Hi, first post here and we're about midway through a great game of RTL... and WHAT a great game it is!

Anyway, reading around the FAQ and other sites as you do I've come across some conflicting info about the Aura ability.

from the excellent "Descent in the Dark" site :

Demons are not often encountered. In vanilla Descent, a lone Demon is not so dangerous and can be dealt with in a few turns, but if some other minions join the party, a few heroes might wake up with a new body at the temple. In the Road to Legend, the Demon's Aura ability gains ranks at every level of the Advanced campaign and it becomes quite hard to fight it with melee attacks. Remember that the FAQ states that a hero that stays in a monster's aura suffers wounds even if he doesn't move, so sticking next to the Demon and doing battle might not be the solution. Best way is to use some ranged weapons with Pierce or attacks with Reach.

And yet I can't find this in the latest FAQ? Seems a little overpowered in the final fight vs me (the Demon Prince) as one of the Hero players stated. But would logically make a lot of sense. Was this something that was added to FAQ and then removed or perhaps only in vanilla Descent?

Thanks in advance.

It depends on what you expect to find.

In your case "nothing" in the FAQ means just "play the rules as written".

So yes, the aura ability of the Demon grows with its upgrades, as does its fear value. And that is intended and normal. so any melee character stepping beside it doing battles is intended to have a hard and hot time, suffering aura damage.

Though he does only receive that aura damage as he steps into the field of the aura, OR does not leave it his entire turn. So doing "battles "deals as much damage as doing "advances."

The only really nasty thing about aura demons is outdoor encounters, where they can try to corner heroes to suffer aura damage while soaring invulnerable above their axes.

Sinso said:

Thanks for the reply.

Ok, now i'm really confused

Just re-read the RTL and Vanilla rules and the latest FAQ and there's nothing about "or does not leave it his entire turn" I totally agree it should do the damage this way just can't find the official text or might well be reading the following wrong?

"Aura

Each time an enemy figure moves into a space adjacent to a figure with the Aura ability, it immidiatly suffers 1 wound (ignoring armour) for each rank of Aura possessed. Aura inflicts no damage when the figure that possesses the ability moves adjacent to an enemy figure, however."

ps. do you mean that the Demon swoops down to ground level to trap heroes in Aura as I didn't think they did Aura damage to heroes when soaring?

The Reaper said:

Soaring creatures are still adjacent to the squares around them, so can be hit by blasts, block movement, breathe on the heroes, or do their aura damage. No, it's not logical that someone 4 squares up is also 1 square away, but the rules weren't designed with 3-dimensional movement in mind and it's as good a simplification as any.

James McMurray said:

Weird, just read this on the 2009 FAQ? Is there something since?

Q. How does Soar interact with abilities such as Aura, Shadowcloak and Grapple for purposes of adjacency?

A. A creature that is Soaring is adjacent to no other creatures. A creature that swoops becomes adjacent as normal, if a creature swoops and becomes grappled it remains at "ground level" until it is no longer grappled. In order to be adjacent a figure needs to be at range 1. Range penalties for elevated terrain are ignored for these purposes.

I read the rest as Breath ignores range and blast still does damage as it specifically states that but Aura doesn't?

The Reaper said:

FAQ pg 7
Q: What happens if you are on a lava space at the beginning of your turn and you don’t move?
A: If you begin your turn on a damaging effect, such as lava or a monster’s aura , and do not move off of it, you are damaged by it at the end of your turn.

Brilliant, thanks that clears that one up. Missed it as it's not under Aura.

Cheers

The Reaper said:

Sorry, I was remembering the ruling that soaring creatures still block line of sight and movement, and incorrectly extrapolating from there.