by Kurgan » Friday December 16th, 2022 2:29pm
I know I've posted about a dozen times across the forums with my interpretation of the "original intention" of the Polar Warbear double attack against a single hero... but for the life of me, going back through the actual draft scans I CAN'T FIND where I read that! So I'm wondering if maybe I misread it (perhaps reading into the notes what I thought should be there???) and really all along the interpretation you see in the "Into the Northlands" is really just a clarification of what they always intended.
If I can find it again I'll re-post it, but for now I "retract" my argument that this was meant to be official but inexplicably changed to the (less good) version we have seen since then. I still think if you're making a HOMEBREW FIX that my version is better, mainly because it's just easier for the good guys in such a difficult pack.
But the intention I think originally was like this, and see how it changes through different editions:
1 (1992 published edition): PWB monster rolls 4 dice against a hero. Hero rolls defense. PWB decides "hmm, think I'll attack him AGAIN!" and rolls. Hero is powerless and can't roll another defense that turn. DEVASTATING!
2 (pre-release draft notes): Same as above, but they were thinking of making it so that it would apply to hero attacks as well. So the Hero (using Orc's Bane, Heroic Brew, or Potion of Battle Rage, theoretically an Elf with Potion of Speed since they intended you to be able to buy potions from any packs you own, which you might own!) could do the same as the above in #1 vs. a monster. This would be very powerful against monsters especially with their weaker defense!
3 (2022 "Into the Northlands" errata/playtest): They "clarified" that contrary to #1, the Hero actually has the ability to decide to WAIT for a possible second attack to role his defense. As written, this implies he's willing to say the first attack against him is UNBLOCKABLE (maybe it was a really weak roll or missed completely) and he will ONLY roll against the second attack. Of course a crafty Zargon could always decide (if there were multiple targets of opportunity) to just not attack again, and leave that attack unblockable. But if Zargon decided not to attack, then the hero would justly still be able to roll against the one attack directed at him, so never mind. Notice it does NOT say he gets to see both attacks and decide which one to roll against after seeing both results and nothing about a heroic version of this (so that means monsters get to defend again and again no matter how many attacks are directed at them from the same hero).
4 (2022 Companion App for Frozen Horror). I presume that "Into the Northlands" the Polar Warbear (SPOILERS) does not attack the hero UNLESS he attacks him first, then the same rules would apply. But the Companion App seems to clarify #3 further by making it so that the Hero, when a Polar Warbear attacks, gets to see the results of the two attacks and then decides which one he wants to defend against. And due to the "honor system" of the Companion app (it's up to you to roll each hero's physical dice and record the outcome just as it's up to you to subtract body points or not) you COULD easily implement either the stricter #3 approach or some homebrew approach (like mine... adding the two monster rolls together and having the hero defend against all with a single roll at the end).
Having a single unblockable 4 dice roll does seem more powerful than having an 8 dice roll that in theory could be defended against with 6 or more defend dice (heroes can easily go over 6 if they have potions/spells and why wouldn't they use such in a dire situation like this!).
Of course Potions are also not accounted for by the Companion App, so even with this official "enforcement" Zargon has some leway to allow stuff.
Much like how some were saying the only way to escape a Yeti hug in solo mode before was to let yourself die (then auto-revive with a potion), you can play around with it if you don't agree with the intention of the designers.
Last edited by
Kurgan on Thursday December 22nd, 2022 2:43pm, edited 1 time in total.