Ye Olde Inn

It has never really occurred for us, but can heroes cast water of healing or other helaing spells on sir ragnar, or are thye intended for use on other heroes only?

I think it would depend on the GM. Personally, I would let my players use healing spells on Sir Ragnar, but with limitations. In the questbook it says that Sir Ragnar has 2 body points left, I would allow my players to use spells on him, but only heal up to that maximum of 2 body points.

You can't take Heroquest rules by the word. For that, they're too messed up in many places.

However, if you do, it's written "Hero". That's not Mercenary or ally. So by the word, no.

Now everybody I know who was tinkering with the rules either updated the spell itself to say "figure" or "model"; or they clarified in their personal rulebook that "Hero" means anybody who is on the Hero's side.

Then it's up to you how many BP they can give Ragnar. I am full on elvylers side here, but that's just my opinion.

Healing Spells and Healing Potions do state “Hero” plus Sir Ragnar’s Starting Body Points are not listed anywhere so no upper limit is given, so I agree that the official answer would be ‘no’.

However I think that any group of Heroes smart enough to think of this should be rewarded, rather than told “it is against the rules” so I would suggest that Sir Ragnar has starting BP of 7 and Healing Potions and Healing Spells work on him just fine, also in my last run through with this Quest the Wizard wanted to cast ‘Pass through Rock’ on Sir Ragnar which I allowed, after all he is fairly Heroic.

This also raises the question as to whether a healed Sir Ragnar can attack and can roll 2 movement dice, again I think so, but as he is unarmed then only 1AD and 2DD, unless anyone has a spare weapon for him…

I was just going through this quest the other day using the HeroQuest Companion App. The app allows you to increase Sir Ragnar's BP up to 4. The rest of the Heroes can be increased past 20, not sure what the upper limit is, I stopped clicking after 20.

So maybe this is a clue to Sir Ragnar's original BP value.

Last I checked (v.1.4) 20 IS the max number for any of the stats of an NPC, monster or hero in the App. I'd still take it with a grain of salt (doubtful he really can be healed up to 20 BP... as if you had enough healing potions and spells to make that a reality!).

Edit: I am talking about clicking the ticks to increase the number. Don't healing spells/potions just show you the card or tell you to follow the instructions not actually increase them in the App? Thus it would be up to you how you handle it.

Maybe you zap him with Water of Healing and say he's up to 6. Then you zap him with Heal Body and say he's up to 10. That would make the game pretty easy, but chances are by the time you save him the quest map is just about empty anyway.

You could treat NPCs and Mercs like Heroes (player characters) with limitations, rather than as a completely separate entity (or as monsters) and then your interpretation might be different. I never thought you couldn't heal mercenaries (other than those that only had 1 BP to begin with). Is there a compelling reason why Sir Ragnar should NOT be able to be healed? Let Zargon assume what his "max" BP should be ahead of time and then deal with it when the Heroes try to heal him.

Don't take anything allowed by the app as some kind of hint of secret rules that aren't written in the rulebook. People coding often put in their best guesses for things and they end up in the final product because no one thought to test that area to see if it was right or wrong.

I agree, although the toggle for breaking Yeti hugs sounds loosely based on the draft notes solution for the same.

The rules state you can't heal above the starting number.

The app meanwhile, allows it. So you people can think of your personal hero variants and use them with the app without being restricted. But that doesn't make it a rule.

Otherwise I sure would always use the healing spells in turn 1 and 2 (and 3 with the spell ring) and then have the hands free for something else to do for the remainder of the quest.

Yeah but it's clear in the story that Sir Ragnar is "wounded" and he has 2 BP "left." That implies his "starting number" (if you could call it that) would have been higher. Did he have as many as the Barbarian or maybe the Wizard? The "Knight Hero" (7 BP) wasn't thought of yet in 1989.

You could say he's like a monster, so maybe 3 would be reasonable, but "left" implies he had more than 2 (so greater than the Mercs you can hire either in NA or EU editions). He's the only NPC you find for a long time so rather unique!