What, if any, items from the item deck(s) would you like to see revisited or revised?

The thing is, I've been thinking about getting some stuff printed, and I recently thought about the fact that a lot of content is essentially antiquated when it comes to thematic/mechanic interaction with the newer expansions in mind.

For example, many Runes are essentially weaponized spells, and one from the Core Set is Immolation . Immolation is an Act 1 Shop Item worth 150 gold; Magic Rune, Two-Handed, Blue/Red dies; Pierce 1, Surge +1 Dmg, Surge +1 Rng. I understand why it doesn't have Surge Burning, but it really, really, really should.

There even appears to only be three way to get the Burning Condition to ever become a factor in the game. One is the Act 1 Magma Blast Magic Rune, the other is the Act 2 Staff of Kellos Magic Staff, and the third - and the only way for this to be relevant to the OL - is the Fire Imp's surge to Burn.

There're many other examples from the other expansions, of painfully under-used conditions or mechanics, that can never be assumed to be part of a core set and thus will never be used in future expansions either, because those expansions would then have to re-print and re-supply old cards and pre-existing mechanics, which is understandable, but nontheless sad. I wish they'd produce expansions that depend on previous expansions more, such as producing expansions that flat-out assumes that you've got, say, The Trollfens and Shadows of Nerekhall, and thus includes monsters or overlord cards or items that make use of, say, Bleeding and Weakened.

But I'm getting side-tracked.

Given total freedom, can you think of other revisions you'd like to see? General ones are acceptable (such as "Fire Flask should definitely have Burning" or "I alway felt Dark Priests should be able to Surge for Cursed or Doomed." ) but I'd like the focus to be on shop items in particular. If there are item types that become underrepresentated when you have all the expansions, feel free to suggest completely new items, such as Runes or Heavy Armours that restrict the use of Runes (which are in short supply, making Jaes the Exile's Hero Ability beyond meh.) Assume total freedom and that everyone has all currently available expansions.

• Any items that should cause a condition that it doesn't?
• Any items that should roll more dice, or less?
• Any items that should be interesting, but aren't?
• Any items that should exist but just doesn't?

This used to be a little bit of a problem with Arkham Horror. Each of its addons was a separate area/event. Towards the end of its life FFG did a big box expansion that was "here is more cards" (we already had far to many in AH). As such many groups I have come across with AH say "we have everything but the cards expansion!"

I think this time for Descent though it could work but maybe as a couple of mini expansions focused on 2 or 3 other expansions. So Shadows+Trollfens+MoR for instance.

Well, as soon as I get home, I'm thinking about starting to work on the following changes to the following cards:

Immolation : Remove 1 Surge for +1 Dmg; add 1 Surge for Burning. Remove 1 Surge for +1 Rng; add 1 Surge for +1 Pierce .

Mace of Kellos : Remove 1 Surge for Recover 1 Health; add 1 Surge for Burning . Change the first surge from "each monster" to "each figure" . Add the blanket modifier: "While the Mace of Kellos is equipped, you never take damage from Burning."

Dwarven Firebomb : Remove 1 Surge for +1 Rng, +1 Dmg; add 1 Surge for Burning . Thinking about ditching the yellow dice or increasing the cost to 200 gold. The combined effect of Blast, Stun and Burning outweights the previous combination of effects. I'd like some thoughts on this one.

Lightning Strike : Add 2 Surge for Stun. Done. I simply hated this being unable to Stun, but I also liked the surges for extra damage, and combined with Blast it's already potent. Two surges for Stun felt appropriate and there's practically no way this'll come back to haunt me, I'm sure. None whatsoever.

Grinding Axe : Remove 1 Surge for +1 Dmg; add 1 Surge for Bleeding . The big sell for this axe is the high damage on the 2 Surge for +5 Dmg. Changing the first surge to bleeding felt like a minor but appropriate change. Some could arguably consider it a nerf, but it creates a nice dimension; either it forces the OL to spend an action to get rid of the bleeding, or it'll end up causing 2 damage (or more, in consecutive turns).

Ice Storm : Add 2 Surge for Blast . It's an Ice Storm, it always rubbed me the wrong way that there's no way for it to hit multiple targets. Price increased to 175 (from 150). The mere possibility of Immobilizing an entire group is worth 25 gold.

Sunburst : Add 1 Surge for any monster with the Dark Trait is Weakened . Add 1 Surge for any monster with the Cursed Trait is Terrified . While this means that some monsters could potentially be struck with both Weakened and Terrified in the same turn, it means foregoing other surges (such as Stun) and you still have to do damage, so I thought it'd be an interesting change.

Rune of Misery : Remove 1 Surge for +1 Rng & +1 Dmg ; add 1 Surge for Doomed. I'm consdering lowering the price of 250 gold to at least 225 gold. 250 gold seems absurd for what the rune does, even in it's unchanged state. I might be wrong, though.

Teleportation Rune : Remove 1 Surge for +1 Rng & +1 Dmg; add 1 Surge for +3 Rng. In addition, for the second Surge, change "within 2 spaces" to "within 3 spaces".

That's it for now, and probably until I get home again and can actually sit through checking my own cards and not just rely on the Wikia. I don't know why it became so many runes, but I guess they are just easily interpreted and poked at from a thematic/mechanical standpoint or something.

I couldn't agree more. A lot of conditions are underused since the assumption by FFG is alway: It must work if you have only the base game and this expansion.

Apart from weapons, I would also go for some changes with regards to the monsters. For example: lieutenant valyndra has surge: burn, but the agent hasn't. Wired.

A card expansion to rework all the shop cards would be really nice.

I couldn't agree more. A lot of conditions are underused since the assumption by FFG is alway: It must work if you have only the base game and this expansion.

Apart from weapons, I would also go for some changes with regards to the monsters. For example: lieutenant valyndra has surge: burn, but the agent hasn't. Wired.

A card expansion to rework all the shop cards would be really nice.

When (which could take a long time) I've gotten revised item cards printed, and if the cards turn out well (which could be hard to pull off, since there's no guarantee the scannings won't distort colours) I was thinking I'd try to revise some Monsters and maybe some Overlord cards next. Feel free to create a thread for it already, though, there's really no reason to wait with discussing changes that we feel should be made.

Personally, the first thing that stood out to me is that the Ferrox has Surge Disease instead of Surge Bleeding. Based on it's description (and, I suspect the way the Ferrox worked in Descent 1st Edition, it apparently being introduced in the same expansion that introduced Bleeding to 1st Edition) it's utter BS that it was given Disease instead of Bleeding.

I think FFG is too formulaic in it's smaller expansions. Would it really have been that much more expensive to give the Ferrox Bleeding to begin with, and just supply 4 Condition Cards for Bleeding in Stewards of Secret? Also, Hellhounds should definitely have Burning somewhere in there.

I really like your idea to have interactions of the weapons with the monster trait. That could really be lead to some thematically cool interactions but it might be hard to balance. For example: you could have ice storm deal +1 Heart to HOT monsters, but -1 to COLD.

This would force the overlord to use different monsters depending on the weapons the heroes posses. This exists already with pierce/ironskin but it could be a more prominent feature.

I would also rebalance some items, like the Rune plate, Heart Seeker and Winged Blade

Runeplate - Armor, Rune - grey die - If you are a Mage, apply + 2 to your health. If you are equipped with a rune weapon, replace this gray defense die with a black defense die.

Heart seeker - Magic, bow - Blue + Yellow + Yellow - You do not need line of sight when attacking with this weapon but you still need to trace a path through empty space between you and the target. surge + surge = + 4 damage

Winged Blade - Blue + Yellow + Red - When attacking with this weapon, before rolling dice, you may replace 1 Black defense die from the target with a grey die, or a grey die with a brown die, or remove a brown die from his defense pool.

Rugal, I like your suggestions. However, making the runeplate armor AND a rune would make Jaes the Exile go off like a rocket. I mean, both mana weave and runic plate are Act I shop items, so the heroes can by them after the interlude for sure. With a rune weapon as well Jaes would have a stamina of 6! Smells like broken to me.

If I have time, I go through all the items at the weekend and write a lengthy post

I know, but a Rune Plate who is not runic ... ?

What about downgrading a bit then ? brown die and grey die instead of grey and black, and removing 50 gold ?

I really like the runic plates dice, since this is effectively the only armor which allows a mage to be a battlemage and I like this concept . But I get your point and I agree, the runic plate should be runic. (Otherwise its false labeling )

It seems simplier to annotate Jaes' Hero sheet and simply add the line: 'Jaes the Exiles Stamina cannot be increased above 5'. This way, Jaes would still benefit from the Runic Armor from being a rune because the heroes could give the mana weave to someone else. Also, other mages would have the chance to get an awesome armor.

But here we are, starting with items and ending up changing heroes. This is going to get out of hands

I'm already on a "balance pack" where i'm balancing all the game from my experience (and since I played 20 small campaigns, 15 big campaigns, and I played a lot and was a playtester I think i've got some enough game time to do it)