Polar Warbear double attack

[The Admiral]

I have been wandering about the mechanics of this attack?

The rules say that you may only defend against one attack. can you choose which one? i.e. does the WB make both rolls and then you decide which to defend against? If that is not the case then can you choose not to defend against the first attack if it is weak (1 skull), and gamble that the second attack isn't a total miss? Or do you have to defend against the first attack as long as at least one skull was rolled?

I must say that whichever is the case I don't like the mechanic. 8 attack dice is bad enough without hampering the poor Hero in defence as well.

[Count Mohawk]

I believe the Hero probably has to decide whether or not to block the first attack without knowing what the Warbear will do with its second blow. After all, the Warbear could in theory choose to attack two separate Heroes in its turn if it was adjacent to both, so if the first Hero doesn't block, it could choose to switch targets afterwards and waste that Hero's potential defense roll.

However, the idea that Heroes can only block one attack per monster per turn always struck me as dumb. Of all rules to disregard from the official Hero Quest ruleset, this one is probably in the top three. You could also choose to nerf the Warbear's ability down to "This monster may attack two separate Heroes on its turn" if you don't want to negate the rules entirely. We ran into this problem during the HQ25 Ye Olde Inn process with our Minotaur monster and circumvented it in much the same way. (I wonder if we'll ever finish that one)

[The Admiral]

When we played frozen Horror we Houseruled that the PWB could either make one 8 dice attack or two 4 dice attacks on separate targets.

[drathe]

When we played frozen Horror we Houseruled that the PWB could either make one 8 dice attack or two 4 dice attacks on separate targets.

I might try that with my group if they get there. Otherwise, we agreed that all attacks may be defended, instead of just one for both Heroes and Monsters. The Frozen Horror is tough enough and so is the Warbear.

[Daedalus]

When we played frozen Horror we Houseruled that the PWB could either make one 8 dice attack or two 4 dice attacks on separate targets.

This works. Found on p.22 of the NA Instruction Booklet under How A Hero Defends:

A defending Hero usually rolls 2 Defend
Dice (less if in a pit or under certain
spells, and more after purchasing armor).
Each white shield rolled by the defending
Hero blocks 1 hit from the attacking monster.

It is not stated that the Defend Dice rolled only block a single attack from a monster. Rather, a Hero defends against all hits, whether from one attack, two, or even more. This is equivalent of your house-rule of defending against one 8 dice attack--but it turns out it is really just playing by the rules. Score one for you, and one for Stephen Baker.

[knightkrawler]

Wait a minute. Before your excerpt, on page 22:

The monster makes an attack roll, blablablubb
and then
'If hit, the Hero immediately
defends by rolling his Defend Dice.'

It even is italized as if Baker had something specific in mind.
So, in the case of two attacks are against the same hero, he gets to defend twice, both times following this above instruction and if the second attack results in a skull or more.
Keep in mind that defend is not an action but rather a reaction to each and every attack as this sentence clearly shows.

[sajungzak]

We discussed defending against multiple attacks a while back on the Weapon Strengths apart from +1D or -1D thread (http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=2693&p=47206&hilit=Multiple#p47206)

Here is some of it...

As Zargon, I will continue to defend against multiple attacks respectively. by the way, the Frozen Horror rules regarding monsters with multiple attacks really only applies to those quests, then, right? Seems to me they should've just included it on the monster cards or in the quest notes to avoid any confusion. (or the heroes feeling gypped)

Well, that's a good question.
On one hand, the rules for heroes and monsters are generally the same. It would be logical to apply a certain rule to both.
It would also make sense for a later expansion to elaborate on certain rules/situations the base set didn't address, thus applying to the entire game.

On the other hand those are all presumptions. Unless a rule explicitly states to apply to other things, it only applies to the things it's specifically states to apply to.

And then on the third hand... HQ is basically a mess when it comes to rules...

Seems that way! Id agree, that, to be fair, the rules should work both ways, if only the original instruction booklet didn't spell it out word for word both ways. They wrote it twice, once for monsters, and once for heroes. Then in BQP, it is only one way.
I think they want the Barb to die at least once, and be forced to start fresh. Maybe...
Well, now I am getting off topic.

[mitchiemasha]

When we played frozen Horror we Houseruled that the PWB could either make one 8 dice attack or two 4 dice attacks on separate targets.

That's how i'd interpret the rule.

Possibly not!

[knightkrawler]

When we played frozen Horror we Houseruled that the PWB could either make one 8 dice attack or two 4 dice attacks on separate targets.

That's how i'd interpret the rule.

Because you consider the PWB rule to overrule the game system's instruction manual?

[The Admiral]

When we played frozen Horror we Houseruled that the PWB could either make one 8 dice attack or two 4 dice attacks on separate targets.

That's how i'd interpret the rule.

Because you consider the PWB rule to overrule the game system's instruction manual?

in my humble opinion a special rule/ability overides the general rules.