So, I've seen some talk over Dain Ironfoot missing his rightful traits, so I decided to include him with Noble and Warrior traits into my rework project. And then I toyed with his ability a little:

How much of a nerf do you think that is? Would it ruin the dwarves as they are?

For me, that change would open one important door from design prespective: dwarf allies with decent base stats. The King's Shadow is still there, but not as strong as it was before.

Maybe one day we will see an attachment that gives a character a Noble or Warrior trait.

I think the only problem is that the attack boost is only for one attack. Maybe, if Dain attacks all Dwarves get +1 attack until the end of the phase. It also means to get the most of his ability, you'd need him to get in on the first attack, leading the charge.

I think putting it this way nerfs his attack boosting way more than questing and I always found his quest boosting way stronger as this is the part where he his ready most of the time anyway. For questing nothing changes as Long as you include readying. I would prefer smething like:

If Dain Ironfood is commited to the quest every dwarf gets +1 willpower.

If Dain Ironfood attacks an enemie all dwarfs get +1 attack until the end of the Phase (Limit once per Phase)

If you want to get full use of him you still have to bring some readying so nothing changes in that regard.

While this change affects attack more severely than willpower indeed, I find that willpower is more lacking stat throghout the dwarf tribe, unlike attack, so getting a hit in the attack department wouldn't hurt that bad.

As a fan of Dwarfs decks, this is a killer. Dwarf allies are not very good by themselves.

As a fan of Dwarfs decks, this is a killer. Dwarf allies are not very good by themselves.

That's the point. The change to Dain would enable stronger Dwarf allies by default. For example, I would be able to give 2 base willpower to Longbeard Orc Slayer, I guess.

It is a lot of changes, but if you are willing to go through them...

You may as well consider reducing the Threat of Dain, 11 is pretty high for what it does now.

Threat of a hero is a sum of his willpower, attack, defense, and health. The deviations are usually due to the card text, but in terms of threat I think he is fine. The thing I could change is add him 1 starting thread and remove "other" words from his card text.

Yes, this would have been a better design, I feel.

But I still think changing "character" to "ally" just as they did on Battlemaster would be a good fix.

There are so many traits missing on the early cards, it is a shame really, but hard to see to all ends. What is more surprising are the excess traits that never got a single shred of development later, like archer or minstrel. It was really a mistake to have archer when there is ranged keyword, but with minstrel they might have done a thing or two, just like they're doing now with healer. And maybe they will. But just as Glorfindel or Elrond lore heroes, and Daughter of the Nimrodel are not healers, Rivendell Minstrel is not a minstrel. A pity, indeed.

One among lots of things I fixed in my project

Lorefindel with 4 traits looks impressive.