HQ25 - Artifacts

[Daedalus]

Found a few more, again from Talisman 1st Ed.

From Talisman 1st Ed.
Winged Boots


Infernal Armor


Spellcraft Amulet



Some Gary Chalk art from the Lone Wolf Poster Painting Book
Arcan's Spear

[Maurice76]

Bah yes it was. Your name sounds so french. If you want a dutch version... here you are, same link, just use the columns title_du and body_du

No, I don't want a Dutch version! Dutch versions of English stuff are the devil incarnate! Word, Excel, Windows ... in Dutch, it's horrible! Can never find whatever I'm looking for and when I have an issue, good luck finding anything online. With regards to HeroQuest, a Goblin is called a Kobold, who thought of that crap? The Gargoyle is called Gedrocht, which is actually a pretty generic term for a hideous monster, not a Gargoyle per se.

Oh I admit that when I first played the game, Dutch was fine as my understanding of English was still very limited, but no, seriously no ... for fantasy stuff (and science fiction, too), English is the only proper language.

[Daedalus]

I've worked up another image dump for the Artifact Cards. These are mainly Gary Chalk options from the Lone Wolf books.

Spiked Shield




Mob Render

Mob Render by Brian Williams, the second Lone Wolf illustrator



Hammer of Justice by Brian Williams


Chandra's Cape





Spellcraft Amulet

Same image as found in the EU Rules of play

Spellcraft Amulet by Brian Williams


Adamantine Epaulets

[Daedalus]

Battle Gauntlets could use a restriction. I wouldn't want a ranged or even a diagonal attack to benefit from them.

Battle Gauntlets . These burly, metal gauntlets improve physical abilities in combat when worn by the Barbarian. When attacking from an adjacent space, the Barbarian may reroll all of his Combat Dice. This reroll must made before any monster defense.

And here's one for any Hero:

Battle Gauntlets . These burly, metal gauntlets improve physical abilities in combat. When attacking from an adjacent space, you may reroll all of your Combat Dice. This reroll must made before any monster defense.

The Adamantine Epaulets could also stand to be made available to any Hero unless the art is changed. The current picture shows a man, not a Dwarf.

[Daedalus]

. . . The spiked shield, I still feel it is too strong. What if the hero needs to decide before he rolls for defense?

YOUR CONTENT-2 Spiked Shield

YOUR CONTENT-2 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

YOUR CONTENT-2 This shield gives you one extra Combat Die in defense. You may use one defense die each turn instead of defending an adjacent attack, to attack that monster. Decide before rolling for defense. You may not use a battle axe or staff when using this hand-held armor. May not be used by the Wizard YOUR CONTENT-2 Y Y

It took me a while to realize, but the artifact text above is the equivalent of swapping a broadsword and shield for a battle ax. This is already possible in the rules, like swapping between missile and adjacent weapons. An artifact needs to do something regular equipment can't.

If a longsword is used, a 4 AD, diagonal attack can be gained. That would qualify this version as an artifact. However, I wouldn't allow the Spiked Shield to work in conjunction with the diagonal attack of a longsword, as it's held with the Hero's other hand.

Spiked Shield . This shield gives you one extra Combat Die in defense. You may use one white shield rolled to defend an adjacent attack each turn to instead cause a hit against that monster. You may not use a battle axe or staff when using this hand-held armor. May not be used by the Wizard.

If I understand correctly, you're not in favor of the possibility of an auto hit. One fix is to instead have a white shield rerolled for a hit.

Spiked Shield . This shield gives you one extra Combat Die in defense. You may reroll one white shield used to defend an adjacent attack each turn to instead make an attack against that monster. You may not use a battle axe or staff when using this hand-held armor. May not be used by the Wizard.

My question is, does the frequency of the shield converted a hit really need a nerf? I'll run some examples, feel free to correct my math or false assumptions.

Assume the Hero has 5 Defend Dice with the Spiked Shield. Against a 2AD, weak monster like a Skeleton that misses 25% of the time, the shield can't be made to attack. The Hero can spare a white shield and defend 1 hit if he rolls 2 DD or more (54% chance), 2 hits if he rolls 3DD or more (21% chance.) A Skeleton will roll 1 hit half of the time, so the Hero can safely spare a white shield to hit it .50x.54=27% of the time. Likewise, a Skeleton will roll 2 hits a quarter of the time, so the shield will safely attack .25x.21=5.3% of the time. Combined, the Spiked Shield will probably be used to attack 32.3% of the time. After the Skeleton defends (30.6% chance), it will be killed .323x.306=9.9% of the time in combat against the shield.

As a guide, the Game System averages 11 weak monsters per Quest. I figured into this number two Quest occurrences of weak Wandering Monsters with 4 appearances each. A Hero will maybe kill 4 of those monsters. I estimate that in two Quests, the Spiked Shield will usually account for killing 1 weak monster.

A difficult monster like a Chaos Warrior has a 25% chance of 1 hit against the Hero, a 37.5% chance of 2 hits, a 25% chance of 3 hits, and a 6.3% chance of 4 hits. The odds for both safely defending all hits and attacking with the Spiked Shield against a Chaos Warrior are: .54x.25=13.5% against 1 monster hit, .21x.375=7.9% against 2, .045x.25=1.1% against 3, and .004x.063=.3% against 4. Totaled, the shield will be used 22.8% of the time. The Chaos Warrior has a 52% chance to defend that hit, so he takes 1 Body Point of damage 11.9% of the time. A Quest averages 2.1 hard monsters (Chaos Warrior, Gargoyle, some bosses), so a Hero could be assumed to account for 2 Body Points each Quest. On account of their rarity, I estimate it will take about three Quests for the Spiked Shield to cause 1 Body Point of damage against a strong monster.

Okay, might as well do a Fimir for medium monsters. It has a 37.5% chance of rolling 1 hit, a 37.5% chance of 2 hits, and a 12.5% chance of 3 hits. The odds for both safely defending all hits and attacking with the Spiked Shield against a Fimir are: .54x.375=20.6% against 1 hit, .21x..375=7.9% against 2, and .045x.125=.6% against 3. Totaled, the shield will be used 29.1% of the time. After the Fimir defends (42.2% chance), it will be damaged 12.3% of the time in combat against the Spiked Shield. At 10.1 medium monsters per Quest (Orcs, Fimir, and Mummies), a Hero will likely get at three of them. I'd guess the Spiked Shield should account for about 1 Body Point of damage against a medium monster per Quest. That's enough to kill the Orcs outright, but not the Fimirs or Mummies.

I hope I got that right. Those numbers don't seem high to me-- about two monsters killed in a Quest. I expect the Spiked Shield would have less impact than the Battle Gauntlets. I'd recommend directly converting a white shield to a hit. No extra rolling of that Defend Die is needed.

One big assumption is a Hero won't take damage to use a white shield for a hitting a monster. This isn't always true, but since damage taken by the Hero generally trades off with pretty well with damage prevented by more quickly killing a monster, the effect on Quest difficulty should be negligible. Occasions will arise where taking a Body Point of damage to finish a very strong monster such as a boss will pay off better. That tactical privilege is one extra perk of this artifact that I'm fine with because of its rarity.

Tougher expansions also have more monsters, so the frequency of gaining offensive benefit of the shield will also increase from what I stated above. I figure it's okay to have an artifact that ramps up with difficultly, though.

What do you think of the Gary Chalk Spiked Shield art from the Lone Wolf books that I posted earlier? It's not as functionally dangerous as the medieval dualing illustration you provided earlier in this thread, but is it enough for a Hero Quest Artifact Card?

If not, there are some other shield Ideas from p.5 of this topic that wouldn't need a spiked attack:

[Artifact for the Dwarf]
I haven't figured this one out yet. I want it to improve his Defense, but not by a whole Combat Die. I suspect this topic about alternatives to +1 or -1 CD will be useful in that regard. Maybe it could take the form of a Shield that, instead of increasing his Defense by 1, decreases the enemy's Attack dice by one.

The problem is Morcar/Zargon needs to remember not to roll normal attack dice, or the defending Hero must remind him each time. The reroll idea of the Runes Pauldrons is probably better, though I'd prefer it implemented in the familiar shield. A shield hasn't yet been offered as an artifact (by published Quests), while a separate reroll fairly represents the mechanic of actively blocking, in my opinion.

This just occurred to me: the reroll of a shield could even be extended to protect an adjacent Hero by allowing that Hero the reroll instead. The Hero with the shield thus becomes more active in using it. If you like it, here's an NA write-up:

Defender Shield . This hand-held armor gives you one extra Combat Die in defense. Additionally, it's enchantment allows lightning-quick blocks. On Zargon's turn, you may reroll all of the Combat Dice to defend for either yourself or an adjacent Hero. May not be used by the Wizard.

Since it mirrors the Chaos Dwarf ability, I could see this artifact awarded after defeating a Chaos Dwarf lieutenant.

A different idea os the Aegis Shield that protects against Basilisk petrifaction. As the Basilisk's ability is only temporary, is this a worthwhile idea? If a boss Basilisk permanently petrified Heroes, then yes. Due to its short-term usefulness, perhaps it would fit better as a spell scroll effect that lasts until no Basilisk is visible to the caster. . . .

[j_dean80]

The Spiked Shield is part of the Quests I wrote, as in it is kind of necessary or it derails what all I wrote. I made an image, if Anderas is having difficulty with putting a background on it I can make a go at it or perhaps he is just too busy to try so far.

[j_dean80]

Found a mini holding the spiked shield.