New list of unanswered questions

By Paul Grogan, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

@Thunder: Will you send the list to the FFG team soon (as we did prior to the last FAQ) ? Or do we hope that a team member drops by and picks up the very nice compilation?

Parathion said:

@Thunder: Will you send the list to the FFG team soon (as we did prior to the last FAQ) ? Or do we hope that a team member drops by and picks up the very nice compilation?

Hadn't thought about it: didn't think we were done yet, really. How about this: this weekend, everyone take some time to look at this list (re-summarized below) and
A) Offer edits/answers to the questions here, or offer rules-based arguments why the provided answers in the last list aren't good enough.
B) Think up of possible questions.

Sunday, I'll post a final summary for review (or do nothing if no one comes up with anything) and Monday, I'll send the lists to FFG.

By the way, OMFG PASTING ONLY WORKS IN PLAINTEXT? What, did they just reverse engineer forum software and thus leave out all of the features that people, you know, USE?

Questions:

  1. In RtL, the city of Orc Market says that items can be purchased for 50 coins less. Does this include shop items as well? Since some shop items only cost 50, does this mean they are free?
  2. In RtL, one of the encounter cards has a Deep Elf known as Silence. Her ability is "2 Threat: Move one extra space". Is this a misprint, since all monsters in encounters already have that ability?
  3. Shadow Soul:
    A. Tomb of Ice: Is it possible for a hero to switch space with the Shadow Soul, if the hero was swallowed and is currently in the stomach tile?
    B. When a hero switches spaces with the Shadow Soul familiar, can the Overlord play a Trap - Space card on said hero?
  4. How do Feat cards from Tomb of Ice interact with the Road to Legend advanced campaign?
  5. Altar of Despair / Tomb of Ice: Does the activation of a Dark Glyph trigger the drawing of a Feat card?
  6. Altar of Despair: When attacking with a creature with the Morph ability, can an Overlord elect to attack with the red melee die to avoid the effects of the Taunt skill possessed by a hero he is not adjacent to and attack a hero it is adjacent to or can a character with the Taunt skill force a creature with Morph to use a white or blue die to attack him instead?
  7. Snipers: are skeletons forced to use this ability to target a Hero with Taunt they couldn't target otherwise?
  8. Leadership card text: Does the "In addition, ..." part mean that this aspect of the skill can only be used in conjunction with taking the three half actions? Or can you let another hero place an order when doing a normal Ready action without spending fatigue?
  9. Ancient Library (RtL dungeon 10): Does the leader reappear in his original spot or respawn as per normal spawn rules? What happens if the heroes have LoS to the entire level, something which is very easy to do?
  10. A Mother's Lament Rumor: can the cub leave through a glyph, fulfilling the victory condition?
  11. Do the props "Bone Heap", "Giant Mushrooms", "Trees" and "Ice" count as obstacles (for the effects of Acrobat and others)?
  12. Do the heros receive 1 CT when a sarcophagus or boneheap is searched, a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled, and no blank for treasures in that chest is rolled ?
  13. Does the Great Wyrm receive 1 CT if a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled on a sarcophagus or boneheap?

Balance Issues:

  1. 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.
  2. 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 any possibility for the Overlord player to interfere?
  3. 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?
  4. 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?
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. The Titan avatar and the Beastman Lord Avatar could possibly be grappled by Zyla with Bear Tattoo, rendering their attacks useless. Is this intentional?
  9. Humanoid Monsters in RtL are almost all melee only with poor speed, making them weak choices.
  10. 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?
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. The heroes generate enormous amouts of surges in RtL making treasures like the Staff of Knowledge somewhat overpowered.
  14. 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? - (I have no idea how you could avoid this - ed.)
  15. 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?
  16. 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.
  17. The Crypt (RtL level 15): there should be a precaution against heroes placing guard tokens while waiting for the leaders to appear.
  18. 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.
  19. Two by Two (RtL dungeon 20): the card is bugged. As written, the level is impassable (it should read eastern and western section of the map, not northern and southern).
  20. Ancient Grove (RtL outdoor location): any large monster is unable to navigate this level, breaking some encounters.
  21. 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...
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Curse of the Ancients and Cursed Treasure ae quite pointless, as 1 ct matters little throughout the course of the Advanced Campaign.
  25. 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?
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.
  29. 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, something to make it actually have some impact.
  30. Poltergeist 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. I mean, the card is cool, but too cool, to be honest.
  31. The Crushing Blow 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?

Possible Rules Clarifications: - (I don't really know if these have a place here)

  1. The usage of the following terms within the rules is erratic and needs clarifying.

    "Dungeon" - as used to mean "the entire/collective thing that you explore that has 3-4 levels". Can be 'entered' only once'.

    "Dungeon Location" - the mapboard named area/location where a dungeon is found. Can be moved to/through any number of times, the first such time allowing the heroes to clain 1CT.

    "area" - is used at least once in place of the term 'dungeon location' which leads to confusion with related rules. Please use the same term so that rules for doing the same thing can be applied reasonably.

    "enter" - when refering to the hero party going into a dungeon (changing from a token on the mapboard to 4 figures on a dungeon level). Can be confused with 'explore'.

    "explore" - used sometimes for 'exploring' a new dungeon location (and thus getting 1 XP) and sometimes for exploring a new dungeon (becoming 4 figures on a dungeon level)

    The main problem however, is the wording on page 18, 'The Third Level' section.
    The party may not re-enter a dungeon location they have explored for the remainder of the campaign.
    This is not the same as pg 10 where the heroes get 1 XP for ending their movement in a 'new' area and may then enter the dungeon. This also means that the party cannot explore close to Tamalir without cutting off large sections of the mapboard.

    Suggestion: Assuming that the otherwise consistant terminology of Dungeon and Dungeon level does mean different things as written above, remove the word 'location' from the first and third paragraphs of 'The Third Level' section on page 18. Further, replace the final word ('it.') of the first paragraph on page 17 with 'the dungeon.

    Further cleaning up the terminology would be useful, but this is the minimum required (I think) to remove the problem of the heroes being unable to enter the same location twice (eg once been to Thelsvan Highway they can never go there again and all of the southeast is cut-off.
  2. 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; perhaps a better ruling might be "upon declaring an action, a hero with leadership may pay 1 Fatigue to have any hero place an order"

Answered Questions, Questions with Answers, And Stuff I Straight Up Didn't Understand:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

Balance issue:

Telekinesis on Named and/or Large Monsters: Still only 1 fatigue cost per space moved?

Thanks to thundercles for his continued good work.

As for FFG, I have already mailed them, heard nothing, chased it up, heard nothing. Last night I sent an email to Thadd at Customer Services, since he's a great guy who does a great job to let him know the problems we are having due to FFG inactivity with providing proper support for its products

Meh, give them time. If we swamp them in mails, they'll a) have less time for doing the good stuff due to having to read them all, and b) have less motivation for doing the good stuff because they feel negativity from the community.

They just published a big load of games, while updating and overhauling the complete web site - I'm sure post-production for all of them keeps everybody at FFG very, very busy lengua.gif - and the production values of their games do show that they do care, just like the recent website update that actually made the forums a huge lot faster. I trust FFG more than anybody else to get a grip on things.

Paul Grogan said:

Thanks to thundercles for his continued good work.

As for FFG, I have already mailed them, heard nothing, chased it up, heard nothing. Last night I sent an email to Thadd at Customer Services, since he's a great guy who does a great job to let him know the problems we are having due to FFG inactivity with providing proper support for its products

Thundercles said:

She. She is a great...guy? No, there's a better word for this....

Heh, I wanted to mention this as well, but then didn't and didn't realize it was the very same thread I posted in after all gran_risa.gif

Oops. Is Thadd female then? I assumed male. My bad if I got it wrong. But anyway, this is getting way off topic.

So, offer still stands: on Monday I'll send this plus whatever extra we come up with. Edits, new additions, more answers, all greatly appreciated, especially if done over this weekend.

Questions:

  1. In RtL, the city of Orc Market says that items can be purchased for 50 coins less. Does this include shop items as well? Since some shop items only cost 50, does this mean they are free?
  2. In RtL, one of the encounter cards has a Deep Elf known as Silence. Her ability is "2 Threat: Move one extra space". Is this a misprint, since all monsters in encounters already have that ability?
  3. Shadow Soul:
    A. Tomb of Ice: Is it possible for a hero to switch space with the Shadow Soul, if the hero was swallowed and is currently in the stomach tile?
    B. When a hero switches spaces with the Shadow Soul familiar, can the Overlord play a Trap - Space card on said hero?
  4. How do Feat cards from Tomb of Ice interact with the Road to Legend advanced campaign?
  5. Altar of Despair / Tomb of Ice: Does the activation of a Dark Glyph trigger the drawing of a Feat card?
  6. Altar of Despair: When attacking with a creature with the Morph ability, can an Overlord elect to attack with the red melee die to avoid the effects of the Taunt skill possessed by a hero he is not adjacent to and attack a hero it is adjacent to or can a character with the Taunt skill force a creature with Morph to use a white or blue die to attack him instead?
  7. Snipers: are skeletons forced to use this ability to target a Hero with Taunt they couldn't target otherwise?
  8. Leadership card text: Does the "In addition, ..." part mean that this aspect of the skill can only be used in conjunction with taking the three half actions? Or can you let another hero place an order when doing a normal Ready action without spending fatigue?
  9. Ancient Library (RtL dungeon 10): Does the leader reappear in his original spot or respawn as per normal spawn rules? What happens if the heroes have LoS to the entire level, something which is very easy to do?
  10. A Mother's Lament Rumor: can the cub leave through a glyph, fulfilling the victory condition?
  11. Do the props "Bone Heap", "Giant Mushrooms", "Trees" and "Ice" count as obstacles (for the effects of Acrobat and others)?
  12. Do the heros receive 1 CT when a sarcophagus or boneheap is searched, a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled, and no blank for treasures in that chest is rolled ?
  13. Does the Great Wyrm receive 1 CT if a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled on a sarcophagus or boneheap?

Balance Issues:

  1. 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.
  2. 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 any possibility for the Overlord player to interfere?
  3. 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?
  4. 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?
  5. 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 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. The Titan avatar and the Beastman Lord Avatar could possibly be grappled by Zyla with Bear Tattoo, rendering their attacks useless. Is this intentional?
  9. Humanoid Monsters in RtL are almost all melee only with poor speed, making them weak choices.
  10. 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?
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. The heroes generate enormous amouts of surges in RtL making treasures like the Staff of Knowledge somewhat overpowered.
  14. 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? - (I have no idea how you could avoid this - ed.)
  15. 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?
  16. 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.
  17. The Crypt (RtL level 15): there should be a precaution against heroes placing guard tokens while waiting for the leaders to appear.
  18. 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.
  19. Two by Two (RtL dungeon 20): the card is bugged. As written, the level is impassable (it should read eastern and western section of the map, not northern and southern).
  20. Ancient Grove (RtL outdoor location): any large monster is unable to navigate this level, breaking some encounters.
  21. 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...
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Curse of the Ancients and Cursed Treasure ae quite pointless, as 1 ct matters little throughout the course of the Advanced Campaign.
  25. 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?
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.
  29. 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, something to make it actually have some impact.
  30. Poltergeist 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. I mean, the card is cool, but too cool, to be honest.
  31. The Crushing Blow 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?

Possible Rules Clarifications: - (I don't really know if these have a place here)

  1. The usage of the following terms within the rules is erratic and needs clarifying.

    "Dungeon" - as used to mean "the entire/collective thing that you explore that has 3-4 levels". Can be 'entered' only once'.

    "Dungeon Location" - the mapboard named area/location where a dungeon is found. Can be moved to/through any number of times, the first such time allowing the heroes to clain 1CT.

    "area" - is used at least once in place of the term 'dungeon location' which leads to confusion with related rules. Please use the same term so that rules for doing the same thing can be applied reasonably.

    "enter" - when refering to the hero party going into a dungeon (changing from a token on the mapboard to 4 figures on a dungeon level). Can be confused with 'explore'.

    "explore" - used sometimes for 'exploring' a new dungeon location (and thus getting 1 XP) and sometimes for exploring a new dungeon (becoming 4 figures on a dungeon level)

    The main problem however, is the wording on page 18, 'The Third Level' section.
    The party may not re-enter a dungeon location they have explored for the remainder of the campaign.
    This is not the same as pg 10 where the heroes get 1 XP for ending their movement in a 'new' area and may then enter the dungeon. This also means that the party cannot explore close to Tamalir without cutting off large sections of the mapboard.

    Suggestion: Assuming that the otherwise consistant terminology of Dungeon and Dungeon level does mean different things as written above, remove the word 'location' from the first and third paragraphs of 'The Third Level' section on page 18. Further, replace the final word ('it.') of the first paragraph on page 17 with 'the dungeon.

    Further cleaning up the terminology would be useful, but this is the minimum required (I think) to remove the problem of the heroes being unable to enter the same location twice (eg once been to Thelsvan Highway they can never go there again and all of the southeast is cut-off.
  2. 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; perhaps a better ruling might be "upon declaring an action, a hero with leadership may pay 1 Fatigue to have any hero place an order"

Answered Questions, Questions with Answers, And Stuff I Straight Up Didn't Understand:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

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 interrupt attack has Knockback, how do Leap and Knockback interact, and does the Leap continue after the attack then?

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 can it do another Leap (since it technically doesn't seem to have done a Leap attack )?

My impression is that Balance issues should be kept completely separate from Rules-interpretations issues. Sending them all in together seems like a good way to get the rules questions ignored in any case.

The reasons for this are two-fold:

1) Balance issues are (in practice) usually subjective (of course, in an absolute game-theoretic sense, they are not). I myself disagree with at least a few of the statements on that list (for just a few examples, 8 mirrors is NOT really too much for the Sorcerer King in the absence of auto-sniping, and the high-powered Treachery cards in Lieutenant battles (Monkey-God, Animate Weapons) aren't a huge problem either.) And I'm sure there are people who would disagree with some of my own conclusions.

2) I could *easily* add 50 more items to that list. The crux of the matter is, Descent is absolutely CHOCK FULL of tiny little imbalances - such-and-such treachery card is too weak, some monster is a little too strong, several skills are entirely worthless. While I'm all for fixing these problems (and I keep a text file of all changes that we use for my game and am happy to share it), there's no way the designers are going to issue a huge number of (individually rather piddly) such balance changes, especially if they require modifying what is printed on individual cards.

At the very least, I'd recommend sticking to "absolutely broken" things, such as the Sorcerer King's auto-snipeable mirrors, Zyla being totally immune to the BeastmanLord/Titan and Ironskin potentially making Heroes unkillable by the Sorcerer King/Demon Prince, due to the Blast upgrade. (although really, the problem here is that Ironskin on Heroes is just WAAAYYY too strong to begin with).

Of course, I could be wrong; the Spirit-walker change, for instance, came as an absolute shock to me, since it was just one tiny card imbalance among many and FAR from the most important (in RtL, telekinesis remains at LEAST twice as good as Spiritwalker ever was, even before the range reduction).

The main reason why I separated them was to send them all...separately, so it looks like I'm on the same page as you, Immortal. I doubt that the balance issues will get looked at, but it's worth a shot to organize and send them; however, it's probably best if they be kept separate from the questions, to give the most pressing matters the best chance.

Thundercles said:

Possible Rules Clarifications: - (I don't really know if these have a place here)

  1. The usage of the following terms within the rules is erratic and needs clarifying.

    "Dungeon" - as used to mean "the entire/collective thing that you explore that has 3-4 levels". Can be 'entered' only once'.

    "Dungeon Location" - the mapboard named area/location where a dungeon is found. Can be moved to/through any number of times, the first such time allowing the heroes to clain 1CT.

    "area" - is used at least once in place of the term 'dungeon location' which leads to confusion with related rules. Please use the same term so that rules for doing the same thing can be applied reasonably.

    "enter" - when refering to the hero party going into a dungeon (changing from a token on the mapboard to 4 figures on a dungeon level). Can be confused with 'explore'.

    "explore" - used sometimes for 'exploring' a new dungeon location (and thus getting 1 XP) and sometimes for exploring a new dungeon (becoming 4 figures on a dungeon level)

    The main problem however, is the wording on page 18, 'The Third Level' section.
    The party may not re-enter a dungeon location they have explored for the remainder of the campaign.
    This is not the same as pg 10 where the heroes get 1 XP for ending their movement in a 'new' area and may then enter the dungeon. This also means that the party cannot explore close to Tamalir without cutting off large sections of the mapboard.

    Suggestion: Assuming that the otherwise consistant terminology of Dungeon and Dungeon level does mean different things as written above, remove the word 'location' from the first and third paragraphs of 'The Third Level' section on page 18. Further, replace the final word ('it.') of the first paragraph on page 17 with 'the dungeon.

    Further cleaning up the terminology would be useful, but this is the minimum required (I think) to remove the problem of the heroes being unable to enter the same location twice (eg once been to Thelsvan Highway they can never go there again and all of the southeast is cut-off.

BTW, this could be worded as a question if you like. I prefer to lay out the whole argument so as to get a proper response that FFG don't have to do all the work researching. This approach attempts to prevent 'hasty' answers that contradict the rules or are not supported by the RAW but are easily arrived at at 'first glance'. It also means that some care needs to be taken not to 'bias' the research. gui%C3%B1o.gif It also means that there is more likely to be an errata or FAQ entry rather than just a forum answer. I do believe it is every players responsibility (so to speak) to keep reasonably up to date with official FAQs and erratas, but not to keep up with every answer ever made on a forum, even if it is the official forum.

This particular issue is actually completely broken if you follow the RAW. The RAW says that a party cannot enter a dungeon location if they have already explored that dungeon. This cuts off large parts of the mapboard very easily. It could, with inattentive heroes, very quickly lead to the heroes being marooned in Tamilir and its surrounds with only unenterable locations in every direction..

Wow, thanks a lot Thundercles . I'm sure Kevin Wilson wil greatly appreciate such an organized and easy-to-read list. Kevin, please keep us posted on the status of the FAQ, even if it's a simple, "I've seen your list and will get to it when I can." Just want to make sure all the hard work everone is putting in will actually go towards improving the game. Thanks!

I've got another one for RtL (as posted in a spearate thread):

If 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?

Hi,

another one: Can "The Guide" reduce the number of dice rolled to check for an encounter to zero? Together with the "Staff of the Wild", which lets you move two trails and choose which trail to look for an encounter, this would take encounters out of the game completely, as almost all paths with two trails have one with one die only.

-Kylearan

These are (barring last-minute typo removal) the final lists. I'll sort them by expansion, look them up in the rules one last time, and send them out tonight.

Questions:

  1. In RtL, the city of Orc Market says that items can be purchased for 50 coins less. Does this include shop items as well? Since some shop items only cost 50, does this mean they are free?
  2. In RtL, one of the encounter cards has a Deep Elf known as Silence. Her ability is "2 Threat: Move one extra space". Is this a misprint, since all monsters in encounters already have that ability?
  3. Shadow Soul:
    A. Tomb of Ice: Is it possible for a hero to switch space with the Shadow Soul, if the hero was swallowed and is currently in the stomach tile?
    B. When a hero switches spaces with the Shadow Soul familiar, can the Overlord play a Trap - Space card on said hero?
  4. How do Feat cards from Tomb of Ice interact with the Road to Legend advanced campaign?
  5. Altar of Despair / Tomb of Ice: Does the activation of a Dark Glyph trigger the drawing of a Feat card?
  6. Altar of Despair: When attacking with a creature with the Morph ability, can an Overlord elect to attack with the red melee die to avoid the effects of the Taunt skill possessed by a hero he is not adjacent to and attack a hero it is adjacent to or can a character with the Taunt skill force a creature with Morph to use a white or blue die to attack him instead?
  7. Snipers: are skeletons forced to use this ability to target a Hero with Taunt they couldn't target otherwise?
  8. Leadership card text: Does the "In addition, ..." part mean that this aspect of the skill can only be used in conjunction with taking the three half actions? Or can you let another hero place an order when doing a normal Ready action without spending fatigue?
  9. Ancient Library (RtL dungeon 10): Does the leader reappear in his original spot or respawn as per normal spawn rules? What happens if the heroes have LoS to the entire level, something which is very easy to do?
  10. A Mother's Lament Rumor: can the cub leave through a glyph, fulfilling the victory condition?
  11. Do the props "Bone Heap", "Giant Mushrooms", "Trees" and "Ice" count as obstacles (for the effects of Acrobat and others)?
  12. Do the heros receive 1 CT when a sarcophagus or boneheap is searched, a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled, and no blank for treasures in that chest is rolled ?
  13. Does the Great Wyrm receive 1 CT if a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled on a sarcophagus or boneheap?
  14. 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.
  15. If 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?
  16. Can "The Guide" reduce the number of dice rolled to check for an encounter to zero?
  17. 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?

Balance Issues:

  1. 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.
  2. 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 any possibility for the Overlord player to interfere?
  3. 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?
  4. 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?
  5. 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 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. The Titan avatar and the Beastman Lord Avatar could possibly be grappled by Zyla with Bear Tattoo, rendering their attacks useless. Is this intentional?
  9. Humanoid Monsters in RtL are almost all melee only with poor speed, making them weak choices.
  10. 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?
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. The heroes generate enormous amouts of surges in RtL making treasures like the Staff of Knowledge somewhat overpowered.
  14. 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? - (I have no idea how you could avoid this - ed.)
  15. 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?
  16. 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.
  17. The Crypt (RtL level 15): there should be a precaution against heroes placing guard tokens while waiting for the leaders to appear.
  18. 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.
  19. Two by Two (RtL dungeon 20): the card is bugged. As written, the level is impassable (it should read eastern and western section of the map, not northern and southern).
  20. Ancient Grove (RtL outdoor location): any large monster is unable to navigate this level, breaking some encounters.
  21. 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...
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Curse of the Ancients and Cursed Treasure ae quite pointless, as 1 ct matters little throughout the course of the Advanced Campaign.
  25. 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?
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.
  29. 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, or even give the avatar some extra Fear , given how powerful surges can be when using Gold Weapons.
  30. 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..
  31. 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?

Possible Rules Clarifications: - (I don't really know if these have a place here)

  1. 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.

Answered Questions, Questions with Answers, And Stuff I Straight Up Didn't Understand:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

Wow ... poor FFG rules lawyers, they have their plate full. ;)

Thanks for all the work in collating this, Thundercles. Great job!

Final sent list. Added a few things I missed (Leap), reworded many questions to make them more like yes/no questions.

Questions:

Journeys in the Dark

  1. Precision Skill: Can a hero use this skill to ignore all the squares of a two or three-square Rubble obstacle?

Altar of Despair

  1. + Well of Darkness: 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?
  2. When a hero switches spaces with the Shadow Soul familiar, can the Overlord play a Trap - Space card on said hero?
  3. 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?
  4. 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?
    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?
    C) If a Blood Ape makes a Leap without making a Leap attack, do his remaining movement points still get used?

Road to Legend

  1. + Well of Darkness: 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?
  2. 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? Does the discount affect sell values as well (i.e. sell value at Orc Market is 25 coins less than at any other market)
  3. 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?
  4. 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?
  5. A Mother's Lament (Rumor 8): Can the cub leave through a glyph, fulfilling the victory condition?
  6. Does the Great Wyrm Avatar receive 1 CT if a "treat it like a chest" result is rolled on a sarcophagus or boneheap?
  7. 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.
  8. If 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?
  9. Can "The Guide" reduce the number of dice rolled to check for an encounter to zero?
  10. 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?

Tomb of Ice

  1. + 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?
  2. + Altar of Despair: Can a hero use the swap ability of his Shadow Soul familiar while he is in the Stomach tile? Subsequently, if the Shadow Soul ends up in the stomach tile, may another hero be swallowed?
  3. + Road to Legend: How do Feat cards from interact with the advanced campaign?
  4. + Road to Legend: 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)?
  5. If there are multiple creatures with Swallow, can multiple heroes be placed on the Stomach Tile, one for each monster?

Balance Issues:

  1. 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.
  2. 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?
  3. 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?
  4. 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?
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. The Titan avatar and the Beastman Lord Avatar could possibly be grappled by Zyla with Bear Tattoo, rendering their attacks useless. Is this intentional?
  9. Humanoid Monsters in RtL are almost all melee only with poor speed, making them weak choices.
  10. 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?
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. The heroes generate enormous amouts of surges in RtL making treasures like the Staff of Knowledge somewhat overpowered.
  14. 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? - (I have no idea how you could avoid this - ed.)
  15. 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?
  16. 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.
  17. The Crypt (RtL level 15): there should be a precaution against heroes placing guard tokens while waiting for the leaders to appear.
  18. 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.
  19. Two by Two (RtL dungeon 20): the card is bugged. As written, the level is impassable (it should read eastern and western section of the map, not northern and southern).
  20. Ancient Grove (RtL outdoor location): any large monster is unable to navigate this level, breaking some encounters.
  21. 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...
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Curse of the Ancients and Cursed Treasure ae quite pointless, as 1 ct matters little throughout the course of the Advanced Campaign.
  25. 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?
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.
  29. 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.
  30. 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..
  31. 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?

Possible Rules Clarifications:

  1. 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.

Answered Questions and Questions with Answers:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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 .

Great work, thanks again!

Where did you get the answer Nr. 6 from? Official statement?

The RTL rules say "treat the [prop name] like a chest." If you use the "Chests in Dungeons" section on Page 17 to determine the rewards for treating the sarcophagus/bone heap like a chest, the answer is obvious.

Now that I think about it, the real clarification is whether the rewards from "treat it like a chest" are doled out immediately or require further MP expenditure. Of course, since the Bone Heap/Sarcophagus is removed , then there would be nothing to imply that the rewards don't happen immediately .

EDIT: Oh, by the way, I would like to point out that JR Godwin (our PR person) has taken an active interest in these lists and emailed me, so when I say "this is what I sent", the list is in FFG's hands as we speak . He says he's going to work with Kevin to hammer out a new version of the FAQ, and he's been in on the progress of this list since Friday, so, yeah.

Awesome.

That list looks fantastic, Thundercles - great job! FFG should get you to put together all their formal Descent FAQ queries (wink wink). ;)

Thanks a lot for putting it together, and thanks for the update. Looking forward to the new FAQ!

If you're out there, Kevin or JR, thanks for all your hard work!

Thanks for all the kind words; it's nice to have initiative appreciated. happy.gif

The initiative is sure appreciated - it is infinitely better to aid FFG in publishing a FAQ than to have scores of unconclusive rules discussion topics.

Xandria said:

The initiative is sure appreciated - it is infinitely better to aid FFG in publishing a FAQ than to have scores of unconclusive rules discussion topics.

Appreciation seconded here.