Hey, new FAQ is up, so it's time to update ye olde list.
BTW: sweeping clarifications and changes are afoot. Answered questions and addressed balance issues (!) at the end. Also, wow, I need to make sure I double check the spelling next time, the few mistakes that made it past me were sent right on through...a little embarrassed...
Added the rest of the questions that have been posted since the last update.
Questions:
Journeys in the Dark
- The wording on the Crystal of Tyval treasure is unclear: can a hero discard it for health at any time or only at the start of his/her turn?
- Can abilities with a radius that don't require Line of Sight (Command, Word of Vaal, Spiritwalker, etc.) go through walls and/or doors? When checking the distance for these abilities, must the target figure be reachable by moving a number spaces less than or equal to the radius, or do these abilities work like the Breath example (fly to anywhere within a template, in this case a square of size 2xradius + 1 centered on the figure)?
- Does Trapmaster add damage to attacks resulting from traps like Dark Charm and Mimic, which activate creatures instead of doing damage? Does Trapmaster add damage to traps like Scything Blades, which don't have a damage number printed on them but still deal damage?
- Can a monkey perform "movement actions" which cost no MP, like activate glyphs, pick up potions, rune keys, money piles?
- If a monkey or familiar falls into a pit, can they leave the pit, given that climbing out of a pit is a Movement action?
Well of Darkness
- If the Overlord plays a trap that does some amount of Poison damage, is the extra damage from the Trapmaster power also Poison damage?
Altar of Despair
- How does a Leap attack interact with Shadowcloak and Ghost?
Road to Legend
- Does the discount from the Orc Market affect sell values as well (i.e. sell value at Orc Market is 25 coins less than at any other market)?
- RtL: In outdoor encounters, the OL gets one threat per hero per turn. If a hero dies in outdoor encounters and is removed from the board, does the OL get one less threat per turn?
- Two by Two (RtL dungeon 20): As written, the level is impassable: since there is no compass, north points up, and thus the only way to unlock the yellow door is to stand on the encounter markers that are on the other side. Should the card refer to the East and West markers, not the North and South ones?
- What happens with a shop-item that has to be discarded to gain its effect (i.e. curse doll): Is the card returned to the appropriate stack or is it lost for the remainder of the game?
- Dark Charm says heroes may target Heroes: can the Overlord use Dark Charm to force a Hero to attack a Villager figure if no Hero is in the affected spaces?
- In RtL Lieutenant battles, does the Overlord's normal hand-size limit (8 in most cases) apply when selecting cards with Treachery? If so, may he take more cards than his hand limit so long as he discards down to the limit immediately? Or is he strictly limited to selecting only his hand-limit worth of cards?
- If one hero has the Lodestone Dark Relic, does that affect how much money the party gets as a reward for winning encounters, collecting gold piles, or getting money results when rolling power dice for Treasure Chests?
Tomb of Ice
- Feat Card "Preventing Evil": If the OL has played a Spawn/Power/Event/Trap card and the card was successully cancelled via said Feat card, is the OL allowed to play another Spawn/Power/Event/Trap card in the same turn or off of the same trigger?
Balance Issues:
- Currently, the Overlord can use Poltergeist to move heroes across 2 spaces of damaging terrain (taking damage for both) or possibly move them 1 space, play a Trap - Space card on them, then move them another space and play another Trap - Space card. Was this the intent?
- Road to Legend: In the ‘Down a Hole’ rumor, is there anything stopping the dungeon leader from simply moving into position to be crushed by the boulder so that other monsters in the dungeon are free to kill your objective?
- Road to Legend: In the final battle with the Sorcerer, the heroes can (and will) simply sit in the hallway and snipe at the mirrors, easily destroying them all without ever having to enter the room. This neuters what was otherwise a fun final battle concept. Alternately, if they get locked in the room, 8 mirrors seems a bit much when the Avatar can do a Battle action and attack twice. By way of suggestion, what about forcing the heroes into the room, but only having four mirrors?
- Fatigue ugrades result in excessive use of Fatigue and Fatigue potions at higher RtL campaign levels becoming an issue, especially with heroes like Silhouette, who can replenish it every turn without risk.
- Humanoid Monsters in RtL are almost all melee only with poor speed, making them weak choices.
- The Golem in RtL is far too weak; does less damage than most other creatures in the game, and Blood Apes are similarly resilient to damage for a much lower cost to put them in play.
- The Lone Golem card costs too much Treachery for how weak a Golem is compared to other Treachery spawn cards, such as Lone Troll and Lone Assassin.
- The heroes generate enormous amouts of surges in RtL making treasures like the Staff of Knowledge somewhat overpowered.
- What happens if a figure is hit with a web token during its move, such as in the level "Stuck in the Middle" (RtL level 30)? Does its movement end? Also, the replayability of this level is an issue: perhaps the OL can draw up which spaces are webbed on a small map, and a path must exist, or he simply chooses whether white or black tiles are trapped?
- The Crypt (RtL level 15): there should be a precaution against heroes placing guard tokens while waiting for the leaders to appear.
- Lawlessness is useless as it stands, as it actually helps Heroes, especially when they have the Staff of the Wilds because most encounters heavily favor silver and gold level heroes. If it added let's say 0-2 Beastmen, Skeletons or Spiders to any non-lieutenant encounter, though...
- The Lone Troll card should go up to 2 Treachery, or at least higher casting cost, because it is far too powerful at 1 Treachery, especially in comparison to other Spawn Treachery cards.
- Animate Weapons and Dance of the Monkey God are extremely tough on the party in conjuction with Danger and Merrick Farrow, if the party lacks Wind Pact.
- Curse of the Ancients and Cursed Treasure ae quite pointless, as 1 ct matters little throughout the course of the Advanced Campaign.
- The Twins Rumor needs a safeguard against the OL killing Siris before the Heroes have any chance to reach the kids, like, with a Rolling Boulder, which would make the level unfinishable. What happens anyway if one Siris is run over by a Boulder while the other is not? Can a Boulder place in response to a Hero's move kill one of the twins?
- The Dark Shard Rumor: the shard prevents the boss demon Orz from going anywhere, thus heroes can stay behind the corner and snipe at the shard and/or demon without fear of retaliation.
- The Valley of Souls: the special rule giving monsters the Undying trait is worthless for most, as only two of the critters here are not Undying by default.
- Down the Drain (RtL dungeon 33): the water fails to accomplish anything, as a Hero has next to no chance of being swept into the drain because the movement from water is too low. Since the heroes know how far the water will move them, they know that they just have to enter the stream at more than 3 spaces from the pit. Thus, the water seems to only serve to prevent the passage of the Overlord's monsters.
- Road to Legend: Protective Magic should protect the avatar, which +1 Armor at gold level (versus Gold Level Hero damage) somewhat fails to achieve. It could possibly be also to defend against lingering effects, or the use of some Hero skills.
- The Lodestone is the most powerful Dark Relic in Road to Legend, despite being the least expensive. In Road to Legend, since heroes will often have several pack items and a full complement of Other items, the Lodestone can do significant damage
Possible Rules Clarifications:
Answered Questions and Questions with Answers:
- Journeys in the Dark: Does the Ring of Quickness allow a hero with a web token to move one space? - No, it only grants an mp, which you still cannot spend.
- Precision Skill: Can a hero use this skill to ignore all the squares of a two or three-square Rubble obstacle? Yes (FAQ under "Miscellaneous") .
- May a Hero with the Taunt skill force a creature with the Morph abilty to select Ranged or Magic as its attack type? Basically, if a monster with the Morph ability is in range of a hero with the Taunt skill but not adjacent to said hero, can the Morph monster make a Melee attack even if said hero uses the Taunt skill on it? Morph goes off first, so Taunt can't force die choice (FAQ under "Altar of Despair")
- When a hero switches spaces with the Shadow Soul familiar, can the Overlord play a Trap - Space card on said hero? Yes (FAQ under "Altar of Despair")
- Leadership Skill card text: Does the "In addition, ..." part allow a hero to place an order on another hero when doing a normal Ready action without spending fatigue? No, you have to spend Fatigue to use any part of Leadership (FAQ under "Altar of Despair")
-
Leap:
A) When an interrupt attack (for example, thanks to a Guard order) is done during a Leap attack, at what point in the Leap does that interrupt attack happen; can the Hero player choose the point during the Leap or does it happen before or after the Leap itself? If the hero can choose the point during the leap and the interrupt attack has Knockback, how do Leap and Knockback interact, and does the Leap continue after the attack then? Guard can interrupt Leap mid-move, and Knockback will stop further leaping: already affected figures may still be attacked (FAQ under "Altar of Despair")
B) Is it possible to Leap without doing a Leap attack? The AoD rules state that doing an attack roll is not mandatory with a Leap; if a figure does not roll attack dice, does it count as not attacking, an can said figure then make a normal attack? Yes (FAQ under "Altar of Despair")
C) If a Blood Ape makes a Leap without making a Leap attack, do his remaining movement points still get used? Yes (FAQ under "Altar of Despair") - Road to Legend: Does a Recupertae/Train action taken to heal to full health and fatigue cleanse a hero of all poison tokens? - Yes, when recovering to full health, all poison tokens are discarded.
- Shadowcloak: a better wording may be required. How does it interact with Spiritwalker? - If there is a hero A adjacent to the Shadowcloaked monster, a hero B with Spiritwalker may attack the aforementioned monster from hero A's space.
- The way Dark Relic interacts with RtL is completely unclear. - Dark Relics are given out as replacements to treasures gained via treasure chest draws as normal.
- RTL: When an item is bought in Riverwatch, does the market immediatelly refill? Or is the phrase "The market always fills up completely" only related to treasure caches? - Rivenwatch only fills up when drawing the treasures for that week: after that; no extra treasures are drawn when the heroes purchase treasure that week.
- RTL: Do the heroes receive 1 CT when a sarcophagus or Bone Heap is searched, a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled, and no blank for treasures in that chest is rolled ? - Yes, they are treated exactly like Chests for the purposes of obtaining rewards .
- Sorcerer King Overlord Upgrade - Snipers: Can skeletons be forced to use this ability (ignore one obstacle/figure blocking line of sight) to target a Hero using the Taunt skill that they couldn't otherwise target? Yes (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- The city of Dawnsmoor is home to the Orc Market, which says that items can be purchased for 50 coins less. Since some shop items only cost 50 coins, does this mean they are free? Only treasure deck items receive the discount (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- The "Silent as the Grave" encounter card has a Deep Elf Leader known as Silence. Her ability is "2 Threat: Move one extra space during her activation"; is this a misprint, since all monsters in encounters already have that ability? Ability should cost 1 threat (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- Ancient Library (Dungeon 10): Does the leader reappear in his original spot or respawn as per normal spawn rules? If the answer is "normal spawn rules, what happens if the heroes have LoS to the entire level, something which is very easy to do? Original spot (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- A Mother's Lament (Rumor 8): Can the cub leave through a glyph, fulfilling the victory condition? No, cub can't do movement actions (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- Does the Great Wyrm Avatar receive 1 CT if a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled on a sarcophagus or boneheap? Yes (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- Can the party land on or move through a dungeon location that has been explored using a week's move action? The rules seem to imply that heroes cannot enter a location once it has been explored. Overworld map movement is not restricted by explored dungeon locations (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- f the Heroes have the Staff of the Wild and draw the Lost encounter when rolling for the second encounter on their path, do they return to the original location they started from, or to the interim location they just passed through? Interim location (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- Can "The Guide" reduce the number of dice rolled to check for an encounter to zero? Yes (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- If the Leader of a level dies without any hero landing the killing blow, does the party still receive the reward (Conquest, Gold, Red Runekey)? What about Lieutenants: if a Lieutenant dies without any hero landing the killing blow, does the party still receive the reward for "killing" the Lieutenant? Yes (FAQ under "Altar of Despair")
- Does the activation of a Dark Glyph (especially the green Sundered glyphs, which negate most glyph benefits) trigger the drawing of a Feat card? Yes (FAQ under "Tomb of Ice")
- Can a hero use the swap ability of his Shadow Soul familiar while he is in the Stomach tile? No (FAQ under "Tomb of Ice")
- How do Feat cards from interact with the advanced campaign? Start with normal mix and draw 1 per glyph: feats carry over from dungeon to dungeon (FAQ under "Tomb of Ice").
- Do the props "Sarcophagus", "Table", "Bed", "Fountain", "Throne", "Bone Heap", "Giant Mushrooms", "Tree" and "Ice" count as obstacles (for the effects of Acrobat and others)? Yes (FAQ under "Tomb of Ice")
- If there are multiple creatures with Swallow, can multiple heroes be placed on the Stomach Tile, one for each monster? Multiple creatures with swallow each get their own stomach tile (FAQ under "Tomb of Ice")
Balance Issues Addressed :
- Is Rapid Fire combo intended to be useable multiple times per attack half action? This results in synergy with a copper item, Gauntlets of Power, that restores 1 fatigue per 2 surges spent, which often results in monster number being the only limit to the number of Rapid Fire attacks. Gauntlets of power now exhaust when used (FAQ under "Card Revisions")
- Is it possible to have a hero gain a Rest order through the use of Leadership with another hero, and then have him take his turn and immediately gain the benefit of that Rest order already, without little possibility for the Overlord player to interfere? Yes (FAQ under "Rule Changes and Clarifications")
- Telekinesis vs. The Beastman Lord/Titan/Great Wyrm: A high fatigue hero can use telekinesis to keep these avatars at bay for several turns, resulting in an anticlimatic fight. Specifically, Telekinesis is incredibly powerful against Named and Large monsters, because most heroes can have more fatigue than monsters do speed. Telekinesis can be abused to keep the powerful Large and Named monsters out of the fight, including those with the Unstoppable ability. Proposed rule changes have included Unstoppable and Named monster immunity to telekinesis and Telekinesis costing 1 fatigue for each space a monster's base covers (1, 2, 4, or 6 spaces) to move any monster 1 space. Telekinesis removed from Advanced Campaign (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- Arcane Energies: Blast should not be mandatory, otherwise a grappled Sorcerer King cannot attack the hero holding him without hurting himself. Also, it's possible for a hero to obtain Ironskin and other defenses against Blast, resulting in a major disadvantage for the Sorcerer King. Blast now optional (FAQ under "Rule Changes and Clarifications")
- The Titan avatar and the Beastman Lord Avatar could possibly be grappled by Zyla with Bear Tattoo, rendering their attacks useless. Is this intentional? Bear Tattoo removed from Advanced Campaign (FAQ under " Road to Legend")
- Eternal Night and the Titan: Plains of the Ruby Gate are adjacent to his Keep, thus nothing can stop him from casting the sunstone into the deep once he gets it into play. Is this intentional? Intentional (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- Shadow Soul can be used to block an Ogre from attacking if it is placed two spaces ahead from a hero in a corridor as he has insufficient speed to reach a hero, attack, and withdraw from the space held by Shadow Soul. Is this intentional? Intentional (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- The Prison (RtL Dungeon 9): spawning in closed cells and/or placing the starting monsters there should be prohibited, because it allows the overlord to kill the prisoners before the heroes can react. Treat prisons as unrevealed for purposes of Spawning (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- The Fountain of Life (RtL Dungeon 14): dropping a Crushing Block next to Chall within 3 spaces of the Fountain can make the level impassable. Heroes can move through Chall if the OL tries this (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- Ancient Grove (RtL outdoor location): any large monster is unable to navigate this level, breaking some encounters. Ancient Grove trees now impassable for small figures only (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- The Poltergeist event treachery card can be used to a) autokill the whole party in levels like Bridge of Death; b) act as a Charge card on all monsters by moving them towards the players and the players towards the monsters; c) as it can be used before spawning to spoil even the best of spawn prevention. It should possibly allow a resistance roll for Heroes to be moved, or cost threat per object moved, or target a limited number of objects. Poltergeist removed from Advanced Campaign (FAQ under "Road to Legend")
- The Crushing Blow event treachery card costs very few treachery points and cannot miss, making it far too easy for the heroes to constantly lose equipment in Road to Legend. Is this intentional? Crushing Blow removed from Advanced Campaign (FAQ under "Road to Legend").
Rules Clarified:
- Leadership is a very frequently requested clarification on the Descent forums. It's not clear that you cannot choose the same half-action twice as part of using Leadership. Clarified in the FAQ under "Rules Changes and Clarifications".