Oh, I would do a lot... and I am, actually

You can't have Steward of Gondor and King of Gondor in play at the same time!

You can't have Steward of Gondor and King of Gondor in play at the same time!

Actually you can. IIRC the Steward still existed during the days of the King, and even Faramir was named Steward after Aragorn was crowned.

FFG just announced some fixes/updates to some of these broken cards here

Steward of Gondor.

Can ONLY be played on Gondor heroes.

This is pretty much exactly opposite of the premise of the thread, but does open up another theoretical design question -- can you release a card that weakens a "too-strong" card, but that would still get played? Aside from hero/allies, where you can reduce incidence of using a strong hero but releasing a strong ally of the same name (or vice versa), nothing comes to mind.

Of course, while FFG won't errata a card to make it useful, they have no qualms about errata-ing a card to prevent it from being broken -- even if the errata makes the card a coaster.

The ent idea for radagast is cool, but I'm not sure it's very thematic as I'm not sure he ever had any contact with ents in the books (I could be wrong there).

No known contact with ents, but we know from Tolkien that Radagast was a Maia of Yavanna, and that he was concerned with plants as well as beasts. He'd have a lot in common with ents, and there's certainly nothing in the books to rule out previous contact with ents. I think the Yavanna connection is enough to provide a thematic link.

FFG just announced some fixes/updates to some of these broken cards here

Oh, you're good.

You can't have Steward of Gondor and King of Gondor in play at the same time!

Actually you can. IIRC the Steward still existed during the days of the King, and even Faramir was named Steward after Aragorn was crowned.

e

But steward generates only one resource if king is in play.

Forgot: king is cost Three.

FFG just announced some fixes/updates to some of these broken cards here

LOLOL!! This made my morning!!!!

To me, a fix is different from a redesign. Some cards seem to only work in certain situations, and fail completely in others as an apparent side effect. Here are some I have thought of recently:

Bilbo Hero: Instead of the first player getting the draw every time, you get to decide which player gets the draw. PROBLEM FIXED: bad in multiplayer because other players often did not need the card draw.

Dori Hero: Increase Hit Points from 5 to 6, so he gets a bonus HP like Bifur. PROBLEM FIXED: he depended too much on his situational ability.

Grima Hero: Add text: "Other players do not raise threat as a result of this doomed effect". PROBLEM FIXED: much worse in multiplayer for no apparent reason. For this one, I should mention that I didn't like the design to begin with since he cannot realistically use many doomed cards which seem to be designed thematically with him in mind; I would have simply replaced his existing ability with the ability: "Raise your threat elimination level by 1 for each card in your discard pile with the doomed keyword. Forced: When a card with the doomed keyword enters your discard pile, if you did not just play the card from your hand shuffle that card into your deck.".

And also some overpowered cards that need fixing:

Steward of Gondor: Reduce resources generated from 2 to 1. PROBLEM FIXED: was way overpowered. Even 1 resource per turn is great.

Outlands Allies: Add text to the allies which buff other Outlands cards: "Multiple copies of this effect only count once". PROBLEM FIXED: the power of the allies grew exponentially rather than linearly. Especially noticeable in a deck with lots of card draw. Unlike PVP games, the encounter deck is not reactive enough to counter this exponential growth.

Bilbo is an interesting challenge. In keeping with the goal of this thread, which is to improve old cards not through errata but through adding additional cards to the pool that can "cover" for the glaring weaknesses, here's my idea.

To start, what is the problem with the Bilbo hero? Primarily, lackluster stats given a high starting threat of 9, especially for such a flimsy hero; at 2 hit points, a strong breeze will take out our favorite burglar/scholar!

So, we need to find a way to either boost stats or lower threat for Bilbo. We also want to target Bilbo primarily, as the other hobbits are already quite strong enough and we want to give people a reason to play Bilbo. The latter seems a more thematic choice for hobbits, who really should be all about secrecy and avoiding enemies. Willpower boosting makes sense to me as well, though. So here's my suggestion:

More than Meets the Eye

Lore. Attachment. Cost: 2.

Condition.

Attach to a hobbit hero. Limit 1 per hero.

Response: After an enemy is revealed, give attached hero +1 willpower (+2 willpower if attached hero is Bilbo). Then, if each hero you control has the Hobbit trait, reduce your threat by 1. (Limit once per round).

"Power of the powerless [Attachment]

Attach to a hero. Restricted

All Allies with blank text (no abilities) gain +1 WP +1 ATK +1 DEF"

Either Leadership or Tactics sphere. 2 Cost I guess

"A decent fellow [Attachment]

Attach to hero Nori.

Action: Remove Nori from the game. You can replace him with some other hero"

"A decent fellow [Attachment]

Attach to hero Nori.

Action: Remove Nori from the game. You can replace him with some other hero"

So..obviously this is a joke but why the Nori hate? Is he thought of as a bad card? I've always thought he was awesome in a dedicated dwarf deck...

Also, regarding Ourlands...it's not super relevant to this thread but I feel like it's worth mentioning that I absolutely support us having some self-contained "over-powered" card sets. I think it's necessary for a coop game this hard when you simply can't assume that every player is going to be at the same skill level or has access to a full cardpool of the best cards. Outlands let's new players play harder quests with experienced players.

Bilbo is an interesting challenge. In keeping with the goal of this thread, which is to improve old cards not through errata but through adding additional cards to the pool that can "cover" for the glaring weaknesses, here's my idea.

To start, what is the problem with the Bilbo hero? Primarily, lackluster stats given a high starting threat of 9, especially for such a flimsy hero; at 2 hit points, a strong breeze will take out our favorite burglar/scholar!

So, we need to find a way to either boost stats or lower threat for Bilbo. We also want to target Bilbo primarily, as the other hobbits are already quite strong enough and we want to give people a reason to play Bilbo. The latter seems a more thematic choice for hobbits, who really should be all about secrecy and avoiding enemies. Willpower boosting makes sense to me as well, though. So here's my suggestion:

More than Meets the Eye

Lore. Attachment. Cost: 2.

Condition.

Attach to a hobbit hero. Limit 1 per hero.

Response: After an enemy is revealed, give attached hero +1 willpower (+2 willpower if attached hero is Bilbo). Then, if each hero you control has the Hobbit trait, reduce your threat by 1. (Limit once per round).

I really like the idea of buffing Bilbo this way. He needs it. That threat is just SO high...

What about this?

Event: Lower your threat by 3 for each Hobbit hero you control. Then remove this card from the game.

Neutral, cost 2

Only one copy allowed in deck.

What about this?

Event: Lower your threat by 3 for each Hobbit hero you control. Then remove this card from the game.

Neutral, cost 2

Only one copy allowed in deck.

By three is probably way to OP. Maybe by 2?

I like the idea, though, since Hobbits like having minimal threat. What about a new version of Fatty? Something like:

"Fatty Bolger"

Spirit Ally, [2-cost], 1/0/2/2, Hobbit, Action: discard Fatty Bolger to lower each players threat by 1 for each Hobbit character they control.

That would be pretty thematic and serve the same function and help Bilbo not cost so much in threat. Would also help Spirit Pippin and Spirit Frodo as both abilities raise threat. And he could take a single, weak, attack (if you want to risk him on a bad shadow draw) and still trigger his discard as it does not require him to exhaust.

To fix my personal fave, Power in the Earth:

Familiar Lands

Spirit Attachment, cost 2:

Attach to a location. Attached location gets -1 (threat).

Action: Discard attached location if it's (threat) is less than 1.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For hero Dori:

Durin's Plate

Tactics Attachment, cost 1:

Attach to a Dwarf hero. Restricted. Attached hero gets +1 (defense) for each exhausted Dwarf hero you control.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parrying Knife

Tactics Attachment, cost 2:

Attach to a hero. Restricted.

Response: After the attached hero takes damage from an undefended attack, reduce that damage by 1 and ready him.

Bilbo's strength is card draw. Bilbo's weakness is too high threat. So I think a natural fix would be something like this:

Bilbo's Pipe (neutral cost 1 attachment, pipe). Attach to a hobbit hero, limit 1 per hero. Action: Discard a card and exhaust Bilbo's Pipe to reduce threat by one (two if on Bilbo).

This would be generally useful for Hobbit secrecy decks, which don't often have Bilbo, but with Hero Bilbo you could have a deck that has threat actively declining without reducing effective hand size, useful for all sorts of shenanigans. It's unfortunate that the designated pipe fetcher is Bilbo ally, but I think the effect is strong enough to overcome it.

Bilbo's strength is card draw. Bilbo's weakness is too high threat. So I think a natural fix would be something like this:

Bilbo's Pipe (neutral cost 1 attachment, pipe). Attach to a hobbit hero, limit 1 per hero. Action: Discard a card and exhaust Bilbo's Pipe to reduce threat by one (two if on Bilbo).

This would be generally useful for Hobbit secrecy decks, which don't often have Bilbo, but with Hero Bilbo you could have a deck that has threat actively declining without reducing effective hand size, useful for all sorts of shenanigans. It's unfortunate that the designated pipe fetcher is Bilbo ally, but I think the effect is strong enough to overcome it.

Something like this would just get attached to Ally Bilbo and reduce threat to single-digits.

His card says 'Attach to a Hobbit Hero', so Ally Bilbo doesn't work, unless you Sword Thain him.

Something like this would just get attached to Ally Bilbo and reduce threat to single-digits.

His card says 'Attach to a Hobbit Hero', so Ally Bilbo doesn't work, unless you Sword Thain him.

The problem is they already have Hobbit pipe. It's not distinct enough.

The problem is they already have Hobbit pipe. It's not distinct enough.

The problem is they already have Hobbit pipe. It's not distinct enough.

If it's a "pipe", it's pretty forgone that pipe needs to be in the name, and "Bilbo's" pipe seems to me as distinct from Hobbit pipe as Wizard Pipe. But I'm not at all attached to the name.

Or is it that the effect is not distinct enough? It shares the Hobbit pipe trait of being only attached to hobbits, but in this case it's restricted to hobbit heroes. Hobbit pipe also has to do with threat and cards, but the effect is reversed -- if you reduce threat with an event, you get a card. That's the opposite of what would benefit Bilbo hero. Bilbo's Pipe wouldn't enable the Hobbit Pipe, because it doesn't lower threat via event.

Given that the lore has dwarves and dunedain (Aragorn) as pipe smokers, I assume there will be more pipes someday that can attach to them. This is not that pipe.

Something like this would just get attached to Ally Bilbo and reduce threat to single-digits.

His card says 'Attach to a Hobbit Hero', so Ally Bilbo doesn't work, unless you Sword Thain him.

Sword Thain/Bilbo/Bilbo's pipe would be a sweet combo, since Bilbo ally can fetch the pipe, but I don't think it'd reduce threat to single-digits without throwing Silver Harp in the mix, because of the discard cost. Sweet combo, but it takes four cards, four spirit resources, and five neutral resources. Meanwhiile, Hero Bilbo needs one card and one resource to use his extra card every turn (solo) for continual threat reduction. Not that Silver Harp (and Song of Travel) wouldn't make him even better...

If the card existed, I think you'd definitely see Hero Bilbo become much more popular.