A little solitaire adventure dice game

Here is the "beta" version of a solitaire, dice-based adventure game in the vein of Dice of the Living Dead and other solitaire, dice matching games.

Dice Adventures

1) Setup
Pick three different heroes among the following list. You can name them if you like, although they may not survive long. Each class has a different power, which will make sense in a moment.

Bard = may re-roll someone else's die.
Cleric = may change someone else's roll by 1.
Ranger = roll 2 dice, keep lowest.
Thief = gain 1 extra gold if the adventure result is 1-3.
Warrior = may change his die roll by 1.
Wizard = may re-roll his die.

Grab a piece of paper, pen and four dice.

2) Adventuring
Each game consists in one or more adventures (see game modes below.) For each adventure, you perform the following steps:

a) Roll one six-sided die per hero (or two, in case of the ranger.) It is useful to have dice of different colors to identify each character.
b) Roll one six-sided die for the henchman, if available.
c) Use items and hero powers, in any order you wish, as available, to modify dice rolls. Note: when re-rolling due to abilities or items, you must accept the new result.
d) Establish the adventuring result. If all values are different, pick the highest value. If two or three values match, that is the result.

Check the adventure result in the following table:

1 = Major success! One character levels up. Gain 3 gold.
2 = Minor success. Gain 2 gold.
3 = Everyone got out alive. No rewards.
4 = One random hero loses one level. Ignore if all are level 1.
5 = One random hero dies.
6 = Two random heroes die.

3) After each adventure
After each adventure, depending on results, you may level up characters, spend gold and hire new heroes.

Leveling up: heroes start at level 1 and their maximum level is 3. Heroes may use their abilities a number of times equal to their level, on each adventure. For instance, a level 2 Wizard can re-roll his die twice.

Spending gold: you can use gold to purchase items and services. Items are spent on use. You can keep spare gold to spend it later.

Treasure - worth 1 victory point each: 1 gold.
Provisions - modify one die roll by 1: 1 gold.
Magic weapons - re-roll one hero die: 2 gold.
Hireling - roll an additional die, that you can use in place of the result of any one hero. Hireling leaves after the dungeon is finished. You may have at most one hireling at any time: 3 gold.

Hire a new hero: If a hero is killed, you may be able to hire a new one, but check the game modes for details.

4) Game modes
There are three game modes for dice adventures. I would suggest the basic game but the others are available if it seems too easy.

The basic game: In this mode you must face five adventures in a row. When a hero dies, you can simply pick a new one (as long as you keep three different heroes in the party), which starts at level 1. At the end of the game, your score is equal to the sum of levels for all current characters, plus 1 point per treasure, minus 1 point per dead character during the game. Note: the game ends after you level up and spend gold for the 5th adventure, if applicable (but you cannot hire new heroes.)

Hardcore game: In this mode you must also face five adventures in a row. When a hero dies you can hire a new one of a class that you have not used yet, so it is possible that all your heroes die before reaching the end of the game (and in that case you do not score any points.) When calculating score, add 5 points due to playing in hardcore mode.

Hardcore+: same as hardcore, but you must also apply the following modifiers for each adventure. When calculating score, add 6 points due to playing in hardcore+ mode.

1st adventure: no modifier.
2nd adventure: +1 to one die of your choice.
3rd adventure: +1 to one die of your choice.
4th adventure: +1 to two dice of your choice.
5th adventure: +1 to two dice of your choice.

5) Adventuring example

A party with a Warrior, Cleric and Wizard (all of them at level 1) go on an adventure. The Warrior rolls a 3, the Cleric rolls a 5 and the Wizard rolls a 1. Without modifications, this would cause one random hero to die. However, the Warrior uses his ability to change his roll to a 2, and the Cleric uses her ability to change the Wizard's roll to a 2. The final rolls are 2, 5, 2, for an adventuring result of 2. A minor success, and the party gains 2 gold.

The party spends the gold on magic weapons and go on another adventure. This time, the Warrior rolls a 6, the Cleric rolls a 1 and the Wizard rolls a 6. The Warrior spends the magic weapon to re-roll, getting a 4, and the Wizard uses his power to re-roll, getting a 5 (too bad!) Finally, the Cleric uses her power to modify the Wizard's roll to a 4. The final rolls are 4, 1, 4. Nothing gained but, since the heroes are level 1, nothing is lost, either.

Final thoughts

This is something I sketched during the weekend, it has not seen heavy playtesting (but I did play it a few times to try hero combinations and test if it was too easy.) If I were to expand this, I would probably make a small deck of adventures, so that each adventure card had a different adventure result table and possibly some modifiers.