Is the punisher class any good?

By Bagdad, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

We're just starting a new campaign with the expansion and I was wondering if the punisher class is worth buying cards from? The no rest for the wicked card look pretty good for slowing down player. Any thoughts on the punisher class? http://www.descentinthedark.com/2nd/no-rest-for-the-wicked/

We are starting a new campaign tomorrow, with me as Overlord, and I am going to run as Saboteur. I am sick of everyone focusing on the Warlord tree so much, when the monsters dont scale with the game in the same way as attribute tests or traps do. Remember what your goal is, and that is RARELY to kill all heroes.

With that said, I see no reason why you should not buy "No Rest for the Wicked", undependent on what tree you are maining through. Its a good card, and you dont have to commit to the Punisher tree if you dont want to. If you only want that particular card, just get it, and keep spending experience in another tree instead.

If I recall correctly, I think I read in the unofficial FAQ or elsewhere on Boardgamegeek, that as OL, you can revert the cards you have spent experience on to get a lvl 3 card, to get new cards that fit your needs better. I am not sure if this is true, and would love someone confirming this.

One of the rewards for a quest in Act II is that the OL may choose to return cards to the box and gain the experience back to be respent. I don't have the quest book in front of me, and I can't remember which quest specifically allowed this. To me, this means that once a card is purchased it stays in your hand, unless you trigger something that allows you to exchange it.

Also, I remember reading that the OL can choose to remove cards from their hand for a quest. You must have a minimum of 15 cards, but you may temporarily remove some from the deck.

I hope this helps.

I dont know if this would help u in any way - but yesterday we finished the addon campaign - where i tried out the punisher skills and was quite impressed.

i thought i d just share my thoughts with u.

i skilled the following:

2 trading pains (i diddnt see the usefullness of no rest for the wicked, since my group usually deals out a lot of damage, so i prefer to have my monsters in the back, waiting for an opportunity 2 hit and run, also, trading pains deals around 2 damage every stand up/revive action, which doesnt seem 2 be that bad for a level 1 card. it gets its epicness though, when a hero uses a health potion, which is a pain in the ass normally, but suddenly u got a 5-8 damage nuke and may instant kill a mage. i realized some of my players started 2 be reluctant on using potions or healing, fearing i had a trading pains ready, which forced them into a much more defensive playstyle, buying me precious time.)

Price of Prevention is a nifty card. It is either a take a card from ur discardpile (trap or event ofc = Dash, Frenzy, web tryp, blood bbargaining) or a good nuke (around 3-5 damage). it will give ur players headaches about what ur greater plan could be. When i had my group on half life i was constantly able to play price of prevention 2 get back blood bargaining, making it a horrible thing for them 2 fight valyndra.

blood bargaining (i have only used this card in my last encounter - in the boss fight vs valyndra. i cannot tell u of its usefullness in a normal encounter, i would think that the heroes will just ignore the monsters for 1 round (which could come in handy 2…) but in an boss encounter this card is worth it 3 skill points through and through.)

I dont have any advice about exploit weakness, since i played a more nuke like, card refreshing deck (which worked out wonderful btw.) I think u could bring it 2 good use, surprising ur heroes, but i would rather not move a precious monster into the heroes DURING THEIR turn, fearing they do what heroes do and tear it apart.

also i skilled 1x unholy ritual and schemes, making me able 2 channel much faster through my deck. in the secound encounter i healed valyndra 4 times with Dark resilence since i always draw it again. In fact my heroes couldnt recover damage fast enough, ending in at least 1-2 heroes dead per round, which even feastened my carddrawing.

in the end i would say, it is a smart idea to play the punisher as a mainly nuke class, adding some utility like carddraw, heal, or maybe 1 or 2 web traps for slowing down the heroes. just remember not 2 nuke every then and now but wait for 1 opportunity 2 dish out alot of damage (combine with words of misery) and then, when they kill the first wave and lick their wounds, trading pain them so they wont recover so hard, heal and respawn ur minions and keep them on the run.

worked perfectly ;D

urs

krawallbürste

Wow, thanks for the tips, it's really inspiring.

You seems to mix a lot of the classes and generic cards which is kind of neet.

The only thing i'm not sure about trading pain is that you can choose to reduce the health you gain when this card is pulled. So all that my heros would do is to choose to heal only 1 or 0 when I play this card.

What I like about no rest for the wicked is that they would not use fatigue on that turn, so they can’t double attack.

Also, are you always playing with 15 cards max?

I never play with more then 15 cards. I have skilled keycards which i want to draw asap and as often as possible. most of the time i kick out trip wire, cause its crap (also pit trap, just doesnt slow the heroes down enough to serve as 1 card where i could draw a dash, frenzy or smth.). also as the game progresses i skip dark fortune, since i barely need it (this ONE time, i miss an attack, ok, but i dont see enoguh variability for the use of the card to make place for it). Sometimes i even put out critical blow - since most of the leutenants have their owne "crit" (like +2 or smth).

the fewer cards u have in ur deck, the faster u will draw needed cards, also once u channeled through and reshuffel ur ol deck it will be like 5-9 cards high, which will give u used cards back quite quickly.

i like 2 dish in an unholy ritual since it gives u an awesome card advenatge. since i always play vs. 4 players its a draw 3-4 cards, which is quite awesome. card advantage for the overlord is a game breaker. schemes will help u, once ur ol deck is down to 5 cards, to get a much needed dash which u just reshuffled in back. also dark resilence is awesome for boss encounters, where heroes try to get alot of damage on same tanky leutenant.

keep in mind with trading pains, that the damage is rounded up. so on a stand up action a hero has to give up on 2 hearts (!) to redruce 1 damage. 2 damage u dont have to deal anymore to kill him once again. if we are talking about 1 red die, then the math is even better think of it this way, the damage u reduce them on their heal is damage u wont need to kill a reviving hero again.

and keep in mind, that it will counter out half the damage of a healthpotion (=EPIC!!)

and keep in mind, that it will counter out half the damage of a healthpotion (=EPIC!!)

Krawallbürste said:

and keep in mind, that it will counter out half the damage of a healthpotion (=EPIC!!)

What I dont get is; can the hero just decide to heal only 1 heatlh out of the healing potion? I don't quite get the "in response to this card, hero can choose to reduce the amount of health they gain"…

lets say we got a knocked out 12 Health Avric Albright, on which a 6 Health left Widow Tarha uses a Health Potion. Normally Avric will recover all damage (12) and be patched up.

U play Trading Pain, targeting Widow Tarha for the Damage. Now the 12 Damage Avric would recover will deal 6 Damage (50%) to Tarha, knocking her out instantly. Because the players dont want her to be knocked out avric decides to only recover 10 Health, Dealing 5 Damage to Tarha, leaving her with 1 Live left

(If u count the 2 Life Avric DID NOT recover + the 5 Damage Tarha suffered u just Nuked 7 Damage with a lvl 1 card)

He could also choose to Recover only 1 Damage, in which case Tarha would suffer 1 damage (50% rounded up).

Yeah that's what I understood of the card. But as I know my players, they'll just ``auto 1 heath`` each time I pull this card. (which is still not bad since they lose one turn of healing).

cheer mate - they re way easier 2 kill that way ;D