My group recently played encounter 1 of Rellager’s Rest. We are yet to begin encounter 2, but I’m excited for it.
Anyways, I chose ogres as my open group.
I enjoy choosing a monster/hero/class based on how fun I think it will be to play. I do consider things like what role it will serve in the quest, whether or not it reinforces, etc.
I prefer having something adequately effective while also being fun to play. Once the game begins, I then try my best to win with what I’ve selected.
First, ogres are not great. Of the five-ish “giants” (ettins, giants, ogres, trolls, ynfearnal hulks) they are quite possibly the worst of the bunch. They don’t have the speed of the hulks, the toughness of the ettins and giants, or the brutality of the trolls.
An ogre attack (surge abilities for +3 and one for Knockback) is something to be wary of. Past that, their movement is nothing special, and they are remarkably squishy.
A major drawback that really hurt while using them is they lack Reach. (That might be because pairing Reach with Knockback would have a massive impact on hero positioning, but I don’t know)
I think they could be much better if they had an extra brown defense die, or if Fleshmonger gave 3 or even 4 health per hero token instead of 2. Or if Fleshmonger worked on both ogres.
I did enjoy using them. Since the heroes had mostly starting gear, Fleshmonger bought another round of life for the master. The minion’s relatively easy access to Knockback was helpful once or twice.
But they are fragile for being large monsters, and in a game where a monster can be downed in a round or two, Fleshmonger may rarely make a difference. I had fun using them, and the sculpt looks great. But they are pretty underwhelming.