HispaZargon wrote:I would like to open a discussion about the following topic that (surprisingly) I think has not been still treated at all in the Inn:
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think that all the rules around Sigill, Udren and the Bard are a mess as described in the quesbook.
First of all, the questbook general rules says that once the heroes have rescued the scout Sigill, if a hero dies, he/she must be replaced by the Bard hero, ok... but does it mean that Sigill is a Bard? If yes, should Sigill have the same stats, equipment and spells as the Bard hero when rescued? If not, makes any sense the new Bard hero appearance rule once a hero dies in presence of Sigill?
It's kind of vague at first glance, but I read it as the intention is NOT to use the Bard as anything more than either a hero from the start (one of the four*) or a replacement for the first hero who dies in the campaign. By "dies" I mean as in dies for good, not revives with a potion, so he's like an "extra life" for someone.
The other "Orc allies" use any regular Orc figure (you have four sculpts to choose from in the base game, and five in the Mythic which this was included in so easily accomplished to make them stand out even without painting) and have the exact same stats as a regular Orc. If there would be any change it would be that they defend with white shields (as all heroic allies like mercenaries do in official quests thus far). Prior to them being recruited they would be treated like regular enemy Orcs (Mage of the Mirror featured monsters who turn into good guys if certain conditions are met). The allies continue to follow the heroes until they die or the text says they're no longer available. Considering they have only 1 body point, I wouldn't expect them to last long if they are entered into combat (the EU exclusive WOM featured 1 BP mercenaries).
Using the Bard in place of one of these Orcs is tempting, but it would throw everything off if you were already using the Bard either as a base hero or a replacement, so I would go with the more probable interpretation that you use ordinary Orc figures for these characters (with no special abilities whatsoever). And yes, other Orcs can attack them, and once they are made your allies you can't attack them (with Orc's bane or anything else).
I would treat these Orcs just like Sir Ragnar (except they have the ability to fight). Fixed movement, stats exactly like on the Orc monster card. Spells would affect them as if they were a Hero or Mercenary. They have only 1 body point, so you couldn't really "heal" them, but...
You could give them a potion of healing (or two or three) that they could use to save themselves from dying as well (based upon notes from "Into the Northlands" bonus online quest even though that was written later). They could open doors like any Merc could but not search for anything or keep any treasure (but they could gather the belongings of another Hero who died in the same room/corridor as themselves to be given to another hero or saved for the next adventure). If all the heroes die except the friendly orc, what happens? Unless the text says otherwise, I would treat it similarly to the mercenaries... if the hero player who was controlling them wants to continue, they can try to finish the quest with just that character or give up and remove them from the board. But since they are treated as being important for the adventure I would say as long as another hero still lives, they would not be removed from the board unless killed. They can't really use equipment (same as mercenaries) since they have just their fixed starting abilities, but you could cast magic on them. Could you hand them a spell scroll or other artifact that they could use? Into the Northlands suggests this isn't intended, unless the item is specifically for such characters (but of course Zargon can make whatever ruling he likes, if they wanted to hand a spell scroll to the Orc ally). And that's really the bottom line here, if you have your heart set on using the Bard figure to represent this friendly Orc, nobody is stopping you.
Actually I could think of one scenario in which you could have five heroes in a game... let's say someone dies for good and gets replaced by the Bard. Still four heroes. Then at some point you find the Elixir of Life and use it to bring back the dead hero (depending upon how you think the Elixir artifact should work... strict rules on this are never given in any of the official quests so far) now you have five. What happens to the Bard? Presumably the player who had his hero die now has two heroes to control (unless you want to say the Bard just "runs away" or something, never to be seen again?). Now as to whether the Elixir is ever found in this pack... it can be found in (SPOILERS) quest 11. Presumably if you had the Elixir and didn't want to use the Bard you'd just get your normal hero back right away, but then I could imagine a player wanting a bonus and asking Zargon to let him do that.
* No special rules have been given for using the various other bonus/alternate heroes more than the Bard. However various clues are that any of these heroes are meant to replace one of the existing four (most quests are designed for four heroes, they recommend against using less than four heroes except in the few solo quests in certain expansions as this greatly increases the difficulty and the game is still "2-5 players"). While HeroQuest, in my view can certainly function with more than four heroes (Frozen Horror and Wizards of Morcar were designed with Mercenaries in mind, meaning the heroes could theoretically have an additional 12 body points of mercs with them, even more in the remake of Frozen Horror which would have 24 and since it's such a hard pack that doesn't seem unreasonable). The HeroQuest Companion App is not a perfect judge of what is intended and possible in HQ but it only lets you have four heroes and only one of each character type at a time though you can use up to 12 mercs in FH and you will be able to use those mercs in MOTM too when it is eventually added as the quest book reflects. Which hero should the Bard replace if you are sticking to only four starting heroes? That's up to you to decide. No specific direction is given! I've played with more than four heroes before and it tends to make the game take longer. Of course any time a human player is controlling more than one character, their turns are bound to take longer (especially if those are spell casters, as the Bard is, rather than "pure" combat characters).