So, my gaming group and I all finally decided that we'd do Descent for the next few months. We managed to find everything we wanted (Vanilla + WoD, saving AoD and ToI for a bit later) except Road to Legend, instead settling for Sea of Blood. However, reading around and hearing reports of all the SoB inbalances is somewhat concerning, and with the latest FAQ update dated March of last year (with the one submitted to FFG on June 3 in limbo at the moment), I was wondering if anyone had any SoB game balances that we for sure had to know to make sure that the Overlord doesn't beat everyone to a pulp, and that we all end up having fun.

And, if anyone has any suggestions for how to start playing in general, those are welcome too. Our group isn't new to tabletop games, so we shouldn't have too much trouble learning Descent relatively quickly.

forexviii said:

Primary suggestion. Don't start playing an Advanced Campaign until you have played at least a half dozen (preferably more) quests. Advanced Campaigns are about marrying the Strategic on top of the tactical - but your strategy informs your tactics, and you need to understand the tactical options (available to both sides) in order to choose the best tactics to support your strategy.
More simply put - you need to have a good, and well rounded , handle on the basic game first.

Secondary suggestion. While you are playing a few quests, make a pont of swapping around who plays OL, and using new heroes and new skills every time you play. it helps a lot to understand and explore the variety possible, and it is very important to understand what are good heroes and good skills (and to a lesser extent, good equipment loadouts and potions etc) and what are not. If you have smart people, they can probably analyse this fairly accurately before playing anyway, but it is evident that not many people are actually as good at this as they think they are.

I second Corbon's suggestions. Even if SoB was perfectly balanced, the Overlord would probably win if you just jumped into the AC without knowing the basic game. The Overlord's side of the game is easier to control, which makes sense since the dungeons are his turf. The heroes need to know what they're doing in there.

Trust me, having the heroes realize they've lost the game when they've only got about 15% of the campaign finished will not leave a good taste in your friends' mouths. Play vanilla for a while. Start with the base game quests, too, as WoD quests are significantly harder. When the hero players can handle those quests (base and ideally WoD) reasonably easily, move on to the AC.

Okay, that sounds like a good idea. As soon as we finally get into SoB I hope that the new FAQ is up, otherwise I might go call around and see if I can find a wayward RtL box in my area. I also found the thread with all of the pre-setup suggestions, first time tactics, etc, so I'll be sure to follow that advice as well.

Thanks for the suggestions! We're starting on the 23rd, so hopefully I'll have enough time to get a basic gist of the rules memorized by then.