I am in a campain at the moment as the OL and one of the heroes is Tobin Farslayer, and his ability reads "When Tobin makes a successful attack, add the distance to his target to his damage. Tobin cannot make ranged attacks against adjacent figures." My question is; does his ability apply to cannons as well? Because he is destroying ships with one shot with a hawkeye cannon. I think that his ability is only suppose to be in effect with weapons he is holding in his hand. I can't see him doing anything different that any other hero can do with a cannon that would add that much extra damage with a cannon, because all he is doing is lighting the fuse. Can somebody clearify this rule for me please.

did you try the boardsearch?

Yes, his ability works with cannons.

No the ability should not and does not work, i posted the same topic like 1 month ago... The people that are saying that it does work, have no clue abouth the game balance, i bet there will be an errata on that, because there is no sense in that.. why would there be a skill so powerful, to sink ships in 1 shot or 1 shot liutenants. And if it would be meant that way, why would Tobin be the only hero with such an overpowered skill from all the heroes...

We tested it and it ruins the encounters...

Whether it ruins the encounters or not, whether it was intentional by the designers or not, and whether it will be errata'd in the future or not:

The rules as written say that cannons are merely a special kind of weapon that happens to stand on the ground and is not held in the hero's inventory, and say nothing about any restrictions to abilities or added damage or effects that heroes or monsters gain when they attack. Consequently, according to the RAW, all these added effects do apply, because they apply with whatever weapon the figure attacks. A beastman will do +damage, deep elves gain Frost, Tobin will get added damage as well.

Now what makes the game balanced and makes sense might be a very different thing from the rules, and I would also suggest to house rule that only effects that specificially say that they work with cannons (like that new skill in SoB that I don't remember the name of off the top of my head) do work with them, and everything else doesn't. Just keep in mind that until we hear something else from FFG, it is merely a house rule.

If you play by the "rules" , in this case clearly they did not think about it... how could they, Tobin was made at least a couple expansions before Sob. I mean do whatever you like with it, but i am just telling you if you use that ability, dont even bother setting up the encounter, just give the heroes the reward.

Thank you SVARUN, you must play with the same type of people that I do. When I'm setting up an encounter I do feel it is a waste of time. The only chance I have is if I could ram him, and depending on wind and currents, it doesn't happen all the time. I hope FFG puts an errata for that rule.

I'd be surprised if they do any playtesting with Tobin, Kel, or Jonas; or even think about them all that often outside of marketing meetings. Up until recently those characters weren't even available in English, and they're all pretty powerful in comparison to the majority of characters from the base set (especially the first 2).