I am having a little trouble completing Journey in the Dark from The Road Darkens Saga. The Balrog is immune to player card effects so does that mean that Frodo (TRD version) cannot put on The One Ring to defend? If not, I see no other way to survive this quest without sacrificing an ally each turn as the rest of the party runs like crazy for the exit. I've tried this a couiple of times but have run out of expendable allies too quickly! Any suggestions are appreciated....

Ummm...

Yes, it does look like Frodo spexifically targets the Balrog, so it shouldn't work.

Regarding help in this quest, have you tried low cost allies to chunk the damage?

Or you might put some more questing power to finish before the Balrog comes.

Or you could make a totally not legit house rule that Frodo works against the Balrog otherwise you couldn't win.

Well, I do want to win this on the up and up so I will do as you suggest and mix in some more questing power into the deck and maybe some cheap allies to throw at the Balrog like speed bumps. Thanks for the reply - I love this game !

Cheap allies are one way to do it. Another is to build up a super-defender with a lot of defense boosts and readying and using them to block all of the Balrog attacks. Beregond is particularly suited for this - Hauberk of Mail + Gondorian Shield puts him to 7 defense, and you can make that 8 with a dunedain warning.

When I ran this the last time, I actually used a hero with a massive hit point pool (I used Lore Glorfindel with the boon Skilled Healer, plus Ent Draught, Elven Mail, Vigilant Guard, and some Ring of Barahir combos to get up to 16 hit points) and just took the Balrog attacks undefended, healing him up again with Athelas or ally Elrond.

Healing Herbs also works for that purpose.

1 minute ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

Healing Herbs also works for that purpose.

Also true, but the action of an Imladris caregiver or warden of healing is easier to sacrifice than the action of a hero. And with all the condition attachment burdens in that quest, I liked athelas better. But for a quest with less conditions, I'd definitely look at the herbs