Hi all,

My wife was given Descent 2nd Edition for Christmas, and we've both been fairly obsessed with it since then... We've resisted buying all the expansions in one go but we did get Labyrinth of Ruin and Shadow of Nerekhall, and we've played through all the RtL campaigns (multiple times) apart from Frostgate... In the process we've done a fair amount of googling around for answers to various questions and have become quite familiar with the forums here and at BGG, and with Sadgit's CRRG.

There is one aspect though which I feel isn't as clear as it might be, and that's around the area of multi-target/multi-affect attacks.

In the Steps of Combat section on page 6 of the CRRG there's a Road to Legend section which ends with this:

There's also a separate entry for Blast which repeats the same thing, that one Target monster is chosen and all others receive half damage.

That generally seems clear enough, although it could be made more obvious that all attacks which affect multiple monsters in any way use this half damage mechanic... Possibly worth including weapons like Dawnblade and Repeating Crossbow in the list of examples as well.

Things that I think could do with further clarification are:

1. I read somewhere that you can choose any one of the targeted/affected monsters to receive full damage, it doesn't necessarily have to be the one you originally attacked - is that the case? Seems a bit unwieldy with the Repeating Crossbow for example, since you'd essentially be changing your main target depending on whether you rolled/used the surge or not...
2. For Enfeebling Hex the CRRG specifies that "Discarding a hex token from a targeted monster during a multi-target attack increases the damage dealt to each target" - presumably in RtL that is a damage increase to the original attack, which is then halved onto the other monsters even though they provided the hex tokens? Do we have to make a distinction here between Targeted and Affected monsters - I would guess maybe we do?
3. Does this half-damage mechanic apply to Hero multi-target attacks which hit other Heros - eg Leoric's heroic feat? So for example Leoric would deal full damage to one adjacent monster, half damage to another adjacent monster and half or full damage to an adjacent hero? For Blast this is specifically described: " If multiple monsters are affected by a Blast attack, one targeted monster is dealt Hearts as usual, other figures ( enemy or friendly ) are dealt half the Hearts (rounded up) before subtracting the defense results. " So I would assume that this can be applied generically and therefore Leoric's adjacent hero would also receive half damage.
4. Does this half-damage mechanic apply to Monster multi-target attacks which hit multiple heroes? For example Changlings with whichever corruption card gives them Blast? The way we have played this so far is that all heroes receive full damage, since the reason for the mechanic is to counteract 'dumb' monster placement by the app, and heroes should be controlled in a more intelligent fashion... But what about if that blast also hits a monster? Or two monsters? If it hits two monsters technically it falls into the Blast definition above so only one hero could receive full damage. Where do we draw the line?

I realise some of these questions are getting into quite specific circumstances, but it's probably still worth attempting to add some clarity into the CRRG somewhere - for Q3 and Q4 it could be as simple as re-wording the first sentence in the image above to something like one of the following:

• For Hero attacks affecting multiple monsters follow the steps below:
• For ANY attacks affecting multiple figures follow the steps below:
• For Hero attacks affecting multiple figures follow the steps below:

Any thoughts/comments/advice welcome!

Thanks for your thoughtful (and well formated) questions. Rules for attacks that affect multiples figures have been changed in the new RTL rule book. The section on Blast is pretty clear now. My impression is that FFG missed the inconsistency with other abilities that affect multiple figures, though.

Check this thread for a (convoluted) discussion.

The bottom line is that Blast deals full damage to one target of the attack and half damage to any figure (hero or monster) affected in addition to the target. This is also true for Blast attacks by monsters (Crypt Dragons, Lava Beetles, etc.).

For other attacks that affect multiple figures the rule are not clear. We do have this section in the new RTL rule book:

Quote

When a hero performs an attack that targets or affects multiple monsters, the monsters gain an additional advantage when damage ( ) is dealt. 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.

It seems to be in direct conflict with the Blast rule in the same book. For the CRRG I assumed that in all attacks affecting multiple figures a targeted monster needs to be chosen to receive full damage. However, this has not been confirmed by FFG.

Concerning heroes affected by attacks affecting multiple figures I was actually surprised that for Blast the half-damage rule applies. I am not sure if that is supposed to be true for other attacks, too. For the CRRG I assumed that the Blast rule is valid for all other attacks affecting multiple figures attacks. Again there is not official FFG statement for this that I am aware of.

Having re-read your response here and that CRRG entry a few times I think you've summarised the choice of who receives full damage quite nicely, not sure why my brain didn't register it before

Regarding multiple-target attacks on heroes, if we ignore the Blast rule wording temporarily there are two 'logical' ways to look at it:

1. The damage reduction effect is intended to counteract the dumb monster placement/movement in RtL, and therefore it should not be applied to the heroes (since they should be moved intelligently).
2. From a fluff perspective, most of these attacks (most commonly Blast by heroes and probably Fire Breath for monsters) in real life would tend to do less damage after the primary target - the first guy takes the brunt of the hit and then associated damage is suffered by others: some adjacent fire damage, ricochet from Repeating Crossbow/Dawnblade, follow-through for Whirlwind etc. So the damage reduction effect should be applied to everyone.

The wording of your quote above tends to support option 1, the wording of the Blast rule tends to support option 2.

Given that in a normal overlord game the fluff perspective is ignored (everyone takes full damage), I'm leaning towards house-ruling option 1 as follows:

• The chosen target receives full damage
• Each additional monster affected receives half damage (rounded up)
• Each additional hero affected receives full damage

Which is pretty much how we've been playing it anyway