reading the rules and i haven't found anything on the forums, do dark prest have to spend surges on the plus one damage and range or is it given when rolled.

Each surge a dark priest rolls gives +1 damage AND +1 range AND generates 1 threat for the overlord.

If you mean, do they still receive these bonuses if they need to spend the surges on something else, such as overcoming Fear ...it's not entirely clear. Even for the normal 2 surges -> 1 threat ability, the rules don't actually talk about spending the surges, but the FAQ does, so my inclination would be to treat all of these abilities as requiring the surges be spent in order to receive the benefit.

Okay thanks for the clarification

Unless you're playing an advanced campaign, in which case it says "A monster with the Dark Prayer ability generates one threat for the overlord for every surge it spends when attacking, instead of for every two surges. In addition, the figure gains +1 range and +1 damage for each surge rolled when attacking."

So if you're playing an advanced campaign they don't have to spend the surges to get the bonus range and damage, as that triggers when they're rolled.

James McMurray said:

So they copy-pasted the exact text of the ability from AoD, word-for-word, except that they changed the word "rolls" to "spends" in the first sentence but not the second sentence. That could mean that they were deliberately changing it so that the threat, but not the range and damage, is dependent on spending the surge...or it could mean that they were trying to clarify (or change) the entire effect and they missed the word in the second sentence.

If you think it was a deliberate change, though, we've got a problem: the "instead of for every two surges" language is unchanged. So if the two versions are deliberately different, then the original version implies that you don't need to spend surges to get the normal 1 threat per 2 surges, while the new version implies that you do . Those can't both be correct.

Incidentally, are there any addition things for monsters to spend surges on in an advanced campaign, or any additional ways for heroes to get Fear?

If you think it was a deliberate change

I don't see how it could possibly have been accidental. It's hard to type an english word when all you meant to do was copy and paste.

So if the two versions are deliberately different, then the original version implies that you don't need to spend surges to get the normal 1 threat per 2 surges, while the new version implies that you do .

When did the FAQ clarify that surges are spent to generate threat? If it was after Dark Prayer was created, the ability can't possibly account for it. It looks to me as if the order was:

1) Dark Prayer was created, the rules said that threat was generated from surges rolled, so Dark Prayer said it as well.

2) The FAQ was updated. Nobody bothered to update Dark Prayer because it still generated the same result.

2.5) something happened that made it so that dark priests spending the surges mattered (no idea what that could have been, maybe just someone wanting to be more technical in their rules writing)

3) RtL came out and the person writing the monster abilities section changed Dark Prayer to match the new FAQ ruling.

Incidentally, are there any addition things for monsters to spend surges on in an advanced campaign, or any additional ways for heroes to get Fear?

Surges: I don't think so.

Fear: the only thing I know of is the gold treasure that gives Fear 1.

Antistone said:

Surges: Dar Hilzernod the Dragon Avatar specific lieutenant has one. I think there are a couple dungeon level or encounter leaders that have something too.

Fear: like James, I can't think of any others.

Solairflaire said:

That is something entirely different and not pertinent - it isn't 'spending' (or using) surges (during an attack), it is an independent event that triggers on a surge on a specially rolled dice (basically just a 1/3 chance). SImilarly with the leaders, I think (I can think of one such effect which is a Dragon which can break an item or destroy a potion after an attack if a specially rolled dice comes up blank).

Dar Hilzernod's combat ability is worded exactly like a weapon that has an ability that is triggered by spending surges. When battling him, he has the ability:

~ ~ : each hero affected by this attack loses his choice of 1 fatigue (if able) or 2 wounds (ignoring armor). This ability may be used any number of times.

I wasn't talking about his reinforce ability. Sorry for the confusion. I could have sworn that there was a level or encounter leader that had something that said to spend surges on the ability. I don't have access to the cards to check right now, unless there is something on BBG that can be downloaded. I'll check there tomorrow and see.

Solairflaire said:

Entirely my bad!

I only read part way down and then it matched with my memory of the dragon level boss.

You were quite right, Dar Hlizernod does have a surge-spending combat ability (and I've even run him, so I ought to know - though in all fairness he spent the entire encounter we had covered in daze counters and hardly rolling any dice, so I probably never used it).

I believe the only other alternative way of spending surges for monsters is using the Bash ability, that (if everything goes as planned) allows the attack to gain +5Damage and Pierce 2 for each 2 surges spent. And I believe only Trolls have Bash so far.

By the way, am I the only guy who thinks that the GOLD TREASURE Rune giving Fear 1 is a very very bad Item, especially considering that spending surges isn't that important for the Overlord (not as much as for heroes, by the way)?

IMO it's bad in the advanced campaign but can be very nice in a vanilla quest. In the advanced campaign monsters get more power dice, and thus more chances to roll surges. In a vanilla game the monsters typically aren't rolling a lot of surges, so the fear could cause a miss. Of course, that depends on what map you're playing and what spawns your OL draws.

Fear 1 is a respectable defensive measure against monsters with a small number of dice (particularly melee monsters), giving a significant increase in miss chance. So it should at least offer protection against beastman spawns in vanilla. And if there were some way to get multiple sources of Fear, they stack up into something scary pretty quickly, at least in vanilla. There's a silver armor in The Enduring Evil that gives +0 armor but Fear 2 (and -1 max fatigue), and it's arguably the single item that requires the greatest tactical adjustment from the overlord, even though you tend to fight more high-tier monsters than in vanilla.

But Fear 1 is not likely to be your primary defense at gold level; there's a good chance you'd rather have the Ring of Protection, given the choice.