How to chose Elf Spells

[Daedalus]

While Twist Wood including a staff doesn't matter much, I'd think it's fair to classify a club as wooden. This notably affects the Ogre in the EQP. The Polar Warbear should also have an attack nerfed. In both cases, I'd think reducing the club attack to 1 attack dice as done in the app is appropriate.

Though Zargon would have to allow Elf spells, possibly through playing order of the expansions, Jungles of Delthrak offer some possibilities for Twist Wood. Skeleton Archer--check. What about a Skullblight's appendages--should they count as a wooden weapon? What of its entangling roots ability? Apart from the monsters, Zargon could also allow Twist Wood to disarm a grasping vines trap.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

I agree that he is a bit toothless, once his fire spells are used, but potions!!
If he has a wizards staff, he rolls 2 cd attacks. Cast courage on himself, that's permanent 4 cd until room is cleared.
If he has spell ring. Can do the same trick twice, and added to heroic, attacks twice once as well.
Genie is another good attack spell.
Tempest is excellent, guaranteed loss of turn for a boss.
And in one of the Wizard solo quests on the Inn (minds eye?) he gets a weapon, Trances Rapier. Giving him 3D attack, and as it's a Rapier, I would argue diagonal as well.
I also rule he can use a hand axe as some versions allow it, so that gives him a ranged attack of 2D.
Yes he is not a tank, but he is VERY useful. A defense of 4 isn't too shabby either.

[Kurgan]

Not that the HQ Companion App is the end all, be all, but the way it interprets Twist Wood is that it reduces the attacker to 1 combat die across the board.

If we look at the 1990 classic Armory we can see that pretty much every piece of equipment (except the body armors and maybe the helmet) appear to have some wooden component to them. The difficulty is that monsters in HQ have attack value based on inherent skill rating (their attack die number) rather than carrying a weapon. Yes, we can say that the evil Mercenaries in Frozen Horror are just chaos versions of player characters, so you can remove say a Crossbow from them easily enough. This expansion only concerns itself with the weapons of monsters within EQP so highlighting the bows of the Elven Archers makes sense, reducing them to their dagger attack.

Where the Staff comes in to me is when the spell is reversed upon the hero(es) which is possible. When that happens their "wooden" weapons are affected. Back to the Armory... the spell Twist Wood specifically targets the WEAPON so it would make sense that all weapons are affected... if we're going with realism then swords have grips (handles) of wood though I suppose they could be made of horn or bone wrapped in leather.

Should strong monsters who lose their weapon really be reduced to 1 attack die? My homebrew idea is that what I consider to be strong monsters (abominations, ogres, polar warbears) are instead reduced to 2 dice.

Normally HeroQuest doesn't seem to care what weapons/armor the plastic models are shown carrying but for suspension of disbelief you could make the call on that. AH HeroQuest features versions of the Gargoyle and Abomination that don't carry weapons for example... should they be immune to the effect? What about the "ranged goblins"? Those boomerangs are probably made of wood, but what about those grenades?

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

The problem regarding using specifics of the miniatures is not worth entering.
The alternative sculpts of the Abominations are just that. Alternative sculpts. They are not assumed to have different stats just because they have no weapons physically in hand. Some Goblins only have daggers but some have swords. If that were the case, I'm sure the ones with daggers would not get used!!
And the weaponless Gargoyle would never see the light of day!!

[Kurgan]

Justifications can always be made after the fact, I'm just thinking how many players would accept that Twist Wood reduces the attack of a Mummy or Yeti to 1 die without one?

[wallydubbs]

Justifications can always be made after the fact, I'm just thinking how many players would accept that Twist Wood reduces the attack of a Mummy or Yeti to 1 die without one?

I wouldn't allow it. If I'm Zargoning this spell only works on Archers, Crossbowmen, Skeletons, Ogre Warriors, Polar Warbears, and Dread Sorcerers. I don't particularly see wood in any other monster weapons, although clever for the Skullblight, this spell is very situational. If none of these monsters are in a quest and I see the Elf picking this spell at the start of the quest I'll make adjustments and replace an orc with an Orc Archer or something, just to give the Elf a chance to use it.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

I think it can be used against any monster that uses a weapon of any sort. Surely that's the intention. So, Mummy, Yeti, Wolves etc are immune. I solved the Abomination issue by using the alternative unarmed sculpt as a new distinct monster, so that's unaffected as well.

[wallydubbs]

I think it can be used against any monster that uses a weapon of any sort. Surely that's the intention. So, Mummy, Yeti, Wolves etc are immune. I solved the Abomination issue by using the alternative unarmed sculpt as a new distinct monster, so that's unaffected as well.

I don't think that was the intention at all. If it was, it would say all weapons or the weapon of any 1 monster, but this seems to specifically target ranged weapons. We're talking about a spell card from a broken quest pack: the expansion was never playtested and the "what if..." scenarios were never configured. This spell card accompanied an expansion that introduced Elven Archers, so I believe this spell was tailored in because of them.
I understand you'll probably hit me with the argument "but the Elven Archers only feature in two quests." As true as that may be, we have enemy spell casters able to cast Reanimation with no undead anywhere close to them . We have the Sky Orb in a quest pack to protect mind points in the same quest pack where Mind Points are never targeted. Like I said, it's a broken quest pack that was never adequately playtested. So the thought of who this effects and how was never considered.

Avalon Hill picked up the reigns almost 30 years later and I don't think they knew what to do with this spell either. So simply out of default convenience they reduce any monster down to 1 attack dice.
You could play it that way if you want, but I personally don't believe that was the intent.
I'd just let it work on all ranged monsters that the Elf can see. Understandably, though, not all quests have a ranged monster, which is why I'd make concessions for Skeletons and Ogres and such. But there are even quests in Return of the Witch Lord where you only fight undead and the Sleep spell is rendered useless. So there's also a bit of tough luck in there as well.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

What makes you think it affects ranged weapons? The EQP also had Elven warriors armed with swords, so surely it was intended for any weapons. The card doesn't mention any weapon, so logically its only going to work by ruining A weapon, so hence any weapon.

[wallydubbs]

What makes you think it affects ranged weapons? The EQP also had Elven warriors armed with swords, so surely it was intended for any weapons. The card doesn't mention any weapon, so logically its only going to work by ruining A weapon, so hence any weapon.

How do you figure it doesn't mention any weapons? "This spell causes any wooden weapon, such as a staff, bow or crossbow to be warped into uselessness." Bows and Crossbows are ranged weapons. Asides from the Dread Sorcerer no monster uses a Staff.