I just got the last of the expansions today, and I was astonished at the special abilities for the Minotaur. Stampede is very handy, certainly, but how is it that this does not make the Minotaur unfairly powerful? When the Highlander charges into battle he only gets a +2, but then he has to miss a turn. The Minotaur gets to add his attack roll in every battle (and being able to use this ability throughout every battle in a single turn is even more ridiculous) and suffers no ill consequence! Every time he rolls a six is going to be deadly to everything else. And just so long as he gets to roll the die for movement (obviously he doesn't do this during the Blizzard, with the Poltergeist, after casting Teleport, or anything along those lines) he is guaranteed to have a bonus to his attack roll every single time. That means that his starting strength as it pertains to battle on his turn is not actually 4 but somewhere from 5 to 10. That's way too strong to start the game.

He needs some sort of negative counter to balance out the power of this ability: miss a turn, can't charge for at least one turn, movement slowed to 1 for a turn; or else the power needs to be limited as it is with the Highlander. I know that someone tweaked the Minotaur's design in the homebrew section and that was a good start. I still think he could use some more work.

Osbo25 said:

Stampede can only be used during the Minotaur's own turn remember, so he isn't that overpowered!

Ell.

He is very similar to Assasin. They both get +1 die roll over enemy during their turn. But Minotaur has less fate and less craft. Anyway, if you consider Assasin overpowered, then Minotaur is also overpowered.

talismanamsilat said:

Yeah, I realize that it's only on his turn. But I was reading the example of how he can stampede his way through the end of the Dungeon straight into the Crown of Command and then continue to use his stampede in the CoC. I know that's what the card says and I agree that that is the correct interpretation. I'm just not a big fan that he has such a strong positive with no negatives. (See my next post.)

guciomir said:

But when attacking other characters the Assassin MUST take a life if he wishes to use his special ability. He may not take an object. He is limited in how he can use it. So yes, he gets the same +1 die roll, but he has limitations on using it. The Highlander gets just a simple +2, but he has to miss a turn if he wants to utilize it. So he also gets a bonus, but with limitations.

I'm okay with the Minotaur's Stampede . I am not okay that there is no negative to balance it out.

Osbo25 said:

I agree that the Minotaur''s ability gives him too much strength.

If his movement roll is 6, and he also rolls a 6 in battle, then he could reach a maximum of strength 16 at the start of the game…

Anyway, with so much power, he can kill the lord of darkness quicker than other characters.

The Assassin is a good opponent for him.

I agree, the Minotaur is way too powerful.

He was played in a recent game and walked .. er .. stampeded away with an easy victory and left the other players in the dust.

As a House Rule, I was thinking that he can either roll the dice for battle (as per normal), or "stampede", and use his movement roll to count for battle. Obviously this would only be useful when he rolls a high number for movement, but this would at least keep his power level in check.

You have to realize that this is his only skill, he even ahs a a negative skill of not being able to use armor. Imo people comparing him to Assasin is a very good comparison. Remember it basically only really good if you roll a 4-6 and you also have to be lucky to either land on a char or draw a strenght enemy on that turn so there is a lot of factors.

I would say that the skills the Minoutaur has is how Assaisns should have been.

Minotaur was used twice in my gaming group and both times he died miserably in the middle of the game. Stampede is a strong ability and, as the Assassin's ability, it's related only to Battle (combat with Strength). He can safely win Battles, most of the time, but he has to move to use the ability. Assassin can teleport to another Character and still Assassinate, while Minotaur can't stampede in this case (barring some exceptions).

The Minotaur can get an easy victory if he draws the right cards, but if he draws Craft Enemies, nasty Events/Strangers and so on, he won't be supported by his ability.

If you want to find overly powerful Characters, look at the Spellcasters that always get a Spell. This, combined with other useful abilities (see Prophetess, Conjurer, Sage, Fire Wizard), makes Characters more and more powerful with each expansion coming out.