First Hero Death: I understand that it's kinda a pre-requisite that heroes are going to die a lot more than vanilla descent. But how much do you guys tend to see them die? (I mean the first dungeon they explored they nearly gave up on the first level, Throne Room (13 I think) but I gave them some advice and a few misses let them finish it.) Over all I got 32 Conquest tokens from that dungeon alone. Their second dungeon they had to retreat (I blame the fact they released the demon guy right off the bat and then he blocked them from getting further and it just turned into a bottleneck with me hitting harder. That and the fact I frosted their melee guy and he lost his weapon.)

Second Bleed/Frost/Web/Other status inducing effects: "After inflicting at least one damage (Before applying armor)" Does that mean as long as it hits, it effects? So even if I hit a guy, and he blocks all the damage, he'd still get a bleed token? Frost token?

Third Dark Prayer: It says "In addition, the figure gains +1 Range and +1 damage for each surge rolled when attacking." The way it reads, it means that he gets that automatically, without spending the surge... and the prior part of it (which i didn't copy) means he can still spend the surge on hatred. I mean i'm playing titan, which means my Dark Priests are rolling 4 black die minimum. So if I roll 4 surges, would I get +4 Range, +4 Damage and 4 hatred for that attack? Or is it actually spend a surge on one or the other? (I tend to alternate between getting both and spending it one way or the other depending on how well the heroes are doing.)

1) They should learn to flee if the situation gets too bad, as it did in your situation. If they keep bashing against the wall, they should not complain about being hurt...

2) Basically yes. As long as you don´t miss and roll at least one wound, you may place an effect token.

3) It´s always both: one surge spent gives one threat (hatred is a nice word variant ), +1 range and +1 damage. Priests can be very powerful.

Hah, they weren't complaining about getting hurt. It's just that I don't want them to get too discouraged this early in the campaign. I was just curious to know what a normal death rate would be considered for a full 3 round normal dungeon. I guess fleeing really is a bigger option in this than I thought it would be.

Alright, good to know I was interpriting those properly. Thanks!

And ya, I forget when I started calling it by hatred but it's more fun that way.

niarBaD said:

There isn't really a 'normal' death rate for a full three level dungeon since 'normal' players don't complete them all that often. It is far more efficient, most of the time, to be fleeing after one or two levels - sometimes even before the first level if you draw a very bad one.

That said, anywhere from 15-40 is probably what you would expect if a party is forced to go throug three full levels - especially in bronze when they are slower.
The heroes would be expecting to earn 17-30 from a full 3 level dungeon, so the OL should earn around that much, probably a bit more, you would expect, all other things being equal.

Parathion said:

Oh yes, Dark Priests are the OL friends. My heroes hate them and will normally change their plans and target the Priests if they can. They are hard hitting and massive threat generators.

AH! One more question, status effects (Frost/Web):

I swear I read something somewhere that at the end of a dungeon/encounter anything remaining (like frost) would be removed. Though when we went to pack up I couldn't remember if after a dungeon they keep it or not, still can't find anything stating if they keep it or not.

niarBaD said:

FAQ pg 12
Q: What happens to lingering effects (Bleed, Burn, Curse, Poison, etc.) when an encounter ends?
A: At the end of an encounter or dungeon (but not a dungeon level) all lingering effect tokens are removed from all heroes with the following exceptions: Poison and Curse tokens stay. (Note, however, that Red Scorpion’s healing power means that she will heal all her Poison tokens and then continue to heal until she is at her maximum wounds.)

Because FFG have a policy of treating each expansion in isolation and ignoring interactions with other expansions, there is no mention of Earth Pact in this answer.
We play that Earth Pact removes all wounds and all poison counters each time an encounter or dungeon ends. As OL, it is very annoying!