The Worst for Threat Value - Bilbo

The shame! The disappointment! As we come to the end of this list, it turns out that the first expansion ever released for LOTR LCG was the worst Hero for Threat Value. The offender in question is the original Hobbit himself, Bilbo Baggins. He is a Lore Hero found in the Hunt for Gollum adventure pack in the Mirkwood cycle of expansions. His Threat Value is 67%.

If Bilbo is on your team, you are unlikely to send him questing. You are also unlikely to use him for attacking. Both of these stats have a value of one that can quickly be passed by. The only job he might be good for is that of a defender since is Defence value is two. But even this is a poor offering, as a better Lore defender is already included in the Core Set (Denethor has a Defence of three) and Bilbo only has two Health. Many reasonably average enemies would kill him without breaking a sweat. Yes, you can always boost his defence with various player cards, but we can't count on that, can we? So the only thing left to consider is his power.

Bilbo allows the first player to draw an extra card every turn. Card drawing effects are extremely helpful in this game, it must be said. But Bilbo's power only applies to the first player, so his power benefits from having less players in a game, which usually makes a quest harder, especially in the earlier cycles. In a solo game it means you will draw two cards every turn. That's good, but is it good enough? I'm afraid I don't think it is.

Our formula calculates that Bilbo should have a Threat Cost of six. But the designers of the game have here made their biggest ever manual increase of a Heroes Threat Cost, and increased this by three to be a total of nine! Nine? If Bilbo cost six he would be a likely Hero for Lore teams, or at a cost of seven he would still be looking good in a Hobbit team. But nine? It seems overpriced. In fact I would go so far as to say that in Bilbo, the designers have made their biggest mistake in overpricing a Hero. It's not as if the Lore sphere doesn't have other card drawing effects. I think that this Hobbit will unfortunately remain in a restful state for much of his life, writing about the quests that he hears other Heroes bring back tales of.