A couple of questions about rule mechanics

By dadiXtrema, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Hi everyone!

My friends and I are currently loving this game and spending a lot of time enjoying the vanilla Descent quests before buying the expansions to enjoy that new content as well. We had a couple of questions that came up while we were playing and, after browsing through 15 pages of forum posts, was unable to find an answer to them. Here goes!

Q1) When battling (or using an ability like quick cast to make more than one attack) can you spend fatigue to move up to one monster, attack it using one of your attacks, then spend fatigue again to move to another monster out of range and attack it? Our group considered the wording "make an extra attack IMMEDIATELY after your first (or second) attack" to mean that you can't move to another position after making that first attack to make a second attack. To clarify my question let me provide an example:

In one game, we had a Vakiras the Dead with the Knight ability (Gain 1/2 movement and attack 3 times) and 3 fatigue remaining. He used the knight ability (spending two fatigue) to move adjacent to a maximum of two monsters. After successfully killing the two adjacent monsters Vakiras has one unused attack remaining. Could Vakiras gain a movement point (and possibly pot) to move to another monster to use his third (and possibly) final attack to try to kill it?

Q2) Can a hero target themselves with a weapon to kill themselves? For example, if an OL is intentionally keeping a webbed hero alive in an isolated part of a dungeon and the hero (breaking probability) simply cannot roll the surge required to break the web, could the hero kill themselves with their equipped weapon? I suppose the question here would be: Is the space that the hero is standing in "adjacent" to itself? (I've been looking for a ruling on this and I can't find any).

NOTE: Our group considers attacking other heroes legal because of the definition of "attacking a square and not the occupant in the square" rule...

Q3) Can an OL spawn monsters in a pit (assuming that no hero is adjacent to that pit) because of the definition of LoS? If so, does that creature start inside of the pit?

Thanks in advance for any help that you give! :)

A couple more questions that I just thought of:

Q4) Vakiras the Dead's passive ability allows him to regain one fatigue at the beginning of each of his turns. If Vakrias is at max fatigue, could he spend one fatigue at the beginning of his turn to gain one movement point BEFORE the passive kicks in? The underlying question, then, is can the player choose the order of "at the beginning of the hero's turn" in a way to do this following series:

Assume that Vakiras the Dead is at max fatigue (4/4), has zero movement points, and has the order "rest", AND has a treasure that states that "after equipping, discard to gain X life and max fatigue values) at the beginning of his turn. Can the hero player:

1) Spend one fatigue for 1 movement point.

2) Regain that spent fatigue using his passive.

3) Spend 4 fatigue to gain 4 more movement points (5 MP so far)

4) Decide to perform the "rest" order to gain all their fatigue back

5) Spend another 4 fatigue for 4 more movement points (9 MP so far)

6) Use the treasure for max fatigue

7) Declare Battle

So overall the hero has 2 attacks and 9 MP (I know this is a bit overpowered is it possible?)

Thanks :)

dadiXtrema said:

Hi everyone!

My friends and I are currently loving this game and spending a lot of time enjoying the vanilla Descent quests before buying the expansions to enjoy that new content as well. We had a couple of questions that came up while we were playing and, after browsing through 15 pages of forum posts, was unable to find an answer to them. Here goes!

Q1) When battling (or using an ability like quick cast to make more than one attack) can you spend fatigue to move up to one monster, attack it using one of your attacks, then spend fatigue again to move to another monster out of range and attack it? Our group considered the wording "make an extra attack IMMEDIATELY after your first (or second) attack" to mean that you can't move to another position after making that first attack to make a second attack. To clarify my question let me provide an example:

When Battling the answer is yes. When quick casting the answer is no.

dadiXtrema said:

Q2) Can a hero target themselves with a weapon to kill themselves? For example, if an OL is intentionally keeping a webbed hero alive in an isolated part of a dungeon and the hero (breaking probability) simply cannot roll the surge required to break the web, could the hero kill themselves with their equipped weapon? I suppose the question here would be: Is the space that the hero is standing in "adjacent" to itself? (I've been looking for a ruling on this and I can't find any).

NOTE: Our group considers attacking other heroes legal because of the definition of "attacking a square and not the occupant in the square" rule...

I'm pretty sure that this is in the FAQ or the GLOAQ. Unless under Dark Charm a hero cannot target their own space. However, if the hero had access to a weapon that grants Blast they could indirectly target themselves.

dadiXtrema said:

Q3) Can an OL spawn monsters in a pit (assuming that no hero is adjacent to that pit) because of the definition of LoS? If so, does that creature start inside of the pit?

A pit is an obstacle and as such the spaces it covers are not valid spawning points

dadiXtrema said:

Q1) When battling (or using an ability like quick cast to make more than one attack) can you spend fatigue to move up to one monster, attack it using one of your attacks, then spend fatigue again to move to another monster out of range and attack it? Our group considered the wording "make an extra attack IMMEDIATELY after your first (or second) attack" to mean that you can't move to another position after making that first attack to make a second attack. To clarify my question let me provide an example:

In your example with Verikas the answer is yes, he could move with remaining MP (or spend fatigue to gain MP) and step forward to make his third attack on an new monster. In general, declaring a Battle Action simply means you get no MP from Speed. You can still spend fatigue to move, or gain MP from items like the Ring of Quickness. You are allowed to move, it's just that the most obvious source of MP (Speed) is cut off.

In the case of skills of Quick Cast or Rapid Shot that say "spend XXX to IMMEDIATELY make a new attack" then you cannot do anything else in between the triggering condition and the new attack. The term "immediately" is taken to mean "this must be the very next thing which happens." You could not spend MP (on moving or on drinking a potion or anything), you could not spend fatigue, etc.

dadiXtrema said:

Q2) Can a hero target themselves with a weapon to kill themselves? For example, if an OL is intentionally keeping a webbed hero alive in an isolated part of a dungeon and the hero (breaking probability) simply cannot roll the surge required to break the web, could the hero kill themselves with their equipped weapon? I suppose the question here would be: Is the space that the hero is standing in "adjacent" to itself? (I've been looking for a ruling on this and I can't find any).

I'm not entirely sure about the question of whether a given space is adjacent to itself, but in general heroes are definitely allowed to attack one another if they want to. Personally I would be more than happy to allow a hero to kill himself with a melee attack if he wanted to, call it a house rule if you want to, I don't think it's "unfair."

dadiXtrema said:

Q3) Can an OL spawn monsters in a pit (assuming that no hero is adjacent to that pit) because of the definition of LoS? If so, does that creature start inside of the pit?

No, spawns must be placed on empty spaces, and a space with a pit obstacle on it is not empty.

On top of that, LoS to pits is one of the less logical components of the game (there are many other examples.) A pit limits LoS for the figure inside it to adjacent spaces. A pit has no effect on the LoS of figures that are not inside it. Therefore heroes outside the pit, even at the other end of the hall, still have LoS to whatever's inside the pit. Yes, that means skeletons can take pot shots at figures inside a pit from far away. Welcome to Descent.

dadiXtrema said:

Q4) Vakiras the Dead's passive ability allows him to regain one fatigue at the beginning of each of his turns. If Vakrias is at max fatigue, could he spend one fatigue at the beginning of his turn to gain one movement point BEFORE the passive kicks in? The underlying question, then, is can the player choose the order of "at the beginning of the hero's turn" in a way to do this following series:

In general it is commonly accepted that effects which occur "at the beginning of your turn" can be resolved in any order you choose. However, it has also been clarified in the FAQ that you cannot spend fatigue for MP until after you have declared your action for the turn. "The start of a hero's turn" is defined as the first two steps (untap and re-equip), but step 3 (declare action) is excluded. Thus all "start of turn" effects - including lingering effects like Burn, etc, will be resolved before you can start gaining MP by fatigue.

So no, Verikas can't spend a fatigue just before his passive kicks in. He also can't spend fatigue before using his Rest order from last turn or before triggering the treasure you mentioned. Of course, he could burn all his fatigue at the end of the previous turn to do things like drink potions or reequip or whatever. The MP gained will not carry over to next turn and using both the rest order and the treasure would be a waste since only one would have an effect, but he could still "maximize" his fatigue gain by spending it all in the previous turn if he wanted to.

Steve O again mentions that in order to spawn it must be an empty space which is quite untrue and i don't know why he keeps mentioning it. You can spawn creatures on treasure chests, money markers, potions, unactivated glyphs... etc that is clearly mentioned in the faq as clear as it gets. Regarding the question you will find it very simple since in the rulebook it says "While in a pit, a figure has no line of sight to any other spaces. Other figures may trace line of sight to a figure in a pit normally." so you get no advantage of spawing inside a pit and is treated as any other space regarding line of sight.

You don't have to spawn in an empty space, but you can't spawn on an obstacle. "The overlord player may not place spawned monsters in a space that contains a figure or an obstacle, such as a pit " (p.12) Steve-O is also correct that line of sight into a pit is not restricted, so they wouldn't be particularly appealing locations to spawn even if they were allowed.

Heroes are definitely allowed to target each other . I think the official line on a hero attacking his own space is that you can't do it without a Blast weapon, unless he's under the effects of Dark Charm, but I don't know what the reasoning is on that and it strikes me as a kludge. I think the main purpose is to try to prevent a hero from using Knockback on himself.

The Rapid Fire card doesn't exactly say that the attack has to be used immediately, but see this post .

Thank you so much Steve-O, dragon76, Drglord, and Antistone for clarifying those questions for our group!

@ Antistone - Thanks for the link to Rapid Fire :)

One final question (more like a clarification) about Leadership:

If a hero with leadership orders "rest" on an unactivated hero (the hero with leadership takes their turn before the other hero), does that rest order proc when the next hero activates their turn?

Example: Ronan has leadership and decides to place the ready order "rest" onto Silhouette who, during the previous turn, used up all of her fatigue running around the map. When Silhouette activates for her turn, does the rest order placed by Ronan give all of Silhouette's fatigue back?

Thanks again!! :)

yes she does and is also mentioned in the first page of the faq

Also, the hero with Leadership doesn't tell the target hero what order to place. They are allowing the other person to place an order, and that person can place any order they like.

Thanks guys :) Cheers!