Post your questions for the first official FAQ

By ffgMark, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

1. Please clarify how powers that are active "within three spaces" function.

For example, the Knight's "Oath of Honor" ability directs the player to "choose another hero within 3 spaces of you who has a monster adjacent to him. Place your hero figure in the closest empty space adjacent to the monster and peform an attack."

"Counting Spaces" on page 13 of the rulebook states that players should "ignore any non-obstacle terrain." This seems to imply that enemy miniatures would block these powers, but this is not specified.

Continuing with the Oath of Honor as an example, which is correct?

a. If Hero X is within three spaces of the Knight, the knight can be placed adjacent to a monster that is adjacent to Hero X, irrespective of monsters between them.

b. The Knight can only be placed if he can trace a legitimate path of three spaces through any intervening monsters.

c. The Knight can only be placed if Hero X is within three spaces, and the Knight can trace a legitimate path of movement through any intervening monsters of any length

A diagram to clarify the third case: if E is an empty space, X is the hero being attack, M is a Monster, and K is the Knight, and U is unplayable space outside a corridor, note that the knight is three spaces from Hero X, but all legitimate 3 range paths to Hero X are blocked by monsters.

EEUU

XMEEK

EMEEE

EEUU

My group has been playing under the understanding that (b) is correct, so that heroes do not teleport freely past blocking monsters.

2. Please specify whether single-space monsters and heroes must be able to pause in an empty space in order to interrupt their movement and take an action. This is specified for large creatures, but not single-space entities.

3. Please confirm it is your intention that large monsters are to be placed on the board according to the usual rules when interrupting movement to perform an action, as this can result in an additional square of movement. For example, an Ettin with a speed of 3 can move 5 spaces by moving 2 spaces, interrupting its move to take an action and placing its figure base 1 square forward, then finish its move by moving its final square and then again placing its figure base 1 square forward.

How does "Dash" affect a Zombie?

1. Does Widow Tarha's Reanimate start an Encounter in play or must it be summoned?

2. When starting a second Encounter, does the turn order reset to the start of the heroes' turn?

Condition application reads: "If the attack deals at least 1 heart (after rolling defense dice), the target suffers the listed condition." This leads to two questions:

1. When a skill like Ghost Armor absorbs all damage dealt, do conditions the attack would normally deal still apply?

2. If a weapon has: "Surge: Stun" and "Surge: +2 heart" and I roll two surges, but the normal damage is negated by the enemy's armor, can I still apply 1 surge to dealing hearts (Enough to get past the armor in this example) and then apply the stun because hearts were dealt? This is unclear because the attack did not deal 1 heart after rolling defense dice, but did deal 1 heart after spending surges.

- At the end of movement, large monsters can't expand into spaces occupied by figures. Can they expand into other " blocked spaces ", like obstacle terrain?

- Surges can't be used when a miss is rolled on the blue attack die. If, instead, a ranged attack misses due to range, one or more surges are rolled, and no surge ability is available to increase range, can any of the surges rolled still be used for other abilities or to recover fatigue?

- Should gaps in a map, areas where there are no tiles, be defined as " blocked space s " when considering other rules, like line-of-sight?

- When Counting Spaces (top of page 13), can the path go through " blocked spaces "?

- In the map for the first encounter of the quest "A Fat Goblin", the upper left and upper right corner of the Farm (tile 10A) are separated from the spaces directly above them by an open-ended wall. The crop token space and the space above the wall share a corner at the open end of the wall. By the rulebook definition, the two squares are adjacent because they share that corner. What does that adjacency allow? Searching from one square to the other? Direct movement between the two squares? Melee attacks between the two squares? Ranged attacks between the two squares? Reviving a hero in the other square? Figuring spaces adjacent to a Blast attack? Figuring adjacent spaces for Reach?

When an overlord card allows a monster to make an attack action in addition to its 2 normal actions, does this allow the monster to perform 2 attacks in the same turn, or only a single attack action plus two non-attack actions? (This appears to be related to the question about Dash on a Zombie.)

If a fully-fatigued hero is adjacent to a master cave spider, can he suffer a wound instead of a fatigue as payment for the spider's "web" ability, or is this prohibited by the rule that disallows suffering fatigue beyond your stamina for movement?

Can a fully-fatigued Runemaster suffer a wound instead of a fatigue when using the surge ability granted by the Runic Knowledge skill, or is this prohibited by the rule that disallows suffering fatigue beyond your stamina to use skills?

When a large monster performs a movement action, does it need to spend any movement points before interrupting the action, or can it shrink, expand (into a different position) to e.g. make an attack, and then shrink again and spend its full allotment of movement points afterwards? If interrupting before the first movement point is not allowed, does it need to actually move to a different space, or can it choose merely to forfeit a movement point while remaining in the same position? Similarly, can a large monster interrupt a move action when it has zero movement points remaining, in order to expand, perform the interruptive action, shrink, and expand again?

When suffering fatigue to gain movement points, can a hero suffer multiple fatigue at once to "save up" movement points, or can they only suffer the minimum fatigue necessary to move a single space? Is the hero allowed to do other things between suffering the fatigue and spending the movement points obtained from it? Is the hero required to spend all movement points obtained in this way before ending his turn?

When exactly can cards that are used "during your turn" be used? For example, can a Disciple use Prayer of Healing immediately at the start of his turn, before refreshing his cards, and then immediately refresh it? Can he perform a rest action, and use Prayer of Healing at the end of his turn after removing his fatigue?

Familiars Treated as Figures (e.g. Reanimates):

  • Are they affected by monster abilities that affect "heroes", such as the Barghests' "Howl" or the Shadow Dragons' "Shadow" ability?
  • What happens if they suffer fatigue?
  • Can they activate while the controlling hero is knocked out?
  • If a familiar activates before a hero's actions, and then the hero discards it and summons an identical familiar during the same turn, can the new familiar act on the same turn, after the hero's actions? (More generally, if a hero ever has more than one familiar, can the player choose to activate one before his actions and another afterwards, or must they both be activated at the same time?)
  • If activating a familiar after your actions, do things that happen "at the end of your turn" (such as recovering fatigue due to a rest action, or being defeated for ending your turn in lava) happen before or after activating the familiar?

When the overlord places large monsters on a tile, are they considered "on" the tile even if only two of their spaces actually touch the tile? Or do they have to be fully on the tile, unless it is impossible to place them fully on the tile.

Say the monster limit for zombies is 2 minion and 1 master. Lets also say there are 3 minion zombies on the map due to quest rules. Can I spawn a master zombie because the limits for master zombies is 1, and there is currently none?

Some specific encounter questions…

Castle Daerion:

-Since Sir Palamon cannot move normally, is it intended that a master Ettin can Throw him?

The Cardinal's Plight:

-When is the Cardinal rescued; when a hero moves adjacent to him, or when the door is first opened? When is the Overlord able to spawn Lord Merick?

The Masquerade Ball:

-Is it intended that the heroes can rescue no guests but still roll a blank on the die and succeed? Is it intended that a two-player game can rescue both guests and still fail by rolling 3 shields?

Death on the Wing:

-Since the guards do not activate until either a monster or hero is on the same tile, is it intended that ranged monsters can kill some of them without them activating?

The Shadow Vault:

-Is it possible to jump off the waterfall from any space on the south edge of the Stream tile, or only from the water space on that tile? Does Baron Zachareth spawn with full health, or only two red dice worth? Is it intended that a Runemaster with Runic Sorcery is able to keep Baron Zachareth immobilized for an extended period of time, making it impossible for the Overlord to pick up and move the casket?

The Dawnblade:

-How, exactly, does Sir Alric Farrow's ability to be "knocked out" like heroes work? Can other monsters revive him as heroes can? Does he get full health back, or only what he rolls on two red dice? Does he spend his entire turn standing up, or is it only one action as mentioned in the quest guide? If the Overlord has won the "Enduring the Elements" quest, elementals can be chosen as an open group; is it intended that an elemental can sit on the tomb space and use its Air ability every round to prevent the heroes from entering that space?

The Desecrated Tomb:

-See above for questions on Sir Alric Farrow. Who controls how Khorayt spends surges, and what path his Fire Breath ability takes?

The Twin Idols:

-How does the Dash card interact with the monster carrying the Idol of Skulls? Can it perform two move actions if it starts its turn carrying the idol? If it doesn't have the idol at the start of its turn, a Dash card is played on it, and it picks up the idol as its second action, can it still spend a third action for movement?

The Man Who Would Be King:

-Is it intended that the overlord is still able to draw a card from Dark Charm if the hero passes his skill check in the second encounter?

And a general question for all quests:

Some quests allow monsters to pick up objectives, or require that the heroes kill all monsters. An elemental is able to use the Air ability every turn to become immune, either preventing the heroes from killing all monsters, or preventing them from picking up an objective token it is carrying. Is this intended, and if not, how should it be changed?

screwtape said:

How does "Dash" affect a Zombie?

That one's easy, it doesn't (at least in the way you're expecting). The Shambling ability of the zombie states, "This monster may not perform more than 1 move action during a single turn." So it doesn't matter how many actions a zombie has, only one of those actions can ever be a move action. Dash gives an additional move action to the 2 actions a monster normally gets. So this means a Zombie could do 2 things (say attack and open a door) and use Dash to move, but a zombie cannot do a Move + OpenDoor + DashMove because it can only ever do 1 move action per turn.

-shnar

Can the Necromancer activate his Reanimate familiar at the start of his turn, voluntarily destroy it, spend an action during his turn to create a new Reanimate familiar, and then activate this new Reanimate at the end of his turn?

-shnar

If 3 goblins at the start of OL turn are adjacent to Ashrian and Goblin group activated, are all 3 goblins stunned or they get stun one by one? What if first activated goblin defeat Ashrian, are 2 goblins that activated after first one stunned?

Can Widow Tarha use her passive reroll once per round ability on attacks made with reanimate?

How much damage (if any) does the reanimate take from the OL card explosive rune?

Can you better explain shadow dragons "fire breath"?

Does trace a path have to be in a strait line or can it take any shape?

if it does not have to be in a strait line, can it cross back over the same squares?

If it can pass over the same squares, can a model standing in those squares be hit more than once?

The Elemental's "Air" ability breaks some scenarios (if all monsters need to be killed, if the heroes need to reach a certain space, or if the invulnerable Elemental can carry an objective token without risk). What should be done about this?

Are the breaks in the white lines for squares along tile corners cosmetic or are they intentionally there to block diagonal movement through corners?

Does the Cry Havoc ability not count as a move in the quest As the Wyrm Turns allowing him to get around the "no double move" stipulation for the lieutenant?

1) Is a Reanimate considered a Hero?

If not, Can it attack a Shadow Dragon without using a surge? Shadow Dragon states that "a hero adjacent to this monster declears an attack must spend 1 surge or the attack is considered a miss."

Does the shadow dragons shadow ability effect only attacks that target the shadow dragon? Or does it also include any attack vs. any target while standing adjacent to the shadow dragon?

exy said:

Please confirm that the second Line of Sight example on page 12 of the rules is correct (because figures block LOS into their own "rearward" corners). The bolded "any corner" text in the LOS rules, without any reminder of figure-occupied spaces blocking LOS, has raised this question at least 3 times in this forum plus a couple other times on BGG.

In case you (FFG) aren't reviewing all of the other threads, below is a recent synopsis with a link to the "main" thread I've seen on the topic.

exy said:


Check this thread on the subject.

The short answer (as far as we can tell) is that you also have to consider the rule that figures block line of sight. (I agree that it is confusing that they bolded "any corner" but didn't remind you of this caveat.) So while you can trace LOS from any corner in principle, in practice you can only make use of the proximal corners.

At least one scenario says (Paraphrased) "When a figure enters this room, spawn the monsters". Does a lieutenant token count as a figure?

Range Question:

On page 12, under range, it states, "…Starting with the space adjacent to the attacker (of his choice), count the number of spaces to the target space." In the combat example on page 14, when checking range (illustration 3), it includes the square the target resides in (though the text references "to the target"). Does range include the square the target is located or are you truly just counting adjacent your square TO the targets' square? Having to roll for range, that extra square can make a huge difference.

Thanks. Great game. Can't wait for the F.A.Q.

Bianary said:

At least one scenario says (Paraphrased) "When a figure enters this room, spawn the monsters". Does a lieutenant token count as a figure?

I'm pretty sure the rules say that a lieutenant token is a figure for purposes of the game.

If a large monster that is shrunken for movement enters an adjacent space to a caltrops using hero and then gets immobilized, what is the end result if the large monster cannot expand its base to cover the square in which the immobilize occurred.

If a Reanimate is on the map when the first encounter of a quest ends, does it start on the map for the second encounter or does it have to be summoned? If it does start on the map, where is it placed? Can it be placed on the entrance tile if adjacent to the Necromancer, even if that means the fourth hero figure gets to start on a space outside of the entrance tile?

what happens to a reanimate when controller is knockdown.

1. is it remove as it's a summon

2. can he/she activate it in ther turn ( i say no as he/she is down and only can stand up.)