Hi all. Next week, my group and I will be starting our first Descent campaign and I'm set to be the OL. Half the group, including me, has played Descent v1, half has not.

I've been reading some of the threads in preparation, and am interested in what Monster Groups people would recommend. I understand it's situational to the quests, such as trying to slow the group with Spiders, but are there any particular groups that shine or consistently under perform? I'd rather not give up an earlier victory or two based on a bad Monster Pick.

I am going to have access to the Descent v1, several v1 expansions, the Conversion Kit and Lair in addition to the base Descent v2. I'd also rather not drop a huge Dragon or Demon group into every encounter either, preferring to ramp things up over time, but if that's what I need to do, I'm open to it. Suggestions and advice?

I am still new to this Overlord stuff and am learning new things about them all the time. First I definitely experiment with the different monsters and see where they shine for future engagements. One strategy I have picked up on is if there is a room or somewhere that the heroes can't avoid, think about putting a shadow dragon there. Between their size which can block entire passageways and their decent health and defense they make decent walls to slow the heroes down. I would avoid them in places where the heroes could easily just run by them because they're too slow and will never catch up. Then again this also depends on the party because if I am staring down a bunch of range weapons, the dragon may not work so well.

Overall my advice on monster groups is keep your eye on the prize and be prepared to use your monsters as roadblocks. At the end of the day you want monsters that are going to suck up the hero's turns for that scenario. If you don't think that can be accomplished as much based on the mechanics of the encounter then remember you can make some of it up in speed.

Truthfully the best advice that has helped me is that you don't overplay your hand in the first counter. Unless it is just a great play or maybe it won't cause to much of pain to lose that card for your second encounter strategy, then save it for encounter 2. It is all about the second encounter.

My passing advice is get the Lair of the Wyrm expansion so you can have the sentinels and the fire imps as an open group choice. They're great additions to your arsenal.

I am going to have access to the Descent v1, several v1 expansions, the Conversion Kit and Lair in addition to the base Descent v2. I'd also rather not drop a huge Dragon or Demon group into every encounter either, preferring to ramp things up over time, but if that's what I need to do, I'm open to it. Suggestions and advice?

Using large monsters all the time is just easy mode. It has obvious and undeniable advantages for the OL, but if you don't want to use them all the time, a resourceful OL can certainly get by without it.

If you have access to the CK, you'll probably be using a number of those guys. Kobolds can get nasty in a hurry. Giants are always popular. For D2E monsters, the Hybrid Sentinel is a pretty tough customer sine you mentioned you have Lair. (I'm not too familiar with the Labyrinth monsters yet.)