While working on Talisman characters I wondered if the default value of Strength and Craft might be better (more fun and challenging) to set a bit lower than normal). For example, a character with 3 Str, 3 Craft might have 2 Str and 3 Craft.

It seems that many 1-3 Strength (or Craft) monsters are only marginally tough since often quickly players gain 'stuff' especially lots of it that can quickly outdistance a Strength 3 or 4 monster.

Lowering a characters starting stats by 1 might be something consider. I am doing it and seeing how it turns out but thought I'd post the topic to see what others might think or have thoughts of how they might have instituted a similar change and how it turned out in play.

I realize that the goal of the game is to raise stats to around 7 to 9 (9 perferably) so you can go through the Portal and past the various inner realm spaces but often I've felt playing that either monsters are way too tough (for the moment but eventually they aren't) OR they are too easy and not too many moments where its a gamble and I feel 'maybe I will win, maybe I won't' during a single battle.

I've gotten characters built up with a 9 Strength for example and with the items in the game had a 12. The game is based so that you can go higher and the highest opponent (I think) is a 12, must most are 7 or 8 and below.

I don't want to change the monsters and other encounters, but rather if I change something I want it to be the characters themselves.

The dread knight character from sacred pools if I remember correctly is a 2 Strength, 3 Craft. He makes up for his crummy stats with his special abilities. I'm speaking from an unbiased perspective, but if I weren't, I'd add in there that he has a %100 death rate in our games. Usually quite early.

Foreshadow said:

I think this way you'll be getting a tougher game, but I'm not sure if you're going to solve your problem the way you wish.

If you feel that a Character that easily boosts Str (or Cft, but this is a minor concern) gets too easily around the board, you have to make their progression increasingly difficult. Don't break Character legs from the beginning; in the end a 1 point difference won't matter for victory or overall game difficulty; it will only give a real hard time to weaker Characters in the early game (A Str 5 Cft 1 Troll will still be powerful, but a Str 2 Cft 3 Priest will be a terrible one to play with).

Foreshadow said:

We experience gamble situations a lot of times during a game; a Valkyrie with Craft 5 losing a psychic combat (and a Warhorse!) to a Cft 1 Apparition, or a Sage with Str 2 winning a Bandit with Str 4, aTroll w/Str 10 losing a battle three consecutive times against a Str 7 Frost Dragon. Do you always get the most probable outcome out of combat in Talisman? Could you lend me your dice? I might get better chances in my next game.

Foreshadow said:

Most opponents are 5 Str and below, at least on the main board (with all expansions). If you want the game to be always challenging (and consequently longer), your only chance is to adopt progressive rule changes. When your Character has Str. 7 all the Enemies against him receive a +2 bonus to attacks. When he reaches str. 9 they get a +3, str.11 get a +4, or something like this.

I personally don't find the game to be unchallenging. With the expansions a lot of opportunities to stop a leading Character have been added and I rarely see players walking on a red carpet to CoC (except Ogre Chieftain, maybe). Victories have always been well earned in the recent games. I don't share your need to increase the overall combat difficulty in Talisman, since this will make Combat-proficient Characters really overpowered against Characters that are oriented towards non-combat PvP (Thief, Sorceress, Merchant, Gypsy).