Bilbo is, without a doubt, a terrible hero.

I know, I know, build him up with half a dozen attachments and he's good- but any hero is good if you do that. He literally has no good stats, which means all of his usefulness comes from the attachments. That means if you attached those cards to a hero that is already good at that thing, they're going to be better than Bilbo every time.

The usual advice is to build him up as a defender with cards like Protector of Lórien and A Burning Brand - but in the same sphere and for less threat (yep, actually less threat) I could have Denethor as a defender, who has +1 and . Bilbo will have to ditch a card to Protector every turn just to have the same defence as Denethor starts with, and he's more likely to die if you mess up. Suddenly the extra draw for Bilbo doesn't look so great.

If you want card draw and a hobbit, the obvious choice is Pippin at just 2/3 the threat cost. He'll most likely draw you more cards over the game anyway and you don't need to build him up so much, as the obvious place for him is questing.

The big issue with Bilbo though is opportunity cost. The time you really need your heroes to step up is early, before your board state is very advanced. Bilbo is hopeless then; he's not built up yet (it will probably take several turns to get him to "ok") so you are basically down one hero. He works against the hobbit theme of low-threat turtling to get set up, because his threat is so high. The passive +1 card is a trap - he'll use early card draw and resources just to get him to the level of other starting heroes, meaning that he is a net negative in both cards and resources.

I think Bilbo suffered from coming out so early in the game's development, and was just a complete miscalculation by the game's designers. If he came out now, I think he'd be only 6 threat at most (I personally think he should be 5). That may seem extreme, but his one stat higher than 1 is , and that is the one stat where it isn't very helpful to have a value of 2- the mechanics of defence basically mean that <3 often might as well be 0. His passive draw is not helpful when you need several cards to get to "break even" point, and you don't even get the draw yourself every turn.

Really, the only reason to use Bilbo is if you want to handicap yourself. I rate him as the worst hero in the game, and by some margin. The only question to me is, are you better off having only two heroes rather than taking Bilbo? And that is a pretty sad indictment.

A really bad Hero, unless you desperately need (more) card draw (and highly questionable even then)

Not gonna lie, Bilbo Baggins is imo a strong contender for the title "worst hero in the game". Insanely overpriced at 9 for his absolutely horrible stats.

How bad he is is actually somewhat showcased by Beravor, a card that comes in the core set, that is, for all (relevant) intents and purposes a better hero.

For just 1 more Beravor can both draw your table 2 cards per turn and choose the drawing player.

Plus her 2 2 2 4 make her a better emergency... well everything than Bilbo Baggins.

The only edge Bilbo has over Beravor, is that he doesn't need to exhaust to draw cards so he is free to...?

To do what exactly is my question? Quest for 1 paltry ? Attack for equally paltry 1 ? Defend with his 2 and 2 ?

Just questing puts poor little Bilbo Baggins in very serious danger of dying due to damage from treacheries from the encounter deck (and the cycle Bilbo Baggins appears in already contains such "fine" Treacheries like Necromancer's Reach, Evil Storm and Rockslide). I don't think i really need to elaborate, why defending seems a surefire way for Desaster... Attacking is mostly fine but do you really need exactly 1 more ?

If you need card draw (and you decided you do, why else include Bilbo Baggins?) Is this 1 (or if quest permits it 1 ) worth drawing 1 less card and not even being able to choose who it goes to?

And sure you can try to compensate for Bilbos extremely lacklustre stats with attachments... But to what end? Why not play the same attachments on an already good hero to make that same already good hero even better?

In short, don't play Bilbo Baggins unless you desperately need card draw and you (or someone else at the table) already plays Beravor (and even then strongly consider if the 1 extra card per round is really worth basically getting an almost useless hero).

I think Bilbo can be one of the most powerful Hobbit heroes, if you use him correctly.

People can't stand Bilbo because of his 9 threat cost and terrible stats, and that is very understandable, but if you have him in a one-player Hobbit deck he can be very useful. Hobbits rely on their deck, and drawing 2 cards a round can, in some cases, be crucial. Plus, 9 threat won't be a problem if your other heroes have a total of 12-15, and his 2 defense is only beaten by Tom Cotton, which is really good for those weak Hobbits. There is a ton of cards you can give him, personally I would give him Hobbit Cloak, A Burning Brand, Protector of Lórien, and...

Thorongil. This is an epic card to put on Bilbo if you are using him in a normal deck and want questing power. He can easily quest 3-5, and deal damage to enemies as well.

There are instances where you can use him in a normal deck.

Say you are playing with Aragorn, Éowyn and Bilbo. That's a total threat of 30, which isn't bad at all, and to start you quest with Éowyn and Aragorn, readying Aragorn after he quests. Soon, though, you have Éowyn defending with Golden Shield, and Bilbo questing with boosters and Thorongil. Plus, it shouldn't take too long to get those attachments because of Bilbo's effect.

Overall, I would give Bilbo a 6/10 score, mostly due to his effinciency in Hobbit decks. He is definetly not one of the worst heroes in the game, far from it, way better than Pippin, Bombur or Dori (Sadly).

I think an errata with "Setup: reduce your threat by 1 for each other player in the game" (that would make him a 6-cost heros in a 4-player fellowship) could make him shine more, and open more Secrecy builds.

Bilbo maybe won't be appreciated in multiplayer games, however in solo game, he is really worth to be played. His threat is maybe high, but still worth for two cards per round without any exhaust. His stats ain't good enough for you? No problem. Give him Protector of Lórien for start and Fast Hitch and A Burning Brand. Now he become quite versatile quester/defender and with the amount of incoming cards, no problem with discard. Or you can use Hobbit Cloak. Not enough hit points? Well, these Boots from Erebor were made like for him. And if you'll feed him with Good Meal he will give you nice discount for several event cards like Beorn's Hospitality, Lórien's Wealth, Out of the Wild, Risk Some Light and so on. I think he even shines between his other versions, where saga Bilbos look more epic, but are not playable outside saga content, and ally Bilbo Baggins is simply not so versatile as his old hero version. I also like the fairy-tale artwork reminding me the old Hobbit book, where all this stories started. Verdict: 4/5.

Bilbo Baggins is rejected mostly due to his insanely high threat cost. But an extra card per round is inarguably powerful and he can still take an action (though granted, that won't be much). He has good synergy with Protector of Lorien for hand pruning. He has very good potential as a Voltron deck target due to in-sphere access to a Burning Brand and Fast Hitch. With Steward, Blood, and Fire,and Lay, you'll want the songs to play them; which warrants Fireside Song. He's got a good deal more to offer than any of you know, including himself.

I recently patched together a homebrew Aragorn-voltron deck with leadership Aragorn, Arwen Undómiel, and Bilbo Baggins. I didn't really use Bilbo for his stats but for the card draw. Two cards per turn plus Arwen + Elven-light meant I had a fist full of powerful cards to play on Aragon in only a few turns. Between the 1 cost readying effect on Aragorn, and all of the nice readying attachments I placed on him I didn't need to worry about Bilbo's weak stats Aragorn did everything, but it was Bilbo who got Aragorn the tools needed. The thing that sets Bilbo apart from Beravor is that when you use Beravor instead of Bilbo for her stats.... well you can't use her ability unless you draw Unexpected Courage on turn one. So even though she has better stats if you use her card draw right away she has even more threat cost than Bilbo and she effectively has 0 for her stats because you used her ability and now she's exhausted. Sticking with the context of the Aragorn deck I'm using Bilbo for there is Sword that was Broken which now makes his willpower the same as Beravor. and because your drawign double the cards per turns, Throw in Master of the Forge and Galadriel you're sure to get the right cards ASAP. 3 copies of Elven-light Galadriel and Master of the Forge that's nearly a fifth of your deck in scrying to compliment Bilbo's innate card draw. Heck, throw in Imladris Stargazer and you've just got bonkers amount of deck scrying and card draw.