Surviving the Solo Quests: Xanon Pass

[lestodante]

But they have all basic weapons, not useful to the heroes that already upgraded their weapons. It is the same when you find a weapon rack, all the weapons are unuseful to the heroes.
For example I will not take a short sword if I already own the Spirit Blade! And I guess all the Heroes already own a crossbow going through the base game, KK and WL...

[wallydubbs]

I totally concur with that, but it doesn't change the value problem: if you're only paying 75 gold for a crossbowman, he dies and you take his crossbow you are now eligible to sell it back to the armory for half the price, since a crossbow is 350, you'll get 175, which is enough to buy 2 new crossbowmen.
Let him die with dignity, let him take the crossbow to thecafterlife.

[lestodante]

They are heroes, not JACKALS! They will never steal items from a corpse, unless it is a monster corpse.

[Anderas]

They are heroes, not JACKALS! They will never steal items from a corpse, unless it is a monster corpse.

And that'd be up for discussion. Who says if a mercenary is a monster? The quest book.

[wallydubbs]

They do have a corresponding monster card...

[Anderas]

I was squeezing "Xanon Pass" through the Questimator.

What a fail!

2.5 BP from traps you cannot find because there is a Monster in the room with them.
5 BP from traps you can find (though searching each room for traps if you're alone takes a long time!)
and then easy little 21 BP from Monsters.

So the barbarian goes in with 8 BP and comes out with, like, minus 13 to minus 20 BP, depending if he finds the traps or not. That's not unbalanced, that's plain stupid! (plus the famous Yeti bug, of course)

A complete group with beginner stats would lose 10 BP, that's on the "very easy" side of normal.


I continued and simulated the monster damage with mercenaries:
one helbardier: 14.8 BP for Barbara, 16.8 for the group (death 93% from monsters alone)
two helbardiers: 6.7 BP for Barbara, 10.7 for the group (death 35% from monsters, but traps come on top!!!)
three helbardiers: 2.6 BP for Barbara, 6.7 for the group. (death 2% from monsters... traps are balanced here)

With three mercenaries he has a chance to survive the monsters plus the traps.

For me that makes three possibilities:

1. They didn't know, test and care. I don't believe that.

2. The developer made a group quest and later in the process, after a group play test, they changed the text. This is because as a group quest, Xanon Pass is really easy. It would also explain the Yeti bug.

3. It was supposed to be played with 2 or 3 mercenaries, but they forgot to mention it in the quest book.

So my recommendation is, add to the quest book introductory text this line:

This quest is best played with a beginner Barbarian
and three halberdiers.

[The Admiral]

It was supposed to be played with 2 or 3 mercenaries, but they forgot to mention it in the quest book.

They didn't forget as the questbook specifically prevents the Barbarian from having any mercenaries in the solo quests, but as it is clearly virtually impossible to complete these quests with a single new Barbarian, something went wrong. I like the idea of the Barbarian being allowed to hire henchmen during the solo quests, but he starts with no money.

I suggest he starts with 1 of each of the four different types, and no more may be hired. They must last all three quests and cannot be replaced if killed, and must be paid at the end of each quest (10 gc?).

[wallydubbs]

I guess I can try that.
I've been playtesting the first 3 quests over and over again, making adjustments where I see fit, although these adjustments make Xanon Pass survivable, there's only a 50/50 shot at beating Trial By Ice afterwards. I just barely managed to get the Female Barbarian past Quest 2, but she didn't last long in The Rescue.

It's a good suggestion Anderas, I'll give it a shot next time. But I still have to disagree with you about the playtest thing. I've looked ahead in the quest pack and I'mve got questions that the quest pack doesn't answer.

[Anderas]

I will take a shot at the other two quests tomorrow. I seriously doubt 4 mercenaries are enough for those three quests if they keep dying like in the first quest.

[wallydubbs]

Huh... that's odd. I could've sworn I read it somewhere that a hero stuck in the Yeti hug could still attack the Yeti only if he has a dagger... now I'm looking through the quest booklet but now I'm not finding it. It's not even in Phoenix's version...
In the hug you're too close to swing a sword, but when you're this close and personal a dagger seems reasonable... I'm house ruling it.