At this point in the game's existence, we've seen nearly every prominent character in one form or another. But there are still some heroes and allies to look forward to, be they entirely new additions to the card pool or permutations of our favorite characters. Which are you most excited for? What stats, traits, and abilities do you hope they have?

To kick off the discussion, I mocked up a bunch of custom cards. For every card idea that I'm proud of, there are 3 that are overpowered, overstuffed, or blank. Please don't withhold criticism.

(Art by Andrea Piparo)
Frodo really deserves another non-fellowship version. While Lore would work just fine for him, Leadership seems right. The thematic inspiration for Frodo's ability is that he rises to the occasion and faces trials when others cannot (saving the sleeping hobbits from the barrow wight, carrying the One Ring, etc). Should the Quest Action just be an Action? What are some other abilities that could represent Frodo's leadership qualities?

(Art by Sebastian Giacobino)
This Leadership Galadriel is inspired by her ally version, and is meant to represent her as a gift-giver. Should she be able to attack and defend? Is her attachment recursion the key to a game-breaker combo? Is the global willpower boost too good? Should it only be for your heroes?

Not much to say about this random guy. I just really want a Dunedain hero that interacts with signals. I'm sure there are million more interesting ways to do that.

(Art by Michael Kaluta)
Elfhelm is one of my favorite heroes, so I made a friend for him.

(Art by Venlian)
This Leadership Elrond only cares about one thing: uniting the free-peoples of Middle Earth. I want to see more of these weird one-off themes on hero cards. I know that these two abilities are insane together, especially when you add Vilya to the equation.

I was waiting for Song Bilbo, but now that we have Tactics Bilbo, I'll have to settle for the next best thing: Gleowine! Our favorite skald always has a song on his lips, and his music can bolster other heroes.

(Art by Piya Wannachaiwong)
I can't decide on an ability for Ghan-buri-Ghan, but it should relate to locations. I imagine it should be something that complements Haldan and the location-attachment theme.

(Art by Donato Giancola)
I want another version of Legolas and Gimli. I'm greedy but unimaginative. What ability should I give ol' Greenleaf?

(Art by Tristan Wang)
Hero Radagast seems like an inevitability at this point, but I'm never sure what his stats and ability should be. Should he have the Woodman trait? Is 1 attack absurd for an Istari, or does it appropriately represent his reluctance to get involved in the war? Should he directly interact with creatures and eagles, or simply have an ability that complements the eagle theme?

(Art by Matthew Stewart)
I don't really have a strong idea for Spirit Sam. It seems right that he'd work better the fewer characters you control. Give him a mechanic like the Strider attachment.

(Lindir by Elena Kukanova)
Gamling and Lindir... I dunno.

(Art by John Howe)
I love Gimli so much that I just threw a bunch of random abilities on him and called it a day. Obviously a real hero card wouldn't have this hodgepodge of themes.

(Art by Fabio Leone)
The Last Aragorn: King Elessar! His ability could be anything, but I wanted Spiritgorn to inspire men to follow him, much like Leadership Faramir.

(Art by the Brothers Hildebrant)
If we get a Farmer Maggot hero, then it's only a matter of time before we get Grip, Fang, and Wolf allies. There are currently no dogs in this game. This must be corrected.

(Art by Kokomiko)
This Tactics Faramir is meant to represent him as a knight and defender of Osgiliath. I think the last ability might be too good, since it's essentially a much better version of Le Aragorn's ability. Would 2 resources be better, or another mechanic entirely?

(Art by Magali Villeneuve and Venlian)
I want another Tactics Noldor so bad. I haven't managed to make a satisfactory Tactics Glorfindel, but boosting his stats with discards seems to make the most sense.

We need an eagle hero, a playable version of To the Eyrie, and Wilyador. Why not bundle them into one card?

(Art by Donato Giancola)
This Saruman is stolen from several other people's ideas. Resource changing is to represent "of many colors". Scrying is just the Palantir mechanic.

(Merry by John Howe)
No characters deserve ally versions more than Merry and Pippin. Maybe Merry should be a Spirit ally so that a Frodo and Sam deck could play them easily.

This is basically just the quest version of Marty made into an ally.

I really like the Gleowine idea; he's such an iconic character for the card game. Deserves to be a hero.

Some of these arts are really stunning (like Theoden, Faramir, the first Glorfindel and Saruman), they have this Ted Nasmith vibe, where did you find them @pmdoug?

The Merry and Pippin trait gaining is very clever!

Gimli and Merry are drawn by John Howe, his style is unmistakable.

10 hours ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Some of these arts are really stunning (like Theoden, Faramir, the first Glorfindel and Saruman), they have this Ted Nasmith vibe, where did you find them @pmdoug?

I neglected to credit the artists in my initial post. I've corrected this and edited in the names of those I could find. Most of the unattributed pictures were found on Pinterest.

Some ideas:

Hero Galadriel: too strong in your version I think. You should take out the possibility for her to quest (like the Spirit version) and perhaps give her an ability similar to Bard son of Brand, but for Artifacts. Like "While playing an Artifact attachment Galadriel is considered to have the Tactics, Spirit and Lore printed icons".

Hero Arval: I feel the readying would not be so interesting since the Signal can only be played in the Resource Phase, so unless you use something like Captain's Wisdom or have some Conditions that leave your hero exhausted it would not be so interesting. Perhaps a version of Elfhelm but for Signals? Like "each Leadership Dunedain hero with a Signal attachment gets +1 Defense", "Tactics Dunedain +1 attack", "Spirit Dunedain +1 Willpower", "Lore Dunedain +1 Hit Points"? Scratch that, I misread the card

Hero Bard the Bowman: I am not sure about the Noble trait. Anyway I would limit the ability to Item attachments and not consider the exhausting bard.

Hero Elrond: I would avoid the "does not exhaust to quest" part, otherwise it seems good.

Hero Ghan-Buri-Ghan: something like "exhaust Ghan-buri-Ghan to travel to a location without having to pay any Travel cost or activate Forced effects triggered when it becomes the active location (limit once per round)".

Hero Legolas: mabye once again something sinergic with Legolas, like "when Legolas participates in an attack with a Dwarf character that destroys an enemy add a resource to Legolas resource pool and draw a card". Otherwise thinking more of his time in Mirkwood "Response: when the active location is a Forest and Legolas participates in an attack that destroys an enemy ready him (limit once per turn)".

Hero Lindir maybe something like this Response: if after drawing cards in the Resource Phase you have less than 3 cards in your hand, draw 1 card. Or perhaps a kind of automatic version of Silver Harp, like Response: when you discard a card from your hand to activate a player card ability return a card from you discard pile to your hand (limit once per round).

Lot of interesting work here. Here's my reactions:

LeFrodo: I like the action, it's very thematic. I don't think it would be materially harmed by changing it from a Quest Action (which limits what heroes he can be paired with), to just a straight Action -- since his attack only starts at one, triggering his action in the combat phase won't be overpowering.

LeGaladriel: I don't think it's overpowered, and with limit once per round should be guarded against any infinite recursion combos. I wouldn't worry too much about the global willpower boost, since it's confined to heroes with unique attachments it starts at zero and has a hard upper limit. The biggest problem I see with her is that at game start, she's absolutely useless without her ring at game start. I like that her ability can protect against her mirror tossing her ring, but I don't think that's enough. I'd replace one of her two abilities with a cool exhaust ability that would be useful at game start. Perhaps exhaust to ready another hero?

Arval is interesting, the once-per-round limit amounts to one resource for arbitrary readying once per round once a signal is in play. That's not bad, but seeing a Dunedain Remedy move around the board to ready undamaged heroes would be a little odd. I agree there may be something more interesting to do with signals, but nothing immediately springs to mind.

I like LeBard, discarding an attachment not only thematically invokes using the Black Arrow, it also synergizes with the Dale theme. I don't think it's too good, since his discarded attachment would not be picked up by Bard2's ability.

LeTheoden shouldn't have 12 threat; his abilities just aren't powerful enough to justify the increase in threat -- actually, I think they are on the weak side even at 11 threat, because you aren't going to be playing a lot of mounts during a game. I'd drop his threat to 11 and have him get sphere match for mounts *and* Rohirrim. That way you could have Elfhelm and LeTheoden in a Rohan deck.

LeElrond has the same issue in terms of matching threat -- his ability isn't strong enough to justify the threat increase, unlike his other version. His main ability will take a while to trigger, especially since he doesn't have the ally-playing ability of his Lore version. The card draw won't trigger for Vilya, which I assume is intentional. I'm not saying this version wouldn't be strong with Vilya. But Fatty Bolger would be strong if he could work Vilya.

I like Gleowine's concept, but his ability is very powerful, especially with the setup for getting a song. I'd limit it to once per round and boost one stat for the round, not all three.

For Ghan-buri-Ghan I'd let him exhaust to make a location in staging the active location, returning the current location (if any) to staging -- and make it a straight action, not a quest action or travel action. That way he could be used to get a newly-revealed location out of staging in the quest phase, or swap in an active location that just got attachments played on it during planning, or swap an attachment-heavy location *out* to save it for the next turn, etcetera.

For LoLegolas, since his tactics version places progress maybe his lore version should do something tactics-y. How about action: return an ally you control to your hand to increase Legolas attack by its cost (once per round). That will let him get more Silvans out of play, while synergizing with other allies that discard at end of round.

Radagast should at least be able to pay for any creature and have some other ability as well. Maybe give passive healing (one damage per round) to all creatures?

For SpSam, how about "When you have two or less heroes, add Sam's printed willpower to his defense. When you control five or less characters, add Sam's printed willpower to his attack." That complements Strider while not being utterly useless without it.

SpGimli is interesting but not compelling, but I like the idea of having Gimli start with Elf-Friend. Then we just need an ability that would synergize with either Silvan or Noldor without being useless outside that type. Maybe something to do with the discard pile -- Noldors live there, Silvan events end up there, and mining decks send cards there.

I like SpAragorn, thematic and useful.

How about this for Farmer Maggot -- response: when your threat is raised by an encounter card or player card effect, deal one damage to an enemy in play (limit three times per round [once per dog]). Action: exhaust Farmer Maggot and raise your threat by an enemy's threat to prevent that enemy from making engagement checks this round (once per round).

TaFaramir's ability is too strong, but how about giving him a permanent wingfoot? When an enemy is revealed from the encounter deck, ready Faramir.

I like the first version of TaGlorfindel. I like Wilyador and Saruman.

I agree ally Merry would be better in Spirit. Not just for Frodo/Sam, but also for Rohan synergy.

9 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

Lot of interesting work here. Here's my reactions:

LeGaladriel: I don't think it's overpowered, and with limit once per round should be guarded against any infinite recursion combos. I wouldn't worry too much about the global willpower boost, since it's confined to heroes with unique attachments it starts at zero and has a hard upper limit. The biggest problem I see with her is that at game start, she's absolutely useless without her ring at game start. I like that her ability can protect against her mirror tossing her ring, but I don't think that's enough. I'd replace one of her two abilities with a cool exhaust ability that would be useful at game start. Perhaps exhaust to ready another hero?

I missed that this version of Galadriel was allowed to quest. That makes her quite useful even without her ring -- but it also makes her ring pretty useless. I'd prefer a version where having her ring is useful.

1 hour ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Some ideas:

Hero Arval: I feel the readying would not be so interesting since the Signal can only be played in the Resource Phase, so unless you use something like Captain's Wisdom or have some Conditions that leave your hero exhausted it would not be so interesting. Perhaps a version of Elfhelm but for Signals? Like "each Leadership Dunedain hero with a Signal attachment gets +1 Defense", "Tactics Dunedain +1 attack", "Spirit Dunedain +1 Willpower", "Lore Dunedain +1 Hit Points"?

Hero Legolas: mabye once again something sinergic with Legolas, like "when Legolas participates in an attack with a Dwarf character that destroys an enemy add a resource to Legolas resource pool and draw a card". Otherwise thinking more of his time in Mirkwood "Response: when the active location is a Forest and Legolas participates in an attack that destroys an enemy ready him (limit once per turn)".

Hero Lindir maybe something like this Response: if after drawing cards in the Resource Phase you have less than 3 cards in your hand, draw 1 card. Or perhaps a kind of automatic version of Silver Harp, like Response: when you discard a card from your hand to activate a player card ability return a card from you discard pile to your hand (limit once per round).

Signal attachments are movable (for a resource), and since Arval's effect triggers on attachment it could still be triggered when useful. But the initial play isn't very useful.

The trouble I see with having Legolas dependent on dwarves, or forest, is that the former is a constraint on having any benefit, and the latter makes him useless in some quests (see poor Dwalin for what happens to such heroes). But something that works well with a specific hero, while not requiring him, certainly would be good.

A built-in Silver-Harp for SpGimli would work well with Noldor and SpLegolas.

On 12/17/2018 at 9:55 AM, dalestephenson said:

LeTheoden shouldn't have 12 threat; his abilities just aren't powerful enough to justify the increase in threat -- actually, I think they are on the weak side even at 11 threat, because you aren't going to be playing a lot of mounts during a game. I'd drop his threat to 11 and have him get sphere match for mounts *and* Rohirrim. That way you could have Elfhelm and LeTheoden in a Rohan deck.

LeElrond has the same issue in terms of matching threat -- his ability isn't strong enough to justify the threat increase, unlike his other version. His main ability will take a while to trigger, especially since he doesn't have the ally-playing ability of his Lore version. The card draw won't trigger for Vilya, which I assume is intentional. I'm not saying this version wouldn't be strong with Vilya. But Fatty Bolger would be strong if he could work Vilya.

I like Gleowine's concept, but his ability is very powerful, especially with the setup for getting a song. I'd limit it to once per round and boost one stat for the round, not all three.

For Ghan-buri-Ghan I'd let him exhaust to make a location in staging the active location, returning the current location (if any) to staging -- and make it a straight action, not a quest action or travel action. That way he could be used to get a newly-revealed location out of staging in the quest phase, or swap in an active location that just got attachments played on it during planning, or swap an attachment-heavy location *out* to save it for the next turn, etcetera.

For LoLegolas, since his tactics version places progress maybe his lore version should do something tactics-y. How about action: return an ally you control to your hand to increase Legolas attack by its cost (once per round). That will let him get more Silvans out of play, while synergizing with other allies that discard at end of round.

Radagast should at least be able to pay for any creature and have some other ability as well. Maybe give passive healing (one damage per round) to all creatures?

For SpSam, how about "When you have two or less heroes, add Sam's printed willpower to his defense. When you control five or less characters, add Sam's printed willpower to his attack." That complements Strider while not being utterly useless without it.

SpGimli is interesting but not compelling, but I like the idea of having Gimli start with Elf-Friend. Then we just need an ability that would synergize with either Silvan or Noldor without being useless outside that type. Maybe something to do with the discard pile -- Noldors live there, Silvan events end up there, and mining decks send cards there.

How about this for Farmer Maggot -- response: when your threat is raised by an encounter card or player card effect, deal one damage to an enemy in play (limit three times per round [once per dog]). Action: exhaust Farmer Maggot and raise your threat by an enemy's threat to prevent that enemy from making engagement checks this round (once per round).

TaFaramir's ability is too strong, but how about giving him a permanent wingfoot? When an enemy is revealed from the encounter deck, ready Faramir.

Thanks for all your wonderful feedback. You've brought up some really cool ideas.

Theoden is always a tough hero to build around. His Tactics version basically demands that you go mono-Tactics and his Spirit version gives you a resource discount to make up for his underwhelming stats. I think you're right that my Leadership version is under powered, but I also think his threat should remain at 12 to fit recent trends for printed hero threat. Adding Rohan allies to his sphere smoothing is a great solution, and one that I think makes 12 threat appropriate. He definitely wouldn't be a great hero, but he'd enable some fun Mount and Rohan decks.

It's virtually impossible to make a card that rivals Lore Elrond, but I actually think Le Elrond comes closer than you might think. For example: a Le Elrond, Grima, and Amarthiul deck can play Ioreth first round for 0 cost and then draw a card. As long as those 4 characters survive, Elrond gets +1 resource and doesn't exhaust to quest. I actually think this Le Elrond is too good.

You're right about Gleowine: a super-powered Rosie as a hero card might be too powerful. Limit once per round or a boost to one stat seems appropriate.

I love the idea that Ghan-Buri-Ghan would negate travel costs like his ally version. Seems like a fine idea.

That Legolas ability seems really fun, especially if it isn't limited to Silvan allies. Pop an eagle, Gandalf, or Beorn back into your hand for a hefty attack boost. But would that be too strong? In a T Imrahil deck, he'd be pretty crazy.

Letting Radagast pay for any creature is a great idea, but I can't figure out what his active ability should be. I wish there were more non-eagle creatures in the card pool.

Your Sam idea is great. He'd be a very powerful hero, but without innate readying, he'd be even with his Le version.

I think you're right that Gimli should interact with the discard pile. What if he could return an event to your hand or deck after a successful attack or defense? Then he could recur Unlikely Friendship, Hidden Cache, Feigned Voices, etc. I think making him a hero version of Dwarven Pipe or Galadhrim Weaver would be cool.

That Farmer Maggot idea is a really fun blend of T Bilbo and Fatty. Very neat idea.

Yeah, you're right about T Faramir. A conditional ready is more balanced and fun.

13 hours ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Some ideas:

Hero Galadriel: too strong in your version I think. You should take out the possibility for her to quest (like the Spirit version) and perhaps give her an ability similar to Bard son of Brand, but for Artifacts. Like "While playing an Artifact attachment Galadriel is considered to have the Tactics, Spirit and Lore printed icons".

Hero Bard the Bowman: I am not sure about the Noble trait. Anyway I would limit the ability to Item attachments and not consider the exhausting bard.

Hero Elrond: I would avoid the "does not exhaust to quest" part, otherwise it seems good.

Hero Legolas: mabye once again something sinergic with Legolas, like "when Legolas participates in an attack with a Dwarf character that destroys an enemy add a resource to Legolas resource pool and draw a card". Otherwise thinking more of his time in Mirkwood "Response: when the active location is a Forest and Legolas participates in an attack that destroys an enemy ready him (limit once per turn)".

Hero Lindir maybe something like this Response: if after drawing cards in the Resource Phase you have less than 3 cards in your hand, draw 1 card. Or perhaps a kind of automatic version of Silver Harp, like Response: when you discard a card from your hand to activate a player card ability return a card from you discard pile to your hand (limit once per round).

My Le Galadriel is in an odd space: either she can't quest immediately and is a bit bad, or she can quest immediately but doesn't have a fun interaction with Nenya. She should have a fun active ability to make her more dynamic. I like the your idea of making her the Artifact hero.

Bard can certainly lose the Noble trait.

I think you're right about Le Elrond: either the extra resource or the not exhausting should go away. The not exhausting enables Vilya usage and should be the one to go.

I like the idea that any future Legolas and Gimli synergy shouldn't be specific to those 2 heroes. Like Unlikely Friendship, allowing them to interact with all Silvan and Dwarf heroes seems more fun.

Your Lindir idea is great, and I'd love to own that hero.

I'm not a big fan of the recent trend in matching hero threat (just because LoBilbo is badly overpriced is a poor reason to make TaBilbo also overpriced, IMO). I think LeTheoden's ability, even with the ability to pay for Rohirrim, doesn't justify an extra threat. But he's certainly still playable at 12.

You have a good point about LeElrond, given the right setup. How about removing the non-exhuastion, and keeping the extra resource?

Legolas's ability would be insanely strong in conjunction with certain cards, perhaps a maximum +3 attack would be appropriate? But I like the idea of him working not just with Silvans, but also Eagles, Beornings, and Sneak Attack. Eagles and Beornings need the help. The synergy with TaImrahil would also be insane if it's an ally that's already been used -- perhaps Legolas ability shouldn't be an action, but a once-per-round response to Legolas declaring an attack -- that way he actually has to be attacking something to use his power, and has to remove the ally right then, rather than just turning TaImrahil into a search effect.

It is a pity there aren't more Creatures for Radagast, and my proposing passive healing only benefits a few expensive Eagles. Radagast is established as a healer of beasts, but most of the things that need healing aren't beasts -- and we already have two healing heroes. Maybe cards for playing creatures? Being able to get creatures out of the discard? Returning creatures that leave play to your hand?

My first thought with Gimli was playing events from the discard pile, but then the memories of poor nerfed Hama got me. But I like the idea of being a combination of Dwarven Pipe and Galadhrim weaver. How about this:

1) When Gimli commits quests successfully he may put a card from the discard pile at the bottom of his deck.

2) When Gimli helps destroy an enemy by attacking he may shuffle an event from the discard pile into the deck.

3) When Gimli defends without taking any damage he may discard the top three cards of his deck, then choose one of those cards to go into his hand.