If you follow what the card says it seems very simple. Luckily there are people out there that have nothing better to do than to complicate things. My understanding of this SKILL is that if the OL tries to make a monster attack a hero within 5 spaces of the Hero with the taunt ability, and has the movements available to get to the hero taunting, the monster has to attack the taunting hero. Now the OL can move the monster anywhere he wants without attacking and the hero CAN NOT taunt cause an attack order was not given. Line of sight is required for taunt as well. Is there a clear definition on how Taunt works? Not just a bunch of home rule opinions. Seems to me the card explains what the skill does, but somehow people over think it to mean something else. Looking for a little clarification.

"When an enemy figure within 5 spaces of you declares an attack , but before dice are rolled, you may force the figure to target you with that attack if it is able to do so."

You can't force the monster to move anywhere, only to retarget its attack. If it's a beastman and it's not adjacent to you, Taunt does nothing, because it can't target you (melee attacks can only target adjacent spaces).

It doesn't matter who was originally targeted with the attack or where they are, only that the attacking figure is within 5 spaces of you. Line of sight doesn't factor into it either, except insofar as it affects the attack's ability to target you; you can't Taunt a skeleton without LOS, because they won't be able to target you, but you can Taunt a hellhound if it can catch you in a breath attack from its current position, LOS or no LOS.

Monsters deliberately moving so that they don't have LOS to you or so that they're out of your Taunt range before they attack is perfectly legal. The heroes have to position themselves carefully to get maximum effect from Taunt.

That is, indeed, all clearly stated in the card text. I guess "someone" was "overthinking it" to mean what they intuitively expected an ability named "taunt" to do instead of what the card actually said.

+1 to Antistone

I first thought Taunt was going to be a major problem in our current RtL campaign and it has been a pain at times. However, there are ways around it as Antistone pointed out. It makes it a pit of a puzzle for the OL to get around which is good. I love it when the taunting hero stands out in the middle of a room expecting to soak up a bunch of attacks but then I move around the corner or run past him and attack the squishy mage.

Now see I think if the Beastman has the movements remaining to be adjacent to the hero taunting then the Beastman has to go to the Hero. If the Beastman does not have the movements to reach the Hero then its, "not able to do so". That's just taking the card at face value. It does not clarify it rules but I am pretty sure that's what the card means when it says, "force the figure to target you with the attack". Now if the melee attackers are out of movements to reach the hero I get it. For range attacks within 5 spaces, the attacks should have to go towards the taunting Hero. That is how the card reads to me. I see that Antistone and I are almost one the same page, but our interpretation about how the melee attacks work are a little different. Is there a rule in print some place to help clarify or is it one of those things that the people should talk about and vote on before the game is played?

Antistone said:

Antistone quoted the card, and it's quite clear, when an attack is declared, you force the figure to attack you instead if it is able to do so . There is NOTHING in the ability that says the monster has to move closer to you. Taunt doesn't do anything of the sort. Simply, if he could attack the taunting hero instead of the one he's hitting, then he attacks the taunting character.

Why make up things that aren't there?

-shnar

Well, the only thing close in the FAQ is:

Q: May a Hero with the Taunt skill force a creature with the Morph ability to Ranged or Magic as its attack type? Basically, if a monster with the Morph ability is in range of a hero with the Taunt skill but not adjacent to said hero, can the Morph monster make a Melee attack even if said hero uses the Taunt skill on it?
A: The morph goes off first, and then taunt can only be used if the taunting hero is a legal target for that attack type.

I think this backs up Antistone and me in that you cannot force the a melee monster to move towards you to do the melee attack.

Taunt specifically takes place between when the attack is declared and when the dice are rolled. Your interpretation would require that the attack is canceled, so the monster can do something else first (move), and then declare a new attack from a new position against a new target.

"Force the figure to target you with the attack" means that you're changing the target of the attack, nothing else. That's what the card says . If that's not how it "reads to you," then you're reading it wrong.

Your "taking it at face value" seems to be code for "making up what I want it to do." I'd argue that I am taking it at "face value" and you are not. These are abstract rules in a board game; you're supposed to follow them to the letter. That's how rules work. Sometimes the rules make mistakes (more often in Descent than in many board games), but that hardly means that just making stuff up is the same as following the rules.

Well I am under the impression that the word "force" means that you are making that creature to move to fight you "if it is able to do so." if it is out of movements then it's not but if is able to be forced to attack the hero taunting it then the monster should have to . This is a classic case of having to agree to disagree. It should be voted on by the players before the game is started. The hero is not able to taunt everything if it' LOS is blocked by previous monsters. Forcing could be considered as moving.

Actually, no, the word "force" does not mean "you are forcing the creature to move to fight you." "Force" means "force." "Force to target you" means "force to target you," which is not the same as "force to retract its declared action, move into a space from which it can target you, and then declare a new attack targeting you." "Targeting" is part of declaring an attack, not part of moving (p. 9).

You're making up arbitrary stuff that isn't on the card, and then justifying it with nothing more than "I am under the impression..." and "then the monster should have to." You are obviously describing how you want it to work, not trying to understand what the rules actually say.

If your group wants to house rule the skill to work differently, that's perfectly fine. But if you tell people that's how the skill is written, you are lying.

You can vote on anything before the game starts, including house rules and whether you're going to play at all. The rules are what you implicitly agree to when you decide to play the game and don't specify otherwise, and that's what's actually written in the rulebook and on the game components, not stuff that you make up because you like it.

Antistone said:

+1

It can be difficult to "let go" of an interpretation especially if you have had an argument about it in your group. Nonetheless, I am pretty sure Antistone has got it right.

+1 to Antistone

I'm in the Taunt can force attacks but can't force movement camp. That said we took Taunt out, as it takes away a lot of control for the Overlord and makes the game less fun.

factjunky said:

Even if the card could be interpreted this way (which it shouldn't because the taunting just forces a change of target at the moment the attack is declared and does not force movement), it would never happen unless the OL is stupid because all he'd need to do would be to make his Beastman run around the figure he wants to attack until he has no more movement left, and then declare his attack.

Jake yet again said:

Why? Taunt is one of those skills that seems really powerful, until you get an OL who knows how to get around it. At most you should have one monster that has to attack the hero (ranged monster) so he can block LOS for all the other ranged monsters to shoot whoever they want. And melee dudes can just run around him. Taunt isn't that good, it just looks good on paper.

SamVimes said:

Maybe they're the Sorcerer King with sniping skeletons, so their most common monster is almost always able to attack the taunting Nanok?

I can see it being a bit more difficult then, but then again, that's something the Sorc King has to take into account if he wants to buy snipers, and it still doesn't make Taunt unavoidable.