I've been wondering how people have been finding Gold Level now that the FAQ has reigned in Spiritwalker, Bear Tattoo and Telekinesis. Is it still virtually the end of the game for the Overlord or is this now playable?

I haven't had a real campaign go through the Dungeon mode of Gold level.

It definitely doesn't change the Avatar fight, which is still ridiculously easy. Of course, Telekinesis shined as a dungeon/utility/lieutenant-killing skill and while potentially abusive on the Avatar in some cases, was never necessary in any way.

I'm interested to see if the Avatar being able to place orders has an impact or not.

Let me guess: no.

The Avatar battle has one substantial flaw: the OverLord has virtually no options in it. He can do little besides moving and attacking. So.

Give him something to do while his big baddie is on the table, and we can talk about a challenge.

Y'know, I'm pretty worried about our OL battle. We've got to go up against the Sorcerer King. He's already got the thing that cancels surges and he will no doubt get the 100 extra wounds before we get there. Add onto that the mirrors we have to break and the fact that he can guard and that could take a bit. This is intensified by the fact that we are doing obsidian shackles. Now, I know it's only on a surge that he controls your hero, but if he takes over any hero by gold, I could easily see him killing 1 or 2 of the other heroes just in that turn. My understanding is that you get to take a whole turn, so..what if it's our hero with rapid fire? Given our luck thus far in the campaign, he will likely control our hero every turn. And 120 odd wounds before considering whatever conquest he takes from us in 5 levels and only after we break the mirrors or whatever is pretty daunting considering we may have a traitor in our midst. Maybe I underestimate the heroes' power at gold, but...maybe that's part of what makes it so scary. Turn that power back on your fellow heroes and your in trouble. The other option is we kill the enslaved hero...but then it's 3 on 1 and we don't get to come back to life if we die.

Thoughts? Not having seen a final battle, perhaps I'm completely foolish, but...having to run through that much life before we lose our heroes seems like a challenge at the very least.

To Feanor,

Admittedly, with the rules-as-written, the Sorcerer King is the most powerful Avatar by far and the only one that has some semblance of a chance. However, I assure you that without the Brother Against Brother business, it's still a cinch. Even with the ability to Guard, it's STILL possible to take out the Mirrors without taking any substantial damage (mainly by chain-passing the Ghost armor) - it will just take forever. Normally that would be fine, but adding Brother Against Brother puts time pressure back on the Heroes (why time pressure was removed to begin with is beyond me), since every round spent sniping is another round where a Hero risks going berzerk. As for the Sorcerer himself, his defense is indeed the best, but it just means you have to build the party properly for him - concentrate on 'fixed' damage boosters like Mighty, Blessing and Eagle Eye. Particularly, a Ranged character with Rapid Fire + Eagle Eye + Sorcerous Orb + Bracers of Accuracy will rip him to shreds (if you haven't nerfed Rapid Fire, this character by himself can inflict around ~80 net damage in the first round alone).

Brother Against Brother makes the whole thing a bit of a crapshoot. If it triggers early, the heroes could be in major trouble. If it doesn't trigger for 3 rounds, then you'll be totally fine. However, note that instead of killing the traitorous Hero (which consumes valuable attacks from the other Heroes), it would probably be more effective if you're really worried about the variance to just have that Hero spend his first turn running as far away as possible from the other Heroes. This works so long as he isn't charmed on his very first turn. If you're confidant the other 3 Heroes can win, this protects you against the worst case.

To Xandira,

Actually, the ability to place orders does make SOME difference. In particular, placing a Dodge is a strong option for certain Avatars (Dragon, Demon, to a lesser extent Sorcerer King). But it's true it's not nearly enough. I'm almost finished testing a set of changes that seem to be working out well in bringing the Avatar fight closer to what it should be, just need to run one more test to finish up.