Witch Lord 1 shot

[Jalapenotrellis]

My group just did quest 14. This is the farthest I've been in HeroQuest and never played it before.

I had one turn as the witch Lord. I moved the zombie out of the way, cast command, and it didn't even land on the barbarian who has the talisman of more on for 3 mind points. He rolled a 6 the first time. I then moved two mummies in front of the witch lord.

Then the heroes killed one and walked around the other, used heroic brew and potion of strength (5 attack die against the witch lord, then 3 attack dice). They rolled 3 skulls and then one skull. I rolled 6 defend dice twice and got 0 black shields/bunnies.

Dead.

Everyone was kinda speechless it ended that fast after a 3 quest build up.

I didn't want to cast summon undead immediately because I had two mummies out, and if I roll a 5 or 6 I wouldn't have any more mummies to place and would have had to place some crappy skeletons, which they sneeze and kill at this point since they are as weak as goblins.

So yeah, should I just make up a rule at that point like "oh he has a potion" or "oh he can sacrifice a zombie for full health" or I dunno. Both of those would have let me cast his other 5 spells. Getting 1 spell off as the Big Bad Boss is saddening.

But the heroes had saved up enough potions and "were like if we aren't going to use them, then when will we?" And I didn't want to suddenly change the rules.

I mean, I already did by not disclosing the witch lord stats until he was dead. Previous games I let them know monster stats for special monsters, but figured I shouldn't be doing that at this point. They found out about the body point number after he died and found out how many defense dice he had after the first attack.

They rolled really well, and I rolled very poorly. They got out of command and landed two good attack rolls, and I rolled poorly twice and could have chosen to summon undead immediately rather than cast command.

--Depressed Zargon

[Jafazo]

You were supposed to roll 12 defend dice in total. After the 5 attack dice for 3 skulls you roll 6 defend dice. Then after the 3 attack dice for 1 skull you roll 6 defend dice. Regardless of that, that's how this game was designed. It doesn't fit in well with the modern era. This is a big reason why, if you notice, just about everyone has their own modifications. Sorry for your loss.

[Jalapenotrellis]

Oh I did roll for each attack with heroic brew. I did defend twice. 0 bunnies.

[Jafazo]

Oh I see it. You rolled six defend dice twice. Oh well, what can you expect from a game meant to entertain kids right? Time to upgrade to D&D or Pathfinder or customize Heroquest heavily. Man, this game even confines the enemy close to the player so you can't run easily! Truly, this game run son nostalgia alone.

[j_dean80]

Ok 1 bad battle and apparently the game is entirely “flawed”?

Was a luck of the dice, can go either way. The original game system plays out pretty well overall.

[wallydubbs]

I can sympathize with you, but I'd feel it's ok to give the Witch Lord extra body points (at least 5 in total). You want to make it fun and yet challenging for the heroes but sometimes it doesn't pan out that way.
I guess if Kassandra could get a Potion of Speed it doesn't seem too unreasonable to give the Witch Lord a Potion of Healing or extra body points. By the sound of it they didn't have too much trouble with it, so it is within your rights as Zargon to improvise a more difficult scenario.

Too late now... but maybe you'll get 'em in Return of the Witch Lord. My intentions is to let Kassandra and/or Skullmar stand by the Witch Lord in the final battle if they survive and make it to the stairwell.

[Count Mohawk]

Ouch! That's some bad luck there. These things do happen from time to time, unfortunately. I could calculate the odds of the circumstances going down as described, but I doubt knowing the likelihood or unlikelihood of getting XYZ results would make it feel any better.

Are you planning on playing through some of the expansions? If you do, it may interest you to know that the Witch Lord survives to fight the Heroes one more time in the aptly-named Quest Pack "Return of the Witch Lord". It'll probably be a while before you get to the end of that storyline, but when you do you'll be able to settle the grudge properly.

[Jalapenotrellis]

Ok 1 bad battle and apparently the game is entirely “flawed”?

Was a luck of the dice, can go either way. The original game system plays out pretty well overall.

You're right. It was one bad battle and frustrating it played out that way. The guy was supposed to be a legend and died from them using treasure attack potions they saved for this purpose.
They were also planning to pass the spirit blade around if needed.

So, in your opinion, no mods are needed, it was just the crappy dice?

Let me tell you. This particular quest all my 2-dice zombies rolled 2 skulls and the barbarian didn't roll 1 shield with 6 dice on multiple occasions. The dice were odd today. It played out in the final battle too.

Count-- you posted just as I was about to post. So yeah, we are planning to play the expansions, but my friends asked me if I still wanted to be the GM lol. I think they are questioning my ability to adapt to make it hard or maybe I looked really shocked and sad when they won so fast lol.

[Pancho]

Ok 1 bad battle and apparently the game is entirely “flawed”?

Was a luck of the dice, can go either way. The original game system plays out pretty well overall.

You're right. It was one bad battle and frustrating it played out that way. The guy was supposed to be a legend and died from them using treasure attack potions they saved for this purpose.
They were also planning to pass the spirit blade around if needed.

So, in your opinion, no mods are needed, it was just the crappy dice?

Let me tell you. This particular quest all my 2-dice zombies rolled 2 skulls and the barbarian didn't roll 1 shield with 6 dice on multiple occasions. The dice were odd today. It played out in the final battle too.

Count-- you posted just as I was about to post. So yeah, we are planning to play the expansions, but my friends asked me if I still wanted to be the GM lol. I think they are questioning my ability to adapt to make it hard or maybe I looked really shocked and sad when they won so fast lol.

The game is not entirely flawed and obviously it doesn’t run on just nostalgia alone. I agree with JDean that the original game plays well. That said, you do need to make a very few simple modifications, namely more spells and body points for the bosses. I know you want to play the quests exactly as written, but I fear that you will get more anti-climactic moments with the bosses as you go.

[Jalapenotrellis]

How many body points would you give him? Double? Or let him use a potion like the Heroes if suddenly one shot by their potion?