Frozen Horror (Barbarian Quest Pack) Errata & Fixes

[wallydubbs]

So I'm getting to the end of the Frozen Horror Quest Pack and I gotta say it's becoming quite boring and near impossible to complete, the 4 heroes comprise of the Female Barbarian, Druid, Female Dwarf and Female Elf, so it's practically the regular group with a Druid instead of the Wizard. This is my 2nd time playing through the Frozen Horror and I must admit that first time around was more fun and exciting. The style of game-play was much different as this time around I played with only 4 heroes, the standard treasure deck, limiting Wandering Monsters to 1.

A Frozen Horror quest is much too long and arduous, without Wizard spells it practically boils down to hack-n'-slash dice rolling. The monsters take forever to kill. If you get 3 Ice Gremlins as a Wandering Monster it takes 4 to 6 turns just to resolve them. At least 2 of first 5 group quests I've had a Wandering Monster show up in the treasure deck 6 times! When it's 2 Yetis with 5BP each... I lost my will to keep playing. The final two? quest(s) the heroes are almost completely out of healing potions and have little to no chance if a Wandering Monster comes up. It's not cool but I think I'll need to skip Quest 10 altogether and just use Genie to open the final door to face Frozen Horror, it might be their only chance of survival.

Getting burnt out of Hero Quest isn't something I want to stake claim to, but I tried to play through the Frozen Horror as it's "supposed" to be played, but I've lost interest with the certainty that I can't possibly beat the final quest(s).

So if I ever get to play this quest pack with my current group I'll be using an expanded treasure deck, a 5th hero (this will require making changes to the solo quests too), limited Wandering Monsters, and giving the Wizard a 4th group of spells.

[Kurgan]

I feel your pain. I started out trying to play it straight (back before the remake was even out), but after the third (?) Barbarian death on the first quest (even after implementing some rules from the Draft notes) I just said screw it and piled on the homebrew to make it fun again.

Even so, I didn't do what I am recommending people do now, which is to remove about 1/3rd to 1/2 of the monsters from each quest in the campaign (which could also include from the wandering monsters). We played the Solo quests with 3 heroes most of the time, and the double quest (and a few before it) we played with FIVE (plus more mercs than you normally could have hired over the course of the two parter via our interactive Twitch participation thing where people in chat can save up and buy mercs for the party, within limits of course).

We had a few random surprises too like one of the mercs was an Elven Archer. Another was a Chaos (Order?) Warrior. Only thing we didn't get out there was an Ogre (maybe next time).

I agree that it is very long. It took as about a year to complete playing for a few hours most Saturdays. Granted we took longer than you would at a table because of the chat delay thing and giving people time to cash things in, but still. 2x-4x longer than GS quests (compare how relatively fast the solo quests went). I imagine something similar for our play through of MOTM, because I did NOT cut things out, I was more inclined to add things IN to make it more fun.

The sort of play group that doesn't want to spend the better part of a year playing this campaign would be wise to cut things out. You could even make all the monsters 1 BP or something radical like that.

[dreicunan]

After reading through the comments here, I think a good principle of quest design for wandering monsters in general would be "never more than 2 models and never more than 5 BP total." Wandering monsters already get a free attack when they appear. Throwing in creatures like Polar Warbears or Yeti on their own is already extreme enough without adding in a second one, especially in the vanilla game where the heroes aren't leveling up!
I also think that Ice Gremlins might have too much BP. 2 BP is probably enough; elite one can have three.

I'm also planning to include that mechanic for avoid damage or breaking the hold of the yeti, but tweaked a bit. Barbarian rolls only one CD, on a white shield avoids and on a black shield breaks the hold. For other heroes that start with 6 BP or more, quest note rules (roll two CD, one white shield prevents damage, two breaks); starting with BP or less has to roll three dice; two white shields avoids damage, 3 breaks the hold. (Unless I get tired of having different rules, in which case I'd just use the quest notes version for everyone.)

I also think that I'll rule that the Cold Iron plate doesn't give a movement penalty to the Barbarian as the magic in the armor recognizes a worthy child of the North (Knight wouldn't get it anyway), along the lines of what Sir Rick suggested. As for the shield, I've been thinking that artifact armor in general should make it tougher for ethereal beings to hit you (perhaps count black shields as a successful defense), same as artifact weapons make it easier to hit them, so it would still have use into the future (toying with other ideas as well).

[Vorimir]

A big problem with this expansion are the OP monsters. Not only the stats are crazy strong compared with the core game (gargoyles are a joke now because a stupid ice gremlim has the same HP or the watbear has double HP). And those special skills are the cream.on the top... Two attacks... And Hasbro didnt give a dam about it and just reissued a poorly balance and tested expansion. Even with the extra pdf is unplayable if you dont house rule it.

[Kurgan]

I agree you should house rule it in some form or fashion to make it fun (for anyone besides Zargon!). An easier "fix" (to make it less frustrating and seemingly random that you survive) is to just remove a bunch of the monsters/traps, same with MOTM.

[wallydubbs]

Revisiting The Frozen Horror for a 3rd time I stick by my assertion that this quest pack should have 5 heroes. I have no objection to there being 2 Barbarians and considering the body points of all the monsters it Should be a heavy hitter like a Barbarian or maxed Knight, someone who can take but also dish out damage. I've already posted my fixes for the Solo Quests elsewhere. I'd also give the Wizard 4 spell sets for these quests, reduce wandering monsters to 1 and it wouldn't hurt to remove a few traps. This one is for Quest 5.

The Glacial Gate is an ok quest, I wouldn't change much. However the Deadly Depths is overkill. Every room is utilized here and there's not any good reason. The first Quadrant (South West) near the entrance inevitably leads to the Ring of Warmth so I would keep that. However the one room with the chest with the 2 Potions of Healing has a secret door into the other small room with 2 Abominations in it. I would "trap" this chest, if sprung the 2 Abominations can attack. Otherwise it seems illogical to have a secret room with more bad guys. If the trap is disarmed, no consequences, no need to fight more monsters.

The quest proceeds to the opposite end of the board through the North East quadrant but not before encountering 3 Ice Gremlins. I don't see the point of 3, the do minimal damage and take a long time to kill (if they don't run away) and it's hard to fight them in a corridor, leaving at best 2 attacks per turn. I'd make it just 1 Ice Gremlin to keep the quest moving.

Anyway, in the Northeast quadrant we have Room B, with the vanishing doors once all the heroes enter, I suspect this is only do this to preserve doors, which there aren't enough of. However it says to remove the doors when all heroes enter... What if there's a mercenary lagging behind? Does he lose the chance to follow?
Then there's Room C with the monsters encased in Ice is brutal. Hardly enough space to fight and they take forever to kill.

After that the heroes have a choice to go to the Northwest quadrant, the Center Room or the Southeast quadrant.
The most radical change I'd make to this quest in removing the whole Southeast quadrant. It's just a bunch of doors with monsters and traps that would take forever and a day to clear out, but with no reward.
However in doing this, that Ice chasm ledge room would only ever be used in Quest 10. I'd suggest moving the chasm into Room B, where you have 2 doors in, 1 on each side of the chasm. You can just use a door and ice tunnel to get into the next room, thus if the heroes enter from two separate ways they have a better chance getting into the next room to fight the Yetis... Otherwise it might take a moment fighting through the doorway.


This is also the quest with the infamous 2 Sorcerer Tables error. Thanks to Rise of the Dread Moon we now have 2 Sorcerer Tables, which I'd utilize.

The exit door of the quest could easily be found by bi-passing the central room and going through the Frozen River, you don't even need to fight Vilor... Let's change that! Since we don't have the southeast quadrant anymore, we'd have more doors to work with and I'd add an exit through the central room leading to the icy river. Vilor would hold the key to unlock this door, making sure the heroes defeat him before continuing to the next quest. I'd make Vilor a bit trickier, giving him the Escape spell too. Depending which of the two rooms with the sorcerers table the heroes enter first they encounter Vilor, he can use Escape and go to the other room. Maybe you can give him a few more spells. This makes the quest more streamlined with a purpose and a main antagonist.

I think the only other part that needs changing is Room C. I kinda like the monsters encased in Ice idea, but I'd rather it be a penalty rather then a certainty.
I generally incorporate Magically Sealed Doors in my game where the hero needs to roll less or equal to his mind points to break the magic seal. I'm thinking of maybe incorporating this, failing to roll less then your mind points will awaken the monsters; or Option B: have it be one of Vilor's special abilities to break the ice and give the heroes a moment to know the monsters are coming for them.

This is just my fix for the Deadly Depths to make it more interesting and less exhausting.