Multiple Barbarians, Dwarves, etc.

[lestodante]

Official rules don't allow multiple players to have the same figure, I guess just because a matter of game balance and because in the box there are no duplicates.
But anyway if you have more figures I don't see what's the problem. Just for the base game, to play with 4 barbarians will be really boring for everyone.

[The Admiral]

I know the rules say that you can't have more than one of each hero type. Even in the expansions that gave you female mini alternatives, it still explicitly told you that you can't have more than one barbarian or elf.

However, has anyone allowed multiples, anyway? If each player uses a different mini, and spellcasters aren't allowed to have the same spells (for wizards this would require the expansion with the extra spells), would it really cause that much of a problem?

We allow duplicate characters. It hasn't caused any problems, but you just need to be aware of what sort of quests you are running. Two Barbarians instead of 2 Dwarves is no biggie unless there are many traps that require disarming. Too many spellcasters and not enough fighters, or vice versa, can also cause problems in certain situations.

The GM just has to be aware of the quests ahead, but generally I don't think it is a big problem.

[wallydubbs]

I can only see it being problematic if you use multiple wizards:
A. You won't have enough spell decks to support them all (unless you use multiple repeated spell decks) at which point it might make them overpowered.
B. Their offense and defense would be severely limited by the lack of equipment they could carry. (But I suppose this kinda balances out with all the spells. But who's gonna weild the Spirit Blade if there are 4 Wizards?

The heroes are supposed to balance eachother out, each carrying strengths and weaknesses that the other heroes compliment.
It's kinda fun when the heroes split up, usually it's the Barbarian and Wizard stick together while the Elf and Dwarf go another way. Though I've seen it happen in other ways, the Wizard and Elf generally don't go good together.

I've playtested Frozen Horror and Mage of the Mirror using 2 Barbarians and 2 Elves respectively, with a 5 hero group; making these quests survivable. Any other quest pack it would throw the balance off in the heroes' favor, but the difficulty of the sole US expansions was ramped up to 10 due to lack of playtesting (Especially Frozen Horror). However this did cause the big bosses (Sinestra and the Frozen Horror to fall too quickly).

[hightechartist]

I can only see it being problematic if you use multiple wizards:
A. You won't have enough spell decks to support them all (unless you use multiple repeated spell decks) at which point it might make them overpowered.
B. Their offense and defense would be severely limited by the lack of equipment they could carry. (But I suppose this kinda balances out with all the spells. But who's gonna weild the Spirit Blade if there are 4 Wizards?

However, has anyone allowed multiples, anyway? If each player uses a different mini, and spellcasters aren't allowed to have the same spells (for wizards this would require the expansion with the extra spells), would it really cause that much of a problem?

emphasis mine

I've playtested Frozen Horror and Mage of the Mirror using 2 Barbarians and 2 Elves respectively, with a 5 hero group; making these quests survivable. Any other quest pack it would throw the balance off in the heroes' favor, but the difficulty of the sole US expansions was ramped up to 10 due to lack of playtesting (Especially Frozen Horror). However this did cause the big bosses (Sinestra and the Frozen Horror to fall too quickly).

I find it really interesting that the NA xpac needed 5 to be survivable. Core game is too easy, xpacs too hard, seems to be the general consensus?

[wallydubbs]

My guess is that it had something to do with Games Workshop and Milton Bradley parting ways in their partnership. So someone in Milton Bradley quickly put the game together without playtesting and rushed it to the shelves before Parker Brothers moved in.

Well the solo quests are virtually unbeatable by the rules they've laid out, which caused some of us to tweak those rules (Yeti in a solo quest). Unless you're using a hero from previous quests with lots of potions and full deck of equipment, you're probably not gonna get through it on your first try (maybe Avenger Returns).

Also, when playing Frozen Horror, the Wizard can quickly run out of spells. With the quests being longer and harder you'd have to use them sparingly. A fix to this would be letting additional mind points add to his spell collection (If the Talisman of Lore is still around it can find use here). This can work with the Elf too, but instead of allowing him 2 spell groups, he'll only get 3 more elf spells, which actually turned out to be very useful: the Female Barbarian slipped over the ice ledge room (terrible rolls) but the Elf was able to save her with a Flashback spell.

It makes more sense for there to be a Barbarians in Frozen Horror as this is a very combat oriented game.