Hopkins Rest Boons

[wallydubbs]

Wizards of Morcar offers an outpost of upgrades for the heroes to gain new skills. We have 12 hero archetypes and 9 types of boons. However, 5 of them can only be used once.

I'll be analyzing these skills and which would go best with what hero:

Sharpshooter's Archery Range provides the Dead Eye skill, which allows the hero to target a monster even if a hero or other monster breaks line of sight. This boon can benefit any hero with an exception for the Berserker. This can help the Barbarian if he has a crossbow, but the Barbarian is probably better off with a melee attack due to his body points. The Bard is a good hero to give the Crossbow to, this will also allow him to use Lullaby if Line of Sight is blocked. The Druid's Shapeshift relies on melee attack, so this probably wouldn't be legit her as much. The Dwarf, much like the Barbarian probably wouldn't rely on range attacks, so I'm taking him out. The Elf, Explorer & Monk could all use a Crossbow, but only the Elf can cast spells, and the Monk would preferably rely on his techniques, where he needs to be unarmed most of the time. The Knight is better off with close combat, so he's out. The Rogue is a pretty good choice for this as well with his throwing daggers, but the 1 or 2 attack dice doesn't quite amount to the attack strength of a Crossbow. The Warlock is another great hero for this, even though she can't use a Crossbow the Wand is her primary weapon for ranged attacks and she also has the spell Fear. This can help the Wizard with some of his spells, going around other monsters and heroes. However unlike crossbows and dagger, spells are limited. The Wizard and the Warlock are the only two heroes conditioned to stay back and allow other heroes to do the physical combat, though an argument could be made for the Bard and Rogue. But I feel this would best benefit the Warlock, as Demonform takes her up to 3 attack dice, but also she needs to kill a monster to reclaim Demonform, so having the ability to aim around a hero, or target a weaker monster behind a Dread Warrior would be a nice benefit, plus she could also cast Fear on a monster in the back.
Dead Eye goes to the Warlock

Training Barracks awards a hero with the Weapons Expert boon. This will allow only 1 hero to build up his attack strength with 1 particular weapon. This can help all heroes with their attack strength. The Monk, who is most powerful without a weapon, is probably the only hero who shouldn't use this. This would most certainly benefit a tanking hero in the front line: Barbarian, Berserker, Dwarf or Knight. The Barbarian, Berserker & Dwarf are the most likely heroes to wield a Battle Axe, this could raise them to 5 attack dice, or it could allow them to use a Longsword for 4 attack dice and hold a shield for better defense, which would be preferable if they didn't have Borin's Armor. But the odds are that one of them will always wear it. The Berserker can't use a crossbow, and his skills are attack based, suggesting he's better off using a Battle Axe. But he needs to lose body points anyway to access some of his skills anyway. This could also be used to make the Wizard a better fighter, but his body points insists that he should avoid physical combat. It could boost a Shapeshifted Druid with a Longsword to 5 attack dice, or the Rogue could master a dagger, getting the 2 extra attack dice for Opportunistic Striker or 2 attack dice with Ambidextrous. The Bard & Explorer shouldn't normally be at the front line as their body points are too low to sustain them. The Warlock could potentially up her wand to 4 attack, which is a boost she can really use. Inevitably I'm going to push this on the Berserker, while the Barbarian, Knight & Dwarf could use this up their attack strength and/or defense with a shield, Weapons Expert only works for 1 weapon. I could see a lot of heroes swapping out weapons in the middle of the quest, even the Rogue could switch up a Dagger with a Shortsword and have the same abilities but it seems that the Warlock will rely on her Wand 100% of the time; the Knight's skills rely on his use of a shield, forever relegating him to use a Longsword; and the Berserker will always take the strongest weapon (Battle Axe) this would give the Berserker a barrage of savage attacks. Since he will be at the front line more often than the Warlock, I feel this is most suitable to him.
Weapons Expert goes to the Berserker with the Battle Axe.

Cathedral of Hope offers the heroes the Healing Hands skill, which allows the hero to double up a healing spell, casting it on 2 separate heroes, but also gives them the ability to pass a healing potion to a dying hero adjacent to them. Any hero can acquire healing potions, so that's a non-issue looking at all the heroes, so this generally comes down to Healing Spells. All heroes can carry spell scrolls, and I do recall one playthrough where the Explorer ended up with so many healing spell scrolls and all types of healing potions, but this could happen to anybody. Maybe the Explorer's skills would incentivize him to search for treasure over other heroes but the double up of a healing spells brings us to only 2 potential heroes: the Wizard & Druid. Although the Elf could hold Healing Spells as well, she's most likely going to use the Elf Spells. The Wizard COULD carry both Earth & Water spells, but thanks the the 3 new spell sets, they have lots of options. However the Druid is always certain to have her healing spells and if she ends of with the Spell Ring it's going to Lifeforce. Doubling this spell up for the group is good, Pixie makes it even better.
Healing Hands naturally and obviously go to the Druid.

Wandering Monsters Mercenaries Guild grants any hero a free mercenary. Any hero can use this, but I feel the tanks (Barbarian, Berserker, Knight & Dwarf) are usually in the front line and don't want to pay anyone to try take their job. So it comes down to who benefits from having more allies on the board? The Bard's spells are helpful and in adding mercenaries he can continue to use and regain his Inspirational Tale. The Knight has more allies to use Shield Block for, but it's only a 1-time use. The Rogue has more friends to use ambidextrous and could even buy a Scout who has a better chance at disarming traps. The Warlock could put other people up front while sniping with her wand, and the Wizard isn't a skilled fighter. However the Wizard and Warlock should have enough gold as they can't touch most equipment. So this might go best for the Bard, who can always upgrade equipment and whose Healing Song can benefit the mercenaries too.
Recruit a Mercenary without paying their cost goes to the Bard.

Dewdrop Inn will raise a hero's maximum body points by 2BP. Any and all heroes can benefit from this except maybe the Barbarian and Elf due to the Amulet of the North and Magical Elven Bracers but I think the heroes that need it the most are the ones without that many body points: Barbarian, Berserker, Knight, Dwarf & Elf are out. You don't really want to raise the Druid's body points too much or she'll have trouble regaining Shapeshift. The Monk is fine with Twisting Torrent. The Bard starts off with an Extra defense and the Explorer can hold a shield. The Wizard and the Warlock are better off staying out of close combat, but the Rogue has the Combat Mobility skill, so he can move in and out of combat, and 3 defense dice isn't going to support him. If he goes behind enemy lines to the help clear out enemies on the inside and ends up failing, he's going to need some extra body points to sustain him to get out of there on his next turn, so this should help the Rogue most out of everybody.
Maximize Body Points by 2 goes to the Rogue.

Hopkins Keep offers the heroes the Hold the Line skill. If a Monster retreats from a hero, that hero can roll 1 attack dice to potentially inflict 1BP of damage. This should probably fall to one of the heroes at the front line, the tanks: Barbarian, Berserker, Dwarf or Knight. The Knight is relegated to the front, having 6 defense dice once maxed out, do he's most likely to hold position. The Barbarian, Dwarf and Berserker is are most likely to hold a Battle Axe and their defense won't hold as well as the Knight's. One other hero that could potentially take this ability is the Elf, upon acquiring Elven Chainmail & Elven Bracers, but being a spell caster gives him other things to do. So putting this on the Knight is a good boost for him.
Hold the Line goes to the Knight

The Peacekeeper's Tower rewards a hero with extra gold for every monster he kills. This, in essence, could be better than the Mercenary's guild and Witch's Hut as you don't necessarily need to buy mercenaries or healing potions. Lots of other potions can be bought. I recall a play group where the Dwarf bought Plate Mail and tried to retain it with Potions of Speed & Dexterity or even Celerity. So a strong fighter up front could use this to kill more monsters and buy more potions. However only 2 heroes come to mind that are versatile enough to handle Plate Mail & Magic: the Bard & Elf. But the Elf is a stronger warrior than the Bard.
The Peacekeeper skill goes to the Elf.

Witch's Hut will give any hero a free Potion of Healing. This seems to be the most vanilla of the boons, but always useful. All would benefit from healing potions but the Tanks are probably the guys that will end up using it. But there are 2 heroes that would get the most use out of it: the Berserker to make up for his Enrage skill and the Druid for her Shapeshift spell.
Healing Potion goes to the Berserker.

The Arcane Library is place for studying and learning additional spells. So right off the top the Barbarian, Berserker, Dwarf, Explorer, Knight, Monk & Rogue are all out. If the Bard could be likened to Udren (from Spirit Queen's Torment), who became Silvana's apprentice, I wouldn't mind allowing him to cast Detection Spells as Silvana was a Diviner. If the Druid COULD cast an additional spell I'd let her pick an elemental spells, perhaps a feminine element like Water or Air. The Elf has access to all spells, but the Elf spells are preferred for the Elf. They're rather powerful and 6 Elf Spells in the Elf's hand makes her overpowering. I would allow the Warlock to take Darkness Spells, maybe even Protection spells as her Ward could win over Arrows of the Night. But I think we all know that this boon is best on the Wizard. The Wizard's roll was always meant as a spell caster and not a fighter, but 4 sets of spells gives him a lot of versitility and options.
Extra Set of Spells goes to the Wizard.

Feel free to disagree or give your opinions on what you think.

[The Admiral]

Thanks for that. I don't get my copy until next week. It is really odd because only about a week ago I Created a Hunter Hero for the Waaagh! quest pack I was playing and I gave him three skills. One I called 'Accuracy' which works in exactly the same way as Dead Eye.

It's a nice idea. With the new heroes getting skills, such as the Explorer and Berzerker, it gives the original ones a chance to use some now.