Knoll
Traditionally trolls, giants and other monstrous models are known for their colossal combat capabilities.
Knoll’s card.
‘Old Staff’
Knoll, however, is not a traditional troll and has instead set his talents on healing and not harming. Despite this, he does still have some very recognisable troll traits of high wounds and a passive bonus to his melee damage with 'Old Staff'. The extended reach of his weapon also has the added bonus of elevating his melee range above that of a standard troll to 3". As is traditional with Leshavult though, he does not have a passive damage reduction ability typical of most trolls. What he does have instead though is 'Tough as Old Boots' and when using his arcane abilities, other characters can also potentially gain 'Tough as Old Boots'...
‘Healing’ and ‘Trollish Remedies’
Knoll's first arcane ability is 'Healing', the standard for a traditional healer and something that can be used with his base energy. More interestingly though is Knoll's second arcane ability, 'Trollish Remedies'. Unlike healing this can't be used off Knoll's base energy and he will have to be gifted energy by someone else or gain energy from 'Recluse' first to use it. When he does get to use 'Trollish Remedies' it can have fantastic healing effects. On greens, the target will heal a staggering 3X-1 Wds. When Knoll mentions "I’m one of Tauber’s finest healers" in the fate of Eric narrative, he wasn't lying! Whilst this effect is certainly useful for both Dominion and Leshavult, the next 2 effects are slightly more skewed to Dominion and Leshavult respectively.
‘Tough as Old Boots’
“Stop moaning! Do you want this medicine or not?”
On any blue, a target troll can gain 'Tough as Old Boots' until the end of the game. Whilst Leshavult lacks targets for this with the only current target being Knoll himself, Dominion has an excellent amount of choice. On Boulder a tough troll can be made even tougher and on Bristlenose a troll that will often take wounds in combat can offset some of those wounds with regular heals. For Ribald, 'Tough as Old Boots' can offset damage not done by his enemies but by his goblin friends. This is due to 2 Wds perfectly healing damage often done by goblins to their friends, such as 'Foul Gases', 'Goblin Mishchief' and 'Rule the Roost'. Pinks can also help Dominion as a little extra energy is never bad, but it's something Leshavult might leverage more...
Who to Field Him Alongside
A little extra energy for Leshavult is often better than a little extra energy for other factions. This is as +1 energy is often all a Leshavult model might need to go from good to amazing, with their excellent "Leshavult abilities" which they often only need 1 additional energy for! As this is done without any keyword restrictions this energy can be given to anyone, Brother Daniel, Eric the Enlightened, Klaus, the list goes on. Klaus coincidently also has another fun interaction with Knoll, he can trigger 'Trollish Remedies' catastrophe. As it can target anything, Knoll's catastrophe can be used to put wounds on enemies, possibly killing very badly wounded enemies hiding at the back. Alternatively, it could be used to target giants and other low energy models to sap energy before they activate. Throw in Zorya, Revenant & Raegan and Knoll can fire off catastrophes everywhere whilst Raegan hordes cards from the arcane deck!
