In battle, each Hero gets two Actions per turn. How the Hero spends those two Actions is entirely up to the Players. Some might use both Actions to move their Hero, while others may choose to move once, then attack, or attack, then move out of range.

OR, a Player may use both Actions to attack twice. Near the end of our second playtest, our Overlord did exactly that. He commanded his Captain, Barbarius the Mighty, to use two Ability Cards against a Warrior: Rage 1 and Rebel Strike.

Rage 1 is a Barbarian Ability that grants Fierce 2, adding +2 to that Character’s Strength roll: “You gain Fierce 2 until end of turn.”

Rebel Strike is a Warrior Ability with Sundering 1, which reduces the Target’s Defense roll by 1, for that attack only: “Deal {STR} damage to target foe. This attack has Sundering 1.”

This was an effective combination because it simultaneously buffed Barbarius’ Strength roll and debuffed the Warrior’s Defense roll.

And the outcome was significant. The Overlord rolled 2 Strength (Attack). The Warrior rolled 1 Strength (Defense). Fierce 2 increased the Attack roll to 4, while Sundering 1 reduced the Defense roll to 0. This resulted in Barbarius dealing a whopping 4 Wound Points to the Warrior, slaying them in the process.

We initially felt that the combo was indeed overpowered, and represented a critical balance issue that we needed to address. After all, it dealt 4 Wound Points, in a single turn, during a Tier 1 battle. At Tier 1, the average Wound Point limit is 5.

But then we took another look a few days later and we realized it’s not that this combo was overpowered for the game; it’s simply extremely powerful for this particular point in the game. Once the Heroes are able to upgrade their Dice Plates, their Defense rolls will improve, and combinations like this one won’t be so devastating.

Additionally, for a Character to play this Yellow-Blue combo, they would need to be dual-classed…as both a Barbarian (Yellow) and Warrior (Blue). You won’t find too many dual-classed Characters outside of the Overlord’s Captains right now…but one of our goals over the next six months will be to introduce dual-classing for Heroes.

As we continue to review our playtest notes, we’ve got a feeling there will be plenty to talk about in future posts. 😉