Using the Scribe [1] from the City expansion or Devout Blacksmith [2] from the Firelands expansion in combination with the (gain) Strength spell or the Elixir of Wisdom (gain craft) object opens for gaining very large amounts of craft/strength fast .

Personally I'm fine with it but for for some of my friends it's a source for discontent and we had some discussions around houseruling against it or taking the cards out of their respective decks.

What's your take on this?

[1] If you have 2 or more Spells, you may keep a Spell after you cast it and discard 1 of your other Spells in its place...

[2] ...At the start of your turn you may either burn 1 of your Objects to take 1 Object from the discard pile; or burn 1 of your Magic Objects to take 1 Magic Object from the discard pile.

And also.. what other "power-loops" have I forgot to mention?

I removed the scribe from my deck.

[2] ...At the start of your turn you may either burn 1 of your Objects to take 1 Object from the discard pile; or burn 1 of your Magic Objects to take 1 Magic Object from the discard pile.

Sorry, but what's the power-loop of the Devout Blacksmith? Potions are Magic Objects, so you have to burn 1 Magic Object to take the Elixir back after using. How many Magic Objects do you have to sacrifice for Craft points?

And also.. what other "power-loops" have I forgot to mention?

I'm having trouble recalling the exact cards right now, but there is a Magic Object/Follower combo in which one allows you to gain a Fate every time you use you last one, and the other allows you to choose the result rather than rolling when you use a Fate. If your character has both you can basically choose all of your rolls.

The way I usually play is that just about anything goes; Talisman isn't a good game to be competative about, so if someone gets an over-powered combo than thats just how it goes. The one exception with that is that we usually impose some limitation on the Alchemist in The City expansion, because it's a coin mint for him and there is no element of chance.

In a three-player base game we usually remove wand and amulet. Not because it generates a power-loop, but it has happened once too many that one player gets the wand, the second gets the amulet and you might guess what happens to the third one... Sorry for going of-topic.

Btw, I've also seen the fate combo in one of our games. Can't remember the exact cards either, but at least one is a pet.

And also.. what other "power-loops" have I forgot to mention?

I'm having trouble recalling the exact cards right now, but there is a Magic Object/Follower combo in which one allows you to gain a Fate every time you use you last one, and the other allows you to choose the result rather than rolling when you use a Fate. If your character has both you can basically choose all of your rolls.

Lucky allows you to replenish 1 fate at the start of your turn . Luna allows you to choose the result when rerolling with fate. Both are Pets and it's quite rare to own them both, though not impossible.

There's no card that allows you to replenish one fate whenever you spend your last fate; there's only the Clairvoyant from Talisman Prologue and DE that has this ability. It's great not to have that card in the board game, it doesn't need a combo to be overpowered.

The City expansion has the cards that provide the most problems in games concerning broken and overpowered combos.

It's the nature of the beast, as the mechanics of that expansion stray away from the "random format" the rest of Talisman works on.

It makes a plethora of powerful abilities from cards readily available (Flail, Bow, Lucky, Luna, Scribe, Spellbook), or easy to get through playing the odds, in a static manner I feel comes down mainly to how you move on the board and then interact with the shops. You can even avoid drawing some of the bad cards from the City deck, by just ducking into a shop each turn.

A lot of players i'm playing ith now just run circuit after circuit through the City now, and only really leave to collect bountys and come back, as they are playing to in and it's a smart place to be.

On the contrary the unpopular Dragon expansion offers one mechanic I find to be ingenious; the ability to draw from three decks. I've played quite a few games now where I will intentionally fish from the Grilipus Deck once available, hoping to score the magic Items in it.

A lot of players i'm playing ith now just run circuit after circuit through the City now, and only really leave to collect bountys and come back, as they are playing to in and it's a smart place to be.

We've tried this as well but the ones in the city tend to end up with a few great objects and basic stats. I find it better leveling and gaining gold in other regions before heading into the city to spend it.

We play with The Dragon and all the expansions and it's amusing to see how often the City gets loaded up with Dragon tokens and dragons as well. Still this board gets so much play it's amazing. We have one player who just goes back in forth in the Highlands, trying to get gems or collect bounties sometimes, and right back over to the City he will go. The things that's kind of irksome is the city deck can generate Gold too.

The only time The Dungeon sees air with us is when someone has the Troll or Ogre Cheif.

+ Prayer characters do manage to work their way over to the regular Temple but + Prayer characters are a personal favorite of mine, and so i'm usually the guy piloting those. And the temple in the city is a waste of Gold, I would almost always rather buy a pet. Like one out of the 12 pets I dislike, the rest i'm happy with, always. (Or a personal favoriate of mine is also the Bow)

The last game I managed to buy the Skunk (Stinky?) That card was more or less protection from Dragon deck

[2] ...At the start of your turn you may either burn 1 of your Objects to take 1 Object from the discard pile; or burn 1 of your Magic Objects to take 1 Magic Object from the discard pile.

Sorry, but what's the power-loop of the Devout Blacksmith? Potions are Magic Objects, so you have to burn 1 Magic Object to take the Elixir back after using. How many Magic Objects do you have to sacrifice for Craft points?

Mid-game I would already say A LOT of magic items and even more on the ground. Last time it happened I think that person gained a lot more than a handful of craft **** fast.

Another fun combo:

In our last game the Jin blooded got hold of a spellbook and ended up with tons of fate. Not a power-loop but pretty handy..

I only play a 2 player game with my wife who is rather non-competitive, and gets annoyed with me if I try to power-loop.

But my favorite combination is, of course, to have the Scribe (we have not banned him, and my wife likes it when she gets the Scribe) along with any character that has 2 spells/ can generate 2 spells quickly.

My personal standard, which I've not quite had but mostly as they say:

The Sprite, inflicted with Lycanthropy,

Possessing the Plate Armor, a Great Axe, any one of the following: Solomon's Crown, a Magic Ring, a Magic Belt

and also the Spellbook and the Scribe at least.