HeroQuest: Boss Cards

One of the coolest things about HeroQuest is the occasional appearance of “boss” monsters. That is, monsters with unique names who serve a story purpose and have unique powers.

These monsters never had their own cards, just a “stat block” in their related quest. In almost all cases, there was no physical description, just maybe their race (“orc”) or a basic descriptor (“shamen”) and their stats and powers to base what they might otherwise be like on.

Thus, as a player of the original HQ release in the 80’s, for decades I could only imagine what these unique foes and NPCs might look like. The re-release did nothing to help with this, either. Except when the official app was launched for mobile devices, it included what was the most exciting element for me: artwork depicting key scenes/moments of each quest… including encountering many of these “boss” monsters and ally NPCs. At last, we had *official* representation of what these characters looked like!

I immediately extracted this art and used it to make “boss cards” for these unique foes. Sure, they are “one off” encounters (hence why they never received official cards, most likely) but the chance to show off the official art to those who don’t have access to the app and to gather these stats in an easy-to-reference format was too good to pass up.

I went through all the official quests (core set, all published expansion packs, online free quests, etc.) but please let me know if I have missed anyone. I will do this for Against the Ogre Horde (and any other future expansion packs, including Crypt of Perpetual Torment if it ever gets a retail release) once I have them and the app is updated, and also plan to do this for the “semi-official” quests that were published for the original release of HQ via White Dwarf and Marvel… though those will obviously use custom art since no official artwork will exist.

That said, I now present to you… at long last with official visual appearances… the unique “named” monsters – the “bosses” – of HeroQuest!

Boss Monster Cards

Note: the icons on each card shows the “type” of monster they are (orc, goblin, etc.). In most cases, this also indicates which official HQ figure to use to represent them… unless you have found a better unofficial proxy miniature! And no, Hasbro… I’m not using a freaking Gargoyle to represent Kavra. WTF?

Also note that the Sinestra icon on her card is of unknown origin; it is NOT an official one (she has no icon in the retail quest book of MOTM). It was clearly made by a fan and I found it online and modified it to match the others (the original was purple). I have been unable to find out the creator’s identity and would love to credit them if I could, so if you made it and are reading this – or know who did make it – please let me know so I can credit you appropriately for this awesome icon.

“Miniboss” Monster Cards

Monster Abilities

ETHEREAL
Ethereal monsters may move through heroes, walls, and other solid objects, but they must always end their movement on an unoccupied space and may not move into undiscovered areas. When rolling Attack dice against an ethereal target, a hero must roll a black shield instead of a skull to hit that target, unless they are using a spell or artifact to attack. Ethereal monsters are unaffected by all traps, including Caltrops (from Rise of the Dread Moon) placed by heroes.

IMMORTAL
Immortal monsters can only be harmed by The Spirit Blade, or similar weapons or spells that are expressly described as having the same magical power to destroy the spirit/soul of the target.

SPELLPROOF
Spellproof monsters are immune to all spells, except for Fire spells that cause damage (Ball of Flame and Fire of Wrath, for example). They can also be harmed by Magic Throwing Daggers. These vulnerabilities apply even if they are otherwise immune to physical attacks (e.g. if they are also Immortal).

UNDEAD
Undead monsters should be treated like skeletons, zombies and mummies when it comes to spells and Artifacts that specifically mention those monsters (for example, the Sleep spell won’t work on Ghosts, but the Spirit Blade rolls 1 extra Attack die against them and Holy Water can destroy them instantly.

Boss Card Back

I offer two choices here: one with text (like most card backs), and one with no text (like the official Monsters card back).

Directory of Bosses

The following is a list of where each “boss” can be found. I have deliberately left out exact quest numbers/names to avoid spoiling anyone yet to play those.

Core Set: Verag, Ulag, Grak, Wardoz, Balur, Fellmarg, Witch Lord I, Witch Lord II.
Kellar’s Keep: Ograk, Borokk, Gragor, Grin’s Guardian, Stone Warriors, Shapechanger.
Return of the Witch Lord: Kessandria, Witch Lord III, Bellthor, Spirit Riders, Skulmar, Death Mist, Doomguard.
Spirit Queen’s Torment: Spirit Queen, Kavra.
Prophecy of Telor: Fellmarak I, Fellmarak II, Gor Lethim-Kar.
Mage of the Mirror: Sinestra, Tormuk, High Alchemist.
Rise of the Dread Moon: Sir Ragnar, Magrain.
The Frozen Horror: Vilor, Krag, The Frozen Horror, Kelvinos.
Online Quests: Jraksfot Rimesbreath, Xor-Xel, Zoryana, Thing Below.

I have left out anyone named who does not have official art (notably: Gulthor the Dread Warrior in the core set, who has identical stats to a normal Dread Warrior anyway, and the two unnamed Dread Sorcerers in PoT).

Dread Spell Cards

These new Dread Spells are those referenced on the Boss Cards above, that I have created as “spells” to better replace the innate abilities some of these bosses previously possessed (for example, Borokk’s Mind Point damage ability), thus also allowing them to be used in other ways in your own homebrew quests.

These spells all appeared in a previous post but are repeated here for easy reference.

Unofficial Custom Variant Cards

The cards below are slight variations on the official stats above, tweaked by me in small ways to “make more sense”.

In the case of Wardoz, Kelvinos and Fellmarg the only change is a descriptor after their names to indicate that these are not the “real” (i.e. living) version of these characters, but them in undead form. This is done so that I am free to make custom “living” versions of these characters later someday.

The Spirit Rider card simply changes their Mind Point value to 0, to match other skeletons and undead. There could be argument made that they are “smarter” than the usual common undead (hence their original MP of 3) but since the official art depicts them as normal skeletons mounted on skeletal horses, I think 0 fits better (and prevents spells like Sleep being used on them) so I offer this change here.

The Shapechanger in the Kellar’s Keep expansion pack always begins as an Abomination, however I made an alternate card that starts the Shapechanger in a random form (determined by drawing a Monster card).

Magrain the Dread Wraith is not specified as “undead” in her official stats, despite being a wraith. It is up to you to decide if Dread Wraiths should be undead or not, but I made this card variant if you think – like me – that they should be.

The Witch Lord III (the version you fight in the Return of the Witch Lord expansion pack) officially has a Mind Point value of 5 while he had Mind 6 in previous encounters. While this might be due to his “death” in the core quest book and weakening on return, I felt this stat should remain consistent so I made a card with his Mind upped to 6 to match his previous appearance.

Kessandria (aka the Witch Queen) is given a Potion of Speed officially, which I never liked. Instead, I always gave her a spell with the same mechanical effect. Initially I gave her Swift Wind (formerly a hero-only spell), and made a Dread Spell card for it (see above). However, if you wish to only use official spells (albeit one from a later expansion pack than the one Kessandria appears in), I made a variant card for her that gives her Skate instead… mechanically close enough to Swift Wind that it really doesn’t matter which you use.

Sir Ragnar simply replaces his Cheat Death Dread Spell reference with ability text, if you don’t want to bother with a new spell just for him.

Finally, an alternate Noxious Breath card makes this spell a bit less overpowered, allowing heroes to defend against it, unlike in the official quest it appears in when it is designed to defeat them all. It was previously posted here.

Tokens

Tokens in the style of the official app “pawns”. For use with your favourite tabletop simulator. Doesn’t include ones that already exist in the app (to be “extracted”), like Sir Ragnar, Grin’s Guardian, Sinestra, Magrain, etc.

Note: Two versions of the Spirit Rider token are included, a regular “single space figure” token for use with a normal miniature such as a Skeleton, and a “double space figure” token for use with custom proxy figures such as a skeleton on horseback.

Addendum (20/03/24)

I fixed an error in the Witch Lord III and Kessandria cards; both were missing their “Spellproof” keywords, which indicate their immunity to all spells (except Fire) and weakness to Magic Throwing Daggers. Sorry to make you re-download/re-print those cards!