katana_one said:

The thing is, even with his power reduced to only being effective on face-down cards, he still has the massive advantage of assassinating any other players character he lands on too. I personally think that is powerful enough. I will stick by the rule that he is attacking when he lands on a face-down card or character. It isn't strictly written in the rules, but as they state the creature attacks the character on a drawn card, to me it is the only logical time when he would be attacking- it makes perfect sense (especially when you take into account that you are the attacking player when you land on another character), and so does the wording for his ability if you go by that rule. I don't care what the official word is, that is how I will play him now.

Dam said:

But some other characters have more abilities than only one...

The assassin can do nothing more..

A opponent can try to defeat all face up enemies before the assassin can reach them ( for example)

And what's left is just standard attacks..

It takes too much turns, if you want to land exactly on a enemie if he is not defeated yet, so he can finaly use his skill...

Velhart said:

You are forgetting what I mentioned above- that he also has the very powerful ability to assassinate another character. Assassinate another character a few times and they may have to start all over again! I think that's a strong enough ability coupled with assassinating face-up cards- especially if there are enough players. Of course, the lower the amount of players, the less chance he has of landing on one though.

When I played the sorceress last night, I had to change my strategy then, landing on other characters as much as possible, as her abilities are focused on that. Same for the Assassin when there are no face up cards.

wastedyuthe said:

But i do not attack other players so much.. unless they really have something or i can kill them..

But i am not very excited that he has that ability...

For me, the Assassin is not interesting enough..

Maybe it's because that i want to go on a adventure and i am not interested in beating other players

The Sorceress is a character who has only ability's that can be use on your other players if you land on those characters..

It's very nasty, but i don't want to follow my opponent each time to steal something from their character..

Velhart said:

That's fair enough that you don't like to attack other players that much. But as you said with the sorceress, some characters abilities are more or less focused on PvP's, so when you play them, you may have to change your strategy to encounter more characters or face losing the game. The same with the Assassin. If there are no face up cards, why not slow the other players down if the opportunity arises? You have to kill them off when you get to the CoC anyway- so why wait

He is strong enough playing with these rules, if you play him with the right strategy.

wastedyuthe said:

Off course, if i have the opportunity, then i take that risk !

So, if i have the Sorceress, then i will do my best to steal as much as if possible, because that's her main ability's.

I would be stupid if i am ignoring that..

On top of that, she can do psychic attacks too if she attack a other player.

But as you said, luckily not all characters are pvp based..

If i begin to play the game, we give each player 3 character cards at random and then you can choose with wich character you want to play..

I like that rule

Velhart said:

Yes that sounds a very good rule, my friend. I think we shall be doing the same.

Looks like I've converted wastedyuthe do the dark side, where people love PvP, the more the merrier !

(gives himself a pat on the back for job well done)

I hate choice in character selection, whether it be Arkham or Talisman. In each, I use single draw, "you drew it, you play it". You get a mulligan if you use that same char in the previous game, otherwise, you got Priest? Suck it up! Of course, Priest has 1 win in 8 appearances, Sorceress is at 0 wins from 8.

Dam said:

With how many players do you play Dam?

I hope i can get a better score with the priest..

Velhart said:

Majority is 3-player, so each game will see 1 win and 2+ losses. Anybody with even win-loss record therefore is a tough customer. That only includes Sage and Troll after 41 games. Of course, there is a price to be paid when you draw one of the more powerful ones. Today, that victim was the Sage. Amazon and Swashbuckler hunted him, beat on him, hacked him until he was dead. First ever death for the Sage in 9 appearances now, but especially the Amazon was a PvP machine, with her "roll 2 dice, choose" movement. I'd say the Sage got attacked a good 9 times early on (he managed to get healed twice I think). And he lost a life to a Dragon on his first turn as well. It was brutal, but then, the Sage has been a bane of our Talisman games since the 2nd edition, so late-80s (Sage = Philosopher from 2nd edition, the only char we ever banned).

Dam said:

Hehe! Yes, give yourself a big pat on the back. My wife shall rue the day she won with the assassin- my time will come and I shall rise from the ashes

Hehe, everything you have written so far brings me back to my first post.

It is boring if the opponents of the Assassin never roll a die. So rolling a die with worse results seems the perfect solution for me. Even if this limits the only special ability of the Assassin, he can still make easier str-kills and that is worth as much as the abilities of other cahracters.

Fair enough Redsimon. You are happy with that rule, and it seems a decent one. I am happy with the rule of only assassinating face-up cards only or characters. And some others are happy with him being able to assassinate anything with a strength score. Each to their own.

Did the BI edition ever menion in its rule book as to when a character would attack an enemy rather than the enemy attack the character?

It would be strange if the rule for the BI Assassin mentioned he can only use his skill when attacking, but not mention in the rules when characters are doing the attacking rather than the other way round. 2nd, 3rd, and revised 4th edition rule books never mention when the character is doing the attacking. Rather, they just state you can "encounter" the cards on the space you land on.

BI Assassin reads: "... or any Enemy that is already face up when you land on it." He also couldn't use it against Pit Fiends or Werewolf. If you go with the FFG definition of Enemy, then even the Sentinel was non-Assassinatable.

Dam said:

Because IIRC "enemy" is a card with the actual word "enemy" on it, right? So as you say, the Sentinel is NOT an enemy as such, and so can't be assassinated. So that rule was made quite clear then in the BI version.

wastedyuthe said:

Sentinel wasn't anything in the BI edition, he just attacked every character at Str 9. I like what the FFG version did with "Creature" and "Enemy" keywords, but don't like that the Assassin can stab Sentinel, Pit Fiends, Werewolf (and not big on him vs LoD either).

Dam said:

I'm not at my board atm. What is the exact wording on those spaces? Does it say the werewolf/pit fiends attack the character? If so, he can't use his ability on them. If they don't say that, then there is nothing stopping him using it as you say- and the inner region is too weak already!

wastedyuthe said:

The whole who attacks is semantics, only relevant when we're talking about PvP, as that is the only limitation on the card (can't Assassinate if another char attacks you). RAW Assassin, anytime he is in battle, can Assassinate.

I think it was the Battle Hulk card from Dungeon that I saw today, which reads something like if you don't wish to evade, you attack it (again, regardless of whether you drew it or it was face up).

Dam said:

Yeah, so it looks like FFG really don't care who attacks who- it's a battle either way, and the Assassin should be (RAW) able to assassinate any enemy he draws too then. As was mentioned before, even an example in the rule book itself contradicted who attacks who (as it said the Wizard decided to attack the drawn Giant).

Therefore, you are right in saying there is nothing stopping him with the werewolf etc too. Then again, I would assume other characters can use certain abilities there too if they allow. The inner region needs to be TOUGHER

wastedyuthe said:

Therefore, you are right in saying there is nothing stopping him with the werewolf etc too. Then again, I would assume other characters can use certain abilities there too if they allow. The inner region needs to be TOUGHER

Who has battle related abilities? Warrior can use 2 weapons vs WW, Gladiator can send his horde of Followers against it. Monk gets his +3. Amazon can get a do-over if she loses or gets a stand-off. Swashbuckler, if he beats the WW, then gets a bonus turn, so moves right onto Valley of Fire.

Wow!! I just had a BIG shock tonight. I decided to start a new game, playing two characters by myself, picking the Assassin and another random character who turned out to the the Knight. After 15 minutes, my Wife decided to help me out and play the Assassin again while I took the role of the Knight. The game played completely differently to the first game we had with the Assassin. My Knight kept encountering the monster cards and building up his strength. Whereas the Assassin kept crossing the path of spirits, and thus was unable to use his skill, instead levelling up his Craft to an eventual score of 9. While the Assassin was first through the Portal of Power, he decided to venture the path of Craft and lost his way at the Mines, coming out at the Warlocks Cave. Meanwhile, the Knight was still in the outer region as he hadn't managed to acquire a water bottle. Persuading the Ferryman at the Tavern to take him across the river, he decided to venture into the inner region himself, and across the path of Strength. His only challenge was Death, losing to his dice roll twice. But the Crypt and Werewolf posed no threat with his strength of 11, and he won the game. The Assassin ended the game with a strength of 6- no-where near the Knights might. It just goes to show, the Assassin is never guaranteed to win. It's not even as if the Knight had any great abilities- starting with a sword and armour, and adding up to 2 when praying.

It took another go for me to realise that perhaps with all my whining about the Assassins seemingly over-powering ability, I may have been wrong.

Actually, I've found the Knight to be pretty powerful. 4/3, basically 5/3 and Armour to boot. Unlike other fighter types, 3 Craft means he can gain a Spell right from the get-go. +2 to Praying is just sick if you can abuse the Temple (kingdom for a Poltergeist). Knight comes in at tied 3rd spot in my power-rankings.

Dam said:

My Knight only got to pray at the Temple once, after crossing the river from the Tavern. And even then, I forgot about his ability when I rolled. But by that time, he had gained enough strength from the outer region to go straight to the PoP.

wastedyuthe said:

Craft is the assassin's weakness, unless you can building it up normally, but his ability don't work for craft.

Did the assassin change allignment too?

Talisman is all about luck. ( if you draw strength enemies, then the assassin will grow fast..

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When i have play for the first time with the troll, he almost died because he drew only craft enemies in the middle region, and his craft is only 1... so he could not building himself up with strength..