If you are taunting a character within 5 squares of you, and his movement is three, does he still have to make an attempt to get to you, or can he do his own thing since his movement is not high enough to make the attack. The card states "attacks if able". We have been playing it that if he cannot get there, he is not able and can move freely and attack who he wants. Should he at least move his movement toward the taunter or can he do what he wants?

Any help is great.

Taunt works when an enemy "declares an attack, but before dice are rolled." It only works if the enemy can target you with the attack from his current position . It doesn't matter how much movement he has; if you're out of LOS (or out of melee range), he can't target you, and Taunt has no effect.

I wonder why so many players make this mistake with Taunt. The first campaign I played I encouraged my heroes to get Taunt, feeling it was pretty important early on. They read the skill and quickly agreed. Then when we first played, they felt that the monsters needed to move towards the taunter. I wonder if it's a MMORP thing? When you taunt someone in EQ/WOW, they come over to you and attack.

-shnar

shnar said:

I think it has less to do with other games and more to do with people's interpretations of what "if able" means. Sometimes it's due to a misunderstanding about the timing of the trigger condition - there are a number of cards that cause trouble because of that. Unsurprisingly, hero players tend to assume it means the monster must use every available resource, including movement, to attack the taunter because that favours their position. Not that they're trying to cheat or anything, but most gamers do have a tendency to look for whatever advantages they can find.

shnar said:

I would bet dollars to doughnuts that's it. Taunt in most MMORPG is a general aggro mechanic given to "tanks" (characters who have high armor/defenses/hit points etc...). From what I have heard, the 4th Ed of D&D has those same mechanics in it as well. Considering Descent have alot of crossover gamers, I would think this would be very likely.

I think taunt would be useless, if you cannot declare before the monster moves.

Why would anyone ever take it?

Is it for ranged or magic attacks?

If I was the overlord I would never move beside the character... (perhaps it should be declared at the beginning of the overlords turn.. so he "can" move to you if able. If he can't, he should do whatever he likes.....?

Tancradus said:

It's far from useless, it's quite powerful if used correctly. Generally speaking, a character with high hit points / high armor will have this ability, and these are the characters that overlord generally kill last (since it's easier to kill the squishy guys). This works against Ranged, Magical and Melee attacks, and allows those wounds that will normally kill a weaker character to be more absorbed by another.

It's quite good, but not overpowered this way it is. I (as an overlord) have to think a lot more about setting up monsters for attacks, and sometimes I have to sacrifice one so that the rest can attack what I need. Not to mention lost attacks due to lack of memory

D.

It's usefulness is highly dependent on hero positioning. If you plan it carefully, you can often make it very difficult to attack other heroes without being eligible to Taunt...for example, if two heroes stand next to each other in a corridor, any melee monster that can attack one (and usually any ranged/magic monster, depending on LOS) can be Taunted to attack the other.

There's also a lot of tricks the overlord can use to limit it, though...such as leaving a monster close to the Taunting hero to create a "blind spot" where monsters won't have LOS to him, and thus can't be Taunted.

Taunt is a really good skill, and a fairly balanced one at that. If the players consider their placement properly it gives good protection and can make it hard for the overlord to choose his targets, but at the same time it is possible for the overlord to counter some of the effects by moving out of the taunters LoS or using melee. A nice balance where the skill protects against some things, but not all. No skill should protect against everything.

If the overlord could not work around taunt in this way then taunt would be a horrible skill. Horrible as in overpowered and boring. Why even have an overlord if all his movements are dictated by that single skill?

As others have already said, Taunt is far from useless. It's just a question of getting it on a hero the OL doesn't want to attack (ie: the tank) and then keeping him in position to protect the squishier targets. It makes the game more tactical, but it can be quite a thorn in my side as OL. =P

If you can taunt prior to the move it is worth it, otherwise overlords can always walk around it.

If I was an overlord I'd love it, I would see it as a waste of skill for my players.

I will allow my players to call out the taunt prior to the move to make it worthwhile...

Thanks for the input

See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil...

-shnar

You are free to play as you like of course, but I just don't get how you can think that it would be a waste of a skill unless you can call it before the Overlord moves. Yes, the Overlord can try to work around it and no it will not win you the game, but no single skill should.

Modifying Taunt as you suggest will imo really hurt the tactics-factor of the game. No more will the heroes actually have to think about their placement, making sure the the taunting characters stands in the right place to be effective without blocking the guards of ranged characters. Instead the tank will just run straight into the room and make all the other heroes immortal. Equip him with two good shields and some other nice stuff and win the game without challenge.

Tancradus said:

That's your call in your game, but having played OL with the card as it is intended I can say it's not as easy to avoid as you think it would be, provided the hero who has it knows what he's doing. All I'll say is keep in mind this house rule in case you find the heroes kicking your ass up and down the block. Instead of coming back here to complain about balance issues, try undoing the house rules you implemented first.