by wallydubbs » Wednesday July 19th, 2023 4:15pm
So the group has essentially survived the Game System, Keller's Keep, Prophecy of Telor and Return of the Witch Lord: An Elf (Link) and Warlock (Annabelle) died in the initial Trial. A female Wizard and Elf took their place, the Wizard died in Lair of the Orc Warlord due to a double attack Wandering Monster, the male Rogue took her place and lasted with the group up until Keller's Keep where he was replaced by Penny the wandering female Dwarf. Throughout all this It's been Barbra and Drew (The Female Barbarian and Druid) that have been in the group since the beginning.
Being that the Barbarian, Dwarf, Wizard and Elf are the four originals, not much needs to be said about them as they are remarkably balanced, but having gone this far with the Druid I now feel I can lay down a fair assessment.
The factors of mortality generally come down to a heroes armor, weapons potions and positions:
A successful offense will keep the enemies numbers down, a dead orc won't attack;
The more armor you have, the better your chances of Defense;
If you're not a heavy hitter don't get in the middle of a battle where multiple monsters can gang up on you;
Always keep healing potions handy.
I'm gonna backtrack for a bit, the success of the Trial was due to a combination of things: the Barbarian's Broadsword was a well needed heavy attack, the Druid and Elf providing healing spells, and a big one was the Warlock's range attack, especially under demonform. If I remember correctly Annabelle was the one to kill Verag, who was chasing her and the Druid, she took him out with her ranged attacks by keeping a safe distance. Sadly she didn't survive the rest of the quest due to a low movement roll and getting cornered by a beefed up Mummy. She didn't survive long enough for me to see how helpful she'd be in the long run. However the Druid's healing spells have also been noted.
Since playing the rest of the quest pack and KK, PoT, and RotWL I've since noted that thanks to Druid's healing spells and carrying the Spell Ring (usually enchanted with Life Force) the heroes have been able to stack up on healing potions found during the quests.
I've played through Hero Quest with a beefed up treasure deck, which makes healing potions all the more rare, but playing through with a standard 26 Treasure Card deck, the healing potions come up more frequently. Due to the Druid's Spell Ring the heroes didn't need to use their potions as much.
The Barbarian and Elf have been able to max out on armor and weapons, so at this point they only take chip damage from the likes of Skeletons and Zombies.
The Rogue and the Druid didn't have such luxury as their defense was limited. The Druid, however, could pack a punch with Shapeshift and a Longsword, but the Rogue had limitations to attack, which is unfortunate considering his inherit Combat Mobility, which gives him a constant Veil of Mist power, gives him the ability to sneak in the middle of battle, which should balance out with Opportunistic Striker and Ambidextrous skills. However I've noticed his limited armor is a massive hindrance, he went through healing potions quickly and the Druid even used the Elixir of Life to bring him back once, but it wasn't enough to keep him alive through Keller's Keep, that's where the Dwarf took over.
The Dwarf has since bought Plate Mail and tends to buy Potions of Speed and Dexterity to keep up with the party.
I feel I also need to add that the Prophecy of Telor yields a lot of gold and healing potions as if the heroes weren't maxed out already.
So with a maxed Barbarian, Dwarf and Elf only the Druid lacks the best defense, but makes due with her Shapeshift ability. The attacking factor doesn't necessarily come in hand as her weapon of choice is the Crossbow.
But the Druid has only been this successful due to his teammates. Barbra and Drew started the group, losing and adding friends along the way. Druid, in essence is taking the place of the Wizard (whose stay in the group was short-lived) so I can only attest to how well she plays with a Barbarian, Elf and Rogue or Dwarf. Building up to this team I noticed that the Barbarian is essentially the key to success, a heavy-hitter/tank is mandatory for any good group. The Wizard usually stays back and just adds creative support through spells, but in this case it's the Druid that keeps a distance but instead of having a huge arsenal of spells, relies on the crossbow. She's the only one on the team who bought a Tool Kit, which in hindsight might not have been the best choice. I would say the Druid helped build the team with her healing, allowing the other heroes to build up healing potions, but asides from that the creative assistance of the Wizard is missing.conventional wisdom might suggest trading her for the Elf instead, but I'm thinking 3 well armored heroes is a better choice for a team, and until the Guardian Knight joins the hero pool, only the Barbarian, Elf and Dwarf can wear it. We'll see how well this carries over once they get to Frozen Horror.