Somebody somewhere wrote that the Dramatic Flourish card was worthless. But had he noticed that the check is WS VS Discipline ?

I would realy like to know which cards you think are broken and why.

Also which cards seem broken but maybe aren't.

Here's an example, Cover Fire.

The Cover Fire action card basically lets the attacker shower an engagement with arrows to have the targets scatter and suffer Fatigue.

The Card seems underpowered compared to Rapid Fire and Arrowstorm...

But what if the WHOLE POINT of this card was to force enemies to take cover and suffer Fatigue, WITHOUT really hurting them ?

Just like when soldiers fire warning shots ?

I would really like if everyone would chip in and comment on one or two cards that seem broken or are broken and tell why and how to properly use them.

Here's another example Dramatic Flourish.

The attack seems underpowered, worse than a regular Melee Strike.

BUT

On the Conservative side, its best side, the Dramatic Flourish Action can cause Stress to the opponent, EVEN IF YOU MISS, also, your swordsmanship can lift the spirits of your allies and make them recover Fatigue and Stress.

What other attack makes allies recover ? Not many. Of course, stress for a Crit is a measly Wound. I would thus recommend to convert these Stress points into A/C/E losses, effectively diminishing the effectiveness of the enemy. Which is the point of the card, IMO.

Dramatic Flourish a duh ? Maybe not so...

This is important topic. Action cards should be balanced in the sense that they at least give a tactical advantage in some special circumstances. My take on some of the "questionable" action cards

Dramatic Fourish - As mentioned, this action is vs. Discipline which is often much easier than vs. Defence. Well balanced by RAW

Rapid Fire - Clearly unbalanced without GM giving situational penalties. My suggestion: One added difficulty per range increment beyond Close range and maneuvers required for extra shooting. This makes this action great when opponent(s) are in close range with adding a risk element.

Arrowstorm - Maybe limit this to Waywatchers only

Double Strike - I believe that three success line should be interpreted as in the following bold text: You hit with primary weapon for normal damage. You also hit with secondary weapon for normal damage. This makes this action very good against low soak enemies but weak against high soak enemies like Chaos Warrior because the damage is reduced by soak two times. It also makes sense that you cannot put much force behind your individual blows when striking rapidly two times. Moreover, this action should be good against horde of enemies so I would not add recharge times.

Disorienting Strike and Setup Strike - These actions are duh because Staggered and Exposed conditions are lame. Our rulings for them are that when Staggered, one cannot use any Active Defences and Reaction cards. While Exposed, character cannot use Block and his defence rating (from armour, cover, shadows, etc) is reduced to zero. Also when blinded, one cannot Parry or Dodge, obviously.

Beat Back - Sluggish condition is also quite lame. I would also reduce the Sluggish character's Initiative down to bottom.

What do you think about these "corrections"?

I really like your rulings overall.

Double strike especially. Nice.

For Rapid Fire, I use a harder base difficulty for Melee and Ranged attacks, so the card is ok for me. Additional Challenge dice are enough.

Exposed and Sluggish and Staggered are indeed not so powerful. But I wonder if your rulings in this case aren't a bit too powerful ?

I for one would be tempted to ask for some kind of Morale check when Staggered. If you fail, you can't engage a new enemy (you can stay engaged with a current opponent though), something like that.

But I don't want to delve too deeply into Houserules, since we are in the rules sections.

I'd like this thread to inventorize all Action Cards that seem to pose problems of balance or comprehension, as per the RAW.

Any more cards that squeek ?

I actually think sluggish is really good. Especially in large complicated fights with multiple location cards or some other reason where you'd want to move around. It's one fatigue per manoeuvre, including their free manouevre, and that fatigue = wounds for NPCs. That seems pretty buff, especially when combined with forced disengagement per the conservative side of Beat Back. Only problem I see with Beat Back is that it takes a comet to make them sluggish. But, honestly, the sluggish will probably impact the enemies performance more than 50% of possible criticals, so it's still pretty good. Could maybe use "comet: +1 damage, and target gets sluggish" or something to that effect. But overall, it's not a bad card in my opinion. Great for keeping enemies away from weaker party members, holding a choke point, preventing someone's escape, etc.

Thug said:

Rapid Fire is good as it is, for a starting PC chance of getting to second shot and hitting with it is about 50% (maybe 60% with a maxed out shooter). On the Conservative side it adds only one extra attack, so IMO there is no problem with balance. Reckless die has the same chance of success as base statistics die, so 3rd attack has about 25% chance of hitting. I find this action well designed, as it's power rises with power of PC, and it's not overwhelming at the start.

Double Strike - it's only broken in the hands of Strength 5 melee powergamer types but the same goes for Mighty Blow - a priest of Morr can have similar damage output. I would house rule it with 3 recharge for such character, otherwise it's good in this way.

Beat Back , Disorienting Strike and Setup Strike - you are forgetting that those can be used by NPC's too. And those conditions on PC aren't so weak, especially if combined correctly. As a matter of fact, they are a good way to make PC's burn resources faster during combat.

Here's another one that doesn't look great at first blush, but could be good for the right character, party or situation:

Threading the Needle - as an attack card, it's kind of lackluster (only giving bonus damage on conservative, and only with the best success line). But it has double boon lines that can help your allies, and that boost doesn't cost you your attack. It's a good card for parties that work well together to set it up, but not so great if your group is very independant. It also has the phrasing of "not engaged with target" instead of the "not engaged with an enemy" line of the basic ranged attack, so you can use it to keep firing your bow at nearby enemies even if one enemy has split off from the main engagement to swing at you. This is a card that derives its power from lots of little elements, instead of a single big effect.

r_b_bergstrom said:

Interesting. It's all in the small print !

This thread about analysing action cards is tremendous ! keep up the good work guys ! let's share these experiences