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Some of them Are, some of them Are not. It reads on the card. There Are some hensmans that Are for example barrier.
... and it's important to check because a barrier henchman changes many things (no damage, blessing of abadar, tools...)
You'll also find this in all 3 rulebooks:
Type: Most banes are either monsters or barriers. Most villains and henchmen have the “monster” type and count as monsters; a few henchmen have the “barrier” type and count as barriers.
Chief Technical Officer
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Type: Most banes are either monsters or barriers. Most villains and henchmen have the “monster” type and count as monsters; a few henchmen have the “barrier” type and count as barriers.
Hmm. The rulebook failed to notice that we introduced villain barriers. Will update MM rulebook as follows:
Type: Most banes are either monsters or barriers. Most villains and henchmen have the “monster” type and count as monsters; a fewhenchmenhave the “barrier” type and count as barriers.
Hmm. The rulebook failed to notice that we introduced villain barriers.Now I am "excessively hyped" for MM, as my freinds would say.
I believe at least Heart of the Fane and that one administrator succubus chick from WotR are Barriers, which is probably what Vic is referring to.
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Hooray?
Good luck. D: Barriers with "Disable" as a check to defeat have been on a precipitous decline since RotR. Though, with its setting, I'm assuming that'll change in Mummy's Mask, but I'm still stung by being so excited with the influx of Disable characters that came with S&S and the Class Decks, almost to find barely any Disable barriers in sight.
...and don't even get me STARTED on Trapsmith's Gloves... :|
Locks on doors and chests tend to use the Disable check. Trap mechanisms also tend to use the Disable check. S&S is mostly an outdoor adventure and had surprisingly few actual treasure chests lying around; WotR is in a foreign demonic plane, so also had fairly few treasure chests. It also has few trap mechanism as you tend to just fight a lot.
RotR with its classic dungeon crawling mechanisms had more of those.
Barriers with "Disable" as a check to defeat have been on a precipitous decline since RotR.
I didn't even know people consider the Disable bonus for the Tools. Sure, it's nice to have, but all the way back to RotR I just equipped them for the sheer awesomeness of auto-defeating a Barrier. Who cares if the Barrier had a Disable check, as long as it's difficulty to defeat is 14 or less - I keep those Masterwork babies up into AD6 and never look back, as a great percentage of the barriers are still within range.
Sure, the recharge is the A++++++ power, I'm just saying that having 3d12+6 for a reveal stays potent all the way through the game. Merisiel can still make full use of the recharge power to get it out of her hand if it's clogging things up while being the only character who can actually use the reveal power (outside of that one time we lucked into a set of Masterwork Tools with Seelah in S&S in the scenario with all those Intelligence traps??).
All that being said, I suspect the recharge power's overwhelming versatility (point at one character who don't want that bad-ass card in their deck for almost the entire game (okay Seelah doesn't count)) is the reason it's been slowly disappearing from the game, as with Staff of Minor Healing and Holy Candle. :( RIP Masterwork Tools (may you be reborn in MM and prove me wrong!)
I suspect the recharge power's overwhelming versatility (point at one character who don't want that bad-ass card in their deck for almost the entire game (okay Seelah doesn't count)) is the reason it's been slowly disappearing from the game, as with Staff of Minor Healing and Holy Candle. :( RIP Masterwork Tools (may you be reborn in MM and prove me wrong!)
I suspect/hope that the PACG folks are just trying to diversify/spice things up, rather then having an agenda against the Tools specifically. Not so successfully, granted (no one I know has ever considered the Trapsmith Gloves even for their starter decks), and the Tools are the last card I want to see replaced, but at least in WotR it made sense (you can't Tools neither the Temptation, nor Arboreal Blight/Demon Horde). Also, you know there will be people owning all sets that would at some point complain they're paying for for the same basic cards over and over (I don't tend to mix cards between sets, so I'm not concerned, and even if I did - the last thing I would complain would be having even more Masterworks ... except maybe that the Barriers are being rendered irrelevant :) )
Sure, also that! I'm willing to believe it's more that than it is "this is too strong! ditch it!" But I feel like you could pretty easily draw a trend that, while cards overall seem to be getting more powerful, they're also far less versatile. There are much fewer "if this card is acquired, it's staying in SOMEONE'S deck until the end of the game," and among those that are, there are fewer things that work on EVERY barrier, like Masterwork Tools, or that you use immediately every time it gets in your hand, like Holy Candle or Staff of Minor Healing (or even stuff like Revelation Quill, Magic Spyglass, and so on).
But I'd accept the argument that has just as much to do with the game diversifying so quickly that you CAN'T cover all bases. RotR was such a simple game by comparison, you weren't juggling that many different kooky powers and abilities, and you're definitely not running into situations even half as complex as S&S, let alone Wrath.
So I'm not complaining, per se! But I do miss that first time I played Rise of the Runelords and every single card in Merisiel's deck had a broad, utilitarian purpose. Now, especially in Wrath, decks feel like they're filled with ultra specific battering rams--the challenges have become scarier, the tools have amplified their strength to match, but they've lost their breadth in the process. Battering Ram A breaks down Iron Door A, B deals with B, and so on... Arguably, this makes for a game with more interesting choices... but I do miss my skeleton keys.