Voidwarden

Voidwarden
Boardgame Race	Human Female
Type	Basic class
Role	Control, Support, Healing
Hit Points	Low: 5 + L
Box name	Gemmed Staff
Stamina	11 cards
Elements
Game Management
Unlocked by	N/A (available at start)
Unlock Events	N/A
Retirement Events	N/A

⚠️[SPOILER] This article describes Sealed Content from Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion and may include spoiler-adjacent content. While outright spoilers have been hidden, reader discretion is nonetheless recommended.

Voidwarden is a character class from Jaws of the Lion. As with all the classes from that game, it can be also transferred into Gloomhaven to participate in its campaign instead.

Story

The human Voidwarden as a child had a near-death experience with the Void, that horrific desolate place that turns all things that contact it to a fine black sand. This brush with doom left half of her body scarred and blackened. In conviction from this event of a duty to protect others from a similar fate, the Voidwarden harnessed strange Void-given powers of mind control and became a powerful individual. At some stage, the Voidwarden found herself in Gloomhaven and joined the Jaws of the Lion.

Themes & Playstyle

The Voidwarden is easily the most complex class of the four in Jaws of the Lion. Core themes based on the mystery of the Void and its unstable nature include the ability to 'mind control' allies and enemies to grant them attack and move abilities, as well as a ‘bad bargain’ aspect to many of her actions, with impressive benefits juxtaposed with not-insignificant setbacks. Having barely more than half the hit points of her most defensive ally, the Red Guard, she must constantly be avoiding danger. Her strength comes from the versatility of her abilities to buff and heal her allies and debuff enemies, as well as the reliability of her granted attacks thanks to her 'engine' card Master Influence, which causes most of them to have advantage and to +1 Attack '.

Ability Cards

• lvl. 1-4
• ⚠️[SPOILER] lvl. 5+

Level	#	Name	Init.	Top Action	Bottom Action	Notes
A	143	Black Boon	43	Heal3 Range3	Move4
A	144	Turn out the Lights	49	Attack 3	Force one enemy within Range3 to perform Attack 2 targeting an enemy of your choice adjacent to them.
A	145	Wicked Scratch	68	One Ally within Range2 may perform Attack 4	Move2 • • • • • • • • • STRENGTHEN Range3
A	146	Suggestion	23	Force one enemy within Range3 to perform Attack 3 targeting an enemy of your choice adjacent to them.	Move3 • • • • • • • • • MUDDLE Range3
A	147	Gift of the Void	89	One ally within Range3 may perform Attack 2 Range3	Heal2 Range3
A	148	Lure of the Void	67	STUN Range3	One ally within Range3 may perform Attack 3 If they do, this ally suffers 1 damage.
B	149	Lure of the Void	67	DISARM Range3 • • • • • • • • • Force the target to perform Move2 with you controlling the action.	One ally within Range3 may perform Attack 6 If they do, this ally suffers 2 damage.	updates, replaces card #148
B	150	Wicked Scratch	68	One ally within Range2 may perform Attack 4	Loot1 • • • • • • • • • STRENGTHEN Range3	updates, replaces card #145
1	151	Signs of the Void	15	One ally within Range3 may perform Shieldshieldwhite game1 • • • • • • • • • This same ally may perform Move2	At the start of your next five turns, perform a "CURSE, Range2" action.
1	152	Close to the Abyss	72	Heal2 Range2 Targettargetwhite game2 All allies who remove POISON with this heal gain BLESS.	Force all enemies within Range3 to perform Move1 with you controlling the actions.
1	153	Gift of the Void	89	POISON Range3 • • • • • • • • • One Adjacent ally may perform Attack 3 Range4 targeting the target of the POISON. If they do, this ally suffers 2 damage.	Heal Range3	updates, replaces card #147
1	154	Black Boon	43	Heal5 Range3 POISON	Move2 • • • • • • • • • One ally within Range3 may perform Move2	updates, replaces card #143
1	155	Freeze the Soul	58	Attack 3 POISON +1 Attack , MUDDLE,	STUN Range3 • • • • • • • • • CURSE Self Ignore the CURSE instead
1	156	Wicked Scratch	68	One ally within Range3 may perform Attack 3	Loot1 • • • • • • • • • STRENGTHEN Range3	updates, replaces card #150
1	157	Turn out the Lights	49	Attack 2 Range3 +1 Attack , CURSE,	Force one enemy within Range3 to perform Attack 3 Range3 targeting an enemy of your choice. The acting enemy suffers damage equal to the damage suffered by the target.	updates, replaces card #144
1	158	Lure of the Void	67	DISARM Range3 • • • • • • • • • Force the target to perform Move1 +2 Attack , with you controlling the action.	One ally within Range3 may perform Attack 5 +2 Attack , If they do, gain and this ally suffers 2 damage.	updates, replaces card #148
1	159	Grasp of Doom	36	Attack 2 POISON WOUND CURSE STUN	Move3 +2 Move
1	160	Master Influence	83	The first attack performed in each of your attack granting actions gains Advantage, and you may to add +1 Attack to it. In addition, when you grant monsters attacks, they use your attack modifier deck.	BLESS Range2 • • • • • • • • • POISON Range2
1	161	Suggestion	23	Force one enemy within range Range4 to perform Move3 with you controlling the action and Attack 3 targeting an enemy of your choice adjacent to them. • • • • • • • • • STUN the acting enemy.	Move3 • • • • • • • • • CURSE Range3	updates, replaces card #146
X	162	Resigned Frenzy	26	Force all enemies within Range3 to perform Attack 2 targeting enemies of your choice adjacent to them.	Move4 -1 Move , • • • • • • • • • Attack 2
X	163	Cold Embrace	71	CURSE Range3 Targettargetwhite game3 +1 Range , +1 Targettargetwhite game ,	: Move3 • • • • • • • • • All adjacent allies suffer 1 damage. • • • • • • • • • BLESS Target all adjacent allies
X	164	Sap Warmth	59	POISON Range3 • • • • • • • • • The next three times after an ally attacks an enemy with POISON, that ally may perform a "Heal1, Self" action.	Move2 • • • • • • • • • Heal3 Target self and all allies within Range3
2	165	Give and Take	21	POISON Target self or one ally within Range2 • • • • • • • • • BLESS, STRENGTHEN Target a different ally within Range3	Move4 Jump • • • • • • • • • CURSE Target all enemies moved through during the movement
2	166	Crushing Cold	86	One ally within Range3 may perform Attack 4 Targettargetwhite game2 MUDDLE,	Move3 • • • • • • • • • MUDDLE Range3
3	167	Taunting Fate	13	Heal6 Range2 • • • • • • • • • Shuffle one BLESS card into the monster attack modifier deck.	The next time you grant an attack this turn, add +1 Attack to the entire Attack action. Add +2 Attack instead • • • • • • • • • All attacks targeting you add +2 Attack this round. This card cannot be discarded before the end of the round.
3	168	Commanding Presence	75	At the start of your next five turns, one ally within Range3 may perform an "Attack 2" action.	Move4 • • • • • • • • • CURSE Self Ignore the CURSE instead • • • • • • • • • One ally within Range3 may perform Move3
4	169	Savage Instinct	51	Force one enemy within Range3 to perform Attack 3 targeting all other enemies adjacent to it. The acting enemy suffers 1 damage for each enemy targeted.	Heal Range3 STRENGTHEN POISON : BLESS
4	170	The Last Journey	38	Attack 4 Range3 CURSE	Move4 • • • • • • • • • Force one adjacent enemy to perform Move3 with you controlling the action. This enemy gains IMMOBILIZE

Cards gallery
pre-lvl. 1 cards: lvl. 1-4 cards:

!Sortable table: <this content is yet-to-be-added>

Cards gallery
pre-lvl. 1 cards: lvl. 1-4 cards: lvl. 5+ cards

Perks

The Voidwarden has the following perks available to edit her attack modifier deck:

• ☐ Remove two cards.
• ☐ Remove one
• ☐☐ Replace one with one card.
• ☐☐ Replace one with one card.
• ☐☐ Replace one with one heal 1 (Ally) card.*
• ☐☐☐ Add one heal 1 (Ally) card.*
• ☐ Add one card.
• ☐ Add one card.
• ☐☐ Add one

*allows restoration of 1 HP to an ally of the Voidwarden within her line-of-sight, even if drawn by an enemy during an attack that was granted to them

Tips & Strategy

• The Voidwarden does not want to be within the center of the fray, but rather two steps next to it, behind the tank. This is a very effective configuration, where the two characters can act and move as a unit, and together overcome a number of the Voidwarden's shortcomings:
  • the Voidwarden's lackluster max HP is remedied by having a tank who can protect her, while she can then heal and buff the tank.
  • adjacency to combat remedies her positioning difficulty and poor mobility:
    • being close to (or even adjacent to) a melee ally makes positioning of her ally-attack-granting actions much simpler. Moreover, a tank with a high max HP can more readily accept and perform the self-harming granted attacks.
    • with very few Move actions, the Voidwarden struggles to rush around the battlefield chasing the action. It can be much more efficient to stand still and not move, simply allowing monsters to approach, thus enabling both the Voidwarden and her tank ally to use both top and bottom actions to deal with them.
      • the Voidwarden can use the bottom action of Black Boon to allow both her and her tank ally to move simultaneously, allowing the ally to avoid taking a Moveaction themselves and losing DPS.
  • the Voidwarden suffers from difficulty in dealing with objectives, as she has very few moderate-high damage attacks she can make herself without relying on another figure being positioned correctly. Being a part of the main force dealing with Monsters puts her abilities to better use.

• While aspects of the Voidwarden may be reminiscent of that of a traditional ‘healer’ class in fantasy pop-culture, it is perhaps unwise to conflate her abilities with these. It is true she has numerous healing options, but her most numerically potent single heal option, Black Boon, also applies poison to the target, which can make its usage awkward.
  • For example: by simultaneously using Black Boon with Gift of the Void, the Voidwarden can heal the numerically impressive 7 HP in one turn, but also poisons the target of the healing. Alternatively, she can spend her entire turn to Black Boon Heal5 and then Gift of the Void heal again to merely remove the poison she inflicted. These drawbacks severely limit her ability to tactically restore large amounts of HP. The Red Guard and Hatchet are likely to find their own ‘big self-heal' cards more efficient than relying on the Voidwarden for rapid large-volume healing.
• The Voidwarden makes comparatively very few attacks, and even with Master Influence active, she will draw her attack modifier cards far less frequently than other players. However, Master Influence reliably grants advantage on her granted attacks, possibly making it desirable to use perks to simply add the best cards to be applied when drawn. Alternatively if playing a strategy that frequently curses yourself, it may be preferable to instead minimize negative ability cards to reduce the chance of losing damage on your attacks and Monster attacks you force. It is important to note, however, that other characters use their own modifier cards.
• If forgoing playing Master Influence on her first turn, it is possible for the Voidwarden to bless an ally twice on initiative 72: blessing and poisoning with the bottom action of Master Influence, then removing the poison and thus blessing with the top action of Close to the Abyss. A stamina potion may be desired to quickly regain Master Influence for the next round.
  • For even greater effect (once the cards become available), at the cost of party health and expedient mobility, the Voidwarden may instead play her first turn at initiative 21 as the top action of Give and Take to bless and poison an ally and the bottom action of Cold Embrace to bless (and damage for 1 HP) all adjacent allies. She can then, if the Give and Take poisoned ally and another ally haven't moved beyond Range2, perform the turn described in the bullet above in the second round, but healing (therefore blessing) two allies with Close to the Abyss. Thus, she can bless all allies, then two allies who were poisoned each by Give and Take and Master Influence, to a maximum of 5 blesses in the first two rounds.

Trivia

It was originally teased that Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion would include a 'necromancer' class based on 'summoning' and 'healing', but the class was ultimately put on hold after playtesting revealed it to be too complex for the gentler scope of the expansion, presumably. The Voidwarden was included instead, while the Necromancer concept and art was reused in Frosthaven.