Greetings, we are back for our last preview of Pub Crawlers before Gen Con 2026, and today we’re taking a look at the other new class in the box, the Shaper Whistlecry! Before we get started, don’t forget that you can find our previous preview here.
As the lore implies, these tiny avian humanoids, while a bit frail, are also ferocious flying fighters. This comes through in the mechanics of the class, which emphasize aerial combat and diving down to attack, as you can read about now!
When playing as the Whistlecry, you’ll always need to be aware of whether you are Grounded or not. As we talked about two weeks ago when previewing the new conditions introduced in this box, Grounded is a negative status effect that causes you to lose flying until the end of your next full turn. For the Whistlecry, this status is vital to your play, as you’ll need to pick and choose your spots for when to launch an attack – otherwise you can only deal damage through “pure damage” abilities (like the top action of Sonic Bomb, pictured below). You’ll make yourself a bit more vulnerable when doing so, as your initiatives become slower until the condition is removed. But you’ll need to do so – when flying, the only attacks you can perform are basic attacks – and that’s just not gonna cut it.
Tricks of the trade:
Considering you cannot attack while flying other than with basic attacks, you can probably see how Sonic Bomb (pictured above) would be helpful. The top ability isone that deals pure damage, and is not considered an attack – therefore you can still perform it while flying. The bottom allows you to perform a basic attack on a bottom action, giving you a chance to “cheat” the rules listed on your class notes and deal a bit more damage while still up in the air.
And not only does having the ability to fly help you avoid troublesome traps or terrain, it also makes it easier to move through enemies, triggering the bottom of an ability like Whistling Dash to deal damage and curse your rivals.
Grounded Game:
But while you can ping your opponents here and there with some damage while remaining in the skies, eventually you’ll have to come down to fight.
Dive Bomb lets you perform a strong attack on a turn you lost flying (by gaining Grounded), but you’ll also want to be planning your escape the following round, as once again, due to your class mechanics you’ll be going slower than normal, adding 20 to your initiative values.
We previewed Aid from the Zephyr a few weeks back, but with the class specifics now fully revealed, you can see how if you were to position yourself advantageously with access to wind, you could then use that wind to remove the Grounded condition from yourself and fly away to safety.
We hope the new classes look exciting to you, and that you’ll give Pub Crawlers a try! Remember that you can still preorder until release in September. Until next time, mercenaries!
Pete K. is a long-time member of the Cephalofair Community and now our Official Community Manager. Make sure you subscribe to the Cephalofair Insider Newsletter as he peeks behind the curtains at Cephalofair HQ and gives you all the deets.
