Ye Olde Inn

Here's an untested house rule to open combat a little. What do you think?

Counter Attack

If a Hero didn't move, he may both
defend and then attack in place of a
single defense on his turn; however, he
uses only half of the usual combat dice
to do so (round up). This counter attack
is declared just after a monster's attack
roll, and any black shields rolled by
Zargon are set aside for the monster's
defense against it.

As an example, are attacking a lone . Zargon rolls for the first Fimir.
The Barbarian recklessly announces a counter attack, as he wants to quickly take them down before they get too many attacks. Zargon sets aside the for the first Fimir's defense.
Next the Barbarian defends with half of his 2 Defend dice and rolls a . He fails to defend and loses a Body Point.
Last he attacks with half of his attack dice (rounded up) with a .
The Fimir's defends the hit.
The second Fimir may now attack without any chance for the Barbarian to counter attack. As if to spite the Barbarian player, Zargon rolls . D'oh! If the Barbarian had instead chosen to counter attacked against the second Fimir, then not only would he have hit it for 1 BP of damage with no chance of damage to himself, but he would have had another Defend Die to roll against the first Fimir's attack.


Monsters should probably be allowed counter attacks as well for Quest balance, but...

In my house rules I plan to limit the use of counter attacks (and other combat advantages) with Exertion Points. Essentially, a newer Hero probably won't counter attack more than a couple of times in a Quest, as counter attacking adds an Exertion Point. If a Hero's Exertion Points equal or exceed his current Body score then he is penalized in a way similar to shock. A new type of potion will help a Hero resist gaining Exertion Points, thus allowing a sort of leveling up with increased gold.

As for monsters counter attacking, I plan to allow it with a card from a Zargon encounter deck that I'm working on.

hmm...interesting. Not sure how I feel about it as a whole...the idea is nice, though.
I kind of wonder about the situation you presented, with two monsters attacking, and
the hero getting only one counterattack.

Would the hero, instead, be able to make two defense rolls, instead of one counterattack?
Seems only right, does it not?

Thanks for the reply. The standard rules for multiple opponents would allow the Barbarian to get 1 defense roll against each of the Fimir attacking him--that is, 2 defense rolls total with no counter attack. My wording is meant to imply only 1 counter attack is possible in a Hero's turn, while other defenses necessary that round are defended normally with full Defense Dice. If in the example above the second Fimir had instead rolled to attack, then the Barbarian would roll his normal allotment of 2 Defend Dice against it, possibly stopping the hit. I choose to have the second Fimir roll all white shields to demonstrate when it would be tactically wise to attempt a counterstrike against a relatively tough opponent.

Ah...I see.

Sorry...I guess I was going off an assumed thought from another thread. I think there has been some
debate about whether the rules allow for only one defense roll, or one per attacker. I've kind of leaned
toward the idea that they are allowed only one. You go by the idea that they are allowed one per attacker,
I see.