I have tried this quest a few times now as the OL and i am beginning to get frustrated. Is this quest designed to be near impossible for the heros? I have tried lots of different permutations and it seems like starting with the base weapons makes this quest near impossible in the beginning. Facing either of the Brothers Durnog without treasure weaponry virtually ensures total party death and they cannot upgrade in town because they don't have enough money or access to treasure deck purchases yet. Am I doing something wrong? Should the Giants be behind the runelocked doors and the Ogres behind the standard doors? Please help. Thanks

This quest is indeed very tough on a group of new heroes. Until your group has become familiar with some of the "advanced tactics" of the game, it is probably best to skip this one and come back to it.

Do you mind sharing what some of these advanced tactics are? What has made the game enjoyable and completable for your groups. I am the kind of DM/OL that ultimately wants to see the heros succeed in the quest. Thanks.

I didn't want to detail any of them in my last post because I didn't want to ruin the experience of you and your group finding/working them out for yourselves. But if you don't mind.............

1. "Running"/ Having a "Runner".

Although it is tempting to kill everything, everywhere ALL THE TIME, the longer your heroes take, the worse it's going to get (overlord constantly generating threat, spawning monsters, etc). The more turns you waste killing monsters the stronger the OL becomes. The "runner" mentality is usually something like "sprint as fast as I can, open the chest, get the gold, activate the glyph, go to town, wait". This gives every hero the loot from the chest, the gold, and an active glyph to use. It is not necessary to kill every monster, while it is fun, it's only going to bring trouble, especially in the early game.

2. Fatigue

This is a common mistake for many new groups. Fatigue is there for a reason, and is quite a powerful mechanic when used properly. Don't be afraid to spend your fatigue OFTEN.

3. A Tank

A new hero group without a hero that can take a significant beating (16+ wounds and 3-4+ armor) is going to have a tough time, especially with quest 2.

I managed to find this link as well. Have a read through yourself, maybe even direct your heroes to it. It might help you some more.

Another thing that is very important, is make sure you understand and are following the thousands of rules that govern the game. My groups first couple of games of Descent were kind of disappointing because we missed some key rules that greatly threw the balance in one direction or another (we didn't know monsters could open normal doors after the area had been revealed, we were abusing glyphs (going back and forth to town multiple times the same turn!), and others).

Double post....

Thanks for all your help. I am actually using this game system as a gateway game to get my two daughters into RPGs. I am an old D&D player and love the fact that systems like this rely on visual representations. My daughters are 10 and 11 so I am not so much worried about them discovering all the intricacies of the game. I am really more interested in getting them to understand that there are different roles within a party and this will definitely help. Thanks again .

No problem. Good luck!