Does your group choose your heroes, or do you draw them randomly? We're competitive and I don't want us players to have an unfair advantage on the overlord.

I usually allow my players to draw 3 random heroes each, and they then further choose 1 from the 3 they picked.

Our house-rule is to draw two each and pick one which we find works well. Means that even the Aurims and Red Scorpions will see play sometimes but the party gives some choice of overall party make-up.

Drawing three each, I imagine would lead to seeing a lot of Nanok and Kirga. This is the official rules of the Campaign expansions of course, in which players are really going to be cheesed off if they have to invest 60 odd hours of playing Red Scorpion.

(although off topic, I've always wondered how heroes like Red Scorpion and Eliam work in Road to Legend. Does being able to their skills and grant fatigue/wound upgrades make them playable? Anyone tried?)

Always draw randomly.

My players always choose their characters, and I have won all the games I have played.

But I play descent to have fun, and, knowing my players, they wouldn't like it if they would have to draw theirs characters. But there is something interesting with the people I play with. Even if they are powergamers (in RPG), they can find interest in any characters, even those who seem lame to some. For exemple, one of them really like Aurim and he hate that people call him weak because he see potential in him.

I bought Descent because it seem to have almost everything that a RPG have. The thing I like the least about descent is that it is a competitive game (unlike a true RPG), but I know that where the difficulty of the game is. That why I have difficulty restraining myself ; I fear that by doing so it will be to easy for the players.

I think it is better to let your players choose their hero, since they will be stuck with it for a long time.

Descent it is not an RPG and I think that misconception is what hurts some folks enjoyment of the game because they are expecting something out of it that it is not. As far as choosing randomly or players picking their heroes. Both are options in the game. But I believe drawing random is in the true spirit of the game and causes a varied learning curve by having the party work together based on the abilities and powers they have available to them. I think that is part of the challenge to Descent.

To each his own though whichever way you play as long as your having fun with your group is all that really matters.

inle_badger said:

We use the draw three choose one method and did before the Advanced Campaigns came out and it became official (for them).

If you have all the expansions, possibly + some extra heroes from various sources, even with draw 3 you don't see the same heroes all the time.

As for the weak heroes in campaign expansions, some are still crap (red scorpion) but others become a lot more playable. Eliam for example is a very useful 4th hero - he is fast, and can flexibly use either an axe or a copper magic treasure to one-shot the majority of monsters in copper level. Later, with a fatigue upgrade and some trait upgrades he can do very nice things with a sweeping reach weapon while keeping a breath/blast weapon as backup (especially vs Razorwings outdoors).
Generally speaking, most of the weaker heroes except Aurim (because his ability is completely useless in ACs) and Red Scorpion (because she simply has no redeeming features) are acceptable 4th heroes, as long as you still have 1 decent tank/warrior, 1 decent mage and 1 decent ranger/runner.

Corbon said:

Just to have my total nerd/fanboy moment for the year... I would argue she has two redeeming features based on her artwork.

Big Remy said:

They are clearly not real redeeming features.

Corbon said:

AHAHHAHAA...nicely done sir, nicely done.

We currently have Red Scorpion in our Sea of Blood campaign.

I (the Overlord) always let my players draw 3 and choose 1. They also have to option to take a mulligan (discard all 3 draws, and draw 2. And even then they are allowed to take another mulligan and discard those 2 to get 1 final character).

And guess what? i still win almost every game

Can't remember if it actually is a house-rule of ours, or that it is in the actual rules (don't have the rules with me) but each player in our group is allowed to discard 1 Skill Card and draw a new one (of the same sort) at random.

We have a few players who for some reason can't enjoy a nice game of Descent if they end upwith a Hero who is not really of their liking.....

gobliin said:

Ditto that, particularly in campaign mode. I just let them pick, as it's more fun, and it's hardly like they walk all over me. I think I win more than I lose. We're a fairly laid back group, though - whatever's fun.

I allow the random draw of 3 choose 1 out of those for Campaign play as well. But if it is just a game of vanilla Descent then it is random all the way. But I find now with two Campaign expansions to choose from the vanilla games are sadly a thing of the past for my players. After the first Road to Legend game we couldn't go back to Vanilla Descent.