Question on Surge Gains.

By fishgeekted, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Hi,

Just picked up the game and am curious on surge gains.

The Hero Ability for Avric allows himself or hero within 3 spaces to gain surge on all attack rolls. Is this an option to spend a surge on Avric's bonus or an additional surge to whatever is rolled? I'm not sure how this works. Example, If I roll no surges, do I still get a surge of healing 1 life for free?

On critical blow, the attack gains 1 surge of +3 damage, It is applied after dice are rolled. So I'm guessing that if no surges are rolled, you would not apply this card as no surge would exist to apply the crit blow to. Or… Can it?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

When you gain surges, it allows you to spend those surges on the weapon you are attacking with. So, when someone give you a surge, you spend it on yourself, not on another player. If you are given a surge by another player and you fail to roll any surges on your attack, you still get that one surge you gained from another player.

Does that mean that all heroes within 3 spaces of Avric are healing 1 life per turn regardless?

Just to add and easy to overlook, you may spend only one surge for every surge ability.

So if you have surge +1 damage you may only spend 1 surge to use this ability, with any other surges you have to use other abilities if available.

That's the reason the axe from the berserker deck shows two times the same surge ability.

fishgeekted said:

Does that mean that all heroes within 3 spaces of Avric are healing 1 life per turn regardless?

If a hero within those 3 spaces attacks and gets a surge he may spend it to get 1 extra damage

fishgeekted said:

Hi,

Just picked up the game and am curious on surge gains.

The Hero Ability for Avric allows himself or hero within 3 spaces to gain surge on all attack rolls. Is this an option to spend a surge on Avric's bonus or an additional surge to whatever is rolled? I'm not sure how this works. Example, If I roll no surges, do I still get a surge of healing 1 life for free?

On critical blow, the attack gains 1 surge of +3 damage, It is applied after dice are rolled. So I'm guessing that if no surges are rolled, you would not apply this card as no surge would exist to apply the crit blow to. Or… Can it?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Note that what Avric's text says is that attacks within 3 of him gain: Surge = +1 heart

It does not say that they gain +1 Surge (as the Mana Weave) does.

So, he is giving them something extra to spend surges on, not extra surges.

On the card it reads "recover 1 heart". So if Avric gives another choice to spend a surge on, I would read that as heal 1 heart instead of damage.

Thanks for everyones input, this is becoming more clear.

On the overlord card, "critical blow" I'm assuming it is the same. It gives the monster another option to spend its surge on, in this case a +3 damage surge? Am I correct in reading that?

fishgeekted said:

On the overlord card, "critical blow" I'm assuming it is the same. It gives the monster another option to spend its surge on, in this case a +3 damage surge? Am I correct in reading that?

Yes.

Note that, in contrast, the card Dark Might (I think that's the right name) adds on Surge to an attack.

Wow, seems like a lot of people are getting "+1 Heart" and "recover 1 Heart" mixed up.

To be clear, anyone within 3 spaces of Avric essentially adds the "Surge: Recover 1 Heart" quality to their attack. If they roll a Surge, they can spend it to recover 1 Heart. If they aren't within 3 spaces of Avric, they don't get this ability.

Also, a lesser known bit, don't forget that 1 Surge per attack can always be spent to recover 1 Fatigue too ;)

Karui_Kage said:

Wow, seems like a lot of people are getting "+1 Heart" and "recover 1 Heart" mixed up.

To be clear, anyone within 3 spaces of Avric essentially adds the "Surge: Recover 1 Heart" quality to their attack. If they roll a Surge, they can spend it to recover 1 Heart. If they aren't within 3 spaces of Avric, they don't get this ability.

Also, a lesser known bit, don't forget that 1 Surge per attack can always be spent to recover 1 Fatigue too ;)

Yeah, that was me expressing it poorly. I knew it was health recovery, rather than damage.

I have a question about the class weapon Skinning Knife.
If i roll and get no surges, do i then still get to add and use the ability?

"If the target has any
number of damage
tokens, this attack
gains:

Surge: +3 Damage."

No, cannot add +3 damage to an attack with the skinning knife if you have no surge results. The text describes a surge ability (you must spend a surge from your attack results to use it) which is only available to use if the target has already taken damage.

Edited by Zaltyre

No. The text describes a surge ability (you must spend a surge from your attack results to use it) which is only available to use if the target has already taken damage .

That is not entirely correct. Surge results can be spent on any attack that is not a miss. Inflicting damage is not necessarily required. For example, if an attack hits, but the defender reduces the damage to zero with defense results, the attacker may still spend any surge results available on any surge abilities the attacker wishes, including recovering fatigue, hero abilities, etc.

No. The text describes a surge ability (you must spend a surge from your attack results to use it) which is only available to use if the target has already taken damage .

That is not entirely correct. Surge results can be spent on any attack that is not a miss. Inflicting damage is not necessarily required. For example, if an attack hits, but the defender reduces the damage to zero with defense results, the attacker may still spend any surge results available on any surge abilities the attacker wishes, including recovering fatigue, hero abilities, etc.

It is correct in this case, since its about the skinning knife which says ' If the target has any number of damage tokens, this attack gains:'

Yes, sorry, I should have clarified who I was responding to. I'l update my post.