In our Descent game I am the overlord and I play against the following heroes.

- Varikas the Dead

- Bogan the Shadow

- Mordrog

- Runewitch Astara (or something like that)

Is this a good party or should I tell my hero friends they suck and won't make it far in the quests (not RtL)

What I noticed is that when the person playing the Runewitch doesn't play along (this happened twice) I always win and when he plays along I lose.

(and no this is not because I use the monster reference cards for five players :-D )

You're supposed to use the reference cards for 5 players. 4 heroes + OL = 5 players. Yes, it's kind of confusing, but that is entirely correct.

That party looks fairly well-balanced, and I believe those are all considered to be among the better heroes in the game. And the game is easier for the heroes the more of them there are (the scaling doesn't work that well), and you've got the maximum number of heroes. So if the heroes are still losing a lot, I'm prepared to say that your players probably suck (depending on what quests you're playing, what expansions you're using, and whether you're making any rules mistakes).

Remember, however, that this is a tactical game, and the Overlord is supposed to win sometimes, even if the heroes play well.

Oh, also, if you're using the base game only, then they'd be better off swapping one of the melee heroes for a magic hero, just because magic weapons are more common in the treasure decks. This was fixed in the WoD expansion, though, and even considering that issue, I still don't think that party should be having a particularly hard time.

Bogran the Shadow is a weak hero.

Other than that, these heroes all look pretty good.

When you say "doesn't play along", in reference to Runewitch Astarra, do you mean that that person isn't playing with you guys that play session, or that he isn't cooperating with the other heroes?

If the former, then it is to be expected that you will have an easier time of beating the heroes. 3 heroes are almost always weaker than 4, even with weaker monsters. Also, the lack of a magic character will severly inhibit your damage dealing potential, as there are twice as many magic weapon treasures in the base game than either of the other two types.

If the latter, then you should expect to win more often as well; as the heroes need to cooperate to win.