock Gnome.

Stoki is a DPS and Support Champion, able to attack multiple enemies. Furthermore, enemies damaged by Stoki will drop additional gold when killed. When you want to add Stoki to your party, you can swap her with Jarlaxle (Slot 4).

Year Three Variants

• Underdark Reinforcements — Drow cultists appear alongside the enemies in each area, seeking to further Loth's dominion. Each cultist deals double damage. Additionally, they can only be damaged once they have been bled by Thibbledorf.
  Reach Area 75.


• The Plague Cometh — Cursed Cows spawn randomly in each area. If any of them reach the formation, the Champion they damage becomes cursed. Cursed Champions deal no damage and have max health halved. After 5 seconds, the curse spreads to adjacent Champions.
  Reach Area 125.


• Somebody's Poisoned the Well! — The bandits have poisoned the well! Luckily, Thibbledorf has some Gutbuster flasks to help. Champions lose health every time they attack. Thibbledorf is not affected by the poison.
  Reach Area 175.

Year Two Variants

• Asmodeus is Watching — Cultists of Asmodeus randomly spawn alongside the normal monster waves. They drop no gold when killed.
  Reach Area 75.


• It's Quite A Puzzle — Only champions with Intelligence/INT score of 12 or higher are allowed in the formation.
  Reach Area 125.


• Time to Step Up — Asmodeus is testing Farideh. You start with Farideh in your formation, however, she is the only Champion that can deal damage. All other Champions' damage is reduced to 0, but they continue to grant buffs.
  Reach Area 175.

Year One Variants

• The Farmer's Kids — The Farmer's Daughter and Son block two slots in the formation.
  Reach Area 75.


• Due Diligence — Quest requirements are doubled.
  Reach Area 125.


• Wanton Necromancy — Undead enemies randomly spawn alongside the normal monsters. These additional enemies drop no gold.
  Reach Area 175.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!

It's time for our next Idle Champion Spotlight! Today, we're previewing our newest Champion: Thibbledorf Pwent. Yes, you read that right. The hygiene-lacking dwarven battlerager from Mithral Hall is "launching" (get it?) tomorrow! Read on to learn all about the dwarven wrecking ball who strongly supports a dwarven formation with some additional Companions of the Hall support!

I. "Thibbledorf" Who?

Despite a reputation as a loud, gruff, and stinky dwarf who hates bathing, Thibbledorf Pwent is a loyal and beloved member of Clan Battlehammer. Known as 'Pwent' to his friends, he leads the Gutbusters of Mithral Hall, a dwarven battlerager squad focused on direct combat with little regard for their own safety. He wears armor completely covered in spikes to help rend the flesh of his enemies, and in the midst of battle Pwent often falls into a bloodrage, doing anything to protect his allies. While not an official member of the Companions of the Hall, Pwent will always aid his King when possible — even beyond death...

Thibbledorf Pwent is a Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian and Support Champion. His attacks cause enemies to bleed, he can boost ally damage for adjacent Champions, and he greatly buffs dwarves and Companions of the Hall members in the formation. When you want to add Pwent to your party, you may swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

II. Pwent's Stats

Class: Barbarian (Battlerager)	Alignment: Chaotic Good
Race: Dwarf	Gender: Male
Age: 176	Affiliation: None

STR: 18	DEX: 14	CON: 17
INT: 9	WIS: 12	CHA: 8

Eligible for Patrons: Vajra & Mirt

III. Pwent's Design

Pwent was an interesting nut to crack. He's always been a side character in the Legend of Drizzt novels. Not a "member" of the Companions, but eventually becoming a valued friend and ally. As his story wound to a close, he showed true bravery, love, and faithfulness to his king, Bruenor.

We started discussing Pwent around the time of Wulfgar's design, in 2018. There were so many different ways we could have introduced him. We discussed using him as Wulfgar's ultimate, having his ghostly form race out of the horn. However, being a fan of him in the books, I really wanted the spiky battlerager in the game as a Champion.

When it came time to design him, we had two routes: Battlerager Pwent, or Vampire Pwent. While Vampire Pwent sounds awesome (Vampire Champion when?), I have a soft spot in my heart for the old boy and I didn't want to represent him in the form that he truly hated. Instead, I chose to go back to his roots: the gruff battlerager who dons a set of armor filled to the brim with spikes, who runs ahead and slices and dices his enemies.

By focusing on his pre-undead form, we could highlight his allies more. As Pwent's design grew, I realized that this stalwart dwarf from Mithral Hall was a great lynchpin for a dwarven fighting force. He is the leader of the Gutbuster Brigade after all. Oh, you haven't heard about the Gutbusters? They are a group of dwarven battleragers Pwent founded. They focused less on strategic plans and more on just running into battle. With the Gutbusters, the cannon fodder is filled with spikes and coming right at you!

Pwent's final design is something I'm really proud of. Not only does he make Barrowin relevant again, he also helps elevate Binwin and Bruenor in an especially big way.

IV. Pwent's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Spiked Hug — Pwent headbutts a random enemy using his spiked armor to inflict a DOT bleed effect. That bleed effect is key to his big formation ability: Count 'Em Off.
  • The enemies will have a red blood drop effect while the bleed is active. When it is no longer damaging them, the blood drop turns black, so you know that they were affected, but it's no longer doing damage.

Formation Abilities

• Count 'Em Off — Whenever an enemy that is or was affected by Pwent's bleed effect is killed (including if it is killed outright by Pwent), he gains one stack on this ability. Pwent increases the damage of all Champions by 20% for each stack of Count 'Em Off, stacking multiplicatively. The stacks cap at 25, and every 12 seconds, the stack total is reduced by 25%.

• Battlerager — When Pwent attacks, if he attacks an enemy that has already been affected by his bleed effect (active or inactive), there is a 33% chance that he'll attack again immediately.

• Can You SMELL That? — Champions that are adjacent to Pwent have their base attack cool downs increased by 8 seconds, divided by the number of Champions affected. This effect has a hard cap of 20 seconds per affected Champion in cases where other Champion's abilities can increase the effect.

• Gutbuster Recruits — Champions affected by Can You SMELL That? have their base damage increased by 75% for each second their cooldown is increased by, stacking multiplicatively and counting partial seconds. This effect is doubled on dwarves.

• Bruenor, Me King! — While not a member of the Companions of the Hall, Pwent fully supports them in their quests. Pwent increases the Bounty of the Hall pool (gold find) by 100% and increases the effect of Count 'Em Off by 100% if you have at least 1 Companion of the Hall (Bruenor, Drizzt, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, or Regis) adjacent to Pwent.

Specializations

• Counting Class — Increases the effect of Count 'Em Off by 100%.

• Bloodstained Armor — Increases the chance to attack again with Battlerager by 50%.

• Dwarven Hair Grease — It's all-natural! Increases the total cooldown of Can You SMELL That? by 5 seconds.

Ultimate Ability

• Round 'em up! — Pwent dashes quickly around the area rounding up all available enemies and then stuns, damages, and inflicts a bleed effect on them. He attacks up to 10 enemies in this way, applying his bleed to all of them, and (if not static) forcing them into a position in the middle of the screen (between the formation and the wall), stunning them for 5 seconds.

V. Pwent's Equipment

VI. Conclusion

Pwent will hopefully unlock a whole new dwarven formation, with Binwin, Bruenor, Barrowin, and himself. He also slides into any Companions of the Hall formation. Try him out and let us know what you think of this spiky dwarf!

Feel free to send us feedback on via the Idle Champions Subreddit, Steam forum, or the Idle Champions Discord!

"Looking for a new challenge? We can arrange that!
How do you feel about being attacked by flaming undead?"

Our latest Idle Champions update introduces six new variants for the Grand Tour of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaigns. Some of these variants include extra Flameskulls, while others require either your smartest or least-insane Champions. You will need to have completed the original adventures in order to unlock these variants.

Don't forget to bring fireproof clothing! Enjoy :)

Grand Tour of the Sword Coast Variants

• The Mists of Ravenloft: We're not in FaerÈ—n Anymore — A group of 3 armored and powered up Flameskulls appears in each area (after 10 enemies). Each of them has the following enhancements:
• 4 hits of armored health.
• Deals 300% damage.
• Stuns the target for 3 seconds.
• You can only use melee/ranged Champions.
  Reach area 275.

• Family Entanglements: Relentless Misfortune — Relentless Undead monsters spawn and attack your formation. When they are killed, Relentless Undead don't disappear. Instead after 3 seconds, they get back up and start attacking again.
  Reach area 275.

• Tower on the Lake: Intelligence Hunt — Only Champions with an Intelligence (INT) score of 13 or higher may be used.
  Reach area 275.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Variants

• A Mysterious Summons: Vajra's Guards — Vajra has asked that three Stone Golems accompany you on your adventures. I'm sure she's not monitoring them at every moment.
  Reach area 200.

• Hopelessly Lost: Flame(skull) War — Trenzia's Flameskull is back and ready to start a war in Undermountain! Not only has she hoarded all the treasure, but she's also found a way to power herself up!
• Instead of appearing only in areas 41-45, she now appears in every area, and her damage is increased by 200%.
• All gold found is reduced by 99%.
Reach area 250.

• Enter the Sargauth: The Madness Grows — You've become lost. The friends you knew have abandoned you and been replaced with gibbering mouthers. I doubt it'll be long before Halaster himself appears to smite you. All champions in the 'even' (2, 4, 6, etc) seats have disappeared. They probably abandoned you. Or maybe they are the sounds you hear from the shadows?
  Reach area 250.

See the in-game Change Log for more information!

Seeking rest and respite from a year of adventure, the Champions arrive in the tranquil town of Longsaddle - only to find it under siege!

Drow from the Underdark are on the hunt in Longsaddle for a Harpell artifact, and it's a race against time to find it before they do...

Brightswords 2 introduces Turiel, the Aasimar Cleric. Players will have until Monday, September 16th, 2019 at 12:00pm PDT, to unlock him!

New Champion: Turiel

Wherever the aasimar known as Turiel goes, devils and demons know to tread lightly. Acting on orders of their divine patron, Bahamut, Turiel works tirelessly to bring law, order, and justice to Toril. When not busy with inquisitions or crusades, Turiel calls the endless libraries of Candlekeep their home, studying ancient tomes and seeking guidance for their next holy mission.

Turiel Supports from the front of the formation, with his Embodiment of the Law greatly increasing the damage of Champions the further they are behind him. When you want to add Turiel to your formation, you can swap him with Bruenor (Slot 1).

For more information about our latest Champion, check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: Turiel dev blog!

Year One Champion: Wulfgar

Wulfgar started his life in the north as the flag bearer of the barbarian Tribe of the Elk. He was bested in the assault on Ten-Towns by Bruenor Battlehammer, who decided his punishment would be five years and a day of service. Bruenor grew to love the tall barbarian, eventually seeing him as an adopted son. At the end of his service, Drizzt Do'Urden to taught Wulfgar the ways of combat and Bruenor crafted for him a mighty warhammer, named Aegis-fang. This magical warhammer bears the symbols of three of the Dwarven Gods: Moradin, Clangeddin, and Dumathoin. It is specifically attuned to Wulfgar and magically returns to his hand upon telepathic command.

Wulfgar deals AOE damage that stuns and deals additional damage to armored and stunned enemies. He has additional abilities for each other Companion of the Hall present. When you want to add Wulfgar, Son of Beornegar to your party, you can swap him with Tyril (Slot 10).

For more information about about Wulfgar, check out last year's Idle Champion Spotlight: Wulfgar dev blog!

Year Two Variants

• Hearty Constitution — Only Champions with a Constitution (CON) score of 14 or higher can be used.
  Reach area 75.


• Army of Bahamut — Turiel starts out in slot 1 and can't be moved or replaced. Only Lawful or Good Champions can be used.
  Reach area 125.


• DPS's Day Off — No Champions with the DPS role can be used.
  Reach area 175.

Year One Variants

• Little Eyes are Lurking — A pair of Quasits have infiltrated your party, taking up two slots in the formation and causing chaos, making it difficult to work as a team. Every 25 areas they switch positions.
  Reach area 75.


• Father and Son — Wulfgar and Bruenor have set off alone, on an adventure to catch up after some lost time. Only Bruenor and Wulfgar are available, and both start in your formation. Their damage and cooldowns are dramatically improved.
  Reach area 125.


• Lolth's Domain — All Drow have the blessing of Lolth. Enemies gain armor and bosses gain additional armor.
  Reach area 175.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!

If you're going to journey into the depths of the Nine Hells, you'll want the aasimar Turiel on your side.

A Cleric of the Order Domain, Turiel has spent a mortal lifetime in service of the God of Dragons, Bahamut. He has traveled across Toril under the guidance of his patron, hunting fiends from the Abyss and the Nine Hells. He has unearthed and destroyed Cults of the Dragon. And he is relentless in his pursuit of justice.

Now it seems that Turiel's lifetime of battle was merely preparation for a single holy mission: to enter Avernus and prevent the wielder of the Hand of Vecna from breaking Tiamat free...

Are you here for the Turiel Champion Spotlight? Good. Let's dive in, shall we?

I. Turiel's Story

Wherever the aasimar known as Turiel goes, devils and demons know to tread lightly. Acting on orders of their divine patron, Bahamut, Turiel works tirelessly to bring law, order, and justice to Toril. When not busy with inquisitions or crusades, Turiel calls the endless libraries of Candlekeep their home, studying ancient tomes and seeking guidance for their next holy mission.

Turiel is a front-line Support Champion, best placed alongside your tanks and with your DPS Champion(s) as far behind him as possible. Whenever enemies attempt to attack Turiel, he will redirect them towards the tanks in his column and increase the power of his buffs. He is especially potent when fighting Fiends. When you want to add Turiel to your formation, you can swap him with Bruenor (Slot 1).

II. Turiel's Stats

Class: Cleric (Order Domain)	Alignment: Lawful Good
Race: Aasimar (Scourge)	Gender: Male
Age: 121	Affiliation: none

STR: 9	DEX: 11	CON: 16
INT: 13	WIS: 17	CHA: 12

III. Designing Turiel

We've been wanting to create an aasimar Champion for a long time. At the same time, we've been eyeing the Order Domain Cleric from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica since it came out last year. It seemed only fitting that as we get closer to descending into Avernus we make sure there is a Champion fitting to lead the charge.

The look of Turiel came before the abilities. An internal conversation about how aasimar manifest their divinity across the subraces led to one artist suggesting we go with a Kintsugi-like approach to Turiel's features, as if his body was cracking apart under the strain of containing so much radiance. Dark skin, brightly-colored hair, and heavily worn and weathered clothes and armor round out his aesthetic. The idea is that he only has time for his mission, and he's always in the thick of battle, leading to drab and damaged attire.

From his very first iteration, Turiel was a Champion that led either from - or near - the front of the formation. Order Domain Clerics are amazing at managing the ebb and flow of battle, with a selection of spells and subclass abilities that really allow their allies to shine. We knew we wanted to incorporate Embodiment of the Law into Turiel's design, but giving allies 'reaction attacks' didn't really translate in a way that we liked, and we were fixated on a Support Champion that could buff Champions behind him in the formation, with the buff becoming even more potent the further back your DPS Champions are.

Order's Demand was born of necessity. When your Support Champion is not a Tank but still needs to be able to join the front row of the formation, what do you do? Well, how about a kind of 'reverse-taunt'? Turiel is able to defer potential attacks on himself towards another Champion in his column, if one is available. Think of what you can make happen with that kind of ability.

Turiel's mission is to destroy all evil on behalf of his patron, Bahamut. Unflinching Hatred buffs Order's Demand whenever Turiel attacks an enemy of the fiend type. Turiel will really start to shine whenever your formation is fighting monsters from the Nine Hells or the Abyss. That might be handy in our next campaign!

With Voice of Authority, Turiel offers your high-constitution Champions some serious buffing. Whenever Turiel attacks, all other Champions deal bonus damage on their next attack based on their individual CON ability scores. It might be time to dust off your Jamilah or Binwin DPS formations.

When it comes to specializations, you can choose Lawful Mission to increase the effect of Embodiment of the Law, or you can choose Hearty Constitution to increase the effect of Voice of Authority. Depending on which type of DPS Champion you're focusing on, one of these may be better than the other for you.

Aasimar have some awesome subclass options in Volo's Guide to Monsters, but truth be told we only ever considered one type: scourge aasimar. There is something compelling about aasimar who feel the need to fight evil with every fiber of their being — aasimar who are so filled with divine radiance it threatens to consume them from the inside, leading them to wear masks. We always knew we wanted to adapt Radiant Consumption as Turiel's ultimate ability. It became Beacon of Light, a powerful AoE knockback and scaling damage buff - with a drawback. While the buff scales up, Turiel cannot attack, and whenever the formation is attacked it halves the buff.

If you're interested in learning more about the details of Turiel's abilities, you can get that information below.

IV. Turiel's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Sacred Flame — Turiel points at a random enemy and flame-like radiance strikes them from above. Random target, 10-second cooldown.

Formation Abilities

• Embodiment of the Law — Turiel increases the damage of Champions in the columns behind him by 100%, increasing by an additional 100% for each column further back (stacking multiplicatively).
• 1 column = 100%
• 2 columns = 300%
• 3 columns = 700%
• 4 columns = 1500%
• etc.

• Order's Demand — Enemies that attempt to choose Turiel as a target instead choose to attack another Champion, assuming another valid target exists. Each time this occurs, Turiel increases the effect of Embodiment of the Law by 100% for 30 seconds, stacking additively up to 30 times.
• Note: This only affects single-target attacks that target Turiel directly (for example it does not deflect AOE attacks, multi-target attacks, or other attacks that hit Turiel indirectly).

• Unflinching Hatred — Turiel has a singular mission: to destroy all evil. After attacking a fiend-type enemy, his Embodiment of the Law ability is increased by 100%. When Order's Demand redirects the attack of a fiend-type enemy, its effect is increased by 100% as well.
• Note:These effects do not stack, but last for 30 seconds, and their cooldowns restart if they are triggered again.

• Voice of Authority — After Turiel attacks, all other Champions deal bonus damage on their next attack based on their individual Constitution (CON) ability scores (50% per point of CON starting at >10, stacking multiplicatively).
• <=10 CON = 0%
• 11 CON = +50%
• 12 CON = +125%
• 13 CON = +238%
• etc.

Specializations

• Lawful Mission — Increase the effect of Embodiment of the Law by 50% for each Lawful Champion in the formation (including Turiel, stacking additively, then applying to Embodiment of the Law multiplicatively like a normal upgrade).
• +50% (just Turiel) to +500% (10 Lawful), depending on the formation used.

• Hearty Constitution — Increase the stack size of the Voice of Authority ability by 50% (to 75% per stack).
• <=10 CON = 0%
• 11 CON = +75% (+50%)
• 12 CON = +206% (+65%)
• 13 CON = +436% (+84%)
• etc.

Ultimate Ability

• Beacon Of Light — Unleashing the radiance of his scourge aasimar nature, Turiel becomes a Beacon of Light, pushing back enemies and increasing your party's every second while they are not being attacked. Increases the damage done by the formation by 25% per second, stacking multiplicatively. Each time the formation is attacked by an enemy, the number of stacks are reduced by 50% and the light diminishes. The effect ends after 30 seconds or when it is reduced below 1 stack due to enemy attacks, whichever comes first. During this time, Turiel is immobile and does not attack.

V. Turiel's Equipment

VI. Conclusion

With Turiel we wanted to create a Champion you'd follow into Avernus. We wanted to create a Support who buffs the back row, and who can also buff your CON DPS Champions. We think we've done something really awesome with our latest Champion, and we look forward to seeing how he fits in to your formations!

Feel free to send us feedback on via the Idle Champions Subreddit, Steam forum, or the Idle Champions Discord!