Ok, so with this disclaimer out of the way, I want to share with you my experience as a player with my other companions during the 14th quest of the main Quest Book.
In this dungeon (Return to Barak-Tor), it is important to keep in mind that all monsters are actually undead. No Fimirs, no Chaos Warriors. The monsters we used were really boosted in their abilities and we still managed to chop them and hack them without much resistance. It would have been a true piece of cake if we did proceed with the normal monsters from the original version. It would have been too easy - - I'm really serious.
About the Heroes
Barbarian, fully armored 4 Dice in Defense, equipped with a Bastard Sword
Paladin, fully armored 5 Dice in Defense, equipped with a Long sword (and of course Spirit Blade)
Elf, fully armored 4 Dice in Defense, equipped with regular Crossbow and Long Sword.
Wizard, fully armored 4 Dice in Defense, equipped with Wizard's Staff, 3 bonus Ice spells.
** We still had Gold to purchase the Long Bow and an additional Healing Potion, but we did not even care and just went along with the Quest. **
Everybody started the quest without a single potion of healing. We had a Heroic Brew, a Potion of Magic Resistance, and a Mystery Potion. All of these were not even used. The Wizard could only make use of 1 of the three ice spells, because all monsters were Undead, and the ice spells mostly require the opponents to roll Defense Dice corresponding to their Mind Points. We received enough damage during the final battle to make use of the 2 out of 3 Healing Spells. My Wizard died after using 7 spells, and saved the Barbarian from almost guaranteed death.The last battle posed a good challenge. Here are the new stats of the monsters - - (Thanks to ChaosL00)
Same stats, but now wearing heavy armor and a spear. Can reach diagonal attacks. Good defense with 5 dice, but most skeletons did not roll proper defense and thus, died instantly.
Zombie had the same stats, but was also able to puke disgusting acid vomit on us at 4 square distance. Proved efficient and did cause damage. However, the zombies still died rather easily.
The Mummy was now equipped with a Battle Axe, so now its attack was now at 4 combat dice + diagonal attacks. The Mummy also defended with 6 defense dice. It caused us some trouble, mostly when the Wizard was fighting it alone. We did not encounter so many monsters, maybe like 12 or 13 in the dungeon itself (Before the boss fight). We remained mostly healthy during the entire quest and the apex of difficulty was really at the last boss. The Witch Lord was able to command the Paladin, which had the Courage Buff, and so, the Wizard became his prey. The Wizard almost died shortly after casting Courage and had to defend against a maddened Paladin. The Wizard attempted to put the Paladin to sleep - - but Paladin rolled a 6 straight up, preventing the sleep effects. Our Wizard (me) fled away and took care of a skeleton with Ball of Flame and a Zombie with Frost Shards. The Barbarian swung his sword a few times on monsters when they came out of the door. The Elf was assisting the whole crew with his Crossbow and Rock Skin. The Witch Lord then came out (movement speed 10 - super quick) of his room and took a heavy blow at the Barbarian; who actually fled to safety right away. The Elf and the Paladin were able to rapidly clear the room of the numerous remaining undead (Thanks to the Witch Lord casting Summon Undead). the Wizard was able to block the path, preventing the Witch Lord from killing the Barbarian, but he died under a fatal blow and none of his remaining spells were of any use.
We finally beat the Witch Lord.
So overall, what I want to say is this :
- Without monster enhancements, this dungeon is a real piece of cake, way too easy.
- You might want to set more traps, because we did not find any trap except 1 - - located in a very specific spot.
- Armored monsters are welcome, and there should have at least 1 or 2 Chaos Warriors.
- Spellcaster enemy is welcome, and there should have at least 1, accompanied by 2 other monsters.
- Once you gain experience with HeroQuest, you might actually consider using the game board that has the 2-Square wide corridor, because funneling monsters through the door frame becomes mundane at some point.
- As a DM myself, I consider a wider varierty of monsters and modular dungeons, I now possess 25 monsters with different skills and abilities. I will share it at some point in the future.
