I recently played a few games where the Rageblade and Ghost Armor seemed to be too powerful. I'm considering removing them from regular play and was interested in any thoughts fellow Runebounders might have.

My problem with the Rageblade is its always working damage bonus, in conjunction with some other items or abilities, can almost guarantee first round kills on many of the monsters, even the blue (purple) challenges. Second round kills aren't uncommon against the red challenges. This is with level 6 or 7 heroes. Higher levels make the problem worse. This really adds to the snowball effect that tends to occur toward the end of the standard game, where one hero gets way ahead of the pack. A few times now i've witnessed this.

I've only come across the Ghost Armor problem once, but that was enough to make me wonder about it. X fatigue cost to negate all damage for X rounds? WTF? Any of the heroes that don't rely heavily on fatigue will have no probelm sacrificing some fatigue early in the battle. Any heroes that do use fatigue will have beefed that stat up giving them more to budget with. The spirit check to use it seems superfluous later in the game. The cost might limit it some but then again toward the endgame when gold becomes more plentiful it will not.

Of course I'm not married to these thoughts. There are several KILLER combos in Runebound between hero and ally abilities, items, and rituals. I didn't even mention Touch of Death. Maybe taking out two arbitrarily is pointless. I'm sure there are many game breaking Before Combat combos I've missed.

Feedback?

Any feedback?

Tony P. said:

High cost Items (9+ gold) are always very powerful, except the Rune Plate that has no significant bonus as it is written. If you manage to get one of those items your Character will become instantly stronger and should head for Blue-Red Challenges as soon as possible.

Runebound is not a "rush game" as many others (e.g. Talisman, World of Warcraft the Adventure Game, etc...); players tend to take their time, take a lot of easy challenges and slowly develop their Hero, without any need of Player vs. Player combat. The game should come to an end though, and I believe that powerful Objects are the only way to speed up things towards the conclusion. Well, it's annoying when a player gets one of these Items for free, as a lucky reward for some Challenge/Encounter (I remember drawing the Crystal Spear after killing Lord Vorakesh) or even worse, as a follow-up of a Green Event like "In need of Heroes". I hate the influence of these Events on this pretty balanced game.

Ghost Armor is powerful indeed and with a high level Hero it makes things considerably easier. Perhaps it would work better if the Spirit Check was much more difficult, or if the damage was prevented for X combat phases instead of rounds.

Anyway, Ghost Armor is made for Spirit-oriented Heroes (as most of the Runes are), while Rageblade is for Body-oriented Heroes. No one will use both Items, except strange "hybrids" like Battlemage Jaes, who stands as the most powerful and versatile Character in the game.

Don't blame those 2 Items. You may play a lot of games and never see them pop out of the deck. Then you would blame other Items. These have been put in the deck only to grant easier and faster Character development. They don't grant victory. As there are several Killer Combos for players, there are also many incredible combinations between Challenge card texts and your Hero stats, + luck factor, that bring you KO even with a lot of good stuff.

Tony P. said:

ghost armour is really cheap i remember i had it once against that strong silver guy in island of dread and i was able to kill him withought getting hurt. the other players started getting upset and were saying that that was cheap.

What i love about Runebound the most? That every game differs from the one before. So if any hero should be lucky enough to get away with Ghost Armor...Let him be! Sit back and enjoy the experience (spark it up with whatever essence your starved body requires..may it be chips, beer or wine )! Perhaps next time you are on the sunny side of Therinoth!?