James McMurray said:

Delayed answer: I re-read Nanoks ability. He hasn't been drawn in our group until now, so only now I realized the definition of "Melee trait". I thought it would increase with upgrade dice (so in theory to 15 with 5 golden power dice - which would be totally broken) but of course it"s only the number of dice, so max of 5. My mistake there.

James McMurray said:

Not yet, we'll just see. Perhaps the SoB FAQ/Errata will update the matter. At the moment Slev's idea of

Armor = melee trait +X. X= 0 at copper, 1 at silver, 2 at gold

sounds pretty good to me.

Based on our current RtL game, I agree that the change to Nanok in SoB is a good thing and plan on implementing the change.

What has happened in our games is that Nanok, early in our campaign by having the Ring of Protection and two upgrades to his Melee has 7 armor and 16 wounds. Most copper monsters can barely scratch him, as has been mentioned before.

Since Nanok is so hard to even scratch, even if he does get nicked, he has plenty of time to heal. It has become impossible to kill.

So, to the dismay of the other players, they have all become the targets for the Overlord who wisely concentrates on those he can kill to gain conquest.

This has made the game not much fun. Those players whose characters are easier to kill get killed more often and they get upset at losing all the time. The Nanok player isn't challenged.

One posting mentioned the rest of the party actually staying in town while Nanok just runs around clearing out the dungeon. While such strategies may work in terms of winning it makes for really boring games.

If the intent of gaming is for everyone to enjoy it, to be challenged, and to share in the adventure, then the old Nanok breaks the game. The new SoB rules will level the playing field and make the game better for everyone except the power player who wants Nanok to be the center of the universe.

I have a Taunting Nanok in my campaign. I have learned to deal with him and kill him fairly often. Traps of course get by all that armor, chaining the traps works well (especially with Trapmaster in play). High pierce attacks (upgraded Skeletons or Shades). Our Nanok player hates Shades, high pierce and Ghost. Ferrox with bleed work well too. If you have access to Event Treachery, the Critical Strike card is great against Nanok. It adds pierce to any attack. I had a silver Dark Priest do 12 wounds to Nanok in one attack which was followed up with a trap on the next turn. Bye, bye Nanok.

Pray he doesn't pull the rumor that grants Ironskin (if you're using Tomb of Ice). I've got a taunting Verykas to deal with, and he's got Ironskin so all my diamon piercing minions bounce off of his 6-9 armor (exact value will fluctuate based on which skills he has and what the attack type is).

The player using Nanok hates Shades too and since we're in the Copper level currently and I upgraded that group to Silver, he REALLY hates Shades.

While I can (and have) killed Nanok, it usually takes a lot to achieve and that same amount of attacks/effort against other players reaps more rewards making them better strategic targets which then causes them to feel picked on (which they are).

While I enjoy the strategy of winning games, our group's true interest is in having fun playing together. Since Sea of Blood we down graded Nanok's armor and that's made him still powerful but not willing to take quite as many risks as I can get through to him so he's become one of the group more than someone completely outside the norm which has made the game more fun for every one.

Bottom line is we all (even the Nanok player) think the change was a positive thing.