Age of Wonders: Planetfall – Paragon (NPC Faction)

The Paragon once were the elite citizens of the Star Union empire. After the Collapse, all interstellar trade and communications ended, leaving the surviving citizens marooned on their worlds. The upper-class Paragons (named after the company that provided their cybernetics, Paragon Augmentations), fell from boundless hedonism to a state of survival. They were no longer able to connect with CORE, the administrative heart of the Star Union with the Emperor at its center. Overtime, the disconnected augmentations that gave them eternal youth and super human abilities started to falter, with many Paragon descending into madness and decay.

The Paragon still hold onto their elite status with fanatical devotion, even after all else has decayed. In the ruins of their once great empire, clusters of Paragons formed into potent groups, often taking control over the remnants of Imperial elite forces. They are led by self-proclaimed prophets which see themselves as rulers over their own little cult of Paragon, preaching about bringing civilization where there is none left.

The Paragon are a bit snobbish and elitist in their dealings with other factions, but for those that are willing to indulge their posturing, diplomatic relations can be established.

Design

The Paragon faction is actually divided in two sides. On the one hand you have the elite citizens, the true Paragon. Their high-grade augmentations have kept them alive and in perfect physical condition through centuries. On the other side are the Imperial forces which served as an elite guard to the Paragon and their interests during the time of the Star Union, such as the Imperial Soldier and Imperial Guard. These soldiers are also augmented however, due to the lower quality of these augments, they have started to degrade and falter. The Imperial soldiers are bare shells of life now, only kept functioning due to their augments. The Paragon have direct control over their puppet forces, using their own augments to control them and directing them in battle.

The overdrive mechanic

The unique mechanic of the Paragon faction means that the Paragon can overdrive the augments of Imperial Infantry. Overdrive changes the damage channel of the attacks of Imperial Soldiers from kinetic to arc damage and gives them ‘unstable augments’ which causes the soldiers to explode in a burst of arc damage on death. On top of that, each unit gets unique bonuses when they gain overdrive as well. All in all this makes a well balanced Paragon army a deadly force to deal with, crowd control is your friend when Imperial Soldiers with overdrive are charging at you!

Units

Because of the unique divide in their units, fighting the Paragon faction can be quite challenging. The Imperial Soldiers form a defensive line around the Paragon, protecting them while the Paragon buff the soldiers and rain strong ranged attacks down on their enemies.

• Imperial soldier: The Imperial soldier is a standard infantry unit with a firearms-based assault rifle and a grenade which change to arc based weapons when the unit gets overdrive.

• Imperial guard: The Imperial Guard is a classic praetorian inspired melee infantry unit which has strong melee attacks and great defense, though due to the nature of its shield it’s vulnerable to flanking attacks. When it gains overdrive it becomes a lot more scary, as it gains faster movement speed, increased shields AND stagger resistance AND the Pulse Slam ability, which is a powerful area of effect melee attack that deals devastating damage.

• Imperial heavy soldier: The Heavy Soldier is an infantry unit in a mechanized suit armed with high caliber, powerful weaponry. It functions as a form of infantry based artillery, raining down area of effect attacks at great range. When the unit gains overdrive its attacks deal significantly more damage.

• Paragon fanatic: The Paragon fanatic is clearly suffering from its centuries long immortality, as he has gone ever so slightly insane. Regardless of that however, they can still be very strong units to go up against. Besides the ability to overdrive Imperial soldiers, it also has phase augments, which allows them to instantly relocate in battle. Their targeting jammer augments disrupt enemy targeting, making the fanatic one of the hardest units to hit in Planetfall. The combination of these augments allows it to stay safely away from the main fighting, overdriving its soldiers to do all the work while it gets in a few flanking shots.

• Paragon techno prophet: The Paragon Techno Prophet is the self-proclaimed leader of a group of paragon units, it floats above the battlefield in a throne like construct, looking down on friend and enemy alike. Its abilities come from it’s floating throne, allowing him to overdrive groups of units at a time or call in reinforcements from outside the battlefield, summoning more Imperial forces into battle. It’s most powerful ability allows it to connect to a old Star Union military satellite in orbit, calling down a blast of Arc energy, dealing massive damage to any enemy force. Having long lost the knowledge of where this power comes from, this is seen as a godlike power by the Paragon.

Vehicles

The former vehicles of the Star Union are often used in Paragon armies on the world map, but are not officially part of the Paragon faction and therefore cannot be bought from their dwellings. These vehicles can be found as rewards however on the world map. Your own Commander could be driving, flying or walking around in any of these!

Dwelling

Paragon Dwellings are former citadels of the Star Union, huge mega-structures in a sea of ruins, the skeletons of the high rises the Paragon Elite used to occupy. The Paragon and their Imperial guard still live in these ruins, in their madness they are holding on to what they see are the fleeting last traces of civilization in this apocalyptic time.

Will you endure their snobbishness and form an alliance with them to gain access to all their goodies? Or would you rather cast down their false prophets, put them in their place and show them some real power?

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