The new preview is up. Here
Martial mastery
Looking good - mahalo for the link!
This is shaping up to be a Warhammer Quest killer in our group…potentially.
The 1st edition entered the ring as a challenger and lasted a couple of rounds before being knocked out in about round 3 or 4…
Warhammer Quest - house ruled though it may be, and let's face it it's the best part of 20 years old, it needs one or two of them! - is still a tough act to follow.
1st edition Descent (and all expansions) is tucked away nicely in my loft - even the darn heavy duty card map of sea of Blood is up there!
Warhammer Quest however, will be getting an airing once more this bank holiday weekend. Beware the Skaven!
My players just didn't quite connect with the 'dead is not really dead' mechanic of 1st edition. High hopes for 2nd edition though.
Hurry up and release it already why don't you? Is it July yet?
Yes, I agree that this could top Warhammer Quest for my group as well. I am excited.
I really liked this preview. It filled in some of the questions and gaps I've been wondering about with Skills and their relationship with the Class system. With 2 subclasses for each Class, and specific skills for each one, I can see a lot of fantastic replayablility options.
I'm curious of the Skills will become segregated into Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier "Why would i ever pick this?" like they did in D1, or if the playtesting will balance them out quite a bit more. The ones in the preview seemed very interesting and thought out -- I really want to try out that Defensive Knight. It seems like there will be more quality and less quantity OL monster attacks now, so the use of a shield (and the ability to use it twice per round, with a bonus on top of that) seems much more rosy now.
-> Exhaust this week to generate another D2e preview!
Pongle said:
I really liked this preview. It filled in some of the questions and gaps I've been wondering about with Skills and their relationship with the Class system. With 2 subclasses for each Class, and specific skills for each one, I can see a lot of fantastic replayablility options.
I'm curious of the Skills will become segregated into Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier "Why would i ever pick this?" like they did in D1, or if the playtesting will balance them out quite a bit more.
I'm hoping there will be some semi-random aspect to the heroes' skill choices, i.e - whenever the heroes level-up, they shuffle their skill deck, draw 2-3 skills then choose to buy any from those drawn. This will help prevent hero players from choosing the same skills every time.
Bleached Lizard said:
Pongle said:
I really liked this preview. It filled in some of the questions and gaps I've been wondering about with Skills and their relationship with the Class system. With 2 subclasses for each Class, and specific skills for each one, I can see a lot of fantastic replayablility options.
I'm curious of the Skills will become segregated into Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier "Why would i ever pick this?" like they did in D1, or if the playtesting will balance them out quite a bit more.
I'm hoping there will be some semi-random aspect to the heroes' skill choices, i.e - whenever the heroes level-up, they shuffle their skill deck, draw 2-3 skills then choose to buy any from those drawn. This will help prevent hero players from choosing the same skills every time.
From the previews, it doesn't sound as if it will work that way. Heroes will get full control.
Bleached Lizard said:
I'm hoping there will be some semi-random aspect to the heroes' skill choices, i.e - whenever the heroes level-up, they shuffle their skill deck, draw 2-3 skills then choose to buy any from those drawn. This will help prevent hero players from choosing the same skills every time.
I don't think that's in the cards (pun intended), based on the latest preview.
I don't mind if class skills are non-random as long as they're also not as swingy as skills were in 1e. If there are some skills or combos that are obviously better than others for the same XP cost, then yeah, that'll be a pisser. However, if each skill is reasonably well priced for the benefit it provides, then I don't think there will be too much worry about how people build their heroes. The thing that will keep people picking different skills each time will be the options there are to explore, rather than having the different choices forced upon them by random draw. I'm sure there will some players who decide one set of skills is "obviously" best and always buy that set, but that's just personal preference at the end of the day.
And if it turns out the skills ARE as swingy as 1e's skills, with wildly disproportionate XP costs compared to the benefit they provide, then I'm sure it would be easy enough to institute a house rule about random draw such as the one you suggest. As long as all the class cards have the same back, at least within each class, you're good to go.
Steve-O said:
And if it turns out the skills ARE as swingy as 1e's skills, with wildly disproportionate XP costs compared to the benefit they provide, then I'm sure it would be easy enough to institute a house rule about random draw such as the one you suggest. As long as all the class cards have the same back, at least within each class, you're good to go.
Or house rule the costs to be more in line with the power level, if they don't end up getting an errata.
Steve-O said:
Bleached Lizard said:
I'm hoping there will be some semi-random aspect to the heroes' skill choices, i.e - whenever the heroes level-up, they shuffle their skill deck, draw 2-3 skills then choose to buy any from those drawn. This will help prevent hero players from choosing the same skills every time.
I don't think that's in the cards (pun intended), based on the latest preview.
I don't mind if class skills are non-random as long as they're also not as swingy as skills were in 1e. If there are some skills or combos that are obviously better than others for the same XP cost, then yeah, that'll be a pisser. However, if each skill is reasonably well priced for the benefit it provides, then I don't think there will be too much worry about how people build their heroes. The thing that will keep people picking different skills each time will be the options there are to explore, rather than having the different choices forced upon them by random draw. I'm sure there will some players who decide one set of skills is "obviously" best and always buy that set, but that's just personal preference at the end of the day.
And if it turns out the skills ARE as swingy as 1e's skills, with wildly disproportionate XP costs compared to the benefit they provide, then I'm sure it would be easy enough to institute a house rule about random draw such as the one you suggest. As long as all the class cards have the same back, at least within each class, you're good to go.
I'm hopeful that this will have been addressed. Skills in 1ed AC costs a blanket amount of XP. Skills in this one vary depending on power level. A MUCH better way of doing it IMO.
Sausageman said:
Steve-O said:
Bleached Lizard said:
I'm hoping there will be some semi-random aspect to the heroes' skill choices, i.e - whenever the heroes level-up, they shuffle their skill deck, draw 2-3 skills then choose to buy any from those drawn. This will help prevent hero players from choosing the same skills every time.
I don't think that's in the cards (pun intended), based on the latest preview.
I don't mind if class skills are non-random as long as they're also not as swingy as skills were in 1e. If there are some skills or combos that are obviously better than others for the same XP cost, then yeah, that'll be a pisser. However, if each skill is reasonably well priced for the benefit it provides, then I don't think there will be too much worry about how people build their heroes. The thing that will keep people picking different skills each time will be the options there are to explore, rather than having the different choices forced upon them by random draw. I'm sure there will some players who decide one set of skills is "obviously" best and always buy that set, but that's just personal preference at the end of the day.
And if it turns out the skills ARE as swingy as 1e's skills, with wildly disproportionate XP costs compared to the benefit they provide, then I'm sure it would be easy enough to institute a house rule about random draw such as the one you suggest. As long as all the class cards have the same back, at least within each class, you're good to go.
I'm hopeful that this will have been addressed. Skills in 1ed AC costs a blanket amount of XP. Skills in this one vary depending on power level. A MUCH better way of doing it IMO.
Hopefully, but with the XP costs being so low, it's incredibly difficult to balance the skills *exactly* in line with their cost. For example, are *all* 2XP skills going to be *exactly* twice as powerful as *all* 1XP skills? I doubt it. So if it turns out there are "upper bounds" and "lower bounds" skills for each level of XP cost, then why wouldn't heroes choose the upper bounds ones every time?
Part of this game is going to be reactions to OL actions. If the OL is prone to laying traps, a hero may choose a skill that is more suited to successfully getting by those traps even though a better skill may actually be available to them at the same XP level. Each time you play through the campaign, there is going to be a different set of circumstances. Different heroes, different OL tactics. Choosing a "lower powered" skill for the same XP might very well help the cause of the campgain more so than going with one that might otherwise be more powerful.
Unclechawie said:
Part of this game is going to be reactions to OL actions. If the OL is prone to laying traps, a hero may choose a skill that is more suited to successfully getting by those traps even though a better skill may actually be available to them at the same XP level. Each time you play through the campaign, there is going to be a different set of circumstances. Different heroes, different OL tactics. Choosing a "lower powered" skill for the same XP might very well help the cause of the campgain more so than going with one that might otherwise be more powerful.
I certainly hope you're right!
It really hasn't been touched on yet, but I don't think there is a limit to the number of skills you can have in 2e as there was in 1e. Not to mention that all the skills I've seen so far have fairly specific uses and you cant really judge that a "powerful" high XP skill will be used more often than a lower XP one.
From what I've read so far of the mechanics, this game is much more strategy based than 1e is. Almost everything is based off of trigger conditions which makes everything either extremely weak or extremely powerful, depending on how both sides play. All players tactics are going to be spent trying to get those conditions to be triggered, while trying to prevent their opponents from getting theirs.