Ye Olde Inn

I am thinking a lot of late, how one could give the Heroes and Monsters a Bonus or Malus apart from giving them an extra Dice or removing a Dice.

To give them an extra Dice is always such a huge difference! Just one example;
2 Dices are quite standard in Attack;
3 Dices are way stronger;
4 Dices are already the strongest you can get and are really a lot.

It would be nice to have some steps in between, not only to have more difference in the weapon options, but also to show the difference between a trained and an untrained fighter. So for example, I would like to give the elf some Bonus for epee and rapier and such weapons; the Dwarf for the Axes and the Barbarian for all kind of long Swords (fitting to their models).

There are these dices
http://www.shopping-guru.de/index.php?m ... Path=94_98
But they are quite expensive.

Then you could announce "the black shield counts as extra-skull"; or "With this weapon, your hero hits on white shields only"; according to 3+ or 4+ or 5+ bonuses in other game systems; but somehow i don't like that because for my feel, it removes something from these nice HQ Dices.

It is too close to use normal D6 in a 2+/3+/4+/5+ System; and i don't like that for several reasons; even if it opens up 4 possibilities per dice.

Then there is the possibility to reroll. 50% gets 75% that way, landing right in between of 3+ and 2+; and 33% gets 55%.Both is better than to add the black shield to any given result set. I like it, but one have to be careful not to generate overpowered heroes: This Bonus gets stronger, the stronger the Hero was from the beginning; which can be dangerous sometimes.

Last but not least, you could just make all the monsters stronger and more numerous; and in exchange the Heros could always have full dices in addition or removed, depending on their skills. This would result in hands full of dices - to be honest, i wouldn't like to roll 6 or 7 dices.

Well, all the solutions have their drawbacks. What System are you preferring and why (or none of these - then, which instead?)

I've always liked the idea of allowing rerolls to create special weapon abilities or
special hero and monster training. It creates a bit of an advantage for that character,
but it doesn't increase or decrease any attack or defense POWER that character might
possess.
In fact, I use this all the time for axes, to separate them from other weapons with the
same attack dice.

With a system like HQ, essentially using d6's for the dice, there is a limited amount of
choices for making difference.
- Reroll
- Add an AD or DD
- use a special die (one with more skulls/more shields/more of something on one face)
***You can also mix some of these to remove some of the advantage - maybe allow a reroll for an attack,
***but they have to use a special die that has less skulls on it, reducing the possibility a bit
- Offer a special ability outright
--- Hammers might knock a target back one space
--- Whips can allow you to trip a target
--- Rapiers are fast and easy to spin and maneuver - allow a character one extra attack every third turn against a single target
--- Long weapons can attack diagonally
--- A special bow, with more strength, doesn't shoot as far as a normal bow, but stuns the target, making them lose their next turn

There are a lot of things that can be done that won't overbalance the game too much - you just have to be creative

Rerolling one die per combat is a simple boost that isn't too much in many cases. You still have the same maximum number of possible hits. You could instead allow rerolls of black shields to reduce the effectiveness to a third, or white shields for two-thirds.

Rerolls are good. Having 2 attacks is another option, too. It's already built into the core game, and according to the rules, 2 attacks against 1 opponent means the defender can only defend against the first attack--any hits rolled on the second attack can't be blocked.

2 attacks would be fair for 1 or 2 attack dice attacks, but I think once you get up into rolling 3 or 4 attack dice for two attacks, things can get outta wack.

I'll just add in that I in particular DON'T like "black shield counts as a skull".
Simply because I don't like game mechanics where players have to remember that something is something else.

If you made a special die with an extra skull but no black shield I would be all righty with this. But not using original dice, no...

Goblin King... Agreed.

Goblin King - all with you!
There is one way i would do that, and that is to produce other dices (or buy the dices from my link); well, and i am not yet ready for that.

More than one attack is another good idea, though! Could be the perfect use case for a rapier weapon like the Elf's. It shows the speed of the model without being too strong.

There are other examples for low bonuses, thanks for the idea!
There is the Spear which can attack diagonally. This is huge - for me this is a big, big bonus.

Give it the additional capability to attack with 2 fields range is a small add on compared to the spear's original rule... i like it. Does anybody play that it will get more difficult to handle in small aisles as drawback?

Coming back to the rerolls: What do you think about the idea to allow rerolls of black shields only?

I like the using of black shields as something else. It’s not overpowered and the black shield becomes a sort of wild symbol with multiple uses. It’s already done in the US rues with the dwarf’s trap disarming skill.

Two attacks works better most of the time if the target can defend both attacks. Attacking twice with two dice using the orcs bane rules is much more powerful than attacking with normally with four dice, allowing both attacks to be defended is much less powerful than four normal dice.

Goblin-King wrote:I'll just add in that I in particular DON'T like "black shield counts as a skull".
Simply because I don't like game mechanics where players have to remember that something is something else.

If you made a special die with an extra skull but no black shield I would be all righty with this. But not using original dice, no...

What about if the wording is "Both a skull and a black shield are a hit"?

Nope, I divint like it!!!

Only way i could accept an opposing icon is for instance, if a Hero had a Chaos shield, something that made it make sense. Not just changing the mechanic for the sakes of it. it has to change the mechanic but somehow reflect with in the story.

This shield is enchanted with Chaos magic. The Hero now block hits with white and black shields. The info would be on the equipment card so easy to remember and specific to the owner. We'd want more of a back story in the Quest to spice it up too. This way the rule change has more of a substance and reasoning to it rather than just some text lost with in the rules.