When playing game we stumbled into few questions

1: stacking of surges. so alot weapons have that spend surge to gain additional damage or range. They are marked Surge icon: +1 range / +1 damage

but Surge icon:Pierce 2, doesnt have + infront of it,SO does that mean you can still spend like 2 surges from hero to get 4 pierce allready???

Seems to be kinda overpowered since some heroes alraedy have 2 free surges and when skills give surges then/ or powerdices gettig pierce overmonsters armors seems very simple.

2:dodge doesnt make instant miss, but have to reroll dices, like heroes dodge, the second reroll have to keep.

Plus since we had some rules problems we played that when overlord uses dodge then monster whos attacked misses but if ranged or magic attack is done and range is enought the monster behind it is attacked.

Surge: Pierce 2 and similar effects stack. You can spend 2 surges for Pierce 4. I can only think of one weapon that has that ability (the silver piercing Rune), and it is indeed quite good, but far from Overpowered: Ice Storm is a great deal better.

The Overlord card "Dodge", as you say, allows dice-rerolls: it does not cause an automatic miss. This question seems to come up a lot, I note, probably because "the monster Dodges the attack" has a simple "natural" meaning, and if you don't pay careful attention to the capitalisation and Bold font of "Dodges", and realise that "Dodge" is a game-defined term, you can easily get the wrong impression.

yeah thought so, just needed some clarification,

For first 2 games we made quite few mistakes but alot were since when looking and searching its kinda hard and tiredsome to look the rules again.

Most of mistakes have been solved, those 2 were kinda left.

Well grinding axe has (from silver treasure)

when making melee attack 1 surge instantly

so kinda brutal imo if you can stack pierce effect.

SURGE: +1 damage

Surge: pierce 2

only got the core game since didnt want to buy sea of blood for 1st expansion ,and have to wait til store has new wave of expansions.

To further elaborate on the surge issue...

From the rulebook, page 21 (emphasis added):

"Note that some special abilities have ranks (e.g., Fear 2 or Blast 1). The effects of these ranks are always explained in the ability description. If a hero or monster gains a given special ability from more than one source, any ranks the ability has are added together. For example, if a hero gains Blast 1 and Blast 2 from two different items, the hero gains Blast 3 on appropriate attacks."

From the FAQ, page 8 (emphasis added):

"Special abilities that require you to spend surges are designed to stack. So if you have an ability such as “?: +1 Damage and Pierce 1 ,” and you pay 3 surges, you gain +3 Damage and Pierce 3 . Some items may explicitly limit your surge spending/stacking, but those are the exception to the rule."

Some surge abilities are quite powerful, which is part of the weapon being powerful overall; higher-level treasures tend to have better surge efficiency. Pierce 2 isn't even exceptional; the Rage Blade gives +2 damage for one surge, the Frost Axe has 2 free surges and gives Pierce 3 per surge, and there are weapons where surges give your attack Blast or force the overlord to discard threat (and yes, those abilities can be activated multiple times per attack with enough surges, too).

Also something else to bear in mind if you still feel that spending surges to gain multiple ranks of Pierce is overpowered, is that Pierce only works if the monster has that much armor. There is no such thing as "negative Armor" or anything like it, so against monsters with little or no Armor many of your ranks of Pierce are wasted (since the lowest amount it could lower a figures armor to is 0). Also the Ironskin ability ignores Pierce entirely (although that isn't in the base game IIRC). That is why +Damage is always better than +Pierce, although the Pierce can usually be found in greater amounts (which is nice if the monsters you are fighting actually do have very large amounts of armor).

yeah. most horrible is for 2 surge overlord gives away one threat token, that can be a really annoying later on.

I think we're missing something here.

Some weapons have the ability: ~~: + 2 pierce - and some have, say: ~~ : Pierce 2

The former stacks, and from my understanding, the latter does not. I am not sure, since I am away from my game components at the moment, but I believe that is the case. I would await clarification from our peers though

Martyr13 said:

No, it is not the case. Both stack. It is simply sloppy editing that has made the difference.

DJitD pg22
Note that some special abilities have ranks (e.g., Fear 2 or Blast 1). The effects of these ranks are always explained in the ability description. If a hero or monster gains a given special ability from more than one source, any ranks the ability has are added together .

If Pierce 2 from an item and Pierce 2 from special ability (Andira) stack to make Pierce 4 without needing a '+', then Pierce 2 3x from the same source (DJitD pg10 A hero may trigger a specific effect more than once for a single attack, as long as he rolled enough power surges to do so) doesn't need the '+' either.

We also have the example of the silver treasure Drain Life . It has Pierce 2 and ~: Pierce 2. If they don't stack that is an utterly pointless ability...
See also Antistone's specific example from the FAQ (pg8) where Pierce 1 bought 3x creates Pierce 3.

I'm not aware of any card that says S: +2 pierce. There's "+2 damage" and "Pierce 2", but no "+2 Pierce".

Either you've got a misprinted card, or you're remembering incorrectly...

Auskaa said:

I don't think Pierce is as powerful as you think. After all, once you've got Pierce equal to the target's armor, any additional Pierce is pointless (no pun intended?) In my experience, most non-boss monsters don't have enough armor to really slow the heroes down that much anyway - even if the heroes don't have Pierce for a particular attack they can usually find other ways to add damage until the monster is dead. Boss monsters have more armor usually, so Pierce is more significant to them, but even so it's no worse than getting +1 damage from some other source.

Monsters are expendable. Let them die and then spawn more.

Auskaa said:

Umm well yeah, normal mosters with 4 dice you roll kinda easyly 4 damage but most have armor 4 laster, but well some heroes can get 4 pierce so easyly, but yeah spawning helps and annoys heros ,since most of the game is one hitters, the player whos turn it is is alway in upper hand.

But i have another question what i just saw. Breath template doesnt take range. but for instance

breath template is 4 range so to speak( yeah i know it doesnt take range rolls)

BUT, if i target monster in range 6 with dragon for instance , so that mean, if i get range 6 then the attack hits the dude on that spot, everyone else in breath area gets breath and burn damage but the dude in range 6 gets normal damage?

Well atleast seem to me.

And sorcery mean, if i have 3 sorcery then i can choose 2 range 1 damage for isntance without rolling black dices?

Since 1st time when we playd then one weird dude read that i roll 3 black dices, what doesnt change much of the outcome but without rolling is just even more kickasses..

btw, seem to me that alot heroes whine that overlord is so strong, but always seems that, after few treasures most heroes can take a dragon down with one hit, and they whine... -.-

Auskaa said:

You can't target a figure (or space containing a figure) at range 6 with a dragon. If the dragon is using the Breath template to attack then he can ONLY hit targets he can cover with the template. Now, there is an errata in the GLoAQ that says creatures with a template attack can choose not to use it and attack a single square instead, but I think that might also turn it into a melee attack (someone correct me if I'm wrong about that.) Even if you can make a ranged attack without the template, you have completely discarded the template and will only hit the single space you have chosen.

Auskaa said:

That is correct. Sorcery adds +1 range or +1 damage for each rank of the ability the attacker possesses, there is no rolling involved. If the figure has power dice in his attack roll, they are IN ADDITION to the Sorcery bonuses.

Auskaa said:

It is true that each new level of items (Copper > Silver > Gold) gives the heroes a significant boost. When they have town item or copper items, the OL can usually take down any single hero with a concerted effort. Silver makes things more even (maybe a bit in favour of the heroes) and gold items tend to clean up shop. This is why most vanilla quests don't give the heroes a gold chest until they're almost done the dungeon anyway.

Now, there is an errata in the GLoAQ that says creatures with a template attack can choose not to use it and attack a single square instead, but I think that might also turn it into a melee attack (someone correct me if I'm wrong about that. (I fail at quoting)

You can choose to simply ignore the breath or blast ability of an attack, which means that the attack stays the same type. A magic breath attack would become a normal magic attack that targets and rolls range just as any other magic attack. It's either or. Either you use the template, or you make a normal magic attack.

Steve-O said:

It does not make it a melee attack. It stays ranged or magic. Via the FAQ:

" Blast and Breath
These abilities are not mandatory. If not used, the attack is
treated as a normal ranged or magical attack."

okey, got it, was wondering about it also and searched it..

But i have one really wierd question... you can attack adjected enemy diagonally or just straight line?

Rules say straight line so shouldnt be like diagonally. One person started arqueing about that.

Auskaa said:

Not sure I understand the question, but a target is adjacent to you if they're occupying any of the eight tiles around yours. That includes diagonally. If you're doing a ranged or magic attack, you can draw any sort of straight line - it's not limited to four directions.

okei ,got that problem fixed

i just saw that if using battle and cleave then after killing a person with 1st attack cleave comes in, and if i dont kill him with cleave i get 2nd attack.

BUT if i continue cleaving with one hitters til cleave ends or fatigue ends then starts 2nd attack? seems to me kinda possible with knight card and cleave to get rid of all 8 monsters adjected if lucky.

Auskaa said:

So it goes as overlord! Of course, if, as overlord, you completely swamp a character that has knight and cleave and don''t kill him, well...

Honestly I think it's all kind of moot anyway. Assume all of your monsters will die on every hero turn, but do what you can to make that impossible for them - i.e. don't put every single enemy you have within battle range. Unless you think you can kill a character, in which case, go for it. Of course, if you don't, luck isn't on your side, and so it goes. This is a very rare situation. I don't think I have ever, ever seen a character surrounded by eight figures. Even five or six is extremely rare (kobolds!).

yeah it is but basically possible, if attackers dices suck then just wasting fatigue and undying effect helps also. i tested one map and got rid of 4 monsters, they were weak but attack 2 and each 2 cleaves. but to weak monsters is very easyly do-able.

Yes, but Cleave is still ha really bad skill. Its not often for a Melee hero to get up close to several monsters in the right way for cleave to be effective.

Honn said:

Get a Reach weapon. Then it becomes fairly easy to Advance into position and kill several monsters with Cleaving.

Cleave is quite a good skill, it just requires some basic tactics to get the most out of it. It can also be quite effective without actually seeing use, as the OL can't afford to stack corridors with easy kill monsters as blockage (similar to bast and breathe runes) but will have to spread out more creating gaps to run through if desired.