ShadowMaster26 wrote:
The fist doesn't even have to kill to make an impact, it just has to knock a bunch of guys down. The main CC weakness of Dwarves is no spears. If you can knock a spear/pikewall down, then you can absolutely slaughter them in melee with Khazad and Iron Guard. The no throwing axe isn't to much of a price to pay anyway, it's worth 5 points, and you get a auto-Sorcerous Blast (Gandalf the Grey needs a 5+!) if you win the fight. Plus you have an extra wound and with D8, that is worth a lot. It would help a bit if you dropped the wounds to 2 and brought the fate to 2.
After crunching the numbers yesterday I've decided that I'm WAY better off just going with Durin's Axe. Here are the results for a strength 4 dwarf fighting against a goblin with shield (defense 5). 1 on 1 being obvious, 1 on 2 is the standard fighting goblins, when 1 dwarf faces a goblin with spear support. 2 on 2 with both is Balin with Durin's Axe. 1 on 2 plain would be Etako on current rules.
1 on 1 to win to kill to double kill
plain 58% 19% 0%
with reroll 75% 25% 0%
with bonus to wound 58% 29% 0%
with both 75% 38% 0%
1 on 2
plain 42% 14% 0%
with reroll 61% 20% 0%
with bonus to wound 42% 21% 0%
with both 61% 31% 0%
2 on 2
plain 61% 34% 7%
with reroll 72% 40% 8%
with bonus to wound 61% 46% 15%
with both 72% 54% 18%
So Etako using the fist special rule would be usually having a 42% chance to hit, with a 14% chance to end up killing a goblin with shield. Balin with Durin's axe would be having a 72% chance to hit with a 54% chance of killing! Way better odds, particularly when you factor in, say, ten rounds of combat. You've got Balin slaying far more gobbos. And that's before you put in the odd throwing axe kill as well.
Even for fun and flavour I can't see myself dropping his combat abilities that much just to whack some guys into the air.
As for the wounds, I hadn't played with forces other than goblins before and thought it odd to give him the same number of wounds as a goblin, but having read through the book it really does seem that the three wound guys are really signature characters, so I think I'll leave him with Balin's stats, but, as you suggest, swap the throwing axes for a point of fate.
Disappointing though, I'd love to have some special rule for him, but I'm not going to gimp him through the floor for it! Perhaps something along the lines of just knocking guys down rather than back, except that it's kinda useless against one wound guys anyhow. Hmm. Back to the drawing board I think.