Fans of Champions of Lore rejoice! You can now enjoy the silky-smooth voice of B Dave Walters and delightful laughter of Erin M Evans as Difficulty Class' Treavor Bettis tries to keep them on topic each week as part of the Champions of Lore Podcast!

For those reading the words 'Champions of Lore' for the first time, it's a show we host live on the CNEGames Twitch Channel each Monday at 11AM Pacific time, where B Dave Walters (A Darkened Wish, Silver & Steel) and Erin M Evans (Brimstone Angels, Dungeon Scrawlers) discuss the Dungeons & Dragons lore in Idle Champions while host Treavor Bettis (Difficulty Class) tries to keep them on track. It's the best hour you'll ever spend listening to people talk about D&D-related lore. Probably.

The Champions of Lore Podcast is available across many platforms, including Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts. You can find links to all of them through the Champions of Lore Anchor Page.

After each episode broadcasts live at 11AM Pacific on Mondays you can expect them to start showing up on our podcast pages within an hour or two. Or maybe three ;)

The first five episodes are already online! Check them out on Apple Podcasts at the link below. Don't worry if you don't already know what 'Displacer Beast Cheese' is, you'll know by the time you finish the second episode!

Champions of Lore

• Episode 1: Pilot

B. Dave Walters and Erin M. Evans sit down to talk about the Liars' Night event and Ezmerelda D'avenir while Treavor Bettis makes wisecracks from the corner.


• Episode 2: The Frozen North

Erin M Evans and B. Dave Walters talk about the lore of Icewind Dale, Auril the Frostmaiden, and some of the new monsters that came to Idle Champions!


• Episode 3: Ten-Towns

Erin M Evans and Treavor Bettis are joined by the Mighty Trovus! The Speaker of Caer-Konig tells us everything the Idle Champions are bound to fight during their visit to Icewind Dale while Erin and Treavor discuss T-Rex mittens.


• Episode 4: A Feast Fit for Penelope

B. Dave and Erin talk about the lore behind the Feast of the Moon event in Idle Champions - as well as the newest Champion Penelope “Half-Pint”. Also, did you hear Lord Neverember might be half treant?


• Episode 5: The Fires of Avernus

The Champions of Lore go to the Nine Hells. Erin and B. Dave talk about the Blood War, how Devils and Demons are different, and what the Archdevils of the Hells are up to.

It's time for the latest Idle Champion Spotlight, and this time around we're talking about a well-traveled Gold Find and Support Champion!

And did we mention that this lucky halfling directly increases your Divine Favor as well?

Read on and learn all about Freely...

I. Lucky Halfling

Freely has traveled across multiple Planes, but he has always had his luck to keep him safe. Even an unfortunate detour into being trapped as an Illithid ultimately led him into the company of his new friends, Beyond Heroes! Armed with the magic in his blood, and the Faith that flows through his sword, he always seeks to destroy evil wherever he can sense it. Freely prefers to act first and think later, since hey, things always tend to work out for him anyway, right?

Freely is a Gold Find and Support Champion. He increases your divine favor directly with his Adventurous Tale ability. When you want to add Freely to your formation, you can swap him with Minsc (Slot 7).

II. Freely's Stats

Race: Halfling	Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Bard/Warlock	Gender: Male
Age: 42	Affiliation: none

STR: 13	DEX: 17	CON: 10
INT: 8	WIS: 10	CHA: 16

Eligible for Patrons: Mirt

III. Freely's Design

We had the great fortune to cross paths with B. Dave Walters while participating in the D&D Live events over the last few years. As we grew to know B. Dave better, we learned that in addition to playing Freely on Beyond Heroes and Silver & Steel, he's also the writer for A Darkened Wish, an awesome human (and an awesome vampire), and just an all-around cool creator in the D&D Community. We knew we wanted to work with him, and in early 2019 we talked to him about bringing Freely to the game.

(Side note: we know what you're thinking. Yes, it really can take well over a year for everything to line up behind the scenes to introduce a new Champion to the game. We actually already have nearly all of our Champions locked in through 2021...)

When we sat down to start working with B. Dave on Freely, it was immediately apparent that even though all Halflings are lucky, Freely has a special connection to Yondalla, the creator of the halfling pantheon and the halfling race itself. Yondalla offers protection to all halflings in the form of incredible luck, and when it comes to Freely, his unique Luck of Yondalla ability is core to his design.

Luck of Yondalla grants Freely and his allies chances to have enemies drop more gold (Requisition), to reduce their attack cooldowns (Follow-Through), to increase the damage enemies take (Opportunity), and to stun enemies (Stagger). This is further boosted by his Unlucky For Them ability, which increases the effect of Luck of Yondalla for each enemy affected by it.

When Freely is in your formation, An Adventurous Tale increases the amount of Divine Favor you collect when you reset (Complete Adventure) based on the number of areas you've cleared during that adventure.

Finally, Freely uses Cutting Words to distract enemies when he is within three slots of a Tank Champion who is under attack, increasing the Overwhelm of the Tank Champion.

Okay, now it's time to talk details...

IV.Freely's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Eldritch Blast — A beam of aquamarine crackling energy streaks towards a random enemy.

Formation Abilities

• Luck of Yondalla — Freely, and any allies granted this ability through his specializations, have the Luck of Yondalla backing them up. Whenever they attack, one of the following Lucky Breaks occurs completely at random, affecting all enemies hit by the attack. Each Lucky Break can be applied on each enemy once for each Champion with Luck of Yondalla. Each application lasts for 15 seconds, so even if 10 Champions are attacking a single enemy with Luck of Yondalla, the actual Lucky Break applications on the enemy will vary over time.



• Requisition — Target will drop 10% more gold when they are killed, stacking multiplicatively. This Lucky Break can be buffed by equipment and feats.
• Follow-Through — Any Champion who attacks this enemy has their next base attack's cooldown decreased by 0.1 sec for each application of this Lucky Break on the enemy. This Lucky Break is never buffed.
• Opportunity — The targeted enemy takes 100% more damage from all attacks, inclusive, stacks multiplicatively.
• Stagger — Target has a 2% chance to be stunned for 1 second when they are attacked by any Champion, stacking additively.This Lucky Break is never buffed.

• Unlucky For Them — The total effect of Luck of Yondalla: Opportunity is increased by 100% on enemies affected by it. This buff applies once to the total value of the applications.

• An Adventurous Tale — If Freely is in your formation when you complete an area for the first time, he keeps track of it for future tales. When you reset your adventure, you'll collect an additional .01% of Divine Favor for each area Freely tracked, stacking additively but applying multiplicatively. Freely does not have to be in your formation when you reset to gain the additional Divine Favor, but he does need to be in your formation when you complete an area to increase his bonus. The bonus resets when you complete your adventure. This ability is buffed by feats and equipment.

• Cutting Words — Freely distracts enemies if he is within 3 slots of a Tank Champion who is under attack by at least 1 enemy, increasing the overwhelm point of such Champions by 5. This ability is not buffed.

Specializations

• Trust in Law — Grants Luck of Yondalla to all Lawful Champions in your formation. Affected Champions now cause Lucky Breaks whenever they attack.

• Value Neutrality — Grants Luck of Yondalla to Neutral Champions (on the Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic scale) in your formation. Affected Champions now cause Lucky Breaks whenever they attack.

• Always Expect Chaos — Grants Luck of Yondalla to Chaotic Champions in your formation. Affected Champions now cause Lucky Breaks whenever they attack.

Ultimate Ability

• I Will Not Deafen — Freely grabs his sword and launches himself toward an enemy, showering green and red lightning in his wake until he smashes into his opponent for massive damage. It also applies all four Lucky Breaks on that enemy or any they didn't already have.

V. Freely's Equipment

Slot 1: Global DPS	Slot 2: Luck of Yondalla: Requisition	Slot 3: Unlucky For Them
Slot 4: An Adventurous Tale	Slot 5: Ultimate Damage	Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

Freely is an interesting Champion, and we are excited to see how well he fits into the Idle Champions meta with his Divine Favor Buff. If you have feedback, let us know in a Community Q&A or Champion feedback post on the Idle Champions Subreddit, on the Steam forums, or on the Official Idle Champions Discord!