Okay, so I bought Descent yesterday and I have been skimming through the rules to get an idea of how the game plays before I sit down for a proper read-through. This is my first FFG board game so the dice system used is a lot different than the simple d6/d8/10d type games that I am used to. My biggest point of confusion comes from ranged attacks, maybe I'm missing something. Can someone explain to me how to resolve ranged attacks and decipher the dice.

Much Appreciated!

Your hero rolls the dice indicated on the weapon's card plus a number of black dice equal to their ranged trait. The attack hits if 1.) an X isn't rolled on any of the dice and 2.) the range adds up to equal or greater the number of squares between the shooter and the target.

Surges, damage and so on work exactly like a melee attack. In fact, the only difference between ranged/magic and melee is the extra step of calculating range. Remember that a black dice that shows (1 range / 1 damage) is a one or the other result, not both.

Example: Silhouette (base: 3 ranged trait) shoots her bow (one yellow and one blue dice; pierce 1; 2 surges = 1 range; 3 surges = 1 damage) at a normal skeleton 6 spaces away.

Her player picks up 1 blue, 1 yellow and 3 black dice and rolls them. The blue die shows 3 range, 1 damage and 1 surge. The yellow die shows 2 range and 1 damage, the black dice result in 2 (1 range / 1 damage) and one blank.

The player realizes that the results of the blue and yellow dice would give 2 damage (enough to kill the skeleton) but only 5 range (missing the target by 1 square) so they decide to use a power die as range.

The results result in 6 range, 3 damage and only 1 surge. Enought to reach and kill the skeleton.

So for each colored die you roll, do you pick one value(range, damage, surge) or do you get all three values on that colored die?

How about for the black combat dice that you add to your roll?

Well, the ranged attack can be made only with range weapons and need Line of Sight (several topic & posts in this forum explain well this crucial issue).

In poor words, when your hero (or your monster) has the LoS toward a specific square of the dungeon, then you can make a ranged attack simply declaring THE SPACE that you're attacking. Is important to declare the space and not only the miniature under a ranged attack expecially for those ranged attacks wich affect also the surrounding spaces (such as some bombs or similar kind of weapons/spells), since you can hit at the same time the miniature in the current space of the attack and all those enemy/friandly figures in the surrounding spaces!

When you throw the dice corresponding to the ranged weapon you're using, simply add up the numbers you roll (0, 1, 2, 3 or 4) to determine the range of the attack and then the hearts to determine the damage. For the black power dice you have to choose between the number and the hearts that you want to gain for your attack (the number are separeted from the hearts on the same face of the die by a slash "/").

If the amount of the numbers you rolled are the same or higher than the distance (the range) between the attacker and the space declared for that attack.....well, the attack hit the target, and you can count the damage inflicted (always considering the armor of your enemy).

Have a good Descent!

ddavidc said:

For Frog : he said it in a way. Colored : u get everything. Black : u choose.

And everything is clear in the rules, I'd say. David is nice to have explained it with much details.

Frog said:

So there are really three groups of dice.

1) The primary dice (which are the Red, White and Blue): With a few exceptions Red is Melee attacks, White is Magic attacks and Blue is Ranged attacks. These are the dice with the hated X on it. When you roll one of these, you use all the symbols on the face. So if you roll a number, a wound (heart) and a surge all on this dice, you use all of them in the attack. What you are rolling is typically designated by the weapon/item

2) The secondary dice (Green and Yellow): These are best called second dice, since they are secondary to the Red, Blue and White. The main difference is that while you typically only roll one of the Primary dice, you could roll 2 Green or 2 Yellow, or a Green and 2 Yellow or etc etc etc. The Green tends to be lower range but more damage, and the Yellow is more range and less wounds. Again, you get to use all the symbols on the face. Again, these dice are typically dictated by the weapon/item

3) Power dice: These are the black dice given to you by Traits (ie you have 2 dice in the Melee trait, so you roll two power dice when making a melee attack) or gained by spending fatigue. They have a blank, surge, and enhancement (the mentoned 1 range /1 damage) face. You use what is on the face. Blank gets you nothing, a surge can be spent on weapon powers/item powers, and you have to choose for the enhacement if you want to add 1 range or 1 damage to the attack.

Frog said:

Frog said:

You get everything on a colored die. You'll notice that each of the dice therefore have specific advantages (yellow has more range) and disadvantages (yellow does less damage).

Frog said:

You get everything on the power dice except when there is a diagonal slash through it, indicating that you need to pick either one or the other. (on black dice this only applies to the [1 Range / 1 Damage] results while the silver and gold power dice in the Road to Legend expansion have higher but similar choice results.)

Thanks guys, I have been playing correctly then!

Thanks for the in depth explanations. For some reason when I was reading the rules it just didn't make sense but your post cleared it up nicely for me. Again, much appreciated!

I have one quibble with the explanation - you roll the black dice after the others (just like for any other attack). This distinction is important since you have the option to spend fatigue to get extra dice to roll. Otherwise it's completely correct.

Berinor said:

Black dice from traits get rolled with the other dice.

The option to spend fatigue to get extra black dice is available even after seeing the results of your normal black dice - and even after seeing the results of an additional added black dice.
DJitD pg 10
... the attacking player rolls the dice corresponding to the attacking weapon or monster. ... Attacker is a Hero: If the attacker is a hero, the dice the player rolls are listed on the item card for the weapon the hero is using. In addition , the hero may add one or more of the black power dice to his roll, depending
on his traits .
'In addition' here basically means roll em all together because this is all in the same stage of the attack. Sure, you can roll the weapon dice first, then the trait dice if you want, but it has no meaning and serves no purpose.
DJitD pg 18
Spending Fatigue for Attacks
After rolling an attack (which means all of the rolling from page 10) , a hero may spend one fatigue to roll one additional power die, adding its result to the roll. This may be done as often as the hero desires, one die at a time .
Of course, you still have the 5 black dice limit on any one attack.

Eg Varikas attacks a master Ferrox (6W4A) with an Axe. Varikas rolls RG+2Bl for a total of 8 damage. Varikas spends a fatigue and rolls an extra black dice for a ~ and now has 9 damage. Varikas spends another fatigue for another black dice (4 total) but rolls a blank. Varikas spends a third fatigue for another black dice (5 total). This is his last chance because he can never roll more than 5 black dice. Varikas rolls an enhancement and greathes a sigh of relief.