I am going to embark on my first Road to Legend soon, and I am curious which heroes work well. Also, any general advice on how to start a successful campaign would be great.

Should I start with some Rumors right away or hit some general Dungeons/Encounters for XP and gold first.

Should I try to kill off Lieutenants or wait for them to come to me?

Should I go for treasure, skills, or dice upgrades first?

Just curious... My brother is playing the Overlord, and he is a little bit more experienced with this kind of stuff then the rest of us are.

Any other advice would be great.

Also it is important for me to note that we have the JitD and WoD along with RtL. We have yet to get the other expansions.

I'd personally try for two melee, a shooter, and a blaster. One of each and a speedster comes well-recommended as well, though. Choose your starting skill carefully, cuz it's going to be all you get for about 5 turns. Purchase your gear as a party, not as individual players (meaning, get what you need and put it on the one it'll do the most good on).

Go for a dungeon right away. Don't be afraid to retreat if it gets ugly though. My group likes to take a quick run south to warm up, then leave and end the week in Tamalir, making sure to buy the boat, then make a run for the Copper dungeon with the phat, phat loot. Use that loot to get, the staff and the map, then roll over to the secret training area to get that ultra neat wound upgrade

don't go after a Lt. until you've accumulated some treasures (preferably some that will improve your damage profile. Lt.s take a lot of killing)

If you don't have some master plan for acquiring skills (like, you want 3 great skills that taste great together), go for dice. Start upgrading dice to the next level once you get to 4. It always helps to know you can burn fatigue to potentially get one more hit when you need it.

Thanks ColdStone.

Anyone else have any advice?

How about you Overlords? Which heros/skills are the biggest pain to you?

34 VIEWS and only one person has replied! Common guys! Help an unexperienced brother out!

I've been the overlord since my group began playing descent (2-3 years ago). We completed one Road to Legend Campaign, and are now just starting the second run through. This time I am playing as a hero. So my experience as Overlord probably lets me know what is particularly irritating. I do not fret about avoiding lieutenants until you get treasures, in the recent campaign we've killed one lieutenant are about to fight a second on the third game week (with only one copper treasure - nothing particularly useful). Use power potions when fighting lieutenants. A power potion is basically +5 damage for a melee character with an axe (assumes no blanks - which is not too unrealistic). You are going to need power potions for dealing with the level bosses in the dungeons. My group basically tries to ensure everyone is carrying at least one power potion at a time.

The heroes you pick are supposed to be random (every player draws three at random and picks one). I do suggest the two melee, one subterfuge, and one magic approach. Not necessarily as this is the most powerful, but because it will get you the most out of the treasure draws. Basically someone will be able to use every item you draw.

I would suggest picking up the staff of wind asap as it doubles your movement and allows better control of the overland map. Go to a dungeon first turn to get gold and xp going. Gold is not really a limiting factor at the beginning. Use it for the movement items first and then for upgrading second. Make sure to visit the secret training every campaign level for wound / fatigue upgrades (I suggest always wounds). Go to the legendary areas in silver and gold for sure (copper is ok, it is simply more gold, so do it before another dungeon if closer, but you don't really need to go out of your way to do it).

For most annoying skills:

-Spirit walker is annoying as hell for overlord (glad they finally limited it to 10 sqaures for RtL, it was killer before that)

-bear tattoo is annoying for grapple (useful for killing lieutenants before they run)

-Cautious (my players never purchased this for some reason, but I intend for our group to get it right away to limit overlord threat - excellent skill)

-Rapid Shot (must have for ranged, combine with fatigue bracers, and the item that lets your ranged attacks be aimed - ridiculous infinite combo not officially fixed)

A major rule for the first dungeons: Don't let your overlord get 25 XP to upgrade his first monster class. Flee from a dungeon before he gets this XP, so you will be able to start another dungeon with weak monsters.

At start, play for treasures and gold, not for XP. It's more important to grab all the gold piles than to complete the dungeon-tasks.

Don't play the rumors in the beginning. Wait for that until you have some copper treasures and enough power - a rumour can easily become some kind of XP-generator for the overlord (because heroes tend to play rumor-dungeons even if they are too tough for them just because they don't want to lose the rumour. This may be deadly. Don't shy away from fleeing if things get too hard).

And at last: Don't give up! Things will be better in the silver- and gold-campaign, copper is the hottest part for the heroes.

Skills that will annoy your OL to no end:

Spiritwalker on a mage is a pain in the ass at times.

Try to get the Rapid Shot/Guantlets of Power combo going. Your ranged guy will become a machine gun.

Tahlia with any of the following skills becomes hard to deal with: Tiger Tatoo, Bear Tatoo, Shadow Soul (my fav), Leadership, Unmoving.

If you ever manage to get the Staff of the Grave never, and I mean NEVER, sell it or get rid of it if you can avoid it. Yes its cursed, but it is also the only weapon in the game that bypasses Undying to my recollection. And having a Master Ogre come back from the dead 5 times will make you want to punch your OL in the face.

Kirga with Boggs the Rat = your OL will never spawn anything, ever. Maybe a Kobold.

Make sure you hit the Legendary areas and Secret Training.

Lts are easier to take out in Copper than any other level in my experience. If you have a weapon that gives Web tokens, I've found it to be powerful versus Lts, especially Kratz. My group killed him off once by constantly webbing him and then doing hit and run attacks with Power Potions.

There you go, some minor tidbits.

I also found this write up on Boardgamegeek very useful: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/306101

Chirisophus said:

Just to clarify, I'm sure Chrisophus meant "glad they finally limited it to FIVE squares for RtL"

I most certainly did mean 5 squares for RtL, not 10. My bad

On BoardgameGeek, this article is most excellent and prepares you for the right mindset, which in my opinion is the most important thing to playing a good game.

That said, numerous people have mentioned "good skills." They are okay, but strangely, no one has mentioned Telekinesis, which is the best skill in the game by an enormous margin. The 'Spiritwalker nerf' never made any sense to me, given that Telekinesis is twice as strong as Spiritwalker ever was.

Awesome everyone! Thanks!

I kinda am a perfectionist, so the idea of fleeing a dungeon kinda bothers me, but if you guys say there is no shame, then I won't worry about it. I REALLY don't like the idea of running from a dungeon when exploring for a Rumor, but if experience says that running is better then giving the OL a bunch of Conquest Tokens, then I can do it.

Anything else I should know?

Which heroes have good natural abilities that would come in handy? (FOR EXAMPLE: If I use Trenloe (sp?) can I reroll silver and gold when I get them or is it only ever black?)

I know the rules say to pull at random, but we aren't (for heroes AND avatar).

If you aren't doing random (which for me is part of the fun), I highly recommend the following people:

Tahlia: It has been argued that she is the best tank in the game, and from using her as a Hero and playing against her as an OL I find myself agreeing.

Kirga: the 5 space anti-spawn zone/body odor/aura/mist/whateveritis will cause your OL issues in the smaller RtL dungeons. I've played as KIrga before and have managed to find the one spot for her to sit that the 5 radius prevents all spawning on some levels.

Laruel of Bloodwood: I just like her as a ranger. The range to damage conversion is nifty.

Nanok of the Blade: Being able to permennatly upgrade your armor by purchasing black dice that boost you attack: priceless

Runewitch Astarra: Granted her ability to trip glyphs is nerfed to 3, but its still very handy

Ronin of the Wild: I've always liked him in RtL settings. Having Pico (the cat, if I got the name right) give you a free dice that upgrades to Silver and Gold as soon as you enter those levels is nice. I know his stats say what 1 Melee die and 2 Ranged? Add Pico in and he is a 2 Melee and 3 Ranged which is pretty good.

Andira Runehand: If you get her Spiritwalker, she becomes deadly in my experience since the Pierce 2 applies through SW.

Just some suggestions.

No-one ever mentions Landrec. Landrec rules. Two free surges means he will be able to activate Sunburst's Blast on most attacks. Also, he has three magic dice.

Silhouette rocks also, with the donge-to-rest conversion she shouldn't run out of fatigue, ever.

Also, fatigue upgrades are more powerful than wounds. Except on Laurel or Carthos perhaps. The difference between three and five fatigue on a tank is more palpable than a few extra wounds. It allows you to zip through dungeons before the OL can say "Welcome to my parlor"...