An imposing tree trunk of a man with an eyepatch stands before you, his greataxe casually on his back. He turns to you and says "Celeste said you needed help from an old mercenary?"

Sgt. Knox of Neverwinter is the latest Champion to join the Idle Champions roster with Founder's Day 4! Read on to learn about this formidable tank's abilities.

I. Sergeant Alphonse Knox

The imposing presence of Sergeant Knox came to Neverwinter when the Mintarn mercenaries were hired to retake the city following the eruption of Mount Hotenow. Soon he became a daily presence and mentor for new Adventurers in the city. Celeste reached out to her old friend following the catastrophic events at Elturel, hoping the veteran mercenary would join the Champions as they face the greatest foe the Sword Coast has ever seen!

Sgt. Knox is a Tanking & Support Champion who leads from the front, using his Rallying Cry to increase the damage of those behind him. Additionally, he has great synergy with Neverwinter allies Makos and Celeste, buffing and being buffed by their abilities in turn. When you want to add him to your formation, you can swap him with Asharra (Slot 6).

II. Sgt. Knox’s Stats

Race: Human	Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Fighter	Gender: Male
Age: 50

STR: 19	DEX: 12	CON: 15
INT: 12	WIS: 10	CHA: 14

Role: Tanking & Support
Eligible for Patrons: Mirt the Moneylender, Vajra Safahr, Zariel
Slot: 6 (Asharra)

III. Sgt. Knox's Design

Sergeant Knox chooses what is right above all else, even orders. Hailing from Neverwinter along with his companions Celeste and Makos, Sgt. Knox is fiercely loyal to his city. Alphonse Knox is a sergeant in the Neverwinter Guard, and one of Lord Neverember's personal guards. Sgt. Knox was in charge of the defense efforts when Valindra Shadowmantle put Neverwinter under siege.

Sgt. Knox is a solid Tanking and Support Champion even without his Neverwinter Companions: Celeste and Makos. He buffs Champions behind him with Rallying Cry and this can be further enhanced with Explosive Rally. Sgt. Knox has great synergy in formation with Celeste and Makos, with Allies of Convenience buffing both Makos' Dark Blessing and Sgt. Knox's own Rallying Cry. An old war ally, Celeste is used to healing Sgt. Knox, and his thus Blessed by SelÈ—ne, if he is affected by Celeste's Mass Cure Wounds. As a Hero of Neverwinter Sgt. Knox can increase the health of all of his companions, and protect them with his Shield Wall.

IV. Sgt. Knox's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Battleaxe — Knox swings his enormous Battleaxe through the nearest group of enemies.

Formation Abilities

• Rallying Cry — Increase the damage of Champions in the columns behind Sergeant Knox by 100% for each positional formation ability affecting them (each individual champion), stacking additively and including this one. Buffs will apply to the post-stack value.

• Blessed By SelÈ—ne — If affected by Celeste's Mass Cure Wounds, Sergeant Knox takes 25% less damage from all attacks, excluding attacks that instantly kill him.

• Allies Of Convenience — If adjacent to Makos, the effects of Rallying Cry and Makos' Dark Blessing abilities are increased by 200%.

• Hero of Neverwinter — Sergeant Knox increases the health of all other Champions by 25% of his max health.

Specializations

• Explosive Rally — Rallying Cry now stacks multiplicatively, with buffs applying to the post-stack value, but it's base percentage is decreased to 35%.

• Altruistic Rally — Increase the effect of Celeste's Crusader's Mantle and Makos' Dark Blessing abilities by 100% each.

• Shield Wall — Increase the max health of Sergeant Knox by 50%.

Ultimate Ability

• Break The Line — Knox swings his massive axe in a huge arc, knocking all nearby enemies back, and moderately damaging and stunning them for 2 seconds. He then leaps forward at a random enemy and swings his axe in a massive overhead blow, dealing massive damage and stunning enemies in the area for 5 seconds.

V. Sgt. Knox’s Epic Equipment

Slot 1: Global DPS	Slot 2: Global DPS	Slot 3: Max Health
Slot 4: Rallying Cry	Slot 5: Ultimate Damage	Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

What do you think about Sgt. Knox and how he fits into the meta with his Neverwinter companions, Celeste and Makos? 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!

We have some amazing news to share today. We have a preview card from the upcoming Magic: The Gathering card set, titled: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. Check out the reveal below!

Magic the Gathering: Ellywick Tumblestrum

We're so excited to share Ellywick Tumblestrum's card for Adventures in the Forgotten Realms! We're almost as excited as her companion Groak the Toad!

Ellywick Tumblestrum is a Mythic Green Planeswalker who costs 2GG for 4 loyalty.

• Her +1 ability allows you to Venture into the dungeon. (more on that below)
• Her -2 ability allows you to look at the top 6 cards from your library and put a creature card from among them into your hand. If it's legendary, you also gain 3 life.
• Her -7 ability grants an emblem that gives all creatures you control trample, haste, and +2/+2 for each differently named dungeon you've completed.

What does Venture mean, and how do dungeons play into the new card set?

Venture is a new keyword for the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Set, which allows you to venture through one of the many storied dungeons from Dungeons & Dragons. When you venture into a dungeon, you bring a dungeon of your choice into the command zone and put a venture marker on the first room. Each time you enter a room, its room ability triggers. Now that you're in the dungeon, the next time you venture into the dungeon, you move your marker to the next room, triggering its ability. When you trigger the last room's ability, you complete the dungeon! Huzzah!

For more information, check out the official blog post covering the set mechanics for Dungeons & Dragons Adventures in the Forgotten Realms here.

Idle Champion: Ellywick Tumblestrum

To celebrate the reveal of her Magic: The Gathering card, we're also announcing that Ellywick Tumblestrum will be joining the Idle Champions roster during our Midsummer 4 Event on July 21st!

Ellywick is a Support, Gold Find, and Healing Champion who you'll find in slot 10 (Tyril). Ellywick is the greatest bard in the multiverse thanks to a lucky draw from the Deck of Many Things, and that deck certainly influenced her design. We are excited to share more about this amazing new Champion with the release of her Idle Champion Spotlight on July 16th.

Ellywick Tumblestrum, Gnome Bard, Planeswalker, and now Idle Champion of the Forgotten Realms! To celebrate the announcement of Ellywick, you can use the code ELLY-WICK-CARD in Idle Champions to unlock 5 Gold Chests right now!

The Rime has been stopped, but there are still many mysteries to uncover and dangers to confront across the snowy wastes of Icewind Dale!

There is ancient magic still hidden under a glacier of ice in the Caves of Hunger. We need to learn more about what is going on to keep Ten-Towns safe, but there are many others seeking this power for their own nefarious reasons. This includes Avarice, who hunts this power to continue Auril's frozen work. There's no time to rest after our previous success, there are still many mysteries to uncover within the ice of the Reghed Glacier!

Note: you will need to have completed the previous two Icewind Dale Adventures, Ending the Rime Part 1 and Ending the Rime Part 2, in order to access these new Adventures.

Reghed Glacier Mysteries

Enter the Caves of Hunger in search of Ythryn!

• Variant: Mysteries Unlocked — Take the Codicil of White to the Reghed Glacier with your most perceptive Champions.
  Only Champions with an INT of 13 or higher AND a WIS of 13 or higher can be used.
  Reach Area 500.

Tekeli-li's Hunt

Continue to travel through the frozen caves, pursued by vampiric gnoll Tekeli-li!

• Variant: Cackling Horror — We must continue to explore the Caves of Hunger, even with this vampire gnoll giggling in our midst! Tekeli-li's cackling laughter echoes through the Caves of Hunger, increasing the base attack cooldown of all Champions by 1 second.
  Only Champions with a WIS of 14 or higher can be used.
  Reach Area 525.

See the in-game Change Log for more information!

This Pride, we at Codename Entertainment are delighted to be running three different Charity Drives for Lambert House across Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, Crusaders of the Lost Idols, and Bushwhacker 2!

Read on to find out more about Lambert House and the different charity packs available.

Lambert House

Lambert House empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth through the development of leadership, social, and life skills. We are Codename Entertainment are thrilled to be supporting LGBTQ+ by raising money for Lambert House, a fantastic cause we really believe in.

Idle Champions: Prism the Rainbow Flumph Familiar Pack

Through June 22, 2021, Codename will be donating the net proceeds from all purchases of the new Prism the Rainbow Flumph Familiar Pack support of Lambert House! Prism the Rainbow Flumph Familiar is available now in the in-game shop on PC and Mac on Steam and web, Xbox One, Epic Games Store, iOS and on all Android devices. Prism the Rainbow Flumph Familiar Pack will be available on PlayStation from June 17th and Codename will be donating the net proceeds of the first two weeks of sales on that platform as well.

This pack contains:

• Prism the Rainbow Flumph
• 4 Epic Potions of Speed
• 4 Epic Potions of Giant Strengh
• 4 Epic Potions of Clairvoyance
• 1 Potion of Polish

Prism, the Rainbow Flumph is also available as a bundle with our Crusaders of the Lost Idols Charity Taskmaster, Dorothy the Lovely Lion!

Crusaders of the Lost Idols: Dorothy the Lovely Lion Taskmaster Pack

Codename Entertainment will be donating the net proceeds of the Dorothy the Lovely Lion Taskmaster Pack through June 22nd to Lambert House! In this pack:

• Taskmaster Dorothy the Lovely Lion!
• 5 Runic chests!
• 2 Arcane Geodes
• 2 Day 50% Idols Buff (can be extended by Endurance Training)

BW2: Lambert House Charity Packs

Bushwhacker 2 has three different Charity packs available: The Lambert House Pack, the Lambert House Flag Pack, and the Lambert House Pet Pack. Codename Entertainment will be donating the net proceeds from sales of these three packs from noon on Friday, June 9th through to noon on Monday, June 14th, all times Pacific. Read more about Bushwhacker 2's charity drive here



Don't forget to visit the Commons event area and get a complimentary Rainbow Cookie!

At the mouth of the River Mirar in the northwest of the Sword Coast lies the port city of Luskan, also known as the City of Sails. Officially governed by the five High Captains, Luskan is actually secretly run by Jarlaxle Baenre and the Bregan D'aerthe.

And they need your help.

While celebrating the Summer Solstice with a smaller scale version of Waterdeep's Dragondown festival, Luskan has managed to draw the attention - and the wrath - of a Bronze Dragon and their kin...

Dragondown 4 introduces Selise Astorio, Human Paladin of the Rivals of Waterdeep, and brings back Nova, the knowledge-hungry Genasi Warlock from High Rollers: Aerois, and Korth, the ruthless Lizardfolk Fighter. Players have until Monday, June 21st at 12PM Pacific to complete their 4 unlocks and objectives.

For more information about Year 4 Events and how they work, please check out our Year 4 Events Dev Blog.

I. New Champion: Selise

With steadfast confidence and a knowing smirk, Selise is ready to jump into battle whenever necessary, though afterward, she may pine for a hot bath. She keeps her wife’s ring on a chain around her neck and her well-worn Psychomancy shield on her arm. Despite losing her connection to her God after dispatching the one she swore vengeance upon, Selise continues to try to help those in need, even if sometimes she takes the morally gray path.

Selise knows a thing or two about using her shield, and can change her stance with that shield to buff the party in a variety of ways. When you want to add her to your formation, you can swap her with Arkhan (Slot 12)

II. Selise’s Stats

Race: Human	Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Class: Paladin	Gender: Female
Age: 42	Affiliation: Rivals of Waterdeep

STR: 19	DEX: 11	CON: 11
INT: 15	WIS: 13	CHA: 15

Role: Tanking and Support
Eligible for Patrons: Strahd von Zarovich, Zariel
Slot: 12 (Arkhan)

Selise's Design

Using her Divine Sense to detect enemies around her, Selise can leverage that knowledge to better prepare for battle. She prefers to be in the front lines of a formation, increasing the damage of those behind her and offering extra buffs depending on her current shield stance. When the time is right to strike, her Thunderous Smite will decimate an entire group of foes!

For more information on Selise and her abilities, check out her Champion Spotlight!

Year Four Variants

• Stalwart Supporters — Selise starts in the formation. She can be moved or removed. Only Champions with STR of 13 or higher can be used.
  Getting to know Selise: Each time you trigger her ultimate attack, she switches shield stances. Each shield stance (Aggressive, Wall, Deflect, and Last Resort) changes the way her normal attack works, and also how Divine Sense buffs Champions in the two columns behind her.
• Reach Area 75.

• Tears of Tyr — - Selise starts in the formation. She can be moved or removed. While in outdoor areas, rain falls, increasing the speed and attack damage of enemies by 100%. Champions' base attack cooldowns are increased by 1 second. Only Champions with a WIS of 13 or higher can be used.
  Getting to know Selise: Keep Selise in her Aggressive shield stance to keep Champions attacking as quickly as possible!
• Reach Area 125.

• The Endless Claws — Selise starts in the formation. She can be moved or removed. Crawling Claws appear in each area (3 after the first wave). They deal 200% additional damage. When a Crawling Claw is destroyed by anyone other than Selise Astorio, it immediately respawns and continues its attack! Crawling Claws do not count towards quest progress, nor do they drop any gold.
  Getting to know Selise: Her Last Resort shield stance is optimal for this variant, as it has a small AOE. Using her ultimate to switch between Last Resort and Aggressive shield stances will trigger Thunderous Smite, allowing her to attack even more enemies and clear the field of Crawling Claws!.
• Reach Area 175.

For information on previous years' variants, check out the Dragondown 3 blog.

This relentless paladin will protect those she cares for, and her shield is just as deadly as it is defensive!

Selise Astorio is a human paladin who started on her path of vengeance after the death of her wife. During her travels she joined the Rivals of Waterdeep despite her initial misgivings, and now does what she can to protect them with all of her considerable power. She joins the Champions, as well as her fellow Rival Shaka, next week during Dragondown!

I. Selise

With steadfast confidence and a knowing smirk, Selise is ready to jump into battle whenever necessary, though afterwards she may pine for a hot bath. She keeps her wife’s ring on a chain around her neck, and her well worn Psychomancy shield on her arm. Despite losing her connection to her God after dispatching the one she swore vengeance upon, Selise continues to try to help those in need, even if sometimes she takes the morally gray path.

Selise knows a thing or two about using her shield, and can change her stance with that shield to buff the party in a variety of ways. When you want to add her to your formation, you can swap her with Arkhan (Slot 12)

II. Selise’s Stats

Race: Human	Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Class: Paladin	Gender: Female
Age: 42	Affiliation: Rivals of Waterdeep

STR: 19	DEX: 11	CON: 11
INT: 15	WIS: 13	CHA: 15

Role: Tanking and Support
Eligible for Patrons: Strahd von Zarovich, Zariel
Slot: 12 (Arkhan)

III. Selise's Design

As the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, part of the development team behind Into The Mother Lands, and a prolific writer and consultant on a variety of projects, we were very excited to work with Tanya DePass to bring her Rivals of Waterdeep character to life in Idle Champions! Selise Astorio has gone on an amazing, complex journey over the last 10 seasons of the show, and it was important to reflect that in the multiple ways she has to protect her fellow Champions.

Using her Divine Sense to detect enemies around her, Selise can leverage that knowledge to better prepare for battle. She prefers to be in the front lines of a formation, increasing the damage of those behind her and offering extra buffs depending on her current shield stance. When the time is right to strike, her Thunderous Smite will decimate an entire group of foes!

IV. Selise's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Sword and Board — Selise leaps out and attacks the nearest enemy. This attack has a bonus effect based on her current stance:
  • Aggressive: Bash the enemy before attacking them, stunning them for 2 seconds. This can cause hits- and armor-based enemies to take two hits.
  • Wall: Take 25% less damage from all attacks for the next 5 seconds.
  • Deflect: Damage all enemies in a small AOE if Reflective Shield is chosen and gain one charge of deflection for each enemy hit.
  • Last Resort: Damage and knock back all enemies in a small AOE.

Formation Abilities

• Divine Sense — Selise increases the damage of Champions in the two columns behind her by 100%. This ability has a bonus effect based on Selise's current shield stance, which can be changed by using her Ultimate Attack:
  • Aggressive: Champions affected by Divine Sense have their base attack cooldowns reduced by 0.5s.
  • Wall: Champions in the same column as Selise take 25% less damage from melee attacks; this stacks multiplicatively with Selise's normal attack Wall-stance buff on herself.
  • Deflect: Champions affected by Divine Sense take 25% less damage from ranged and magical attacks.
  • Last Resort: Selise's overwhelm point is increased by 15.
    

• Shield of Psychomancy — While in Aggressive stance, every 4th attack instead of her normal attack, Selise will toss her shield in an arc targeted at the farthest enemy. It deals damage and stuns all enemies hit for 2 seconds, and the effect of Divine Sense is increased by 50% for each enemy hit until Selise attacks with Shield of Psychomancy again or changes stances.

• Vow of Vengeance — While not in Aggressive stance, Selise increases the effect of Divine Sense by 100% for each enemy attacking her, stacking additively.

• Thunderous Smite — When switching from Last Resort to Aggressive stance, Selise channels the divine power of Tyr and attacks a random enemy with her sword, dealing BUD-based AoE damage and BUD-based chaining lightning damage from the enemy struck to five nearby enemies. This effect can only trigger every 180 seconds.

Specializations

• Relentless Avenger — While in Wall stance, Selise cannot be stunned. Any enemy that attempts to stun Selise is instead stunned themselves for 4 seconds, if they can be stunned.

• Reflective Shield — While in Deflect stance, Selise can deflect ranged and magical projectiles back at the enemies that shot/cast them, completely negating their damage and dealing 6 seconds of BUD-based damage. She can deflect one attack for each charge of deflection she has, and gains deflection stacks by attacking while in Deflect stance.

• Mithral Skin — While in Last Resort stance, Selise takes less damage the more damaged she is. At 80%+ health she takes normal damage, but below 80% she receives a damage reduction bonus equal to 80% - her current health percentage.

• Tyr's Eyes — Increase the range of Divine Sense to affect the three columns behind Selise rather than just two.

Ultimate Ability

• Shield Stance — As a stalwart tank, Selise knows a thing or two about using a shield. She can subtly change her shield stance to buff the party in different ways depending on what the situation calls for. Using this ability rotates her stance through the following options in order, then looping when reaching the end: Aggressive -> Wall -> Deflect -> Last Resort

Champion Rebalance

Selise Astorio received the following changes as part of an update on October 8th 2021:

• Increase to the duration of her Wall Stance damage reduction buff to 10 seconds
• Increase the base effect value of Vow of Vengeance from 100% to 200%
• Update to happen in version 406+ : Last Resort stance also increases the effect of Vow of Vengeance by 200%

V. Selise’s Equipment

Slot 1: Global DPS	Slot 2: Global DPS	Slot 3: Increase Max Health
Slot 4: Divine Sense	Slot 5: Shield of Psychomancy	Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

We’re excited to continue to bring the Rivals into our Champion roster, and can’t wait to see Selise offering her tanking and support abilities in your formations! If you want to find out more about all the Rivals of Waterdeep you can check out their shows as livestreams or podcasts!

What do you think about Selise? 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!

With half of Ten-Towns destroyed, the surviving towns won't survive this harsh winter with all these new mouths to feed. It's time to look into ending this Rime once and for all!

Auril is a terrifying foe, but the devastation her Endless Rime has caused and the lives of everyone across Ten-Towns hangs in the balance. It's time to take your Champions into these new adventures and variants to face the bitter chill and confront the Frostmaiden!

Note: you will need to have completed the previous two Icewind Dale Adventures, Deekin's Mission and Frozen Vengeance, in order to access these new Adventures.

Ending the Rime Part 1

Jump in your Nautiloid and head off to the sea of moving ice to find a wizard, an orb, and a book!

• Variant: Ambitious Speakers Part 1 — Travel in the Nautiloid with Oarus, the Speaker of Termalaine in tow. Oarus joins the Champions on their adventure, taking up a slot in your formation, but not doing much else.
  Only Champions with a CHA of 16 or higher can be used.
  Reach Area 450.

Ending the Rime Part 2

Auril is trying to stop your advances, but you must continue to hunt for The Codicil of White!

• Variant: Ambitious Speakers Part 2 — You keep searching for The Codicil of White but Auril is ready for you this time!
  Requires completion of Ambitious Speakers Part 1
  Oarus, the Speaker of Termalaine, joins the Champions on their adventure. They take up a slot in your formation but still don't do anything helpful. Only Champions with CHA of 16 or higher can be used. Bosses deal 100% additional damage. Reach Area 475.

See the in-game Change Log for more information!