https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/5/11/the-knight-the-hunter-and-the-inquisitor/

Let's start with the completely NUTS stuff:

3 Dice attack!

-1 Dodge! Cleave 3!

And both can be applied to a ranged attack too!

15 health! Seed 5!

Everything of that for NINE POINTS??!!!

I think i'm in love

I've got a feeling he'll fall to focused fire, but otherwise he seems pretty fun. Can't wait to try him with a squad of stormtroopers backing him up.

As printed, he could be overpowered. He specializes in fighting other unique figures, but with cleave 3 he remains strong against trooper spam. I don't think a figure should be so great at one thing while still being above average in all of the other key areas.

He can only ever do one attack in a round, rolling up anything between two and seven damage, cleave notwithstanding, before defence dice.

I would hardly call that overpowered. He's good and more aggresively costed than the uniques we've seen up to this point, but he's not unreasonable. There's a bit of a sticker shock effect when you see his cost, his health and three icons in the lower right corner, but when he starts hitting the table, I guarantee you that the sky won't be falling.

To put things in perpspective: while being admittedly squishier, even Biv Bodhrik has more straight-up damage potential than this guy. Heck, an elite Probe Droid can do the same amount of damage most of the time. Heck, a focused & re-rolling eStormtrooper will most of the time roll up more damage than this guy will.

I also think he is not overpowered. To be really effective he needs to go in melee combat - his range attack is nice but only has a very small chance to kill an elite stormtrooper. And while he has a large health pool he can easily die within one round. So i think survivability will be a problem for him.

He can only ever do one attack in a round, rolling up anything between two and seven damage, cleave notwithstanding, before defence dice.

I would hardly call that overpowered. He's good and more aggresively costed than the uniques we've seen up to this point, but he's not unreasonable. There's a bit of a sticker shock effect when you see his cost, his health and three icons in the lower right corner, but when he starts hitting the table, I guarantee you that the sky won't be falling.

To put things in perpspective: while being admittedly squishier, even Biv Bodhrik has more straight-up damage potential than this guy. Heck, an elite Probe Droid can do the same amount of damage most of the time. Heck, a focused & re-rolling eStormtrooper will most of the time roll up more damage than this guy will.

I don't know, Bodhrik doesn't have that Cleave 3, he doesn't have a way to ignore Dodge (wich is a huge thing nobody had until now) and he doesn't have Pierce 3, those 3 surges are what makes it so good and they are crazy good in my opinion.

I'm kinda geeked about Greedo. I really dig hired guns and think it'd be fun to run a bunch of Rodians in a list. Maybe toss in some Trandoshansort? Call it Trando Rodio?

He can only ever do one attack in a round, rolling up anything between two and seven damage, cleave notwithstanding, before defence dice.

I would hardly call that overpowered. He's good and more aggresively costed than the uniques we've seen up to this point, but he's not unreasonable. There's a bit of a sticker shock effect when you see his cost, his health and three icons in the lower right corner, but when he starts hitting the table, I guarantee you that the sky won't be falling.

To put things in perpspective: while being admittedly squishier, even Biv Bodhrik has more straight-up damage potential than this guy. Heck, an elite Probe Droid can do the same amount of damage most of the time. Heck, a focused & re-rolling eStormtrooper will most of the time roll up more damage than this guy will.

I don't know, Bodhrik doesn't have that Cleave 3, he doesn't have a way to ignore Dodge (wich is a huge thing nobody had until now) and he doesn't have Pierce 3, those 3 surges are what makes it so good and they are crazy good in my opinion.

What I meant by "Biv has more straight-up damage potential" is "Biv rolls more dice and has more +Damage surges, so will net you more damage icons on average in a turn of attacking". I'm not taking Cleave or Pierce or Dodge mitigation into consideration, only straight-up damage, because that would increase the number of variables exponentially, including target health, type of defence, innate defence abilities, actual defence result, number of surges rolled and figure positioning, therefore making the comparison unfeasible.

For example, if your enemy is defending black and rolls three blocks and your Inquisitor rolls a surge, you just broke the bank and that would make your surge ability very powerful and worth a bunch of points. If your enemy defends white and rolls up a blank, both your dodge and your dodge mitigation thing are worthless, and you might have not rolled a lot of flat damage. OTOH, if Biv goes all close and personal on a white defence and your opponent rolls up two blanks in a row, he can easily deal more damage than the Inquisitor can possibly produce.

Taking only damage icons into consideration a simplification, but IMO a necessary one to make so that the comparison has any meaning to it in the first place - otherwise the number of variables present in the attack framework make any figure comparisons meaningless, because you always wind up answering with "it depends".

Personally, I find that simply counting the max amount of damage you can roll is a good quick and dirty way of assessing the 'killyness' of a figure, because it allows you to easily gauge one very important consideration: what is the beefiest enemy it can possibly kill in one shot.

I want to stress that I do believe that the Inquisitor is a good figure with some nice abilities and will see a fair chunk of play. What I'm inclined to disagree with strongly are the rampant forum opinions that he's "overpowered", "broken", "replacing both RGC and Vader forever" and "an example of power creep".

He can only ever do one attack in a round, rolling up anything between two and seven damage, cleave notwithstanding, before defence dice.

I would hardly call that overpowered. He's good and more aggresively costed than the uniques we've seen up to this point, but he's not unreasonable. There's a bit of a sticker shock effect when you see his cost, his health and three icons in the lower right corner, but when he starts hitting the table, I guarantee you that the sky won't be falling.

To put things in perpspective: while being admittedly squishier, even Biv Bodhrik has more straight-up damage potential than this guy. Heck, an elite Probe Droid can do the same amount of damage most of the time. Heck, a focused & re-rolling eStormtrooper will most of the time roll up more damage than this guy will.

I don't know, Bodhrik doesn't have that Cleave 3, he doesn't have a way to ignore Dodge (wich is a huge thing nobody had until now) and he doesn't have Pierce 3, those 3 surges are what makes it so good and they are crazy good in my opinion.

What I meant by "Biv has more straight-up damage potential" is "Biv rolls more dice and has more +Damage surges, so will net you more damage icons on average in a turn of attacking". I'm not taking Cleave or Pierce or Dodge mitigation into consideration, only straight-up damage, because that would increase the number of variables exponentially, including target health, type of defence, innate defence abilities, actual defence result, number of surges rolled and figure positioning, therefore making the comparison unfeasible.

For example, if your enemy is defending black and rolls three blocks and your Inquisitor rolls a surge, you just broke the bank and that would make your surge ability very powerful and worth a bunch of points. If your enemy defends white and rolls up a blank, both your dodge and your dodge mitigation thing are worthless, and you might have not rolled a lot of flat damage. OTOH, if Biv goes all close and personal on a white defence and your opponent rolls up two blanks in a row, he can easily deal more damage than the Inquisitor can possibly produce.

Taking only damage icons into consideration a simplification, but IMO a necessary one to make so that the comparison has any meaning to it in the first place - otherwise the number of variables present in the attack framework make any figure comparisons meaningless, because you always wind up answering with "it depends".

Personally, I find that simply counting the max amount of damage you can roll is a good quick and dirty way of assessing the 'killyness' of a figure, because it allows you to easily gauge one very important consideration: what is the beefiest enemy it can possibly kill in one shot.

I want to stress that I do believe that the Inquisitor is a good figure with some nice abilities and will see a fair chunk of play. What I'm inclined to disagree with strongly are the rampant forum opinions that he's "overpowered", "broken", "replacing both RGC and Vader forever" and "an example of power creep".

I think the fact he can reliably negate the ultimate damage mitigation, in Dodge, makes his 'killyness' go up very very high. While I appreciate that your simply looking at the basic of basic in raw dice rolls and dmg surges, taking into account other abilities dramatically changes their 'killyness'. Using Vader as an example he can max at 8 natural damage (9 w/ P3 max)...a whole 1(2) more than the Inq. RGC is identical to the Inq (+1 dmg surge). Pierce 3 generally will see more use, and the extra 1Dmg on Vader and RGC surge goes a long way too. However using your "quick and dirty" assessment hes right near the top in raw damage output, Pierce 3 means nothing against the almighty X-Man. Seeing how RGC himself, Luke, Leia, Diala, Rebel Troopers, Chewie, Nexu, 3PO, Davith...(you get the point) all have the W dice, it's a very potent ability that can add up to a lot more damage.

Using Vader as an example he can max at 8 natural damage (9 w/ P3 max)...a whole 1(2) more than the Inq. RGC is identical to the Inq (+1 dmg surge). Pierce 3 generally will see more use, and the extra 1Dmg on Vader and RGC surge goes a long way too.

The big thing you are missing is that Vader can swing twice per round most of the time, and still possibly do his choking thing for even more damage. With Parting Blow, he can swing a third time. The Royal Champion can usually attack two or three times, and can do up to five attacks in a single round. The Inquisitor will only ever attack once.

Your other points about many targets having white defence are fair, but my very unpopular opinion is that the white defense dice and the dodge thing (and conversely, dodge mitigation) are much less of an issue in skirmish play than many people make it to be. Simply put, I think dodge and everything around it is overhyped and overrated. But that's a discussion for another thread, and in fact one that I already had on these forums.

He can only ever do one attack in a round, rolling up anything between two and seven damage, cleave notwithstanding, before defence dice.

I would hardly call that overpowered. He's good and more aggresively costed than the uniques we've seen up to this point, but he's not unreasonable. There's a bit of a sticker shock effect when you see his cost, his health and three icons in the lower right corner, but when he starts hitting the table, I guarantee you that the sky won't be falling.

To put things in perpspective: while being admittedly squishier, even Biv Bodhrik has more straight-up damage potential than this guy. Heck, an elite Probe Droid can do the same amount of damage most of the time. Heck, a focused & re-rolling eStormtrooper will most of the time roll up more damage than this guy will.

I don't know, Bodhrik doesn't have that Cleave 3, he doesn't have a way to ignore Dodge (wich is a huge thing nobody had until now) and he doesn't have Pierce 3, those 3 surges are what makes it so good and they are crazy good in my opinion.

What I meant by "Biv has more straight-up damage potential" is "Biv rolls more dice and has more +Damage surges, so will net you more damage icons on average in a turn of attacking". I'm not taking Cleave or Pierce or Dodge mitigation into consideration, only straight-up damage, because that would increase the number of variables exponentially, including target health, type of defence, innate defence abilities, actual defence result, number of surges rolled and figure positioning, therefore making the comparison unfeasible.

For example, if your enemy is defending black and rolls three blocks and your Inquisitor rolls a surge, you just broke the bank and that would make your surge ability very powerful and worth a bunch of points. If your enemy defends white and rolls up a blank, both your dodge and your dodge mitigation thing are worthless, and you might have not rolled a lot of flat damage. OTOH, if Biv goes all close and personal on a white defence and your opponent rolls up two blanks in a row, he can easily deal more damage than the Inquisitor can possibly produce.

Taking only damage icons into consideration a simplification, but IMO a necessary one to make so that the comparison has any meaning to it in the first place - otherwise the number of variables present in the attack framework make any figure comparisons meaningless, because you always wind up answering with "it depends".

Personally, I find that simply counting the max amount of damage you can roll is a good quick and dirty way of assessing the 'killyness' of a figure, because it allows you to easily gauge one very important consideration: what is the beefiest enemy it can possibly kill in one shot.

I want to stress that I do believe that the Inquisitor is a good figure with some nice abilities and will see a fair chunk of play. What I'm inclined to disagree with strongly are the rampant forum opinions that he's "overpowered", "broken", "replacing both RGC and Vader forever" and "an example of power creep".

I think the fact he can reliably negate the ultimate damage mitigation, in Dodge, makes his 'killyness' go up very very high. While I appreciate that your simply looking at the basic of basic in raw dice rolls and dmg surges, taking into account other abilities dramatically changes their 'killyness'. Using Vader as an example he can max at 8 natural damage (9 w/ P3 max)...a whole 1(2) more than the Inq. RGC is identical to the Inq (+1 dmg surge). Pierce 3 generally will see more use, and the extra 1Dmg on Vader and RGC surge goes a long way too. However using your "quick and dirty" assessment hes right near the top in raw damage output, Pierce 3 means nothing against the almighty X-Man. Seeing how RGC himself, Luke, Leia, Diala, Rebel Troopers, Chewie, Nexu, 3PO, Davith...(you get the point) all have the W dice, it's a very potent ability that can add up to a lot more damage.

I'm pretty sure people are overestimating how often deadly will be useful. It requires attacking someone with a white die (sadly I don't have a skirmish community to speak of but impressions I've gotten are that white dice are a significant minority in use) them rolling a dodge (1/6 chance for virtually everything and a sizeable portion of exceptions are things that the inquisitor can just kill with cleave) and him rolling a surge (it's actually 5/36 chance for him to miss it which is low but high enough to be relevant). In these situations it's an increase of about 5 damage which makes it nescessarily his least relevant useful surge in terms of expected dps (of course how good damage is is more than just dps but I'm still convinced that it's worse than pierce 3 in practice and MUCH worse than cleave 3). His 15 health is also not as good as it looks since his defense pool is poor when compared to other figures at his or a higher price point.

Cleave 3 for a single surge is the one thing that I'm concerned might be imba about him, especially given that he can do it at range.

I'm certainly not disputing that he's better than most older unique figures but nearly all of the first few waves of uniques were underpowered.

Having pierce 3 or -dodge for one surge each means he basically ignores a single defense die. Which is good. But yeah, he's (mostly) melee and he's not going to last long under sustained fire.

The inquisitors is well priced I think. Time will tell if 15 health is too much. I think it could be on the high side.

As for all his abilities, I think he's an excellent all rounder. That what wins points for me in this game. Being flexible. He's fast, fairly tough (white dice but better), solid melee attack, average ranged attack with cleave everywhere.

He'll also get better with time as more force user cards are released (we haven't seen all them yet from bespin gambit or this next wave). The current ones are either not amazing or very expensive (force lighting / lure of the dark side).

He also opens up hunter cards for the empire.

Is he too strong? Hard to say. Still susceptible to stun like many melee characters. Mass focus fire will still bring him down. My initial though is he's a little bit cheap, but comparing to Lando and Bossk, it looks like FFG are repricing some of the single model characters.

This may be the new price point (which helps them compete with elite troopers) but that doesn't really help any of the old overpriced characters be viable.

Itll be cool when we can play all the Inquisitors together. So far 4 have been revealed...

~D

The inquisitors is well priced I think. Time will tell if 15 health is too much. I think it could be on the high side.

As for all his abilities, I think he's an excellent all rounder. That what wins points for me in this game. Being flexible. He's fast, fairly tough (white dice but better), solid melee attack, average ranged attack with cleave everywhere.

He'll also get better with time as more force user cards are released (we haven't seen all them yet from bespin gambit or this next wave). The current ones are either not amazing or very expensive (force lighting / lure of the dark side).

He also opens up hunter cards for the empire.

Is he too strong? Hard to say. Still susceptible to stun like many melee characters. Mass focus fire will still bring him down. My initial though is he's a little bit cheap, but comparing to Lando and Bossk, it looks like FFG are repricing some of the single model characters.

This may be the new price point (which helps them compete with elite troopers) but that doesn't really help any of the old overpriced characters be viable.

they can easily fix the overpriced older unique characters such as IG-88 with an errata and a card reprint like they did with the royal guards

it's easy enough and likely to happen if they care about making all figures viable like they did with X-wing, the tie advanced being the perfect example of years of neglect before making it a strong ship with a simple fix

To put things in perpspective: while being admittedly squishier, even Biv Bodhrik has more straight-up damage potential than this guy. Heck, an elite Probe Droid can do the same amount of damage most of the time. Heck, a focused & re-rolling eStormtrooper will most of the time roll up more damage than this guy will.

Actually, I am a bit disappointed by him having only 5 speed and no reach. Speed 6 (as reach would be a bit devastating looking at that cleave) would be ideal to zip around the battlefield making him harder to focus down with a trooper activation.

And I absolutely love the -1 dodge. It's insane.

Deadly was given a generic name, so expect it to appear on more units in the future.

Using Vader as an example he can max at 8 natural damage (9 w/ P3 max)...a whole 1(2) more than the Inq. RGC is identical to the Inq (+1 dmg surge). Pierce 3 generally will see more use, and the extra 1Dmg on Vader and RGC surge goes a long way too.

The big thing you are missing is that Vader can swing twice per round most of the time, and still possibly do his choking thing for even more damage. With Parting Blow, he can swing a third time. The Royal Champion can usually attack two or three times, and can do up to five attacks in a single round. The Inquisitor will only ever attack once.

Your other points about many targets having white defence are fair, but my very unpopular opinion is that the white defense dice and the dodge thing (and conversely, dodge mitigation) are much less of an issue in skirmish play than many people make it to be. Simply put, I think dodge and everything around it is overhyped and overrated. But that's a discussion for another thread, and in fact one that I already had on these forums.

"What is the beefiest enemy it can possibly kill in one shot." That's your measuring stick and your arguing that Vader and RGC can attack multiple times as a reason the Inq isn't really that killy. A bit naff no?

Yes multiple attacks is a huge boon. However in Vader's case his speed 4 is very limiting in making consistent use of it. I think that's where we are not seeing eye to eye, I'm looking not only at how hard he can hit, but how consistently he can do it. The Inq has a much higher chance of actually hitting what he wants, when he wants, specifically compared to Vader. RGC is a harder comparison as he has Speed 6 and Executor so can definitely be overall more killy than the Inq. I've admitted as much before. However that 6 points can make a big difference in list building.

Cleave 3 also seems to be chucked to the wayside in regards to his damage output regarding multiple targets. Being able to kill rTroopers and/or almost 1/2 kill most elite deployments with a simple surge on your normal attack is pretty great. eOfficer's may see more use with the Inq.

As for the Dodge thing, I personally see a lot of White dice in my area. Twins, Sabs, eReb Troopers, RGC. The number of times that pesky X shows up (both for and against me) isn't even funny. I understand the statistics of it showing up and I did state P3 WILL usually see more use. However completely negating their entire defense roll (both blocking your surges and damage) and basically making White dice have 2 blanks is not to be sniffed at.

I appreciate your viewpoint on the Inq, I really do. It seems to be in line with most people, specifically that his ability to attack only once is what "balances" him. I just feel that he is a bit of a sleeper (for lack of a better term) in the sense that he has crowd control (Ranged attack, Cleave3 at Range and Melee) and more utility than a lot of others at his price point or higher.

RGC is a harder comparison as he has Speed 6 and Executor so can definitely be overall more killy than the Inq. I've admitted as much before. However that 4 points can make a big difference in list building.

15-9=6 pts, thats a regular group of rStormies or rISB Infiltrators or Blaise. So obviously I think thats better than RGC (even tho I am biased and think RGC is awesome).

~D

RGC is a harder comparison as he has Speed 6 and Executor so can definitely be overall more killy than the Inq. I've admitted as much before. However that 4 points can make a big difference in list building.

Why do people keep saying 4 points?? Am I missing something??

15-9=6 pts, thats a regular group of rStormies or rISB Infiltrators or Blaise. So obviously I think thats better than RGC (even tho I am biased and think RGC is awesome).

~D

Doh, keep thinking hes 13 for some reason. You're right!

Using Vader as an example he can max at 8 natural damage (9 w/ P3 max)...a whole 1(2) more than the Inq. RGC is identical to the Inq (+1 dmg surge). Pierce 3 generally will see more use, and the extra 1Dmg on Vader and RGC surge goes a long way too.

The big thing you are missing is that Vader can swing twice per round most of the time, and still possibly do his choking thing for even more damage. With Parting Blow, he can swing a third time. The Royal Champion can usually attack two or three times, and can do up to five attacks in a single round. The Inquisitor will only ever attack once.

Your other points about many targets having white defence are fair, but my very unpopular opinion is that the white defense dice and the dodge thing (and conversely, dodge mitigation) are much less of an issue in skirmish play than many people make it to be. Simply put, I think dodge and everything around it is overhyped and overrated. But that's a discussion for another thread, and in fact one that I already had on these forums.

As for the Dodge thing, I personally see a lot of White dice in my area. Twins, Sabs, eReb Troopers, RGC. The number of times that pesky X shows up (both for and against me) isn't even funny. I understand the statistics of it showing up and I did state P3 WILL usually see more use. However completely negating their entire defense roll (both blocking your surges and damage) and basically making White dice have 2 blanks is not to be sniffed at.

I just want to throw this out here. Played a game today that this happened:

Verena w/ Cmd Card + Close Quarters on Luke = Dodge

Gaarkhan w/ Enrage: Charge + regular attack on Luke = 2 Dodge

Leia Battlefield Leadership w/ my own Luke = Evade to negate Leias Range and DODGE against my Luke.

Verena was at the end of the round, I had initiative next round with Gaarkhan and ended up getting the shots in with Leia/Luke. 5 rolls, 4 dodges. 3 of them in a row.

The whole time my enemies Luke had 1 HP left.

So yeah, there's that. Even ONE Dodge negate is very powerful. I also found it ironic that this happened the first day I've played skirmish since the Inq was pre-viewed. And that it was against Luke, who the Inq, apparently, cant take on.

Cheers!

When comparing with the RGC, don't forget the extra defense dice. Having both black and white defense dice is HUGE. With his high toughness, high speed and great abilities, I think the RGC is well costed (maybe 1 pt too much).

The real question is not whether the Inquisitor is better or equal to other single characters.

The question is, is he better than 3 elite stormtroopers?

On average 3 stormies will probably do 7-8 damage to him in one activation. He'll kill 1.5 in his activation. So it's actually pretty even and I can see him being flexible enough to take up those 9 points.

When comparing with the RGC, don't forget the extra defense dice. Having both black and white defense dice is HUGE. With his high toughness, high speed and great abilities, I think the RGC is well costed (maybe 1 pt too much).

The real question is not whether the Inquisitor is better or equal to other single characters.

The question is, is he better than 3 elite stormtroopers?

On average 3 stormies will probably do 7-8 damage to him in one activation. He'll kill 1.5 in his activation. So it's actually pretty even and I can see him being flexible enough to take up those 9 points.

I agree with this. He's durable and powerful. If focused and he uses his command card alongside a saber throw, he can clear an elite stormtrooper with just his cleave damage, on top of likely clearing one with the damage if his attack.

RGC needs to be at 12 pts. At 15 he is good, but compared to everything coming out now, he needs to be lowered. Or give him Recover 2 and/or Reach. Leia and Luke outrule this guy by a ton. Even if you added a 3 pt figure in with RGC.

~D

I'd be okay with the RGC staying 15pts and getting a static +1 Block +1 Evade instead of the white die.

But then again, it might be just me having consistently abysmal luck with his defence rolls. I'm genuinely surprised when I roll anything more that 2 evades or an evade and a blank...