Fellowship Phase Undertaking: Name an heir

[Borri]

The point of hope a hero gains by naming an heir, does this raise the hero's maximum hope score by one or is it a recovery of spent hope?
(See page 138 from Adventurer's Companion)

[Stormcrow]

Since it doesn't say anything about raising the hero's maximum Hope score, it means just regaining a point of Hope. If you're already at maximum, you don't get the point.

[Rich H]

Since it doesn't say anything about raising the hero's maximum Hope score, it means just regaining a point of Hope. If you're already at maximum, you don't get the point.

And I feel it's likely that your character would name an heir at some point after the campaign had started so likely has used Hope by then too. Yes, feels right that it doesn't raise a character's maximum value.

[Falenthal]

What I feel wary about in this rules is that an item (even a Famous Weapon or Armour) can be handed down to the heir. I see it perfectly natural regarding the narrative sense of it, but I fear the mechanical consequences. We know that Rewards and the Treasure Index are all done with the culture and the character in mind. Specially Rewards try to compensate the flaws of a Culture (shields for cultures with low Wits, for example).

Because the Heir can hail from any culture, we can find ourselves with a 7 Wits elf inheriting an ultradefensive shield from a Barding, for example. Usually I don't think there will be any trouble, but the LM should be aware of possible game breaking combinations.