Creature

**Creatures** are a type of card and are the central force inNightbanes. They are your defence and your offence, protecting your Vampire Lord from harm as well as attacking the Enemy Vampire Lord. There is no limit on how many creatures a player can have in play at once. Creatures will automatically use their abilities and attack after you completed your action for the turn. They will usually attack the opposing creature, and if there is no opposing creature, the Vampire Lord.

*For a list of all creatures, click here!*

## Attributes

For more information about attributes, see the Cards page!

### Bloodlust Counter

The **Bloodlust Counter** of a creature shows how many turns it needs to become active. If the creature doesn't have a Bloodlust counter, it can attack the turn it is played. All creatures gain one Bloodlust per turn until their counter is full. While inactive, they only use passive abilities such as Flying or Toughness. Abilities that are inactve because the creature hasn't accumulated enough Bloodlust are greyed out.

### Health

A creature's **Health** shows the current healthiness of the creature. Once it reaches 0, the creature is destroyed and leaves play. Some abilities activate at this point.

### Rage

**Rage** is the base amount of damage a creature deals when it attacks. Damage can be enhanced through numerous ways, such as cursing enemy creatures, increasing the rage with abilities or equipping a Weapon.

### Damage School

Main article: Damage School
In Nightbanes all creatures deal damage of a specific Element. This is important because specific abilities can protect against or enhance the damage of a target school. When building a Deck, look closely at what abilities benefit which of your creatures, to increase the synergy of your cards.

The different Damage Schools are:

Physical \* Ballistic \* Fire \* Ice \* Toxic \* Holy \* Psychic \* Mystic \* Shadow \* Electric

Types of abilities that are target specific Damage Schools are:

Curse \* Toughness \* Enrage \* Inflict \* Periodic

### Weapon and Armor Slot

Some creatures have Weapon- and/or Armor Slots and can be equipped with a corresponding Card.
Weapons and armors usually add damage or health, sometimes both, and often have additional abilities that can activate even if the equipped creature is inactive.

### Race

Creatures are divided into different categories or **Races**. Creatures of the same race often share similarities, like their Damage School or the kind of abilities they feature.
The Race of your creatures is important, because many abilities only affect one target race. Therefore you may want to build a deck consisting of mainly one race, as their abilities often affect another positively.

#### Keyword

A Race's **Keyword** is referred to in abilities that protect against or enhance a creatures damage against this race, like "Lifebane" or "Necroward".

### Abilities

A creature can have up to three abilities, which can enhance their damage or sturdiness, or benefit them or your other creatures otherwise.

## Gameplay

### Abilities

At the beginning of your creature's turn, it will use it's active abilities. Some acvitve abilities are curses, heals, or infliction abilities. Often active abilities will not target the opposing creature specifically, but any creature the opponent controls. If the creature is equipped with a weapon or armor that has an active ability, they will also be activated here.

### Attacking

After using all it's active abilities your monster will attack the opposing creature, or -if there is none- the Vampire Lord. A creature's attack damage(also referred to as Base Damage) Is the creature's Rage + Weapon and Armor increments + Ability increments.

### Blocking

Creatures will always try to defend their Vampire Lord by blocking opposing creature's attacks. However they can only block one creature. Creatures that have no opposing creature will attack the enemy Vampire Lord directly. Some creatures ignore blocking using the Shadowstep ability.