I was looking over the cards tonight while shuffling and an idea came to me. What if in addition to adding +1(/+2 at silver/+3 at gold) when defending a from a specific attack it also gave you 1 free surge when making that category of attack?

So for Willpower it would be:

"You gain +1 Armor (/+2 at silver/+3 at gold) against Magic attacks.

In addition, the Hero gains 1 free surge when making a magic attack."

Thoughts? I know it's still not much, but at least the card isn't bottom of the barrel.

I think they're fine as they are, personally. In fact I was really surprised when they were removed from Sea of Blood which implies that KW believes them to be overpowered.

In a campaign, they are especially useful as you generally already know what the predominant attack type from the most dangerously upgraded monsters will be. We just finished one against the Sorcerer King where Ispher's Deflect Arrows suddenly made him nearly immune to the mass of skeletons that went for him when he chased ahead for glyphs and chests. Had they been able to afford another skill, Willpower for one of their main hitters would have made a big difference , especially to the Final Battle.

Might be a good house-rule for standard descent games, although even then, the basic Parry was normally a keeper against the high-damage dealing beastmen.