Multiple Familiars Question

By RaccoonKnight, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Hey guys!

Started playing road to legend last night with my group and its amazing, really great job FFG!

Quick question came to light however that we were confused about if anyone has an answer or idea that would be awesome!

So first thing:

The mage in our group decided to take Challara with the pet lizard, and took the necromancer, meaning he also had the use of the zombie. This effectively allowed him to make 4 potential attacks. 2 attacks himself, a move and attack action with the zombie and a move and attack option with the lizard. Is this actually possible? (whats worse is that he took vampric blood and fury of undeath meaning he could make insanely strong attacks with the zombie!)

Naturally in co-ops this isn't a huge deal (as no one is the overlord) but in campaign play, this seems insane ^^? is there any ruling or overlords out there more skilled than i that could deal with this possible onslaught?

Thanks!

Only played 4 hero mode and one overlord, then its np, its way to win against lots of familiars, give the conditions for example

Yes familiars can make attacks, but they are generally fragile and fail all teats. They can be used against thr hero with dark charm or web trap, or just as an action sink.

Naturally in co-ops this isn't a huge deal (as no one is the overlord) but in campaign play, this seems insane ^^? is there any ruling or overlords out there more skilled than i that could deal with this possible onslaught?

Thanks!

Just finished a campaign recently vs. Challara the Necromancer. It really wasn't that hard to deal with.

The Necromancer in general is probably the weakest mage in the game (The Hexer is down there too). Its only truly powerful and unique quality is Army of Death as an infinite range area clear option for soft targets. Given that, I'd say Truthseer Kel would be the only Necromancer I'd actually be concerned about. She can be very hard to play around.

The Reanimate's enhanced attack with Vampiric Blood is strong in Act I for sure, but in Act II its actually very unimpressive. The Reanimate can never get surges better than +1 damage, which is a big problem for it.

The Reanimate is also incredibly slow, moving only 3 squares per turn. Also as Zaltyre said, it is an easy target of Overlord cards and monster abilities.

Compared with the Runemaster that, when properly equipped, can do devastating Blast attacks with very powerful surges, or apply any Condition at will, its really inferior.

As for Brightblaze, it is dependent on the Necromancer getting a good weapon. In Act II it also dies really easily. In fact, I was often able to kill it in a single attack in Act II. Once its dead, yes Challara can revive it for 'free', but then once its dead again its gone for the rest of the encounter. At that point Challara is a pretty gimpy mage, as having 3 speed is a real liability. In Act I it is too costly to kill Brightblaze in most cases, but until a decent Magic-trait weapon is acquired, it is really, really weak.

As Overlord when dealing with Familiars, just remember that they only perform one move action per round, auto-fail any conditions, and are squishy. Every time the Overlord scores a kill on the Reanimate (which is so frail and defenseless that it will die to a strong sneeze) is another resummoning.

Imagine any other situation where a lone Goblin Archer attack can deny an entire hero action and 1 stamina. The necro's inefficiencies are a *huge* boon for the Overlord

Of course, if the Necromancer is mindful, they will do their utmost to protect the Reanimate from death, but that means its being less effective too. Capitalize on that :) Are they using Dark Pact to take damage from the Reanimate and keep it alive? Good! That means that you are able to attack the Necromancer's health directly through striking a soft proxy target that fails against all Barghest Howls, Dark Priest's Dark Prayer, etc.

This is one reason I much prefer the 'real' game of Descent over the co-ops. The AI cannot intelligently target the hero party's weaknesses, which means certain combinations seem far stronger than they really are. Challara the Necro is pretty great in a close quarters combat against monsters that foolishly go after whoever is closest, don't block lines of sight, and don't space properly. In those situations she can put out more attacks than anyone.

However a cunning human opponent can make such occasions rarely happen in the first place by forcing the heroes to approach the monsters, race for a quest objective, snipe the familiars from afar, deny actions by forcing resummoning, etc.

Edited by Charmy

I agree. I think the overall increased difficulty of the coop expansions, and especially RtL is there to make up for the absence of a human opponent. What the prerolled effects lack in intelligence they make up for in brute force.

Just remember that Army of Death does half damage on all targets but the first, only on the road to legend (pag 10):

When a hero performs an attack that targets or affects multiple monsters,
the monsters gain an additional advantage during the “Deal Damage”
step. Choose 1 monster to which you will deal damage first and resolve
the step as normal. Then halve the ≥ results (rounded up), and apply
that value to each of the additional monsters, before applying ≤. This rule
applies to attacks with Blast but also actions such as “Whirlwind,” “Army
of Death,” and Leoric of the Book’s Heroic Feat.

Just remember that Army of Death does half damage on all targets but the first, only on the road to legend (pag 10):

When a hero performs an attack that targets or affects multiple monsters,
the monsters gain an additional advantage during the “Deal Damage”
step. Choose 1 monster to which you will deal damage first and resolve
the step as normal. Then halve the ≥ results (rounded up), and apply
that value to each of the additional monsters, before applying ≤. This rule
applies to attacks with Blast but also actions such as “Whirlwind,” “Army
of Death,” and Leoric of the Book’s Heroic Feat.

Wut?

They just basically gimped the entire concept of AOE attacks...

Just remember that Army of Death does half damage on all targets but the first, only on the road to legend (pag 10):

When a hero performs an attack that targets or affects multiple monsters,
the monsters gain an additional advantage during the “Deal Damage”
step. Choose 1 monster to which you will deal damage first and resolve
the step as normal. Then halve the ≥ results (rounded up), and apply
that value to each of the additional monsters, before applying ≤. This rule
applies to attacks with Blast but also actions such as “Whirlwind,” “Army
of Death,” and Leoric of the Book’s Heroic Feat.

Wut?

They just basically gimped the entire concept of AOE attacks...

Not all of them...just the one based on attacks. "Tempest" and "Radian Light" (to my opinion) aren't affected by this rule.

That's why I tried Serena the Spiritspeaker and well, she's pretty amazing. Due to monsters not attacking her, she really can damage a monster group with "Tempest".

Yes- they did in fact gimp AoE attacks. Again, this is most likely because the unintelligent app does not spread out monsters in a group, making them ultra susceptible to AoE. Without such a modification, AoE attacks would be THE choice for RtL victory- hugely overpowered. It is another necessary compromise for the lack of a real opponent.

WAIT familiars get to move and attack on an activation? i thought they only get 1 action? e.g move or attack?

WAIT familiars get to move and attack on an activation? i thought they only get 1 action? e.g move or attack?

Note that image tokens are not familiars- they do not activate or perform any actions.

WAIT familiars get to move and attack on an activation? i thought they only get 1 action? e.g move or attack?

Familiars only have 1 move action. And other things given to them by hero players skills.

Edit: Zaltyre beat me:p

Edited by Ceasarsalad101
On 19.05.2016 at 6:18 PM, Davi said:

Just remember that Army of Death does half damage on all targets but the first, only on the road to legend (pag 10):

When a hero performs an attack that targets or affects multiple monsters,
the monsters gain an additional advantage during the “Deal Damage”
step. Choose 1 monster to which you will deal damage first and resolve
the step as normal. Then halve the ≥ results (rounded up), and apply
that value to each of the additional monsters, before applying ≤. This rule
applies to attacks with Blast but also actions such as “Whirlwind,” “Army
of Death,” and Leoric of the Book’s Heroic Feat.

Do you use this rule also in games with human overlord, or only in RtL?

The half-damage rule is a change exclusive to RtL. It is noted in the RtL rulebook as a special change for RtL games only.