Some questions about combat rules. Please help.

By viper5121, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

When a hero or monster attacks, do all opposing characters within the combat range get affected, or only one of them?

Also, taking the "Bane Spider" for example, the green and white dice are it's combat dice correct? Then for the Master Bane Spider, what does that gray dice (next to the white and green dice) represent? Is that a surge dice? What significance does the magic symbol on the card have? Do "Poison" and "Web" mean the hero gets poisoned and a web on them? How does that affect the hero's life and turns?

Also, on the black surge dice, why is there a slash () between the number (range) and the hearts (damage)? What does it signify?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you very much.

viper5121 said:

When a hero or monster attacks, do all opposing characters within the combat range get effected, or only one of them?

Also, taking the "Bane Spider" for example, the green and white dice are it's combat dice correct? Then for the Master Bane Spider, what does that gray dice (next to the white and green dice) represent? Is that a surge dice? What significance does the magic symbol on the card have? Do "Poison" and "Web" mean the hero gets poisoned and a web on them? How does that affect the hero's life and turns?

Also, on the black surge dice, why is there a slash () between the number (range) and the hearts (damage)? What does it signify?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you very much.

In general any character attacks a specific space in which another figure is present. Certain abilities allow for characters to target larger areas of effect (such as Blast or Breath), in these instances any figures within the area of effect are subject to that attack.

So a melee attack by a hero on a beastman while surrounded by beastmen only affects the singular beastman in the space he is attacking.

A mage using a rune with Blast on the same area would most likely affect all the characters in that area (hero and beastmen alike).

A normal Bane Spider uses a green and a white die. In addition any damage done is Poison damage as per the description.

A Master Bane Spider uses a green, a white and a black die. Any damage done is Poison damage and the character hit is also subject to Web.

Poison means that for each hit point lost the hero gains a poison token. Each poison token must be healed prior to hit points being regained.

Web requires a roll at the start of each of the character's turns to determine if the web is still in effect or not. If a character remains webbed they may not spend any movement points that turn (One exception having to do with a Gold Treasure IIRC)

The slash indicates that you may only use one of the two symbols on that side of the die. You may choose either +1 damage or +1 range.

Hope that helps.

In case you didn't realize, Critters with white dic in their attacks (like Bane Spiders) can attack from range.

I didn't realize that one at first as I was just assuming they ran up and chomped on people.

bmaynard said:

In case you didn't realize, Critters with white dic in their attacks (like Bane Spiders) can attack from range.

I didn't realize that one at first as I was just assuming they ran up and chomped on people.

But yellow, green, blue, red, and black dice all have range on them too, so why can only monsters with white dice attack from range?

Sorry, missed that part of the question.

Melee attacked are generally limited to adjacent creatures (with the exception of someone with the Reach ability).

Magic and Ranged attacks are both capable of hitting creatures at a distance.

The white die is used on Magic attacks, the blue die (looks purple on the cards) is used with Ranged attacks.

The monster cards have four possible symbols.

First is a sword on a red background. Designates a melee creature.

Second is a bow and arrow on a blue background. This designates a ranged creature.

Third is a fireballish type symbol on a white background. This designates a magic attack.

Last is a white question mark on a black backgroud (it's an Altar of Despair creature that you may not have) this creature can choose a die/symbol but must have one of the red, blue or white dice in the attack. The attack type is determined by the die chosen.

dragon76 said:

Web requires a roll at the start of each of the character's turns to determine if the web is still in effect or not. If a character remains webbed they may not spend any movement points that turn (One exception having to do with a Gold Treasure IIRC)

Which dice do you roll to see if the hero is still in the web, and how do you determine this?

Thanks.

It is written up in the special abilities section of the rules.

From memory I believe you roll a power die and on a surge the web is broken. Otherwise you are still considered webbed for the remainder of that turn.

IIRC you can still be moved by other means (Knockback and Telekinesis come to mind) but regardless of where you end up you remain webbed until you succeed on the roll at the start of your turn.

Additionally, here is a nice online compendium of information. While it isn't a hundred percent it is very good as a reference.

www.descentinthedark.com

Some additional information I neglected to add.

A figure can be webbed multiple times. For each web on the figure add one power die (black die) to the roll. For each surge rolled one web token is discarded. If any tokens remain then the figure is webbed and cannot spend movement points.

Thanks for the answers so far.

I have another question: When a hero or monster moves, do you they have to move their entire movement points or can they move less. For example, can a hero with 4 movement points, move only 3 spaces?

Characters get a pool of movement points that they can use in addition to any other action they can take in a turn.

They use these movement points (MP) as they see fit, even if that means losing some of them because they were unspent at the end of their turn.

Generally, on a basic advance action (picked this as being the only thing monsters generally get while being one of the four basic actions a hero can declare) say you get four movement points and one attack.

You may do a number of things using your movement points in any order. For example:

Make an attack, move three spaces (3MP), and drink a potion (1MP)

Move two spaces (2MP), make an attack, move two more spaces(2MP)

Move two spaces onto a chest (2MP), Open the chest (2MP), make an attack

Open a door (2MP), move one space(1MP), make an attack, move one space back(1MP)

Etc.

Additionally, you can spend fatigue to give you additional movement points during your turn. You can do this at any point in time during your turn and you can use them exactly like your natural movment points.