Villain Profile: Cadmirex

This week we continue our series introducing the villains of the Realm of Runes Card Game.

Cadmirex

Cadmirex is a dragon, which makes him one of the most dangerous and difficult villains in the card game's roster. Even though he fights the party alone, he's hardly outnumbered. Every part of Cadmirex is a potent weapon, and he doesn't need minions to protect him from pesky heroes. Just hurting Cadmirex is a challenge in its own right, and this dragon is able to dish out a lot of damage very quickly with his breath weapon and plethora of attacks.

Double Epic

Of all the villains in the Realm of Runes Card Game, only Cadmirex has multiple epic abilities. Epic Hit Points scales his HP with the number of players, but even without this scaling Cadmirex has more Hit Points than many of the other villains have without this scaling. Sporting a beefy 70HP per player, Cadmirex can reach a monster 420HP in a max player game, double the next tankiest foe in the whole game. Even if Cadmirex does not have his ability to heal, just getting through all of those Hit Points will take time.

But Cadmirex also has Epic Defense. This increases his damage reduction to all damage types by two less than the number of players. When combined with his innate damage reduction of 1, that makes getting into his massive pile of Hit Points quite challenging. With the maximum player count, Cadmirex reduces all damage taken by 5. Cadmirex is a foe that requires a great deal of teamwork to overcome, as your party will need to eke every ounce of power from buffs and critical hits just to get through his scaly exterior.

His Own Henchmen

Although Cadmirex does not have minions, he still assigns henchmen to heroes as normal for a villain. Rather than being additional monsters, however, Cadmirex's henchmen represent several of his powerful draconic abilities. This grants Cadmirex the ability to act on player turns like henchmen, while still acting at the start and end of the round like villains. In many ways this is almost like having a third epic ability, as Cadmirex will act even more frequently than another villain with Epic Initiative. Divine intervention that activates henchman special abilities activates Cadmirex's special ability instead, further increasing the likelihood of getting blasted by his breath weapon.

Which special abilities Cadmirex gets to use in an encounter are not always the same, since there are more henchman cards than the maximum number of players. This means that each fight with Cadmirex plays out a little differently, even if using the same party. Every ability increases his danger and difficulty, however, so there isn't any "best case" scenario from these options. Because henchmen are always assigned after player characters have been chosen, you can never pick your party to most optimally handle his abilities. You'll just have to pick your most balanced party and hope for the best!

Most of Cadmirex's henchman abilities represent varied types of attacks. He's got puncturing teeth which ignore a target's damage reduction, like puny armor. He's got a titanic tail which can stagger whoever gets hit by it, and rending talons which attack different targets at the same time. Some of these attacks target specific players based on their current Hit Point totals, while others force the players to make tough choices about who takes the punishment.

Not all of the henchman abilities are straight-up damage, however. Several provide more esoteric challenges. His powerful wings keep him at long range, making him even harder to hit. His fast metabolism causes him to constantly recover Hit Points. Perhaps the most interesting is his treasure hoard. This henchman card reveals cards from the Equipment Deck, giving the players the choice to take the item or not. Anyone can take the card, getting a vital piece of equipment to the best person to use it. But doing so causes Cadmirex to activate his breath weapon, dealing massive damage to all heroes. This might not always be worth it, but magic items are too rare and valuable to pass up without strong temptation!

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Cadmirex's challenge comes from sheer power, rather than tricky special rules. There isn't any one clever tactic, you just have to stand together and get the most out of every tool at your disposal. But what else would you expect from a powerful dragon! So... are you ready to rumble? Next week we return to the Tome of Whispers to look at some more alternate rules, so stay tuned!