Last night we played our first game of Descent....so I AM a noob.
Towards the end of the game I cast Dark Charm on a character who had the Staff of Knowledge. When I cast Dark Charm I was under the impression that the attack was my attack and I could conduct it as I chose. The Player in control of the Hero claimed that it was his character and that he could attack the other character in any way that he pleased (Basically I felt he was bending the rules in his favor).
When the die were rolled for the attack several power die had the range/damage indicator. He wanted to use the range numbers on the power die rather than the damage in order to inflict the least amount of damage possible (even though he had adequate range already). Then he wanted to use all of the powersurges for the "Overlord loses 1 threat token" power on the Staff of Knowledge.
So my question is, who makes the decision on the attack? My argument is that if the Hero is in control he could just attack without a weapon...making Dark Charm worthless.
One more quick question: At the end of the first quest "Into the Dark" as you enter area 4 two master manticores appear. The box only contains one master manticore and one regular. Do you just place both models and imagine they are both master manticores? The same player argued that if the box doesn't contain it you don't get it. But why would you be asked to place 2 if there aren't 2?