When the Fade begins
Every hero reaches a peak and then begins to decline with age; the game calls it the Fade. Where it starts is a point along the hero’s career window, the span from the age their race starts delving to the age it is expected to stop. Each hero’s point is drawn at random around the first third of that span, their race sets a floor for it, and a few things move it.
Well-Preserved pushes the point later by 6% of the career span. The game caps the point at 95% of the span, so the trait can never push the Fade off the end of a career entirely.
How many years that is
Six percent of the span is worth more on long-lived races. Using the new-campaign career windows in 2.1.8:
| Race | Career window | Extra years before the Fade |
|---|---|---|
| Goliath | 16–36 | about 1.2 |
| Half-Orc | 14–36 | about 1.3 |
| Human, Tiefling | 16–40, 18–42 | about 1.4 |
| Dragonborn | 16–46 | about 1.8 |
| Halfling | 20–56 | about 2.2 |
| Dwarf, Aasimar | 25–63, 20–58 | about 2.3 |
| Gnome | 22–64 | about 2.5 |
| Elf | 30–80 | about 3.0 |
How it compares with Not Yet
Heroes who reach the Grizzled milestone are offered a gift, and one of them, Not Yet, also delays the Fade: by two years, and it makes the decline slower once it comes. The two stack. Not Yet is a flat two years on any race; Well-Preserved scales with the race’s span, so on an Elf it is worth more than the gift and on a Goliath less. A hero with both gets the full extra time from each.
Why it matters
Veterans are usually your strongest heroes, with the most levels and experience and often the best gear. The Fade is when you lose that strength, one season at a time. A year or two more at full ability on a captain or star is often worth more than a point or two of attributes earlier in their career, and it costs nothing to carry until it pays.
It matters most on heroes you plan to keep for their whole career: core starters, captains and the veterans you expect to tutor the next generation.
What it does not do
It moves the start of the Fade without slowing the decline once it begins (Not Yet does both). It also does nothing for a young hero in the short term, since the benefit arrives late.
Small hooks
- Forks. Well-Preserved gives no lean at a dungeon fork; as leader they use the default odds.
- Flavour. Quest reports have Well-Preserved lines, and on pair duty the hero speaks with the “veteran” voice shared with Old Soldier, Weathered, Road-Hardened, Deep-Seasoned and Old-School.
The hero card links the trait to Stamina. That link is descriptive and the attribute is unchanged.
Combinations
Well-Preserved has no traits it is barred from. It pairs well with Late Bloomer, whose faster training kicks in after the first third of a career: one makes the later years more productive, the other keeps them at peak longer.
Rarity and history
- Rarity: uncommon, positive · draw weight 45 of 6,365 · about 1 recruit in 57
- Founding draft: any card.
- In the wiki’s archive: first present in the 2.1.8 build (absent from 2.0.7).
Recruiting
Worth more on a young, high-potential hero you plan to keep for a career, especially on the long-lived races, and less on a hero you expect to sell before their peak years are over.