Lucky Charm Question

Is a lucky charm only good for one battle, or do you get to use its save for the first hit in every battle? Similarly, are holy relics good for one test per battle, or only one test ever?

Per battle. They are really quite good.

Lucky charms and holy relics--once per battle.

That makes them so much better! I can't believe the rabbit's foot, assuming it works the same way. My dwarfs scoured mordheim for a master map to give me rerolls, and all along I could have bought one for 10 gold!

It does. And we've banned the rabbits foot. It's a bit to much.

We didn't ban the Rabbits Foot but we did change it to only allow a reroll during the battle and not during exploration. The theory was to encourage Wyrdstone Pendulums and other bigger/riskier options than Rabbits Foot to improve exploration rolls.

There's an editorial in Town Cryer 8 that suggests making Lucky Charms one use items, but that was never more official than a suggested house rule. The last Rules Review leaves them once-per-battle, but only on a 4+ (I think) rather than automatic. But whether you want to adopt either of those fixes/nerfings in your group is very much up to you.

I think making lucky charms work on 4+ is a good move to balance them. The rabbits feet are way too good, though. They seriously need to be rare 12 or 100 gold or both.

We never use items like the wyrdstone pendulum unless we happen to find them in a cargo crate (and usually not then either as most people don't have the rules for them). We do not ban rabbits feet, but they are left off the equipment list for most of our campaigns because we spend most of our time in Lustria or Arabia...

I'll admit that a desire to simplify the equipment list was part of the decision as well. Sometimes there is simply to much.

The first 26 games of our campaign we've only used the basic rule book plus warbands from the 2002 annual. We don't have an excess of equipment to deal with, so I'm thinking about expanding what's available.
My dwarfs' special skills give them +/- and rerolls on the exploration chart, so I've been a power house in that department. I think adding tarot and pendulums will allow folks who want to try and game the chart to get in on the fun without having "resource hunter", "wyrdstone hunter", a bunch of true maps, and entrance to the catacombs.
(I've found that the exploration chart has a powerful feed-back to it. Juicing up the +/- to dice results quickly lets you start picking powerful chart results, which can earn you entrance to the catacombs, which makes it easier to get alchemist's lab, which lets your dudes take "wyrdstone hunter" skill, which makes your chance of getting really sweet rewards go up and up and up. I've now got excellent chances of getting six of a kind if I win a game with my heroes still standing, which gives me tons of loot and makes me much more competitive.)

Although I have seen people do it, I never have any luck with skills like Wyrdstone Hunter or those maps that let you re-roll a die. Or even those pesky rabbits feet which I always have one per hero right after I get the lucky charm, if the campaign setting allows them.

I do have better luck with tarot cards or hired swords like the elf, the Kislev ranger or the tomb robber (but I never let more than 2 of them in a campaign at a time...)

We play the 2005 Rulebook (Rules Review, aka Living Rulebook) and all kinds of other stuff, but never everything all at once, even if some of my players think so...)

The +/- is huge, since it gives you 50% chance of rolling 2-5 instead of just a 17% chance. Needing 6 50% chances to come up (with a re-roll or two) starts to be feasible whereas multiple 17% chances is just too improbable.

In my group we use the Rabbit's Foot RAW and it has not led to less fun for us. It allows riskier game play early on *and* helps increase earnings which in turn leads to more cool stuff a bit earlier, which is especially nice in shorter campaigns.

We found that if we made it only useful for pre-exploration rerolls then the better (but less fun path) was to get the pendulum and tarot cards *before* the rabbit's foot.

Also, +1 to lucky charms and holy/unholy relics being once per game.

Allowing tarot cards and pendulums into your campaign will also act as a slight nerf to the Skaven because of their low leadership. You will also have to decide what interpretation to use for how holy relics interact with tarot cards. We decided that you still had to roll for tarot cards and the holy relic auto-pass only worked once you were on the battlefield.

Great insight Lord O!