hi,

i have a question, im not familiar with the rules of descent but we are playing now the RTL campeign. and ok its a campeign and the OL is prettry strong, but my quesition is:

the OL wins if he razes tamalir with one of his luitenants. Why should the OL not go directly to tamalir with luitanent eric farrow (the one with regeneration 5,... )
as a party with 4 hero's you cannot defeat that guy imo.

Are we missing something here?
Is this a balanced?

Any suggestions on how to make it more balanced for the heroes?

thx

sserre said:

Alric Farrow is quite defeatable.
You need decent preparation - decent heroes with a little extra training, decent equipment and well stocked potion belts. You have at least 7-8 weeks to get this.

It helps a lot if you have most of the expansions. RtL is playable with just the base set but really has the expectation that you will be using AoD and/or WoD as well, and ToI works well for the heroes if you have that too. Power Potions are the most important tool for defeating Alric. Feats will help too.

One thing a lot of groups 'fail' at is being 'suckered' into taking too many 'cool' skills and not enough 'raw damage boosting' skills. A standard melee hero with +1-2 from skills (his or Blessing), a couple of dice upgrades and a power pot can do 17-18 damage per attack with a basic axe.

sserre said:

Are the other hero players familiar with the rules? Descent is a fairly complicated game with a number of counter-intuitive aspects, and that's just the base game. The Advanced Campaign takes things to a whole new level. If your hero party doesn't have at least one guru who can offer suggestions on how to proceed, I would highly reccommend you guys abandon the advanced campaign and just play a few vanilla dungeons. Otherwise you're likely to make a host of tactical errors - such as thinking you need to attack Alric Farrow right away when he lays seige to Tamalir, instead of making a couple quick dungeon dives to get gear first.

It also helps if you know how to pick a good party before the game begins, naturally. A lot of the game's balance hinges on the various random elements that make up a hero party - random heroes, random skills, random gear. Knowing what to pick and what to leave behind is important. Sometimes a hero who looks really cool at first blush (Red Scorpion, for example) is in fact next to useless, and someone who looks not-so-hot is a solid line backer that every party should have at least one of.

When you're playing vanilla, where each dungeon is an isolated adventure, you can learn how to make these decisions by trial and error (if need be), but in the Advanced Campaign, a rookie mistake during hero generation can ruin your chances to win before you've even started playing the 30+ hour campaign. It's called advanced for a reason. Make sure your hero team knows what they're doing before you go any further with tactical analysis.

Corbon said:

Can't stress that enough. Early in the game damage increases are important. The early choices you make have a lasting impact on the campaign and how it will turn out. The damage modifiers my party has are making my life hell.

The party I'm faced off with his something of a nightmare draw for the OL in early copper. I'm playing as the Sorceror King with Snipers.

Laughin Buldar with Weapon Mastery (+2 surges on melee attacks)
With just his store bought Axe and Morning Star he's rolling a minimum of 8 damage and a maximum of 17. I did pick on him a little for his low armor but he's since obtained the Plate Mail from the copper deck.

Nanok of the Blade with Mighty (+2 damage on melee attacks)
He's not really a damage threat like Buldar is right now but he's the hero they're banking on paying off returns later, while being difficult to crack in the here and now.

Battlemage Jaes with Inner Fire (+2 range + 1 damage on magic attacks)
Again, not really the threat that Buldar is, but a couple extra dice and the right weapon will change that. He does enough now to knock off a couple of the weaker monsters. He's toting a chainmail too making him a bit difficult to kill.

Ronan of the Wild with Eagle Eye (+2 pierce +1 range on ranged attacks)
He's not really rolling a lot of damage yet, and he's loaned pico out to Jaes, but when they need to chip away at an armored target that extra pierce (along with the Ripper in his bag) come into play. He was my early bread and butter for CT but he's since taken on Buldar's chainmail (sacrificing the 1 speed for the 1 armor temporarily, they decided it was more useful) and is using the Skull Shield to soak up some of the damage.

They're all 4 CT heroes (what with Ronan's curse) so they pay heavily when they die, but they're not dying all that often, and the extra damage helps them clear the path in front of them while Buldar absolutely slaughters my level leaders. A lot of my CT is coming from holding on to traps to combo on them when I can.

I'm hoping in our next game session, when I'll finally get to roll over to silver eldritch, I'll be able to turn the tables and make them really pay for that 4 CT a piece hero party. I'm also hoping to make them pay for going with two melee during some of the encounters. Though I doubt the skull shield will stick around for any of that. Right now the only saving grace is that some of them are short a trait die, but I'd say their initial skill draws have more than compensated them.

There's a lot of strategy involved in building your hero team. Sometimes you won't have a lot to work with in a draw but you want a group that works well together with the choices you get. All of your starting choices should reinforce your overall strategy. Skills as well, drawing from the melee deck for a melee hero I don't think there's any other skill I'd prioritize above Weapon Mastery to start the game, Mighty just behind that. These are random factors that you can't really control but you have to be aware of their value so that you make the right choice when it does present itself.

What heroes is your team comprised of currently, and what is their skill set? A hero like Buldar in my game with a couple power potions and good rolls could end Alric Farrow in a single turn by himself. Not that I would ever give them that opportunity but it's a possibility. Alric is not really as imposing as he looks at the start of the game. I've read of many OL's losing him early in their first campaign by overestimating his strength. A couple weeks preparation, or an all-star caliber hero will really put him in check. He cannot raze Tamalir by himself before a competent group of heroes can try to chase him off.

Do a couple dungeon dives to gather up whatever treasure and coin you can. A couple added dice with training when you have the XP. Go at him with a good stock of fatigue and power potions.

As Corbon asked, which expansions are you guys playing with?