Ok so to those who remember my previous post about adding a more competitive edge: I played with my friends using the following additions.

1. The hero who opens a treasure chest gets the lion's share of money. For example, 4 heroes equals 100 coins per hero normally (400 coins total). Now, the opening hero gets 175 coins and the others get 75.

2. Whoever accumulated the most conquest tokens is considered to have completed one extra quest for the purpose of determining their level. Whoever accumulated to least conquest tokens is considered to have completed one less quest for the purpose of determining their level. This only applies to concurrent quests.

3. Every time the overlord wins, he starts a new game with a +1 threat. This is cumulative

So we played the first quest about 4 or 5 times using these rules, and things seemed pretty fair. The overlord got a (miniscule) reward for beating the heroes, and heroes had more incentive to play aggressively. It was fun times for all.