Summary of AQ hero houserules

[Arydis]

There are some of these heroes whose abilities have been largely deemed as OP or at least markedly above the curve of other abilities. Here is a summary of the current version of my house rules regarding these characters. YMMV.

Spike - Add "exhaust hero for Each (Crit) on this attack to deal 1 wound to attacker "
Seth - "When attacking with a magic attack card, may exhaust to . . .
Sonya - Add at end, "(Limit +2 dice)"
Heartless - "When attacking with a sword attack card, may exhaust to . . .
Morgan - 1def/2life - "+1 def, +1 reroll per magic attack card equipped"
Any others?

 

[esnese]

Seth - When attacking with a magic attack card, the target rolls half defense dice (rounded down). (No effect on Villains)

Spike - Each (c) on his Defense roll deals 1 Wound to the attacker (Wounds cannot exceed Hits dealt).

 

[diversionArchitect]

I was actually interested in discussing this from the other direction- improving characters that are considered weak.

The main one I was thinking was Black Newt. I just can't see ever picking him, but maybe I'm missing something.

Other considerations from another post on this forum, and a survey from the facebook group:
•Surprised Faceless
•Serious Faceless
•Nameless as Hero
•Morgan
•Aeric

I will say, that both of those lists included Bowie and Hitch, which I disagree with. I think both are fun and situationally powerful.

 

[esnese]

For Black Newt, I was considering just giving him an extra life so he would be a 3-3HP.

Is Morgan really that terrible? I was thinking of maybe making his base a 1-2HP to compensate for his underwhelming ability.

For Aeric, I made my own card to make his ability give +2 defense die against Melee attacks rather than Ranged attacks since Ranged already has a lower hit chance and as a knight in armor it seemed fitting to be in hand-to-hand combat. I haven't tried this out yet but I was also thinking another tweak could be to keep his same ability but make it +3 dice against Ranged attacks rather than +2.

I agree with you in that Bowie and Hitch are fairly balanced.

 

[Arydis]

For comparison to Morgan, take Diva - She starts out as a 4/4 and can then take whatever equipment she wants. In order to get Morgan TO a 4/4, you have to equip him with 3 spells (strongly limiting his build). Even with the tome of enlightenment, the most spells you could ever have is 5, making it possible to make him a 6/6, but at that point, you might as well have been taking other equipment. Early game, he is a liability (you can with starting equipment make him 1 3/3 if you use both of your magic equips, but then, he is starting the game as a 3/3 character with NO ABILITY and 2 slots fixed.

I think Hitch is balanced. I like his ability overall as an interesting way to play. Bowie's weakness is that his ability is tied to using bows, which are statistically the weakest equipment in the game. I think if you take arrows, and make them a special category of boost (quivers) that does do not exhaust the bow (similar to one of the other pieces of equipment), then they would be better overall and Bowie and Greensleeves would improve accordingly.

 

[esnese]

Okay, easy fix for Morgan. Make his ability +1 Defense, +1 Life, and +1 Reroll for each equipped magic attack card. In addition, maybe tweak his base stat to 1-2HP

Or

+1 Defense and +1 Life for each Magic attack card equipped to his guild.

 

[Arydis]

One alt. card version I saw and liked was similar to this, a stat line of 1 def, 2 hp and a +1def, +1 reroll per magic attack card equipped. I'll add this to the topic at the top.

 

[diversionArchitect]

I think if you take arrows, and make them a special category of boost (quivers) that does do not exhaust the bow (similar to one of the other pieces of equipment), then they would be better overall and Bowie and Greensleeves would improve accordingly.

I really like this concept. A very interesting way to boost bows without making them likely to be picked by non-bow users.

One alt. card version I saw and liked was similar to this, a stat line of 1 def, 2 hp and a +1def, +1 reroll per magic attack card equipped. I'll add this to the topic at the top.

I made one like this for the fb group, made him 2/2, but otherwise yep.
View attachment 47776

ps would you want me to post edits to match the ones from your top post?

 

[diversionArchitect]

For Black Newt, I was considering just giving him an extra life so he would be a 3-3HP.

I did exactly this. Having played with him a bit, he has grown on me, but not a whole lot.

Is Morgan really that terrible?

he really is just terribly uninteresting. The lack of re-rolls is very disappointing and he really needs all 4 slots to be magic. I posted my fix above.

For Aeric, I made my own card to make his ability give +2 defense die against Melee attacks rather than Ranged attacks since Ranged already has a lower hit chance and as a knight in armor it seemed fitting to be in hand-to-hand combat. I haven't tried this out yet but I was also thinking another tweak could be to keep his same ability but make it +3 dice against Ranged attacks rather than +2.

This seems good, but it still is not a hero I would pick in any situation.

 

[esnese]

In regards to Aeric, I have to agree with you. Either of those fixes would improve him but just doesn't make him a hero to build a cool strategy from. I'm gonna hit the drawing board and see what else I can think up. I like your Morgan fix with +1 D +1 RR.