Hello, I picked up the Descent game and two expansions in a garage sale this summer, and have only played a few times. So far, the games seems pretty straight forward, but a question has come up about monster levels in two and three player games. According to the rules in the basic game, the monster strength is based on the number of players, not the number of heroes. I don't understand the logic of this, as a two player game has two heroes controlled by one player, and a three player game has 2 heroes controlled by 2 players. Either way there are still only two heroes. Why the difference in monster power?

Thanks,

Bruce

No idea, but it won't matter. If you've only got 2 heroes you can put the monsters at 0 armor and 1 health each and you'll probably still lose nine times out of ten (or more). The consensus seems to be that 3 heroes is about even, and four is a little in favor of the hero players. 2 is practically unworkable.

cue Antistone's self-pimping in 5... 4... 3...

Rophan said:

There is no difference. The 2-player and 3-player monster stats are identical.

I really don't understand why they didn't just label the cards by the # of heroes in the game, rather than the # of players. It seems to me it would avoid a lot of unnecessary confusion.

There is no difference. The 2-player and 3-player monster stats are identical.

I really don't understand why they didn't just label the cards by the # of heroes in the game, rather than the # of players. It seems to me it would avoid a lot of unnecessary confusion.

It is because when the game was created the developers figured there woudl be one player per hero [OL not concidered as a hero/player].

Far be it from me to correct anyone in what they beleave. That's just my understanding of it at any rate.

Indrano said:

No, the rules specifically say that if there is only one hero player, he should control two heroes.

But even if they assumed that, I'm still prepared to argue it's a confusing way to label the cards, because even if the number of heroes is always entirely predictable from the number of players (and there's no way that would be true in practice, regardless of RAW), the strength of the monsters is logically connected to the number of heroes, not to the number of players.

And printing the same set of stats twice under different labels only adds to the confusion.