Ye Olde Inn

When you throw a Fire of Wrath spell, the opponent rolls a 1D6 to dodge? or is it countermagic/resistance of some sort?

I'm still looking around on the board for what is thematically happening when the enemy rolls that Dice.

It's interesting the creators didn't just use normal defense dice. I'll assume they rightfully knew stronger opponents might not get hurt by the wizard enough, so instead involved a sort of Dodging ability that has nothing to do with the dexterity or armor of the opponent. I

If there is a link to a good thread, please link it.

What thoughts do you have on this & do we have a "dodge" type mechanic that is being shown to us? Thanks!

yes, I think it is intended to try to dodge the ball or it will suffer that damage. The same for the Fireball and again the same for the Falling rock traps: you roll dices to check how many damage they inflict to you.
You can't normally defend against a fireball or a falling rock, you can just try to avoid some damage!

Rolling red dice against spells is sometimes a dodge, but not fully. Look at Firestorm. The spell can inflict 3 Body Points of damage, but a Hero may only try to cancel 2 Body Points. Lightning Bolt inflicts 2 body Points of damage that can't be canceled at all. So a Hero can duck and cover or jump about, but sometimes the magic is just gonna get ya. Then there are the spells that can be resisted by rolling red dice equal to the Hero's Mind Points--a will-based resistance.

But back to the 2d6 dodge question, you mentioned that dexterity and armor aren't considered in the NA rules. Another way to look at it is all Heroes start with 2 Defend Dice without armor, and they also start with 2 movement dice. An anagolous maximum of 2 red dice to negate damage from a Ball of Flame or Firestorm spell could be thought of as a two-dice dexterity/dodge save that involves both combat and movement characteristics (a dodge) to cancel Body Point damage from fire spells.