Ye Olde Inn

I know some people have a problem with Orc's Bane being an underpowered weapon, so this was my suggestion on improving it, by making it more dynamic:



("Monster's Bane" is just a filler name at the moment)

Foe's Bane sounds cool too

Baylor_OgreBane wrote:Foe's Bane sounds cool too

Foe's Bane does indeed sound cool!

I've been thinking about this myself recently. Orc's Bane really is a strange weapon.

I tried running some numbers on Orc's Bane and came to the conclusion that it is almost as effective against an Orc as a Battleaxe. Here are an Orc's chances of surviving being attacked by a few different weapons.

Shortsword	Broadsword	Battleaxe	Orcs Bane
41%	25%	15%	17%

So Orcs Bane really is effective against 'an Orc'. The problem is it's next to useless against any other monster, but I think we all knew that already.

EU players can hand Orcs Bane to the Wizard (Glamdring anyone?) which gives it an additional use as he is limited to 2 attack dice anyway. But for any other Hero I don't think it is really worthwhile.

Your solution is interesting and will make the weapon relevant in quests that don't feature Orcs but the weapon is still going to be next to useless against a lot of monsters in any quest.

So, as I said, I have been thinking about this issue myself. As I'm not keen on rewriting official content I came up with a slightly different solution.



The wording on this one is still a bit clunky and it needs to restrict the use of a shield when being used with another weapon. But you can see where I'm heading with it.

Question: How does the hero figure out which monster is the wandering monster?

Never thought about that.....are the Heroes not supposed to be told? I've always told them when asked, sometimes they'll decide against a treasure search if it's a bad one.

Goblin-King wrote:Question: How does the hero figure out which monster is the wandering monster?

For quests like "Castle of Mystery" (where the wandering monster is a harmless ghost) telling the players ahead of time would spoil the surprise--so I imagine that players are not supposed to know the wandering monster until one appears. That's how I've always played it anyway. (I have one player who asks every single quest, perhaps hoping I forget my rule!)

Anything that should explicitly be told to the players is indicated in the Quest Book, so anything that is not stated as such remains something only Zargon/Morcar/Mentor knows.

I supposed if you houserule that the players can know the Wandering Monster ahead of time, before the Quest you could say something like, "It is rumored that ________s wander in this place!"

I never tell... Once they discover a WM, that's when they know what it is. This definitely is part of the EWP's knowledge, not the heroes'.
So what I'm asking is, if you play it like this... how will the hero know when he gets an extra attack?

Is it once a WM is actually discovered?
Is it the first time he encounters the monster? I attack this mummy! Oh, you seem to have gained an extra attack.
It is rumored that X wanders... Is basically spoiling what the WM is...

Maybe the sword should instead imprint on the first monster it hits during a quest?

Goblin-King wrote:I never tell... Once they discover a WM, that's when they know what it is. This definitely is part of the EWP's knowledge, not the heroes'.
So what I'm asking is, if you play it like this... how will the hero know when he gets an extra attack?

Is it once a WM is actually discovered?
Is it the first time he encounters the monster? I attack this mummy! Oh, you seem to have gained an extra attack.
It is rumored that X wanders... Is basically spoiling what the WM is...

Maybe the sword should instead imprint on the first monster it hits during a quest?

As printed, this weapon impractical. The "first hit" rule you suggested is a good one.

Another idea I just had is if before each Quest, the wielder of "Foe's Bane" could choose a monster from the available monster cards as the sword's "foe," it would give some thematic opportunities to the player, (maybe they whisper the name of their foe to the blade) so any poor choice would be on the player, and not the sword

If they wanted the "Foe's Bane" to be a Chaos Warrior's Bane, or Ogre's Bane, so be it! They could hold onto it for the right time, and then it "glows" when they reach that foe, and then they unsheath it for the battle!

GimmeYerGold wrote:I know some people have a problem with Orc's Bane being an underpowered weapon,

I don't get why people have a problem. As The Road Warrior pointed out, against orc's, it's quite good, because it's supposed to be. Clearly it's nothing more than a short sword against other monsters, because it's not supposed to be a massive upgrade. I think it's neat that there are a few weapons (Spirit Blade) that are more useful against specific targets. It makes the heroes think more about what weapons they use.