I know that he's not a popular hero by any stretch of the imagination, but my group and I are curious about this topic.

This weekend, for the first time, our group of heroes was selected completely at random. I drew Aurim. I wasn't that excited, to say the least, but I was going to make the best of it. Then, I noticed that we were all 2 CT heroes. The overlord and a couple of the other guys didn't like that we all had "flimsy" characters that wouldn't be able to hold their own in a fight. So, we decided to draw again. I shuffled the deck, and everyone took their card. I drew Aurim again! We all laughed and spoke of what is meant to be.

Now, one question is can Aurim use his ability to swap for invulnerability potions? I know that he can gain power/health/vitality potions. But, what of invulnerablity? The overlord said it was fine (mainly, because he played ENVY very quickly). This allowed Aurim to run around with the threat of big armor for an attack.

He had wind pact, which did up his value to the group, but we were all impressed with how he handled as an "invulnerable" runner. The group did talk about how he can't stand up to traps, especially with trapmaster up. But, why do players thinks he sucks?

On a side note, my group hasn't gone the RtL yet. We're sticking to the dungeons crawls and avoiding the advanced campaign for now. I am well aware that his ability is even less desirable in RtL.

Any insight would be very appreciated!

Since we play RtL, his ability is practically useless. When you get potions in RtL, you choose which potions you want, so having the ability to change them on the fly doesn't mean much (unless you made a bad choice).

As for Vanilla Descent, I've always thought his ability was interesting to say the least. If you are using ToI components, you can always add Stealth to that Invulnerability potion (I think, can you merge potions like that?).

-shnar

He's a decent runner, but that's about it.

His crappy traits mean he's got little to no offense (unless he's constantly turning potions into Power potions) or defense (unless he gets Enduring so he can actually wear heavy armor).

Though he's only 2 points, it's easier to kill him twice than it is to kill the 4-point characters with 16 health and heavy armor once.

He doesn't get subterfuge skills, so he won't have Acrobat, making his running ability inferior to the majority of the other speed 5+ characters.

His ability is decent, but highly situational (and as mentioned, it's much worse in Road to Legend). It's the most situational of all the 2-pointers, and (IMO) the least useful.

Of the 2-point heroes, only Lyssa is also stuck at 1/1/1 for attack dice, but she gets a better skillset for a runner and her ability is going to be more universally useful.

An invulnerable runner is ok, but why didn't the Overlord either attack you, dealing damage or removing the invulnerability, or just ignore you? At most you're stopping a single attack every turn, and that's not going to keep an 8-health 1-armor hero alive.

As for Vanilla Descent, I've always thought his ability was interesting to say the least. If you are using ToI components, you can always add Stealth to that Invulnerability potion (I think, can you merge potions like that?).

Invulnerability wears off if you drink another potion, so you'd have to drink the stealth potion one turn, hope it doesn't wear off, then drink the invulnerability potion. At a 1 in 3 chance of wearing off each turn, the stealth + invulnerability combo is unlikely to last long.

Yes, he can swap for invulnerability potions. He can swap any potion into any other potion, this also includes potions that have come out since AoD. The reason i don't like him much is because his ability is lackluster at best. As others have already said it's pointless in RtL since the heroes always get to choose what type of potion they find. In Vanilla it is useful, but not often. Our heroes have rarely had trouble keeping stock of the potions they need; Aurim might save a trip to town once in a while.

Aside from his ability, there isn't much to set Aurim apart from other clothies. It's not that he's bad, per se, but the lack of a distinct hero ability hurts his rep =P

Having his trait dice split 1/1/1 is the major issue, I think (Lyssa and Red Scorpion also receive much derision). He's otherwise OK, but he doesn't really have anything to make up for having a lousy attack.

In Enduring Evil, he's actually quite good, because the Ring of Skill helps with his traits, and he can effectively buy potions at half cost because power potions only cost 25.