Remember Feats and Battlefield Conditions? I do.

Remember what a colossal pain they were to deal with? I do.

Do you miss having to deal with them in nearly every tournament? I don’t.

That’s why I was glad for the current Modern and Golden Age formats for HeroClix — the first, for the shiniest and newest elements of the game, uncluttered with destabilizing cardboard elements, and the other for when anything goes.

But in the years since the new formats, WizKids has introduced sets that, despite being the shiny-and-new, are not allowed in the Modern Age game (namely, the HALO and LORD OF THE RINGS sets). This is highly frustrating to those of us who want to play all our clix but don’t particularly care for the destabilizing cardboard elements that can clutter up Golden Age play — or who play in environments that lean more heavily on the Modern Age format.

Simply put, there needs to be an official middle ground between the two extremes for the heroic aspects of gameplay. (I stress “heroic” because a line’s still got to drawn somewhere. The starships of the Star Trek Tactics game don’t really belong. I really wish the designers had done a bit more to distinguish it from the normal HC lines). The number two most needed change to HeroClix is: “SILVER AGE: In this format, all HeroClix figures in Golden Age and Modern Age are legal for play. Feats and Battlefield Conditions are not legal for play. “

Outwit is one of the most expensive powers in the game, and with good reason: it alone has the ability to render useless the powers and/or abilities an opposing figure is paying good points for.

Not only that, but it can do so from the relative safety of 10 squares away, requiring only a clear line of fire. Thus, while the Outwitter is well away from the action, he or his pals can pile on the rendered-defenseless target.

That’s the problem with Outwit for a lot of players. Sometimes, for just a few points to use Outwit and little else, said Outwitter can essentially make multiple clicks of a single damage reducer, which a more powerful opponent needs to stay alive, utterly useless. Coupled with the action disadvantage the heavy hitters already have to overcome, this weakness to Outwit is somewhat unbalancing.

What, then, to do with Outwit? Some suggest restricting it to a shorter range. But I have sore memories of un-Stealthed Outwitters being easy kills even at the 10 range zone. And do we really want to make the best Outwitters — the Batman family and other sneaky types (The Question) — even better by encouraging them to Outwit you AND then shoot you, too? (Not that they can’t do it already, but this rule change would make it more commonplace.)

Others want Outwit not to affect higher-point characters, or to force a power action to do so. There, though, we run the risk of making the already-most-expensive-power-in-the-game Outwit a severely overcosted power on those cheaper pieces, who have paid the cost of the power so that their whole team need not be utterly helpless against high damage reduction. Anyone who’s faced an Invulnerable opponent with a team of only 2-damage fighters knows how much it stinks to depend on critical hits while praying to avoid the just-as-likely critical miss.

Here’s the solution: shorten Outwit’s duration somewhat. We’ve all seen this scenario play out:

PLAYER A: “Batman Outwits Hulk’s Invulnerability and shoots for 3.”
PLAYER B: “Hulk takes 3; he’s down to Toughness.”
PLAYER A: “Question Outwits his Toughness and takes a shot…HIT!”
PLAYER B: “Hulk took 2 and is back Invulnerable again.”
PLAYER A: “OK, since Invulnerability is still countered, Johnny Quick will Perplex his own damage to 3 and push to Hypersonic Hulk.”
PLAYER B: “#%@#%@!!!! I just took 8 straight clicks of damage from these peons!”

The enduring Outwit is the problem here, to me. Thus, the #3 most needed change to HeroClix ought to be this rewrite to Outwit:

“OUTWIT: Give this character a free action to counter a power or a combat ability possessed by a single target opposing character until the beginning of your next turn. Any game effects with a duration specified by the countered power or combat ability are removed. A character using this power must be within 10 squares and line of fire to the target. If a target character is damaged or healed, the effect of Outwit on that character ends immediately.“

This change reins in Outwit in a manner more fitting to the source material. Perhaps Daredevil found a way to pierce The Thing’s rocky hide for one attack, but the pain of the hit makes Mr. Grimm tighten up his defenses and not get hit in that way again. It also keeps, say, old-school Black Panther’s 20-points’ worth click of Outwit from negating Superman’s 50-plus run of Impervious, giving Big Blue a chance against a swarm that gets around 6 attacks to his one.

And lest some think this weakens Outwit beyond usefulness for its cost, consider the scenario a few paragraphs above. With this small change, Hulk is STILL taking six clicks of damage that turn. But on a 10-11-click dial, that’s a significant improvement of his odds of survival.

A few revisions of the rules ago, Super Strength got a nice little upgrade for those occasional characters with the power who couldn’t smash through walls or destroy objects without help due to only having 1 or 2 damage value. And for a while, that was all the tweaking Super Strength needed.

But other rules have changed as well, leaving Super Strength somewhat in the dust.

See, back in the old days, Super Strength was guaranteed to have potentially six objects on the board, three of which you could pretty much rely on getting your Super Strong mitts on. But then came Special Objects, with several deleterious effects on the green Attack power:

• early Special Objects frequently provided powerful 0-cost effects that using the object in an attack would deprive you of, discouraging said use;
• there were also immobile blue-ringed objects that could never be used with Super Strength;
• later, Special Objects would usually come with a point cost, further discouraging their use;
• with the phasing out of feats and bystanders, these new Objects have become increasingly important point fillers, making them more ubiquitous;
• and all Special Objects must be set up at least 5 squares from all starting areas, rendering them extra vulnerable to destruction by a long-ranged opponent;
• worst of all, with objects becoming part of the force, players have the choice of fielding fewer or none at all, potentially halving the number of weapons available for Super Strength.

Simply put, all this has served to leave Super Strength rather literally empty-handed in Modern Age games where the perpetually usable Generator/Dumpster 3D object or the Rip It Up feat are unavailable.

Therefore, short of a Modern Age version of the Generator, the #4 most needed change to HeroClix is this revised line to Super Strength: “When this character makes a close combat attack targeting blocking terrain, a wall, or an object, modify its damage value by +2 for the attack and give it a light object from outside the game.”

It’s not a free action, being tied to an attack on terrain, and the object is immediately held, so this new ability to keep objects in the game shouldn’t break things too terribly. (Though Cyborg Superman gives me pause.) It also gives a little more reason to use that smashing 2nd ability of the power, even when already holding an object (not that you’d likely want to try with a heavy object).

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Regeneration is a double-edged power. On the one hand, it’s a chance to do something few effects allow in HeroClix: healing. On the other hand, it’s a defense power that doesn’t help you one bit on defense and even has a solid chance of utter failure.

The problem is that, in the game, it’s a power action that eats up an opportunity to try running, or fighting, or anything else. In the comics, the power is almost always akin to Wolverine’s healing factor — healing that’s accelerated and automatic.

Regen isn’t costed to be that foolproof and guaranteed. (The Automatic Regeneration feat shows that.) But Regen isn’t quite right as it is, either. Namely, one should never —EVER! — have to risk pushing oneself to KO by choosing to use Regeneration.

Therefore, the #5 most needed change to HeroClix is this additional line to the power’s existing rules:

“This power does not cause pushing damage.”

Regeneration is a dicey enough power as it is. Negative clicks of healing shouldn’t be a possibility.

Some time ago, I did a Top Ten on Barrier, writing something about how it’s one of those sleeper powers that can totally steal the show when built right.

But Barrier has one big, stupid problem: It can only be used on clear terrain.

"So I can use my powers to make shields of ice, but can't turn the water around me INTO ice? LAME."

Barrier should be air-tight; the appearance of unoccupied hindering terrain or water terrain or special terrain shouldn’t preclude the placement of the Barrier token.

Therefore, the #7 most needed change to HeroClix is the change of this line to Barrier from this:

“place up to four blocking terrain markers in adjacent squares of clear terrain that are all within this character’s range (minimum range 1)”

to this:

“place up to four blocking terrain markers in adjacent squares of unoccupied non-blocking terrain that are all within this character’s range (minimum range 1)”

The only wrinkle is how would it interact with objects in squares. I’d rule they can coexist, but there might be a ruling I’m overlooking.