Hello everyone. I am just getting into Descent and have a question for the experts. I only have the base game at the moment but I need to put together an x-mas list for the family. I know I want the Road to Legend for the campaign aspect. Is there a preferred expansion from the other three (or a ranking) from those who have everything? Thanks!

Your best bet is to just og in order. With , WoD 1st then AoD then ToI third. This will help if you to pick you RoL 1st ( though you don't need any to play RoL). As it will give you more option as a player or the OL.

If you can put them all down and I am sure atleast one family member or relative will get them for you. I am from the camp that thinks having all of them will give your OL and Heroes some nice options and of course the new minis and heroes from each are great. It really fills out and give you a more complete gaming experience in the realms of Descent. Although not absolutely needed I think you would be cheating yourself not to atleast try and get them all.

SamsDad said:

I had the same question, with the 'buying myself' option of obtaining the expansions. I had made the call to skip the pre-RtL expansions and start with RtL and ToI. If others will add their compelling examples of how AoD and WoD add to the camplaign play, I'd love to hear them so I can justify the extra expansions!

theMage said:

The big enhamcement is treachery which can be spent to purchase additional cards you would otherwise not have in your OL deck. There are more monsters which have cool new abilities. New heroes which increases the size of the Hero pool. New props, familiars, new traps. If you like extra content in your games, you can't go wrong with either of the expansions.

theMage said:

All of the expansios add new cards and heroes, so in the end I suggest not skpping out on any of them. The WoD adds a ton of weapons for the heroes to use, and is the base for the OL's treachery system. Also, each expansion adds 12 skill cards for the heroes to use too.

Without looking at ToI, I suggest WoD expansion will add the most benefit to your RtL experience.

Building off SamsDad's post, I am also new to Descent and am wondering about which expansion to get first. I am interested in RtL but not necessarily want to jump into that right away. As an Arkham player I liked how my friend who owns the game bought the expansions in order, since I felt we as a AH gaming group grew along with the complexity of the game. I know it didnt really matter for AH since each expansion was more or less independent of each other. As for Descent, what would be the next expansion I should get? I'd like to get the same experience of growing along with the game. I dont want to get all of them in one go. I'd like to be able to savor each expansion as I get them. Any suggestions/personal preferences in the order to get? Appreciate the help

If you want to add complexity to the game slowly, your best bet is to get the expansions in release order. Personally, I like the dungeons in Alter of Despair the best simply because they tend to change up the rules a lot, such as one dungeon that has the heroes protecting a level from swarms of monsters versus the standard exploration types.

I'd say Well of Darkness is pretty much essential. It rounds out the entire game.

Alter of Dispare is very good, but not as essential.

Road to Legend seems awesome (I finally start my campaign next weekend - woot!), but only if you can put together a regular group.

I'm waiting for Tomb of Ice to cross the pond, so I don't know yet...

Thanks for the replies!

I'm definitely getting RtL since it provides the biggest change in the game, which is the campaign mode. That experience is a must for sure As for the rest, I've got several people telling me they are all incremental additions. From the above replies though I know some of you think otherwise. Can I get more specific changes, improvements to the gameplay for your favorite expansions?

Indeed - thanks for the feedback. It seems like WoD has the edge over AoD, but the comment about the 'defend' game that Force1 mentions sounds pretty cool. Food for thought!

As the AoD scenarios came out later, the creators exercised thier creative muscle much more. Generally I find the AoD scenarios fun, but the extra stuff (skills weapons and treachery cards) from WoD much more useful for the heroes.

If you have a hardcore group of heroes, the WoD scenarios provides a MUCH higher level of difficulty of any group so far. The AoD is toned down (a lot) but adds some fun elements in its place. In short I would say the original scenarios are the easiest, then AoD, then WoD.

ToI will fit in there somewhere (Ill be recieving it sometime within the next few days), and RtL is on a totally different playing field, being an expansion geared exclusively for long term gaming.

These were my thoughts on BGG about a year ago, before RtL came out.

Both expansions add alot of fun additions. The problem, as several posters have pointed out is that they tend to add features that are only applicable to a particular quests.

I'd also agree with whoever said that the 'treachery' deck building isn't limited to WoD; they both use it. I also feel that many people reccomend the WoD because, as the one that came out first, many people associate this with it. Not necessarily saying AoD is better, but here's the differences as I can think of them off the top of my head and how much they get used, which is the biggest draw to getting new stuff, in my opinion. You probably know a lot of this if you've done your research, but i hope it helps.

WoD Advantages:
Replacement cards giving alterations for Beastmen, skeletons, bows and a few treasures (that said, you could easily check these changes on these forums and add them to your current cards with a pen)

Nine quests. Much longer and MUCH harder than JitD. Heroes rarely win if played seriously, but there's a great atmosphere to them.

Six interesting characters (probably better than AoD's but not much in it)

Three monster types. Of these, the golem gets used VERY rarely. Kobalds and Ferrox get added to the standard spawn deck, get seen a lot and are fun.

Town Items: Great additions! Two runes for more varied magic attacks from the start, one stun and one blast. More varied ranged weapons. A reach weapon. The runes make the biggest difference.

New potion: Power potion (lets you roll five power dice once) not used often.

Terrain types (quest dependant): Mud (slows you down) and lava (hurts you). Only used in a couple of quests.

Effect tokens: Daze, Bleed. Both get used a lot.

New traps: Rolling Boulder (used in only two quests... can be used as a card but VERY rarely as most people agree it's overpowered)
Scything blades and dart fields (permanent trap markers that are fun, but in most quests, the OL would have to select them from the treahcery deck) Ditto for the 'Lightning bolt' trap template.

New skills/treasures/familiar/treachery cards Many and varied.

AoD advantages:

Only six new quests. Can't comment on these as only played one so far. Seemed same difficulty as WoD. Generally look good. (Edit: actually, after playing some more, I think the AoD quests are as interesting as the WoD ones, but much better in terms of balance. Heroes will very rarely win WoD quests unless the OL is lenient or you house-rule in some way, especially in terms of treachery. Our AoD games have been generally balanced)

Prolonged actions: Fantastic, but only appear in four or five quests (because there are only six). They'll be great in homemade ones.

Six new characters: Again, a good mix. WoD probably better, but hard to say.

Five monster types: AoD has much better monsters. Dark Priest (great) and Blood Ape spawns are added to the regular deck and are common. Trolls and Deep Elves can be added with treachery or appear in AoD quests. Chaos Beasts appear rarely (three quests) but are wonderful just to own.

Town items: Wizard's robes (2 armour normally but 0 against melee) are a great addition for changing the party dynamic. Wizard's really need to be sheltered from melee now. Also makes razorwings more handy. Also some expensive items for purchase later in the game, curse dolls for removing effect tokens (for 200), and ring of protection for armour +1 (for 250) gold).

New potion: Invulnerability potion. Gives armour 10 for one attack. Haven't seen it used yet but I'm told this is a BIG adition.

Terrain: Fog (can't see through), Corrupted (OL gains threat while fighting on). Like the WoD terrain, quest specific and therefore rare.

Effects: Curse (hero worth more conquest) used a lot. Frost, heroes risk losing equipment (rare as only with master deep elves)

New traps: Crushing walls appear in one quest only (but look great). Dark relics, like the boulder can be added to the deck, but appear rarely because they're so destructive. Dark glyphs can be added... not seen them in use yet.

New skills/treasure/familiars/treachery etc Actually, I feel AoD might have more interesting new skills, but this might be just a matter of opinion.


So... to summarise:
Replacement cards: WoD (AoD does replace the 'Leadership card with improved rules though)
Prolonged actions: AoD. Great addition but rare in the set quests.
Quests: WoD has more. AoDs are better and, in this posters opinion, the best)
Heroes: Pretty equal, really.
Monsters: AoD wins hans down.
Town items: WoD arguably better.
New potion: AoD better.
Terrain: equal
Effects: equal (maybe WoD better)
Traps: WoD better
Skills/treasure/familiars etc: Pretty equal. Maybe AoD a little better. At last heroes can web monsters and use the breath template!

So.. looking at that, it's pretty equal really and I expect you'd be happy with either. If pushed, I might say AoD, mainly for the new monsters as the most used addition and for the quests.

Very good summary, inle_badger!

But most of that new stuff is, as you say, „not used often“?

Yes, as long as you play all scenarios exactly the way they are shown in the books.

With the permission of my group, I started to add some new stuff or to replace some monsters by similar monster-types (replace ogres by trolls, replace sorcerers by dark priests) in usual scenarios and it works pretty well. In this way, you can use the whole variety of all your stuff even in the first DJitD-dungeons. You won’t believe what fun a crushing wall or some fog may be if included in some dungeons.

Of course, it will just work as long as all these changes are made in a fair amount – sometimes I give some additional conquest to my group to balance the new traps and obstacles.

At the moment, I have to use photoshop to implement the new stuff to my custom dungeons… It works well, but it is more job to do...

Well after playing JiTD at my friends back in July I have finally saved enough money to purchase the entire package of Descent from an Online distributor / Retailer at almost 1/2 the cost of purchasing the set from FFG, sorry FFG. Since I didn't start playing this game until this year, 2008 and the game being made in 2005 I thought the best idea was to buy it all so I have it. As most of you know, either WoD or AoD just came from reprint status to available, so I want to make sure I have everything and not have to wait incase they decided to stop printing one expansion or another again.

What I would like to see besides the editor being released is the ability to purchase extra / new minions and new cards. And it would be cool if they would release offical Senarios / Dungeons between expansion sets. Much like the player base has done with the Descent Dungeon Creator.

Back to the point, I would put down all the expansions on my list, purchase the one you want the most yourself and see what you get. You may get lucky and get all of them.

WoD

AoD

RtL

ToI

Can't go wrong with any of them.

$94 for the first 3 expansions and an extra set of base dice isn't bad I don't think.

inle_badger said:

Arg, now i cant make up my mind! Hahahaha, ah it seems like it will be tougher than originally expected. This is a great post inle_badger, alot of very useful information. I originally had my decision but now I am thinking twice. I will follow your suggestion of deciding based on what I want to have and trying out what I get first. As such I have decided to go acquire WoD first, for the following reasons:

1. treachery cards --> i feel this is a must for any enterprising evil overlord
2. more melee and ranged weaponry --> i read somewhere that WoD addresses the lack of good melee and ranged weapons in the base game. My gaming group is starting to feel this pinch and I feel the need to "patch" this aspect right away

I guess my gaming group will have to deal with harder and harder quests for now

Well, if it makes you feel better about your decision, having RtL does help WoD's case a bit:

- The power potions in WoD become much more useful in RtL. The Invulnerability potions in AoD don't get used in RtL.

- If you use the Reinforcement Marker, which comes with RtL, in WoD quests, they will work out much easier, faster and maybe even doable. (if you're unfamiliar with this, the Overlord can only make one spawn per area without paying an additional 12 threat for it)

-You'll be happy whichever one you get.

Thanks for input. I appreciate the insight. I think I'll do my best to spread the expansions out on the list so all of my family can feel the Descent love at x-mas time!

I wouldn't recommend getting RTL unless you have the other expansions - basically they add a lot to RTL and furthermore RTL is only useful if you have a core of Descent players willing to play on a regular basis.

Of the other 3 expansions, I would probably recommend them all.

WOD has the same number of quests as the base game and replaces some misprinted/errated cards from DJitD, but the quests are awfully difficult in most cases.

AOD has only 6 quests, albeit a little more balanced than those in WOD, but otherwise mainly just more of the same stuff that WOD offers.

TOI seems to be a very good expansion to buy as it redresses the balance issue a bit (with the Feat cards for players) and from a look over the quests, they seem to have more of a classic JitD dungeon-crawl feel to some of the more experimental stuff in WOD and AOD.

IMO, I would probably buy the expansions in the following order:

WOD

TOI

AOD

RTL