Missing 12 heroes from Conversion Kit

By rugal, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I've thought a considerable amount about this, and the consensus between myself and most of the group I play Descent with is the following (for these 4 heroes):

Varikas the Dead: Same as the CK except a tweaked hero ability.

Hero ability: At the start of your turn, you may suffer 1 wound to recover 2 fatigue."

Red Scorpion: Same stats as CK, but with a new hero ability and feat.

Hero ability: "At the start of your turn, you may suffer up to 3 wound to recover an equal amount of fatigue. At the end of your turn, you may suffer up to 3 fatigue to suffer an equal amount of wound."

Heroic Feat: Use at the end of your turn and test each attribute. Until the start of your next turn, your defense results gain shields equal to the number of successes.

Brother Glyr: Same stats as CK. New hero ability, slightly tweaked feat.

Hero ability: At the start of your turn, choose 2 heroes within 3 spaces of you. Each chosen hero gains up to 2 MP.

Heroic feat: (Same as CK, but an adjacent hero gains the damage reduction as well).

Mad Carthos: Same as CK, with minor changes. His hero ability should work for first use of EACH skill that costs 1 fatigue, not just first use of 1 skill. His heroic feat should apply to Rune weapons in addition to Magic weapons.

We played with this party a few times, it worked rather nicely. I would have liked for that campaign to have gone further...

8 hours ago, rugal said:

I haven't find all ideas yet, but here is the first try

All ideas are welcome

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y9qket3olqscqod/AAAZSLP9lsJKCCCk1kjt3YB1a?dl=0

Love the design of these cards, and it dawns on me one good thing about FFG wrapping up second edition is the realization that one still has a lot to do with it- playtesting various things, the things I'm working on, painting all my kit.......... so I think second edition will be the gift that keeps on giving for a fair few years (decades even) yet even without new stuff from FFG for it!

Maybe we should do the other missing entities- there are a few lieutenants/avatars and the new heroes we expected but never got that popped up briefly in Road To Legend (app) including Lost Legends cover star Shadar Runearmor. Maybe think about who they are- it always felt like Ruen The Living should have some sort of link to Varikas The Dead for example.

Thought: would/should the complete set of heroes balance out to the classes in any way?

Maybe we should co-create a Descent adventure series for the missing in action heroes and a few of the villains "The Forgotten: Lost Legends of Mennara" as a fanbase tribute to these forgotten characters :)

Here they all are (deep breath!), also sharing with RPG'ers as it may give them some ideas. I've already got ideas to bring some of these into the adventures I'm working on.

Complete list (I think!) of what's missing from 2e:

Heroes (in conversion kit but never made it to a hero and monster pack):

Bogran the Shadow

Landrec the Wise

Mad Carthos

Red Scorpion

Varikas the Dead

Brother Glyr

Aurim

Eliam

Kirga

Laughin Buldar

Hugo the Glorious

Tobin Farslayer

First edition heroes info: https://www.descentinthedark.com/_h_/heroes.php

Second edition heroes info: https://descent2e.fandom.com/wiki/Hero

'New' 'Unused' Heroes that popped up in RTL (app) and Lost Legends cover art (Shadar) https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1667128/unreleased-heros :

Khanokat Oul

Ruen The Living

Shadar Runearmor

Tenzi Of The Path

Avatars and Lieutenants (only the three Farrows made it across, the spider queen became Ariad, Master of The Hunt may have evolved into Ardus Ix'Erebus - it fits that Waiqar/Ardus style, some are fairly generic e.g. the sorcerer king is just a sorcerer):

Dar Hilzernod https://www.descentinthedark.com/_d_/dar_hilzernod.php

Darkwind https://www.descentinthedark.com/_d_/darkwind.php

Gata the White Death (Realms of Terrinoth has the 'white death' as an environmental threat linked to the icy realms of Isheim) https://www.descentinthedark.com/_g_/gata_the_white_death.php

Kar-Amag-Atoth https://www.descentinthedark.com/_k_/kar_amag_atoth.php

Kratz the Plague https://www.descentinthedark.com/_k_/kratz_the_plague.php

Krieg the Relentless https://www.descentinthedark.com/_k_/krieg_the_relentless.php

Slaggorrath who seems to be the spider queen's son https://www.descentinthedark.com/_s_/slaggorrath.php

Soriss https://www.descentinthedark.com/_s_/soriss.php

Sweetheart https://www.descentinthedark.com/_s_/sweetheart.php

Thaadd the Destroyer https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/thaadd_the_destroyer.php

The Ghost Ship https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_ghost_ship.php

The Kraken https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_kraken.php

The Siren https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_siren.php

The Void https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_void.php

Captain Bones https://www.descentinthedark.com/_c_/captain_bones.php

Master of the Hunt https://www.descentinthedark.com/_m_/master_of_the_hunt.php

Mistress of Serpents (a kind of lead Naga) https://www.descentinthedark.com/_m_/mistress_of_serpents.php

The Beastman Lord https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_beastman_lord.php

The Count (may be nice to tie in with Eliza and the vampire 'crew' :) - could be suited to using Vorun'thul from RWM) https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_count.php

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/runewars-miniatures-game/products/lord-vorunthul-hero-expansion/

The Demon Prince https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_demon_prince.php

The Great Wyrm https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_great_wyrm.php

The Sorcerer King https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_sorcerer_king.php

The Titan https://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/the_titan.php

One or more familiars such as Alex the Wise (parrot)

From Sea of Blood https://www.descentinthedark.com/_s_/sea_of_blood.php :

Ships - could be tricky to introduce a 'working' version though as SoB is said to have its flaws gameplay-wise and the ships dynamic is quite different to other aspects of the game

4 cannon types: Runeblast Cannons, Hawkeye Cannons , Coldsteel Cannons , Dragonfire Cannons

Bloodsquid

Daggertooth Shark

If we're feeling particularly ambitious there's also the new characters, potential heroes/monsters, introduced in Runewars Miniatures :)

Finally these locations and terrain may also seed some ideas for Descent custom games or RPG'ing: https://www.descentinthedark.com/_l_/location_cards.php

Where are you getting Alex the Wise, and the cannon types from? And the Bloodsquid?

The locations seem pretty basic (like a peaceful glade, etc.). I did start a folder on some interesting places. I'm still fleshing it out, but these sound like adventures waiting to happen. https://www.scabard.com/pbs/campaign/235523/folder/365450

7 minutes ago, IamGazrok said:

Where are you getting Alex the Wise, and the cannon types from? And the Bloodsquid?

All of these are 'Sea of Blood' (first edition Descent) although I didn't remember the 'bloodsquid' (mine's in different places due to a housemove so I've not been able to check) so maybe that's different in mine or I've just forgotten....

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/55150/descent-sea-blood/images

1 hour ago, Watercolour Dragon said:

Many things

About the 4 heroes discovered inside the app, I'm thinking about it, especially about Kanokat oul (since healers are really few) and Ruen the living (since he is a non human), but there is already enough warrior, and I wish the game has same amout of heroes from each archetype

But there's all some heroes from "Mists of Zanaga" from Runebound V2 that can have their place here (and I do love Maliki the claw as a "non human hero")

About lieutenants from D1, many where "reborn" in some way or other in Descent V2, so, it will be a bit complexe

what about one step after another one ?

Edited by rugal
Just now, rugal said:



what about one step after another one ?

How does that work (says me working on umpteen Terrinoth projects at once and that's with the break of sorting some things at my flat!) :)

The list's mainly so people can pick what most interests them- it would be way too much to take it all on and at once.

Agree there are some great characters in the game, I'd second Maliki being one of them

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1128875/runebound-mists-zanaga

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1371678/runebound-mists-zanaga

On a similar note for inspiration there's a big list of Terrinoth/Mennara characters from several games here that was made by IamGazrok for RPG purposes- useful if you're looking for things that fit a particular adventure or just want to get lost in the depths of the lore of these lands:

https://www.scabard.com/pbs/campaign/235523/folder/263802

I still can't find the parrot though. Do you have a direct link? Cool find on the characters that weren't published (I did add them).

27 minutes ago, IamGazrok said:

I still can't find the parrot though. Do you have a direct link? Cool find on the characters that weren't published (I did add them).

Ah, it's not a familiar (although I tend to think of it as such) - there's actually four critters (two are a pair) that may be available to any character,

Alex the Wise (parrot) https://www.descentinthedark.com/_a_/alex_the_wise.php

Lightfinger (some sort of bushbaby???) http://www.descentinthedark.com/_l_/lightfinger.php

Mata and Kata (ferrets / weasels / similar / both maybe if I remember correctly???) https://www.descentinthedark.com/_m_/mata_and_kata.php

Page 43-44 - if you can find the cards there's a better image than the tokens, not to mention this rulebook could be great fodder for RPG ideas also - https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/descent/descent-sea-of-blood-rules-web.pdf

Which reminds me there's also Boggs the Rat - who could be quite fun to use with Verminous and his rat swarms from 2e!

https://www.descentinthedark.com/_b_/boggs_the_rat.php

Any other 1e animals I've/we've forgotten? I know there's a few ghostly things that may be similar, I've gradually been finding my older 1e stuff so shall add anything I dig up in due course!

7 minutes ago, IamGazrok said:

Funny, Alex the Wise is actually based on a real life parrot.

I think I have most everything in my bestiary. https://www.scabard.com/pbs/campaign/235523/folder/243414

I have a pair of figures of different colours (same parrot species) so one or two of my games will feature (my idea) another parrot- Alexa the Foolish - couldn't resist the tech humor opportunity, plus an idea I won't spoil here :)

Btw, Sweetheart was based on a real life creature too- look it up!

Edited by Watercolour Dragon

Mata and Kata are definitely ferrets. Says so in the Familiars section...but they are also a riff on Kodo and Podo (Beastmaster's ferrets).

Fun aside, I met Marc Singer (Beastmaster) this past weekend, and he absolutely hated the ferrets (as they simply upstaged him everytime). But he loved the big cat. He's an interesting guy, and had some fun stories. (got an autograph, and we also got a group V pic with him, Jane Badler, and Robert Englund...so that was fun). (for those who even know what "V" is...) (or Beastmaster....for that matter...I'm old). LOL.

Do you have a link for the new images for Laughin Buldar and Aurim? I haven't seen those, not even in searching.

I do have them in already, just with different images.

FYI, you mentioned looking at RuneWars, etc. When fleshing mine out, I've been looking at everything Terrinoth that exists, even Diskwars, Battlelore, etc. There really are little tidbits of lore throughout all of these over the years...that really add up to a lot. Here's the whole list, if you are interested...

Battlemist

Diskwars

Runebound (First/Second)

Descent (First)

Runewars (First/Revised)

Dungeonquest (Third)

Rune Age

Descent (Second)

Battlelore (Second)

Runebound (Third)

Runewars

Legacy of Dragonholt

Heroes of Terrinoth (just picked this one up, but still on the way)

Quote

Btw, Sweetheart was based on a real life creature too- look it up!

So it is!

Australia....of course.

I like all these references to other things- wonder how many there are that I've totally overlooked, one of my favorites is there's actually a 'War Hammer' weapon in second edition Descent :)

Thanks for the games list, I'd recently got as far as knowing that list finally (I only recently discovered Battlemist after reading someone else's post on the games), it's getting so tempting to try to get some of the older ones, especially as I got one shop's last copy of Rune Age! Have quite a bit of 1e Descent unless anything got lost in the house move. Some of the out of print ones are crazy prices though as there aren't many on sale.

I've also got Drakon as it feels like a close friend of Terrinoth even though its not a Terrinoth game per se.

Runewars is of course the miniatures game and the boardgame. You know that but it's not clear on the list.

Excited for the fact the upcoming project is both Descent and Terrinoth related and is meant to go deeper than ever into the lore, wonder if it might join up the dots somewhat.

Added

- Landrec the Wise (not so sure about his hero ability)
- Bogran the shadow (not so sure about his feat)

Edited some heroes

Edited by rugal
On 9/6/2019 at 2:10 PM, IamGazrok said:

Do you have a link for the new images for Laughin Buldar and Aurim? I haven't seen those, not even in searching.

I do have them in already, just with different images.

FYI, you mentioned looking at RuneWars, etc. When fleshing mine out, I've been looking at everything Terrinoth that exists, even Diskwars, Battlelore, etc. There really are little tidbits of lore throughout all of these over the years...that really add up to a lot. Here's the whole list, if you are interested...

Battlemist

Diskwars

Runebound (First/Second)

Descent (First)

Runewars (First/Revised)

Dungeonquest (Third)

Rune Age

Descent (Second)

Battlelore (Second)

Runebound (Third)

Runewars

Legacy of Dragonholt

Heroes of Terrinoth (just picked this one up, but still on the way)

One of the Drakon games used the Descent 1st edition Minis. It's not specifically a Terrinoth game, but uses the exact same minis. It was either Well of Darkness or Altar of Despair. Can't recall off the top of my head.

Drakon (also FFG) seems a lot like Dungeon/Dungeonquest, all of which use Dragonfire Castle. At least in the way it is played. Interesting. Both Well of Darkness and Altar of Despair are Descent expansions though. So far, I can't see any crossover with Drakon, but I may not be seeing the right version of it maybe? It does have some nice figs though.

Edited by IamGazrok

Ah, the Well of Darkness figs were the same heroes as in Drakon. ;)

On 10/3/2019 at 3:20 PM, IamGazrok said:

Drakon (also FFG) seems a lot like Dungeon/Dungeonquest, all of which use Dragonfire Castle. At least in the way it is played. Interesting. Both Well of Darkness and Altar of Despair are Descent expansions though. So far, I can't see any crossover with Drakon, but I may not be seeing the right version of it maybe? It does have some nice figs though.

I got Drakon recently, looking forward to playing it

On 10/3/2019 at 8:41 AM, IamGazrok said:

Ah, the Well of Darkness figs were the same heroes as in Drakon. ;)

No they're not:

pic144883.jpg

pic2394222.png

3 hours ago, ComtriS said:

No they're not:

...

Drakon First and Second editions used cardboard tokens instead of minis.
Drakon Third edition used Descent First edition Well of Darkness minis and new Drakon mini.
Drakon Fourth edition uses new miniatures (+ same Drakon mini as in Third edition).

Knight and Ranger miniatures seems to be heroes from Descent box art, check this topic .
I am slowly working on including all the minis from Drakon to the Descent, starting with the knight and also creating new heroes graphics (more Descent like) with additional heroes to Drakon.

Resurrecting this thread as I think it's time that we as a community decide what to do about the 12 CK heroes (as FFG never will at this point).

Here's my attempt, keeping @Zaltyre 's changes, and based around @rugal 's work.

I think it makes sense to keep all the numbers unchanged and just try to balance the Hero Ability/Heroic Feat. Please let me know what you think of this set below.

Brother Glyr: unchanged from @Zaltyre 's version

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: In addition to your 2 actions on your turn, you always receive 2 movement points.

Heroic Feat: Use at the start of your turn to recover all Fatigue. Until the start of your next turn, each time you suffer 1 or more Heart, you suffer 1 fewer Heart, to a minimum of 0.

Glyr.png?dl=1

Red Scorpion: Unchanged from @Zaltyre 's version

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: At the end of your turn, you may suffer 1 Fatigue to recover 1 Heart, or suffer 1 Heart to recover 1 Fatigue.

Heroic Feat: Use when you are attacked to force the attacking monster to reroll some or all of the attack dice (you choose which dice). The new results must be applied.

RedScorpion.png?dl=1

Mad Carthos: Unchanged from @Zaltyre 's version

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: Once per turn, when you use a skill that costs 1 Fatigue, reduce the cost to 0 Fatigue.

Heroic Feat: Action: Perform an attack with a Magic weapon. This attack deals +3 Heart.

Carthos.png?dl=1

Varikas the Dead: Unchanged from @Zaltyre 's version

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: At the start of your turn, recover 1 Fatigue.

Heroic Feat: Use at the start of your turn if you are knocked out. Recover all Heart and Fatigue. You may still perform 2 actions this turn.

Varikas.png?dl=1

Laughin Buldar : unchanged from @rugal 's version.

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: You may treat 1 of your equipped Melee weapons as if it only had 1 hand icon (even if it has 2 hand icons).

Heroic Feat: Use as your entire activation to perform 3 attack actions. If you do, you cannot move this turn, not even by suffering Fatigue.

Laughin.png?dl=1

Hugo the Glorious : similar to FFG's CK version. Small tweak to the Hero Ability to allow all defense dice to reroll. This is also the one case where I'd like to change stats a little bit; thinking about changing the health to 14.

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: If you do not move this round, you may reroll 1 of your defense dice each time you are attacked.

Heroic Feat: Use at the start of your turn. Double the Heart on your attack roll for each attack you perform this turn.

Hugo.png?dl=1

Hugo with the proposed change to Healer:

Hugo2.png?dl=1

Aurim: Similar to FFG's version. Tweak to the Heroic Feat to improve consistency -- now keeps drawing search cards until he finds a potion. Makes his Hero Ability always useful, and makes him less capable of being a gold generator for the hero team.

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: Each time you use a Potion, you and each hero adjacent to you are affected.

Heroic Feat: Use at the start of your turn to draw a Search card.

Aurim.png?dl=1

Bogran the Shadow: Similar to @rugal 's change. Increase Pierce to 2. And change Heroic Feat to target adjacent.

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: Each time you attack a monster adjacent to another hero, your attack gains +1 Heart

Heroic Feat: Action: Perform an attack, then place a hero token in your space and remove your figure from the map. At the start of your next turn, replace the hero token with your figure.

Bogran.png?dl=1

Eliam : Similar to @rugal 's change. Kept the Heroic Feat. New Hero Ability.

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: While you have 2 Melee weapons equipped, each time you attack an adjacent monster and do not roll an X, deal 1 Heart to one other monster adjacent to you.

Heroic Feat: Use at the end of your turn. Until the start of your next turn, each time you are attacked by an adjacent monster, you may suffer 1 Fatigue to attack that monster before it rolls its attack dice.

Eliam.png?dl=1

Kirga : Combination of FFG's version and @rugal 's version. Kept FFG's Heroic Feat, used @rugal 's Heroic Feat as a Hero Ability and made it weaker. Might have to add something like "You do not block line of sight".

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: A monster may only target you with an attack if there are no other heroes closer to that monster and in its line of sight.

Heroic Feat: Use during another figure's activation to immediately perform a move action. You may not interrupt another player's action unless it is a move action.

Kirga.png?dl=1

Kirga with the proposed change to Mage:

Kirga2.png?dl=1

Landrec the Wise : Similar to @rugal 's. Improved the Hero Ability.

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: Each time you attack and do not roll at least 1 Surge, gain 1 Surge.

Heroic Feat: Use when performing an attack, before rolling dice. This attack gains: Surge Surge: +5 Heart

Landrec.png?dl=1

Tobin Farslayer : Similar to FFG's version. Slight improvement to Hero Ability. Added the option for +2 Range.

FFG CK abilities:

Hero Ability: Each of your attacks that targets a monster that is at least 3 spaces away from you gains: Surge: +2 Heart

Heroic Feat: Use after attacking a monster that is at least 5 spaces away from you (after attack dice are rolled) to deal +3 Heart to that monster.

Tobin.png?dl=1

Edited by ComtriS