Does the "4" in "Aura 4" refer to the amount of damage or the range of the ability?

Thanks, Sean

Best of my knowledge, its 4 damage in the adjacent squares not 4 range.

definitely amount of damage. Aura only affects an enemy figure that moves adjacent to the figure with aura and does damage equal to the figure's aura rating (ignoring armor). Keep in mind, though that it's for each space adjacent that it moves through...

In the case of flying or acrobat, if you pass through a figure with aura, you do not take damage in the space that it occupies...only adjacent spaces.

Any updates from FFG about the aura level in RTL? Aura 4 in gold would be a pretty big waste. If, however, is scaled with the campaign level (4 in copper, 8 in silver and 12 in gold) it wouldn't be a throw-away ability.

One of the heroes in this weekend's game was Shiver. He was basically unapproachable. He did make the mistake of ending his movement next to a kobold though.

I don't think we're gonna see an increase in that. Aura 12 would be pretty much ridiculous, and he still requires you to upgrade your humanoids or he remains immune to beastmen. Or, if you haven't upgraded beasts and he hits a bunch of them with blast/breath for 1 damage through the armor then he's immune to them now, too. I could maybe see it going up a point per campaign level, much like when upgrading demons or master hellhounds, but aura 12 would be...incredibly powerful. You'd have to upgrade beastmen to diamond for them to even be able to hit him with 4 life left...which, I think beastmen are supposed to be able to eat him for lunch.

Keep in mind that if you are in a harmful effect like lava or aura that you take damage if you don't move out of it during your next turn. So...you've got that going for you. It seems unlikely that since there's a skill (granted, a weak one) that gives aura 1 that they would buff up this guy further since they haven't buffed it.. Once again, we see where a ToI hero was really innovative and thought out for Vanilla, but not so much in rtl. Zyla is way too powerful in rtl. Arvel is a die short with nothing but some extra feats to show for it. Karnon starts out never being able to add a die, but with no real penalty in skills. And Okaluk's only weakness to start out is his fatigue. Upgrade that, and I don't know what you do about him. 16 wounds, 6 speed and a dodge make this guy a pretty big pain.

Realistically, very few (non-ToI) hero abilities outside of Nanok, Tahlia, Laurel, Sihlouette, and maybe Runemaster are all that powerful in Rtl. It's really all about the skills and the way you upgrade/combine them.

I just bought RtL, so I can't wait to see what you mean. I've now completed my Descent collection.

Feanor said:

I thought Acrobat ignored effects from figures as you passed? Is that not true? What about Grapple, can an Acrobat not pass by a monster with Grapple?

ronin3338 said:

Nope, Acrobat (and Fly) ignores obstacles and their effects as well as figures - but not the effects of figures like Aura, Grapple, etc.

Parathion said:

Oh poop. I did that wrong.

Feraldis said:

Copper beastman are nasty, and this protects against them at all levels.

I disagree about this. As a hero player, I'd love to have abilities that are great in the copper phase. Copper is when the heroes need every help they can get, so better to have a skill like this that rocks in copper and sucks in gold than a skill like 3 fatigue for sweep that would rock in gold but be nigh impossible to use in copper. If there was a skill that was "in copper, you get +4 damage. In gold, you get -4 damage," I'd take it every time.