I have been running a Descent group for a few years now, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions that we have as a group. I started with the base campaign and then we later went into road of legend and now sea of blood. I am always the Overlord, yeah it gets old, and my friends and I constantly come into questions while playing that the rule book does not seem to give straight answers for. K so I have some questions about the basic mechanics of the game in general and then also some specific questions about the sea of blood. So here it goes.

Basic Game Mechanics for Descent in General.

1. Can any character make any kind of attack regardless of traits? For example, if a hero has no traits in magic can he make a magic attack? If so what dice would that hero use?

2. Can a hero make a ranged attack with the melee dice? For example, a kobold has a red dice and a yellow dice on the sea of blood campaign. Can the kobold make an attack with the melee dice if he is two or three squares away from its target? Or does it have to switch out the red dice with the blue ranged dice?

3. Can any hero use any kind of item as long as it fits into the two hand limit and the equipped item limit etc. So for example, can a non magic character use a magic item?

4. After a hero uses an item, is it automatically exhausted or is it only exhausted if it specifically says to do so on the card?

Sea of Blood Questions

1. Can ships ever rotate during an encounter?

2. Is there a limit to the number of upgrades an overlord can purchase for his or her avatar?

3. While heroes are in dungeons, do lieutenants still raze cities or does it stop until heroes exit the dungeon?

4. Can a hero or monster be knocked off a ship?

5.When heroes buy skill cards do they just draw one card at random from the skill deck?

I am sure there are more to follow but I really appreciate anyone's thoughts. Not everything is clearly explained in the book. Also if possible, can you include page number references in your responses. A lot to ask, but really helps. Thanks guys.

1. Can any character make any kind of attack regardless of traits? For example, if a hero has no traits in magic can he make a magic attack? If so what dice would that hero use?

Yes. They use whatever dice they have in that trait (which may be 0) plus whatever dice the weapon gives them.

2. Can a hero make a ranged attack with the melee dice? For example, a kobold has a red dice and a yellow dice on the sea of blood campaign. Can the kobold make an attack with the melee dice if he is two or three squares away from its target? Or does it have to switch out the red dice with the blue ranged dice?

No. Every attack says on it which base dice to use. To that you add any trait dice you may have. Typically monsters only have one type of attack.

3. Can any hero use any kind of item as long as it fits into the two hand limit and the equipped item limit etc. So for example, can a non magic character use a magic item?

Yes, unless the hero has a specific statement on his card that disallows something (such as Nanok not being able to wear armor).

4. After a hero uses an item, is it automatically exhausted or is it only exhausted if it specifically says to do so on the card?

Only if the card says to exhaust it.

Sea of Blood Questions

1. Can ships ever rotate during an encounter?

No, unless there's a scenario with a special rule I haven't seen.

2. Is there a limit to the number of upgrades an overlord can purchase for his or her avatar?

Only his XP pool and the limit of one per week.

3. While heroes are in dungeons, do lieutenants still raze cities or does it stop until heroes exit the dungeon?

An entire trip through a dungeon takes just one week. It's not that the lieutenants stop, just that the overlord hasn't gotten another turn to give them an order.

4. Can a hero or monster be knocked off a ship?

Yes.

5.When heroes buy skill cards do they just draw one card at random from the skill deck?

In the base game they buy one at random. In the campaigns they pick one of the ones that are available in the location where they're training.

If you haven't already read it, I highly recommend reading the FAQ.

Bah, my browser crashed and I lost my reply. And now it appears James has made my re-typed answer largely unnecessary. But I already typed it twice, so here goes anyway:

1. Heroes can (in general) use any weapon, but the weapon defines the type of attack (and the dice used). You can't make a magic attack with an axe or a melee attack with a crossbow, but a melee-focused hero is allowed to equip a magic weapon. If he has no traits in magic, he simply doesn't get any "free" power dice on his attack. (He can still drink a potion or spend fatigue to add black dice to the roll.)
2. There are some exceptions (Furr the Spirit Wolf, Golems in RtL), but most melee attacks use the red die, ranged use blue, and magic use white. A kobold is defined to have a melee attack, so it cannot attack from 2-3 squares away. You can't make a "ranged melee attack" (unless you have Reach or if you had a melee weapon that used the Breath template) and you can't change the dice rolled by your monsters. (Chaos Beasts are an exception because of their Morph ability.)
3. In general, any hero can use any items. Like almost everything else in the game, there are some exceptions (Nanok can't use Armor, etc), but those exceptions are specifically stated on the relevant hero card. There's no general rule preventing, for example, a melee-focused hero from using a Rune.
4. Follow the text on the card. Some items give passive bonuses with no cost, some items are discarded after use, and some items are exhausted after use. Items only exhaust after use if they say they do.

Basically, +1 to James' answers.

Heh, guess I shoulda looked here before answering on the duplicated post.

-shnar