One of the changes that has been implemented into the IA rules, is that the Imperial player's figure activations are not grouped separately from the Rebel player's figure activations.

In Descent, all of the Hero players activate their figures in succession, and after all of the Hero players' turns have ended, the Overlord then activates all of his or her monster groups and a round ends when the Overlord's turn is over.

In Imperial Assault, the Rebel players and the Imperial player alternate turns. After a Rebel player activates his or her figure, then the Imperial player activates one complete deployment group, then another Rebel player activates his or her figure, etc. etc. back and forth until all figures have been activated and the round ends.

My question is, could the Imperial Assault turn order be used in Descent? Or would there be some negative affect on gameplay? How would it affect turn order for activating Overlord cards, hero abilities, etc.?

Well anything that is start of overlord turn is going to get all types of confusing (which turn, when can i use it, when does it run out?)

I don't know how durable stuff is in IA, or group sizes for that matter, but in descent the overlord being able to activate all, say goblin archers after 1 hero activates and proceed to arrow to death 1/2 heroes before they can do anything seems dubious to me.