Many quests have townsfolk or NPCs that are treated as a "hero figure."  Others, such as in the Cardinal's Plight quest, have NPC's that are treated as a "hero."  What is the difference?

We have been playing that any hero or OL abilities that mention targeting a hero only work on figures treated as heroes, and not hero figures.  This means that all being a hero figure does is allows the heroes to move through it, and means that they can't make it the main target of their attack.

That is the same way our group has played it. They aren't really clear on the distinction between "hero figure" and "hero."

FFG is sometimes not as clear as they could be with their rules writing.  I'm pretty sure a "treated as a hero" and "treated as a hero figure" are meant to be the same thing.  For starters, all actual heroes are also figures, so I'm not even sure how the rules would work for a "hero" who isn't a "figure."

If you really want an official answer, you can always ask FFG via the Rules Questions link down at the bottom of the page.

 All heroes are hero figures, the question is whether all hero figures are also heroes.  I've emailed FF the rules question, and will post here if I get an answer.

Badend said:

I think you got that mixed up a bit, but we both know what you meant.  I did understand your point the first time around.

 Just got a response for this from Adam Sadler:

There is no difference between the term "hero" and "hero figure" in the quest rules.