I really only have myself and my girlfriend to play Descent, but we both like them game.

We are encountering some issues and dealing with them as we can.

I usually allow my girlfriend to pick her starting set of characters, however if we break into a different expansion quest set and play the miniature campaign she will pick a new set of characters.

I was wonderinf if I allow her starting skills or one or two and the rest remain random picks will this upset game balance? Some cards like if a hero dies, than all monsters die are really powerful and a challange to work against. Sometimes she can pull two not so good skills and can only trae one skill making one skill useless.

The whole random skills is kind of odd to me, shouldn't adventurers come prepare and know right before they enter a dungeon what they can do?

She was wondering if she as a player can hide her skills from me untill she must reveil them such as an extra mocement or if kill/then kill monster skills. I fear knowing her skills as an overload kind of feels like an advantage over her characters. Then again I try to place omsters are stupid follow the lights mind set to compensate for knowing the skills.

I recently read GBG's review of the quests and how some of them are overpowering for characters. What are some ways I can adjust a board. Example the second quest in the first expansion blows chunks. The spiders are tough, the glypphs are in sucky positions and the only silver chests are way back in heavy spawning areas.

Could I possibly, add a glyph/move a glyph to compensate for the horrible locations?

Upgrade a bronze chest to a silver chest while adding some curse to the chest for OL compensation? Lets face it, no one likes bronze treasures and gold treasure is so scarce its horrible.

I know there are rule reworkings, but I honestly remain neutral to it and for the most part I would not like to delve in those options right now.

Thanks in advance.

First up: play with at least 3 heroes, even if there's only one hero player.

I usually allow my girlfriend to pick her starting set of characters, however if we break into a different expansion quest set and play the miniature campaign she will pick a new set of characters.

I'd suggest a new set of heroes every dungeon. You'll both learn the game better with more variety, and the so-called campaign rules in the main book suck.

I was wonderinf if I allow her starting skills or one or two and the rest remain random picks will this upset game balance? Some cards like if a hero dies, than all monsters die are really powerful and a challange to work against. Sometimes she can pull two not so good skills and can only trae one skill making one skill useless.

Random starting skills is part of the game, and part of the balance that lets the overlord win some and the heroes win some.

The whole random skills is kind of odd to me, shouldn't adventurers come prepare and know right before they enter a dungeon what they can do?

Sure, but they don't know what the dungeon is going to be like, so any set of skills that has served them well in life so far might not be as good for this dungeon. Plus, it's a board game, not a role playing game. Balance takes precedence over suspension of disbelief.

She was wondering if she as a player can hide her skills from me untill she must reveil them such as an extra mocement or if kill/then kill monster skills. I fear knowing her skills as an overload kind of feels like an advantage over her characters. Then again I try to place omsters are stupid follow the lights mind set to compensate for knowing the skills.

No, at least not without a house rule that will put a major sway on the balance between OL and heroes. Transparency (except for the OL's cards and the heroes' feats) is a major factor of this tactical board game.

I recently read GBG's review of the quests and how some of them are overpowering for characters. What are some ways I can adjust a board. Example the second quest in the first expansion blows chunks. The spiders are tough, the glypphs are in sucky positions and the only silver chests are way back in heavy spawning areas.

Spiders are tough? It sounds like you're playing with 2 heroes. Don't do it!!!

Seriously, play a quest with 3 heroes. If it still seems impossible, play it again with 4. The quests aren't meant to be played once, won by the heroes, and moved past. They can (and sometimes should) be played multiple times.

Could I possibly, add a glyph/move a glyph to compensate for the horrible locations?

You could, but it's not necessary.

Upgrade a bronze chest to a silver chest while adding some curse to the chest for OL compensation? Lets face it, no one likes bronze treasures and gold treasure is so scarce its horrible.

Gold chests are so rare because they're usually the game-winning moment. Heroes are meant to struggle at first, break even when silver chests show up, and win shortly after the gold one(s) get opened. If, as OL, you aren't in position to win as soon as the last area is revealed, you're unlikely to win at all.

Some advice:

Read the hero strategy posts here and at BGG. If she likes to read about gaming, show them to her. Descent isn't like most dungeon games, where killing everything that moves is the goal. The goal is the final boss, and you ignore stuff that doesn't stop you from reaching it.

Have her play the OL a couple of times. Knowing the OL deck and what options he has will make her a better hero player.

We actually use 4 characters.

The spiders I was reffering to are the special named spiders. They are master spiders to start, they all have an extra ability, armor, and wounds given to them based by the quest. Unless they are meant to start as normal spiders and then be given the extra stuff and not start as master spiders.

I think in regards poison, web, daze with 4 armour and 9 wounds.

Everything else I kind of expected you to say, but again it just confirms the balance issues for the game.

We haven't tried switching roles yet. I have to keep the game fun or she may lose interest and not wan to play. Having her have fun grabbing treasures, killing monsters, and getting bounty is more fun than anything to her and me.

Hm, recently I have posted a topic similar to this one, about how the overlord is overpowered. The other members of this forum convince me otherwise but I still believe that the overlord still has a significant advantage. In order to play as heroes, you have to utilize all the items you have, skills, fatigue, etc. Advance cautiously, and keep close to one another. Rushing to open a door without clearing the room of monsters is usually an unwise decision. Hold out until you open a silver or gold chest, which will give you a major boost in strength. And perhaps most importantly, pray that your dice rolls won't go wrong. Even with these pointers in mind, heroes usually have a very close victory when they actually win (one or two conquest tokens left), while the overlord can flatten the heroes in the beginning, providing the player is not careful and has a lousy selection of heroes. All in all, you have to KNOW the strategy to win this game in order to have a chance of victory for the heroes.

mi-go hunter said:

The overlord has a much easier learning curve than the heroes. For one thing, the Overlord's abilities are all reactive and non-random (okay, drawing cards from the OL deck is random, but once they're in your hand what you do with them is at your discretion.) So you can watch what the heroes do and wait for the right time to strike. The overlord also can't be directly attacked. They can kill your expendable minions, but you will almost always be able to spawn more.

The heroes, by contrast, get everything at random. Hero draw, skill draws, treasure draws. Only starting shop gear is not randomly chosen (and training tokens.) Some of the options available are awesome, others not so much, so sometimes the hero party will be really good, other times it will suck. Most times it will fall somewhere in the middle, but the game is relying on the law of averages to make a decent group.

This is one reason why it's better to play with 4 heroes no matter how many players there are. The big reason for doing that is added firepower and LoS coverage, of course, but having four heroes instead of 2 or 3 also increases the distribution of random draws, mitigating the probability of having only sucky heroes. It also mitigates the possibility of having only awesome heroes, technically, but having two awesome heroes and two useless LoS beacons is still better than just having two awesome heroes. (Note that I say "LoS beacons" rather than "punching bags" because the last thing you want to do is leave those useless heroes where the OL can kill them and grind out CT.)

On top of that, the heroes need to act in game, where the overlord merely reacts . They need to take the initiative and avoid mistakes, many of which are not always apparent to new players. Leaving surviving monsters behind rather than hunting down every last evil creepy crawlie is highly counterintuitive for most groups, based on my own experience and a lot of the anecdotes I've heard around here.

Once everybody knows what they're doing, the game play is fairly well balanced (IMHO) but it is definitely true that the OL can afford to make more mistakes than the heroes, so new groups might well be left with the impression that the OL is overpowered. The easiest way to counteract that feeling is to rotate who plays OL every game or two. Letting everybody see the game from both sides will help illustrate exactly what the OL is capable of, and not capable of, which will in turn help those playing the heroes to plan accordingly in future games.

Steve-O said:

Ah, I see your point now. Yes, my sister and I rotated the roles of overlord and heroes. Other than the first quest, the heroes have lost. Either we are both suck at playing the heroes, or because of something else. I see your point about how crucial the heroes are that they not make a mistake. While a beastman can miss with no worries as the OL can simply attack with another monster, missing the killing blow to a powerful monster can cause disastrous results. In addition, before entering every room, the heroes must be prepared every step of the way. I think several mistakes in these areas cause the heroes their demise. After we replay a couple of quests, I think the heroes will have a easier time, and I will try to learn from my mistakes. I shall be determined to become a better hero player

By the way, what does IMHO mean?

IMHO: in my humble opinion

We use 4 characters. Please advise in another way.

I found the error in the spiders I was giving them an extra power instead of sustituting. However, based on GBG reviews heroes have maybe a 40-60% chance at best of winning or even coming close to winning in the 2nd quest of the 2nd expansion.

I may have phrased the questions a bit wrong.

I don't think the overlord is over powered. I think some of the QUESTS are brocken thus making the overlord over powered. With this in mind how can I balance a quest where the heroes are bound to lose. I am referring to some of the reviews by GBG of each quests. his reveiws are helpful. Some quests are fine, but some are very heavily sided to the overlord and almost unplayable.

i hope this sparks some different answers.

hive angel said:

Ah, I see your problem. It's true that some quests are harder than others. I'm not sure how much playtesting FFG actually did on each quest to ensure it was fairly balanced, but I've never known one to be impossible. In fairness, I'm not sure that I've ever played this particular quest.

If she absolutely can't win there are two options I can think of:

1) Go easier on her. Don't spawn as often as you could, whittle down her CT but let her stay alive to the end and at least see the whole quest.

2) Skip this quest and move on. There's very little plot tying to quests together, so it isn't absolutely necessary to beat them in order. If this quest is proving frustrating just leave it for now. Come back later and maybe the hero player will have picked up a few extra tricks to get her through.