First of all, hello everybody. My question is:When i am playing the overlord do i have to place the traps (pits,Lava etc.) on the board when i am revealing a new area? I thing this is stupid because if the heroes saw the traps they are going to overlap them.

Thx a lot guys

Only if the text for the area states you have to, other than that you place them when the Hero's activate them.

If you mean all the props and obstacles which are printed in the area in the questbook, then yes. If you mean the trap cards that you play from your hand, then no. But as long as there is nothing specific in the area description regarding the placing of props, you'll have to reveal the area completely at once, including everything that's printed in the questbook.

We have different angles here.I mean the obstacles lava markers and pit markers.I think it's stupid to reveal them because chars are going to overlap them so there is no point to be markers over there, except in some situations when they have to pass through.

Death to the heroes :D

d3monhunter said:

The quest may have special text that tells you not to place certain tiles when revealing the area, but barring such text, you must place everything pictured in the newly revealed area. Pit markers printed on the board represent pits that are not hidden, but simply there. Likewise with other traps. The ones on the map have already been "sprung" (or perhaps they were never hidden to begin with.) The Overlord is not a DM of an RPG so you don't have the authority to just hide stuff because you want to. You're bound to the rules of the game just as much as the heroes.

As far these traps being useless because the heroes can see them upfront, that's not true at all. Firstly, the heroes will need to circle around to avoid them most of the time, which buys you (the OL) more time to spawn stuff and build threat. Secondly, if you have something like an Ogre you can use Knockback to send the heroes into the pits on the board, or perhaps use other cards to direct them towards the traps. Often times when traps are printed on the map, the dungeon will be designed such that the heroes NEED to move through it. Scything blades and dart traps are especially noted for this.

I usually play as Overlord in our group, and I've learned that it can be surprisingly easy to use the obvious traps to distract the heroes from something more elaborate I have in my hand of cards. For example, I never use Hellhounds to attack the heroes (the damage is shyte even with Pierce), but I've noticed my heroes always gun for the hounds first when they appear, because the Breath template scares them. Whenever I have hounds, either from the map or from spawns, I use them to draw the heroes fire and let my other monsters get into position to attack.

Sometimes letting them see the danger puts them in more trouble than keeping it hidden

d3monhunter said:

All those obstacles are there for tactical reasons. They are already usefull as heroes don't want to enter those spaces.

Moreover, whenever the heroes are jumping above pits/lava or whenever they are bypassing them: Use your crushing blocks to push them into the dangerous spaces. And sometimes, there is an ogre around, knockbacking those heroes into the pits.

And don't forget that those pits are a handicap for the heroes, but your taller monsters can simply move above those little gaps. So the use of those obstacle is in many cases to slow down the heroes, but not your troups. (Compare the last area in the very first quest from the base game: The pits are a very usefull defense line for your giant: They stop the heroes, but they don't stop the giant.)

Steve-O said:

So true, so true...

Hm, whenever I spawn Hell Hounds, my heroes laugh at me because they deal ridiculous amounts of damage (it's not rare to see a zero damage roll) :X

Anyway, the props on the map are very useful to the overlord, even though most of the time they'll "just" steal a little movement from the heroes.

As far as the Hell Hounds go, why is the Breath Template so beautifully designed when neither version of the Hound has Burn? It almost seems like something was left out. Maybe I just wanna see Cerberus in action. Oh, well.

I hope that there will be a re-design of hellhounds, similar to the re-design of the skeletons (and beastmen) in WOD.

It's quite obvious that hellhounds are ridiculously harmless (ad least in Vanilla Descent). Giving them "Burn" would be an appropriate advancement (in fact, in many custom adventures they get the burn ability.)

There's been a pseudo-redesign of Hell Hounds already. In Road to Legend they start off slightly worse than hell hounds in a 4-player vanilla game, but once they hit Silver or higher they start to do better damage because they get green dice and better pierce. I doubt they'll change the hell hounds in vanilla any time soon, though.

Steve-O said:

So true

Thx for the answers guys finally we have no doubts.Thx again

Just a note on Hell Hounds, in RtL I think some of the Level Masters also get Burn, making that hound at least somewhat more effective.

And there was one ToI level that gave Breath to a Wendigo, made for a fun level

-shnar