A devestating combo is for the OL picking the Giants, use Sweep the attack action on any round and spending overlord cards to buff that attack. That means that the attack hits all heroes within "Reach" spaces and in line of sight, as well as getting the surges and extra damage etc from any card spent.

Is this intentional? Can you spend OL cards on monster abilites (Read: Not attacks) to gain more power? In that case, does the Giants "Sweep" count as an action or attack, and in which case can it be buffed by cards??

Typo in title… -.-'

"In that case, does the Giants "Sweep" count as an action or attack"
Both. The ==> on the card stands for 1 action. If you read the ability "sweep" it says: Perform an attack. So you can use 1 of your monsters actions to do this attack.

Overlord cards that say: "the attack gains….." can be used with this attack. That's a very powerfull combo, sweep with a critical blow (or something).

Okay, now I'm a bit confused. If this is an action, does that mean the monster can sweep twice in a round?

Wrapped said:

Ah, NO. Because the sweep says "perform an attack", and a monster can only perform an attack once per turn. I get it.

"I am so smart, S M R T!"

And you can't play Frenzy and have it Sweep twice either, because Frenzy gives you an extra attack action, but Sweep (despite counting as an attack action) is an "arrow" action. But Frenzied Giant could Sweep and attack a character of course.

Dam said:

Sometimes this game gives me vertigo. *phew*

Wrapped said:

Just wait until we have a couple of expansion rules, hah!

Dam said:

Well, yes you can. With a Frenzy you give the monster an extra 'attack' action. Remember that the "arrow" does not give any restrictions to an ability (or in this case, attack). It does not require you to exhaust the card (it isn't a magic the gathering 'tap' sign) it merely means you have to use one "action" to perform this. And in this case that action has to be an "attack" action.

We had a debate about this aswell, where one stated that this wasn't an "attack" action per se, but that is was an "action" that happened to let you perform an attack, so it could be used for both actions (like the "howl" ability from the barghest for example). But we desided that it couldnt and if anyone tried it otherwise we would see this as a social problem and pointed them to the d*ck-punching-rule.

JohnMill said:

The "Frenzy" card grants an additional Attack Action. The action that monsters use to engage any special ability on their card (attack or otherwise, as long as it costs an action) is a Monster Action. The rules then specify that a Monster Action which generates an attack still counts as the monster's one attack for the turn.

Adam Sadler, the original game designer for Descent 2E, has clarified in the BGG "Adam Sez" thread that this means a monster can only make a basic attack with the action provided by Frenzy. It cannot use a monster ability that counts as an attack.

Link here.

Great, thanks for the update and link. Got a ton to read and implement in our games now.