One-Fist's ability says - "Once per turn, you may take 1 Stamina to re-roll a combat roll."

How is this used in the case when you have to activate something before making a combat roll? For example, the White Blade weapon says - "Before Combat: Activate to make a melee attack. If your hero succeeds, inflict 3 damage." Does One-Fist's ability work with this weapon - can he re-roll if he misses? I read the weapon as you must activate it to make an attack. If One-Fist tries to re-roll, the weapon cannot be re-activated.

What about the Sword of Fire which reads - "Melee: activate and take 1 damage before making a melee attack. If you succeed, you inflict 3 damage". If I re-roll, do I have to take another 1 damage? Can I even re-roll in this case?

If you choose to use this ability, it's as if the first roll didn't happen, you don't have to redo anything else. And you can use it for ANY combat roll, even one granted by an item. When you choose to use this ability, you have not yet resolved the attack, so you don't have to re-activate, you just ignore the first roll. Think of the roll you are re-rolling as a practice roll.

I agree with bigmac. You're not re-doing the attack, you're just re-rolling the dice. Nothing else about the attack gets done twice. Also note (in case you were wondering) that you cannot choose to use the first roll if the second one is worse. Once you re-roll you're stuck with the second result.

Interestingly, in reading through the rules, the before combat die roll does not constitute a combat die roll. The example is a before combat die roll and thus cannot be altered by this power. Assuming the rules implication is correct of course. I really wish they had put a technical writer on these rules to get rid of some interesting ambiguities!

Can you quote where you find that, because I've always taken any attack or defense roll as a combat die roll. I think you're getting too technical with reading the rules. And yeah, most FFG games wind up with the ambiguity problem at some point.

It is by inference. All on page 6. The "Before combat abilities" are clearly defined as being separate from the "Combat abilities". The before combat ability is resolved before the first round of combat. Only the die rolls during combat are defined as "Combat" die rolls. Thus combat die rolls do not appear to qualify as being used in the before combat portion. The authors seem to go to great lengths to clarify this, even in the errata. Unfortunately, they did not go far enough. Am I reading to much into the tea leaves? No idea. Perhaps it is best to ask FFG for a ruling.

I have played a number of games of this and there are some real strengths and weaknesses in the design from my perspective. I have used Skeletor's solo rules as a base and gone from there and the game is quite enjoyable, albeit repetitive after a while as all the characters end up with almost identical stats. In the early going the magic users are the hardest to develop but develop they do. A few nifty items and its off to the races. The hardest to beat against the clock for me was The Cataclysm. Won one and lost one. The other scenarios were all beaten before time expired. The setting is 18 so not too difficult.

Playing a game of Sand os Al-Kalim. Not sure what to make of it so far.

I am beginning to wonder if I would enjoy Descent or WOW the boardgame some what more.

My understanding is that the latter is time consuming and the base game is easy to beat. The expansion allows dungeons to be too giving. The Descent game seems to suffer from a lack of consistency in the scenarios, ranging from too easy to impossible. Character development and combat is not as interesting as WOW.

Are these perspectives reasonable?

Actually, upon rereading, I think I agree with you, and I wasn't expecting to. I thought I was going to say I understood but disagreed, but you are right, it does seem to be very clear when all is read with that potential perspective in mind. Probably intended to make sure Before Combat abilities weren't too ungodly powerful.