I have been playing Descent for a while now and I am still fairly new to the RtL expansion. In the rules under the Encounter heading it talks about the OL being able to spend threat to move a monster an additonal space or to add/upgrade power dice. Here are my questions about this rule:

1) Is this ability to be treated as the hero's ability of spending fatigue to add movement points or add power/upgrade power dice? In other words, can the OL decide to add/upgrade power dice after the roll has been made?

2) Is this ability available ONLY during an outdoor encounter or is it also available during dungeon, rumor and Legendary Area encounters as well?

3) Can power dice be upgraded (black to silver and/or silver to gold) during any campaign level? During the copper level, can power dice be upgraded to gold dice (provided the appropriate cost is paid)?

4) Do power dice need to be upgraded before rolling the attack? If power dice can be upgraded post-roll, do the new dice need to be rerolled or does the result stay the same, but simply given the appropriate multiplier? If THIS is the case, can the attacker select which dice to upgrade (preventing the attacker from wasting Threat/Fatigue on dice that resulted in a blank or other undesired result)?

jboulton98 said:

2)It is ONLY available during outdoor encounters

3)Yes

4)Yes. If you want to upgrade a die, you have to do it BEFORE rolling the attack. You can ADD a power die AFTER your initial roll (if you are stiil under the 5 power die limit) and upgrade it BEFORE it is rolled

1) We were not able to find a specific ruling on this, but our group typically allows the OL to add dice after he's seen the results of his original roll, just like the heroes do when they spend fatigue.

2) The ability to spend threat for movement/dice is not available in dungeons: ONLY in outdoor encounters. This does, however, include Lieutenant encounters.

3) You've actually got me with this one. At first, my gut instinct was to point you to the ruling that says you can only upgrade up to 3 silvers at the copper level or 3 golds at the silver level, but upon closer investigation, those rules specifically limit the number of trait dice you can upgrade. On page 24 of the RTL rulebook, the ruling says: "A hero can do this as often as he likes, as long as a given power die is upgraded before being rolled." I could be mistaken, but I believe you're right that it is theoretically possible to spend all of your fatigue on dice upgrades, even if it goes past your trait upgrade limits.

4) As mentioned in my response to #3, power dice must be upgraded before being rolled. If you've already rolled 4 black dice and you need to deal 2 more damage, you'd want to purchase another Black die and immediately upgrade it to Silver before you roll.

fex said:

1) The RAW clearly states "like a hero spending fatigue". I take this to mean in all aspects of heroes using fatigue to move or upgrade/add power dice other than it costs TWO threat instead of 1 fatigue

3) The only restriction to this is that you can NEVER roll more than 5 power dice

Has anyone tried allowing the use of this rule in dungeons? How well does it work? Any thoughts as to why its not allowed in dungeons?

jboulton98 said:

I was using it in dungeon when I ran my first RTL campain as Beastman Lord.... it was sooo brutal to early copper hero players. I believe it is allowed in encounters because the OL is very limited in terms of threat and what he can use it for. Just set up a dungeon your heroes have been through already as a test and use it. You'll be convinced.

Plus in outdoor encounters, if the OL hasn't bought treachery he's really got nothing to spend the threat on except the occassional reinforcement. And even then, the reinforcement cost for monsters is high. The Skeleton patrol spawn car is like 4 Threat and you get three skelies? It costs 3 just to get one normal Skeleton in an encounter.

So they probably gave those extra things to spend threat on to help even things out a little for the OL.

jboulton98 said:

The OL has cards to spend his threat on in dungeons. Other than treachery in Lt encounters he doesn't get any cards in encounters. Reinforcements are paid for at the end of a turn and don't activate immediately.

Without this ability to spend threat like fatigue in encounters, the OL has no surprise factor at all. Everything is calculable for the heroes. What monsters can move to where, what the maximum damage they can do, etc.
Allowing the OL to spend threat means that the heroes' can't calculate exactly what will happen all the time. That hellhound might move an extra 2 spaces and fit three heroes under his breath template. Of that 'ignorable' lone Kobold might suddenly add a gold dice or two onto it's (successful) red dice attack and do 10 damage!
Basically this ability to spend threat as though it were fatigue gives the OL back some flexibility and possibly a surprise factor that he has otherwise lost. It keeps the heroes honest, to a degree, and prevents them from taking what should be unacceptable risks but aren't just because they know that the OL has no options available.