Avric Albright's Hero Ability question

By HeWhoLaffs, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

New D2 gamer, having only played twice, both as the OL, and during our latest session there was a disagreement on the wording of Avric's Hero Ability, and I'm looking for some clarity since I can't find an answer in the forums or FAQ. Based on the wording, I was assuming his ability is like some sort of an aura, where each hero within 3 spaces gets the "Surge: Recover 1 Health" on attack rolls, so when said hero within 3 spaces attacks, they have the option to spend a surge they rolled to heal one health from themselves. Seems simple enough.

However, based on the wording, the players take it to mean that when Avric attacks, that he can use a rolled surge to heal 1 health from any hero within 3 spaces of him. I'm under the belief that only the attacking hero, including Avric, can heal 1 health and only from themselves, not heal other hero's. Please help me out so I can go forward with how this ability is supposed to be used properly.

Actually, I also have one other quick question that just came to me. Regarding the water obstacle, the rulebook says you need to spend an extra movement point to enter water, but doesn't say anything about spending extra movement points to continue moving through it. Is this how it's meant to be or is it supposed to be an extra movement point for each squared traversed though the water? Thank you for taking the time to look this over and respond.

HeWhoLaffs said:

New D2 gamer, having only played twice, both as the OL, and during our latest session there was a disagreement on the wording of Avric's Hero Ability, and I'm looking for some clarity since I can't find an answer in the forums or FAQ. Based on the wording, I was assuming his ability is like some sort of an aura, where each hero within 3 spaces gets the "Surge: Recover 1 Health" on attack rolls, so when said hero within 3 spaces attacks, they have the option to spend a surge they rolled to heal one health from themselves. Seems simple enough.

However, based on the wording, the players take it to mean that when Avric attacks, that he can use a rolled surge to heal 1 health from any hero within 3 spaces of him. I'm under the belief that only the attacking hero, including Avric, can heal 1 health and only from themselves, not heal other hero's. Please help me out so I can go forward with how this ability is supposed to be used properly.

I think that because it doesn't specifically mention healing other heroes, you can only use it to recover 1 Wound from yourself (the attacking hero).

HeWhoLaffs said:

Actually, I also have one other quick question that just came to me. Regarding the water obstacle, the rulebook says you need to spend an extra movement point to enter water, but doesn't say anything about spending extra movement points to continue moving through it. Is this how it's meant to be or is it supposed to be an extra movement point for each squared traversed though the water? Thank you for taking the time to look this over and respond.

Note that the game "doesn't care" what manner of terrain you start your turn in (in terms of moving to an adjacent tile), you're only looking at the tile you're entering. Hence, enter Water tile 1, 2 movement points, enter Water tile 2 (you're again entering a WT), 2 movement points.

You have to understand how the D2e icons read in order to solve your query. Because Avric's ability is stated as "Each hero within 3 spaces of you (including yourself) gains 'surge: Recover 1 heart' on all attack rolls" it is applying the ability to add another surge option to any hero within 3 spaces attacking. If it was meant to be that only Avric's surges could heal it would be worded as "On your attack rolls, you gain 'surge: Recover 1heart' for each hero within 3 spaces of you (including yourself)."

But the OP is also asking (if I read it right), if let's say Avric himself attacks and rolls a surge, whether he can spend that surge in combination of his ability to heal another hero. To me, each hero within 3 of Avric gains an extra option on a surge when they attack, but the heal surge can only be used to heal the attacker himself.

That is how our group understands it as well.

Dam said:

But the OP is also asking (if I read it right), if let's say Avric himself attacks and rolls a surge, whether he can spend that surge in combination of his ability to heal another hero. To me, each hero within 3 of Avric gains an extra option on a surge when they attack, but the heal surge can only be used to heal the attacker himself.

I agree with this. This is how we play it.

That's pretty much what I thought. Thanks for all the input guys. Appreciate it.