Hello everyone.

A few questions came up while we were playing descent yesterday.

If a hero has the grapple ability and a monster with knockback hits him, does the monster get to move the hero figure?
Also, should the hero players be informed about armour/health values of a named monster? Could be important when deciding how much pierce to add into an attack for example.
Lastly, if a surge effect says "Pierce 2" or "Blast 1" can you trigger these effects multiple times for example triggering "Pierce 2" twice to get Pierce 4 on the attack?

If you have page references for some or all of these questions I'd love to know as well!

Thanks.

k7e9 said:

Yes. All Grapple does is prevent an adjacent enemy figure from spending movement points. No movement points are being spent by the monster as it Knockbacks the hero, so there is no problem.

k7e9 said:

Yes. DJitD pg16
Named monsters (e.g., Narthak) are unique monsters described in the Quest Guide. Like master monsters, they are represented by the red figures. When the heroes encounter a named monster, the overlord player must explain any different or special stats the monster possesses . The overlord player is not required to reveal any special abilities the monster may have. Named monsters are immune to Stun. In most quests, the hero players receive one or more conquest tokens for slaying a named monster.
Stats are armour/health/movement. But you don't tell them about any different specials, like Ironskin, Stealth, Breath etc.
For some reason I have a personal difficulty with this rule and always get it the opposite way around when playing.

k7e9 said:

Yes.
DJitD pg22
Note that some special abilities have ranks (e.g., Fear 2 or Blast 1). The effects of these ranks are always explained in the ability description. If a hero or monster gains a given special ability from more than one source, any ranks the ability has are added together . For example, if a hero gains Blast 1 and Blast 2 from two different items, the hero gains Blast 3 on appropriate attacks.

DJitD pg10
A hero may trigger a specific effect more than once for a single attack , as long as he rolled enough power surges to do so. Note that there are some effects that will provide no additional benefit if they are triggered more than once.
...
Example: When a hero attacks with the Mace of Kellos, he may use his rolled power surges to trigger two different effects. The weapon’s item card reads, “~~: +1 Damage” and “~~: This attack gains Knockback.” This means that a hero player can use two power surges to either increase the attack’s damage by 1 or give the attack the Knockback ability. If the hero player rolled four power surges, he could use them to give the attack +1 damage and Knockback, or he could use them to simply grant the attack +2 damage. No additional benefit would be gained from giving the attack the
Knockback ability more than once.

Each trigger f an effect is a separate source. So if you have ~:Pierce 2 and you spend 3 surges then you end up with Pierce 6 as al the ranks are added together.

Wonderful, thanks for the explanations and page references.