Guardians of Deephall - Now Available

By any2cards, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Although i would like to see 2 square monsters get some more love as well.

We really only have barghests, rat swarms, and plague worms. I want hellhounds!

Earlier in this thread, someone requested pictures of the figures included in Guardians of Deephall. Here they are:

Heroes (left to right): Morgrog, Silhouette, Sahla, Lord Hawthorne

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Crypt Dragons:

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Wendigos:

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Dark Priests:

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I was going through the monster cards from Guardians of Deephall, and noticed that for the first time, a significant change was made to one of the monster's abilities.

The ability that changed was Dark Prayer

Dark Priests from the Conversion Kit:

Dark Prayer: Each hero within 3 spaces of this monster must test Willpower. Each hero that fails suffers 1 fatigue.

Dark Priests from Guardian of Deephall:

Dark Prayer: Choose 1 hero within 5 spaces of this monster. That hero tests Willpower. If he fails, he suffers 1 fatigue.

This is a pretty significant nerf to Dark Prayer, and the first ability that has been changed between the CK and the H&M sets.

This was definitely a nerf to Dark Prayer.. but the priests were also made significantly more durable to compensate..

They still kinda suck in my opinion, but now a bit less so. :P

This was definitely a nerf to Dark Prayer.. but the priests were also made significantly more durable to compensate..

They still kinda suck in my opinion, but now a bit less so. :P

I don't think one/two additional heart(s) of life constitutes being significantly more durable. Nor does it compensate the loss of the ability to affect all heroes as opposed to 1. Just my two cents worth ...

Edited by any2cards

Dark prayer can now have some really cool use : 5 squares, without a line of sight can be used in multiple ways, like around a corner, behind big monsters, etc ...

the real problem is about horrifying, that needs to be adjacent and is only on act 2 monsters

the trouble is about the weak point of the monster : defense die. Brown is not enough, more in act 2

They changed Dark Prayer because it was basically the same thing as Howl, and wanted a separate ability identity. I actually disagree that it's a nerf, to be honest with you. Dark Priests are not melee beasts like barghests, and you don't want them in close. You want them to keep their distance, have the master healing, and have the minions harass. The additional range on Dark Prayer, I think, is a buff given the way it synergizes with the monsters stats.

They changed Dark Prayer because it was basically the same thing as Howl, and wanted a separate ability identity. I actually disagree that it's a nerf, to be honest with you. Dark Priests are not melee beasts like barghests, and you don't want them in close. You want them to keep their distance, have the master healing, and have the minions harass. The additional range on Dark Prayer, I think, is a buff given the way it synergizes with the monsters stats.

I agree. 5 spaces is a long range strike, even if you're just dealing fatigue. Since physically weaker monsters like these want to stay remote anyway, it's advantageous to allow them to do so.

5 spaces is a huge distance especially when you can use it with 4 priests each round without any need to have line of sight. Low Stamina Heroes can be easily contained on long range. These guys are made to hide behind tough large monsters to heal them and harass the hero party without any need to get close. Brown dice might still be kind of weak ... makes them feel like long distance Zombies.

5 spaces is a huge distance especially when you can use it with 4 priests each round without any need to have line of sight. Low Stamina Heroes can be easily contained on long range. These guys are made to hide behind tough large monsters to heal them and harass the hero party without any need to get close. Brown dice might still be kind of weak ... makes them feel like long distance Zombies.

Compare them to flesh moulders, which are the most similar monsters. If they had a grey defense die, the priests would be too strong a monster. If used properly, I think they are already extremely powerful. You just need to make sure they don't get attacked.

thx for the pictures.

Too bad apart from the dragons and the priests the miniaturequality seems to be kind of underwhelming... again :wacko:

I was going through the monster cards from Guardians of Deephall, and noticed that for the first time, a significant change was made to one of the monster's abilities.

The ability that changed was Dark Prayer

Dark Priests from the Conversion Kit:

Dark Prayer: Each hero within 3 spaces of this monster must test Willpower. Each hero that fails suffers 1 fatigue.

Dark Priests from Guardian of Deephall:

Dark Prayer: Choose 1 hero within 5 spaces of this monster. That hero tests Willpower. If he fails, he suffers 1 fatigue.

This is a pretty significant nerf to Dark Prayer, and the first ability that has been changed between the CK and the H&M sets.

As far as I know the sorcerers undying ability got reworked as well and now in the upcoming H&M pack they significantly changed the Ogre (different attack dice, different abilities, different HP).

I'm not so sure if it's a nerf of the priests, they just work differently now.

The range of the spell was almost doubled and is above 4 spaces now which is the standard movement-speed. This means you can position your priests in a way, where they can utilise their ability while most of the heroes can't reach and attack them in one turn without spending some fatigue. I guess this makes them much less suicidal. I like that FFG made their unique trait more usable to carve a nice niche for them, so they are more likely to be picked and do well under certain circumstances.

Edited by DAMaz