Chaos Spells in AtOH?!?

[Schmidt]

I'm translating the .xlsx file from Patroclus Card Maker and came across this:

English
Chaos Spells
Dominate
The Chaos Sorcerer and defender both roll dice equal to their Mind Points.
If the Sorcerer scores two skulls or more, he may use the defender's combat piece(what?) for the duration of his turn.

It is always fun to roll the dice, but what's the point of the defenders roll?

Mind Blast
The Chaos Sorcerer and defender both roll dice equal to their Mind Points.
The player who scores the most skulls inflicts Mind Point damage equal to the number of skulls he has in excess of his opponent's score.

This makes sense.

Mind Lock
The Chaos Sorcerer and defender both roll dice equal to their Mind Points.
The defender will be frozen for one turn for each skull scored by the Chaos Sorcerer.

....that is not defended by a Heroshield. Better?

[drathe]

I'm translating the .xlsx file from Patroclus Card Maker and came across this:

English
Chaos Spells
Dominate
The Chaos Sorcerer and defender both roll dice equal to their Mind Points.
If the Sorcerer scores two skulls or more, he may use the defender's combat piece(what?) for the duration of his turn.

It is always fun to roll the dice, but what's the point of the defenders roll?

Combat piece means figure. Why they always use different terminology for the same thing instead of keeping it consistent, I do not know.
The point of the defenders roll is to defend. The Chaos Sorcerer is pretty much attacking the mind of a Hero with its mind points and the Hero must defend against the attack with their mind points. If the mind attack scores two hits, the sorcerer commands the Hero for a turn.

Mind Blast
The Chaos Sorcerer and defender both roll dice equal to their Mind Points.
The player who scores the most skulls inflicts Mind Point damage equal to the number of skulls he has in excess of his opponent's score.

This makes sense.

Mind Lock
The Chaos Sorcerer and defender both roll dice equal to their Mind Points.
The defender will be frozen for one turn for each skull scored by the Chaos Sorcerer.

....that is not defended by a Heroshield. Better?

If you're going to change the wording, I recommend White Shield as that's what's consistently used in the Instructions.

These are exact texts from the Chaos Spell Tokens from Against the Ogre Horde. The Quest Book goes into further detail and clarity for each one.

[Jalapenotrellis]

Question when I was reading this quest pack.

Do the heroes roll for white shields or skulls on these spells? It doesn't specify, so I assume it is a usual combat roll with the exception of the spell that says it is skulls vs skulls.

Also, one of the quests has a pit in the middle that allows the chaos sorcerer to take over a hero. Is that permanently? It does not specify.

[Kurgan]

The Pit of Chaos effect seems to be permanent, but not a lot of detail is given. Are the Heroes given any warning? "don't step there or I get to take over your character for the rest of the quest." Now could you command someone and then make them walk there to make the command permanent?

So the good guys have to kill you and resurrect with the Elixir to get him back (not available as an item in the EU edition). One of the spells means the bad guy can be hurt if it backfires on him, right? I admit I haven't gotten this far in ATOH.

[lestodante]

once you fall intp the Pit of Chaos you're gone forever!! No Elixir can save you in my opinion (maybe a spell...?)

[Kurgan]

That player has to be Zargon/Morcar next quest maybe.

And yes, good guys defend with White Shields unless otherwise specified on the card/token. When I said "Commanded" above, I should have said "Dominated" because as an EU quest, only the latter exists. And to be fair the Elixir of Life is not available in the EU edition either, so it's a matter for homebrew rules. I think dying should break the spell.

[HispaZargon]

Also, one of the quests has a pit in the middle that allows the chaos sorcerer to take over a hero. Is that permanently? It does not specify.

The Pit of Chaos effect seems to be permanent, but not a lot of detail is given. Are the Heroes given any warning? "don't step there or I get to take over your character for the rest of the quest." Now could you command someone and then make them walk there to make the command permanent?

Hi, my Spanish ATOH Quest Book doesn't say anywhere that the effects of Pit of Chaos can be broken so, I think that it must be assumed they apply forever. At a first look it seems to be quite severe if players don't are warned, but I think they could be since Mentor talks them about such pit at the beginning of the quest, so they will probably know about its effects, reducing the dangerous level.

[Kurgan]

So effectively it kills the Hero (much more dangerous than those icy ledge chasms in BQP). Zargon might have a new bad guy to use in future quests if he's not killed...

[lestodante]

if a hero falls into the pit of chaos, another hero carrying the Elixir of Life should also reach him INTO the pit to let him drink the elixir.
For me it is an unreal situation, the Elixir is not a spell, is something you have to drink and you need to be close to the dead hero's body to do so.

[HispaZargon]

According to EU rules, I think the Pit of Chaos is not too much dangerous as it was initially intended to be by the quest designer. Even if Mentor does not explain the players at the beginning of the quest the effects of the pit, once they enter the central room I assume that the heroes will not voluntarily step at the squares of such ugly-fire-pit shown in the tile since it clearly looks something dangerous that must not be touch. In my opinion, according to EU rules (please, correct me if I am wrong), the only way a hero could enter the Pit of Chaos is if the Hero is controlled by the Evil Wizard by means of a previously casted 'Domination' spell and moving the Hero by him to the pit. Yes, it could be posible, but the practical use of Pit of Chaos for me appears to be too complex than was probably desired by the quest designer so, once again, it seems that this quest pack was not enough tested and needs some kind of house rules fixing to have a good gaming experience.