Toughness would be great on another race, but wouldn't really be logical (if you can bring logic to RPG's). The racial skills available mean that elves dodge, humans block and dwarves just tough it out - seems to be more or less what you would expect from each race.
I just want to say this is a good observation, and one of those things where making a card objectively stronger (sort of, since it works more) could actually make it easier to play around.
All I know is, when i started playing this game I spent 2500g for a skill with 2 Duck's on it. Turns out I was the duck...
I don't think penetrating should go through toughness, simply from a consistency point of view. ie. "penetrating" says that it ignores armour unless the armour prevents all damage (such as Only Bones or Resistant Hide). I just don't want it to be "ignore armour, unless the armour prevents all damage and doesn't say otherwise" - it just starts to get too messy. Also, sometimes it's helpful to use a penetrating attack to draw out toughness... so it wouldn't much of a nerf anyway. [edit] At the risk of breaking the thread rules, I just want to throw an unrelated idea to you before I forget it: Pulverizing Hack, or some other (new) card could be given "If this card is blocked, the target is stunned for 1 round." I like the idea of attacks that are so heavy handed that even blocking them staggers the enemy - but in my mind that would look like someone getting knocked to the ground and then scrambling to pick up their weapon and run away. Also, I just think stun if blocked would be an interesting effect to play with; but only on rare cards, because stun is one of those effects that's unfun when on the receiving end. (I don't think the idea is strong enough to deserve a new thread, but I do think it's worth mentioning. So here it is.)
Not a bad idea for a future card. We considered that for the (previously Obliterating) Bludgeon when we wanted to change it, but ultimately decided against introducing more stun at that particular moment. But yeah, in the future all bets are off.
Something like a Stunning Blast or something would be nice for wizards. Like a Flash of Agony, but with 0 (or 1) damage and it stuns everyone in LoS for one turn. The wizard might have fun that round, but you are also allowing someone to cultivate their hand for the next round, so that wizard should be expecting a lot of strong counterattack the next round. It might also give wizards a fighting chance against step warriors other than an insanely good first draw.
I mean we get complaints about a lot of things that are fine (like Toughness and Resistant Hide). I just think it'd generate more grief among MP players than value. :\
Sure, no worries. I guess I'm just being selfish and trying to think of things that would make the game more enjoyable for me, and perhaps break up the monotony of the teams I face all day. However, I am just one player, and my opinions should only be valued as much as any other that plays this game. I understand and respect that as well. It is obvious from my suggestions in this thread that I would do a horrible job creating cards and balance in a game like this , so I find it helpful when people tell me how outlandish my thoughts are on cards. The card I described does not seem that powerful to me, but it apparently is. I'll stick to muddling about with my wizards, I 'm halfway decent at that....well, slightly less than halfway decent, haha. (I know, in this day and age, a message like this on the World Wide Webs comes across as sarcastic and spiteful. However, I am speaking honestly and plainly. I actually find it sad that I need to explain my sincere feelings with a disclaimer, but that is the world we live in. C'est la vie.)
I think it's more annoying as an idea than powerful. Though having a free then would be pretty powerful. It would be a card that you would have to build specifically around or against. Also, it effectively makes one player unable to play the game for a turn, and that's very frustrating. To use an example from Magic, there used to be cards that destroyed land, the basic resource that you use to play cards. These decks were not always very strong, but they were usually not fun to play against. And for the people who make the game, that's bad, because if players aren't having fun, they'll stop playing. And few things are less fun than felling like you didn't get a chance to even play the game. So magic only had a very few land destruction cards now. Or there wetter times when the only decks were one prominent powerful decks, and decks designed add anti-that-deck. Which is also not great fun. Now, one solution might be done kind of single player only items or cards, but I don't think that's in the plans currently either. The AI first care if the game is frustrating, so you can beat up on it with whatever dirty trucks you want.
"Stun All Characters" would be better, and even that would probably be too much. Exploitation of symmetrical effects is what makes the control go 'round.