Please erata/make an exception for Merace the Sorceress

It is very rare/unlikely that this happen frequently but it was an issue for us last night. I was playing Merace the Sorceress and I took the Evocator skill as my starting skill giving me 3 power cards. My wife was playing Norathra the Forsaken. I chose Search the Gnarled tree has the path, which let me draw a power card giving me 4 power cards. Which means I have to discard a card down to three. Personally I think it a little unfair that I could get penalized by choosing Evocator, and then have my reward from the path I chose to take be wasted.

I think maybe there should be an exception here

I can definitely see how having to discard a card right off the bat would seem like a disadvantage or penalty.  My biggest question is, what would that errata look like.

Really, the only errata/exception that I can see here would be to allow the hero to keep the card.  Then you have to ask yourself additional questions that can affect the balance of the game.

How long does the Hero get to keep the card for?
What happens if he doesn't play any cards and then draws another card, does he have to then discard down to 3 or 4 cards?
Are there other circumstances that are similar in nature that would fit this same idea? I.E. - do the players get to keep extra cards at the start of a story card similar to fortune tokens?

Ultimately, allowing the hero to keep the additional card, gives him fairly large advantage over the dungeon lord.  Even having to discard the one card, as the rules would now require, gives you the ability to choose which 3 of the 4 cards you want to open the game with.  On top of that, it is a forseeable choice that can be made once you know that Norathra is the Dungeon Lord.  You purposefullly choose Evocator becuase you know that choosing Gnarled Tree will give you an advantage in suspending the hand limit for a least a short period of time.

Anywho, my opinion on the subject.  

Plus, that choice keeps the game in line with how it was designed.  Choices, everywehere.   It is simply the second of many in game choices you'll have to make over the course of the game that would determine the outcome of life as the heroes know it.

You are right and that is something I didn't really consider. How long is "fair" to have 4 cards?

I think the fix I would like to see when this happens on this character and others is the ability to switch skills if you want. That way if I want to stick with that skill and discard the card I can. If I want to swap skills I can.

Don't see this as a fair way to handle this - why should i be able to chnag my decision afterwards in this special case but not if i just learned a new skill and then there arises a situation where another skill would have been better? That's the risk you take when making a decision, and i think there shouldn't be any exception.

By the way, it would have been nice to note this thread as a spoiler, as i think many out there did not play with Norathra and maybe don't want to know the outcome of a certain choice.

Anytime you have more than 3 cards in the game, you have to discard, so that's just the way the cookie crumbles. You still get the aforementioned bonus of choosing between 4 cards to start which is still good. Is it less good than another Hero might have against Norathea? Somewhat, yet Merace had other balancing attributes that make it a fair fight nevertheless.