Coming back to main issue (thank you all for so much contributes!), personally I don't need a chess game. So for me it's welcome a game like this, where you can win on the base of dice, right cards in the right moments, a lot of strategy and tactic and, of course, a good amount of luck. is it a "swinging" game? Well, no one wants a chess-time (sure not me!): I'm pretty ready for unbelievable moments of funny action, slamming monsters, choosing strategy to overcome dragon's fury, winning (or loosing) for one more heart (or shield) on the dice, and so on.

With your replies I'm starting to convince myself I'm on the right way 'bout this feeling!

IMO, at this moment, the magic world of Descent is indeed the most beautiful experience in the fanatsy boardgaming: the most complete, expanded and supported fantasy board game among the "dungeoncrawling list" of all time. That's matter.

I do agree that if someone is looking for a nice, immersive adventure experience, Descent is a good game.

Why do some people get upset about "balance"?

I presume that they place competitivity higher than storytelling on their scale of what they call "fun".

I would agree that chess or checkers would meet their expectations much better.

I mean: travel across a magic land full of adventures, enter dark woods and grim dungeons, slay dragons, fight ogres and goblins in frozen caves or over some hot magma lakes, cast spells all around you, pull off your sword and survive hordes of zombies and skeletons, find treasures, trade weapons and potions, discover ancient relics and open secret doors in the walls of a castle. How can you want more from a single board game??

Then, someone (actually very fussy) screams aloud: "wait, wait, wait! It's still too swingy !!"

I say: who matters? I've never played before a swingy game like this!

Thanks griton.

Again, sorry if I was percieved as attacking someone personally.

This is only a game and I don't see the point to set up traps to hurt people in real life.

I however sometimes do indulge in heated debates, but I really do care about not making it anything else than a confrontation of opinions and logical arguments.

I also am quite conscious that I don't allways hit the mark and that I can be wrong.

And, coming to insults, I have been called a "choirboy" on some occasions and a "dumbass" (but that was on the French forum, where the level of hate against FFG/Edge can be occasionally very high).

You're forgiven.

Well I just won an extremely close one playing 'Barrow of Baris' - if the OL hadn't failed her attribute test it would have been all over. But she did, and in one turn i managed to get my treasure hunter around using all his movement and fatigue to make the distance, attack and use his his Heroic feat to get an additional attack which was enough to finish Merrick by one heart in the end

Classic game and we had a lot of fun playing it.

I would agree that the fun this game provides outweighs the balance issues. I would also point out that FFG has been slowly, but surely improving the balance through expansions.

That said, balance is something to be concerned about for two reasons. First, encounters are more exciting when they are close, and providing an exciting experience for players is paramount in this game. Second, this game is not RPG lite, it is a one vs. many game, and although perfect balance is impossible for a game with this much luck, players in a game where the goal is to win want the experience to at least feel fair .

The issue of fairness is important because one of the reasons we enjoy diversionary activities like gaming is because life, itself, is fundamentally unfair , which is a fact that is far more enjoyable to forget than be reminded of. Additionally, if the experience doesn't feel fair, then it was essentially a waste of time, because the outcome was largely determined without your input.

Again, the fact that all around here there are a lot of people who say that the game is unbalanced sometimes in favour of OL and sometimes in favour of heroes, makes me thing that, at the end, the game is fair enough.

The best game experience, IMO, is when both OL and heroes are skilled players. Is then that you can have very close encounters. I really believe that this game is far from to be a RPG, so an OL too much gentle could only result in a waste of time and enthusiasm for all players. I prefer to loose against a hard foe than to win fighting a mild OL.

Again, the fact that all around here there are a lot of people who say that the game is unbalanced sometimes in favour of OL and sometimes in favour of heroes, makes me thing that, at the end, the game is fair enough.

The best game experience, IMO, is when both OL and heroes are skilled players. Is then that you can have very close encounters. I really believe that this game is far from to be a RPG, so an OL too much gentle could only result in a waste of time and enthusiasm for all players. I prefer to loose against a hard foe than to win fighting a mild OL.

I personally have no issues with balance as of yet, but I have not read of anyone playing the game by the 2e rules with 4 heroes state that is balanced in favor of the O.L

I personally have no issues with balance as of yet, but I have not read of anyone playing the game by the 2e rules with 4 heroes state that is balanced in favor of the O.L

4 heroes vs a blasting OL could be an exciting challenge. With the introduction of the LTs packs the options for a skilled OL will be increased, so, henceforth, I don't think that a campaign 4 vs OL using a LT pack would be an easy walk even for the most skilful party

Robin's statement definitely came off as a bit of "You clearly don't know what you're talking about", but I highly doubt he intentionally tried to set up a straw man just so he could use it to attack someone.

I just had a flash idea for a new class - the Druid (because I can't think of anything better): summons "Straw Man" tokens to the map which must be attacked by monsters if legally able. They take a hit and go "poof" but serve their purpose in distracting monsters. =)

Speaking of balance, I don't know if some of you have had the pleasure of testing the 2 new heroes and classes...

I was OL and my mate played the trapper and the prophet.

We did the mini quest of trollfens using the rules that go with it (4xp start, gold...)

On paper, the prophet looked like a nice character and I felt like I had my chances as OL.

In reality, it's the most game breaking character ever.

The main reason is not that he can heal for free (doesn't cost an action, doesn't cost fatigue...), but the fact that he can boost all adjacent heroes with 2 fatigue/turn.

He does that by giving the token, taking it back, giving it again and having the skill that adjacent heroes get the boost also.

This means +2 hp and -2 fatigue for each hero him including (hence the "for free") and it doesn't cost him an action, just an exhaust. So he could still dbl attack or move and search...

Basically, what happened thanks to the boost is that the trapper was using his traps each turn for free and was also using the attack after placing trap for free also (2xp skill).

This means per turn, 2 traps I had to manage or blow up and huge dmg bonuses.

In avg, the trapper hit my monsters for 7-9dmg by doing an avg dice roll, using 2 surges for a +3 on his bow (easy with green dice), +1 from his heroic skill, +1 from the adjacent trap, +1 pierce from the trap next to monster...

suffice to say my best act 1 monsters melted in a single hit.

I've played many games were I was against strong combos, but heroes always needed to rest sometimes to get fatigue back.

Here, this combo allows for insane speed running with insane dmg and HP regeneration.

I only managed 3 downs on the whole campaign and that was because the heroes could split so they could grab all treasures.

Never have I felt so weak and powerless as OL.

It was not enjoyable at all.

Now, to make matter worse, I had decided to try Basic II and that's probably the biggest mistake.

It SUCKS. The dash copy is so weak it's the 1st card to discard. And the flurry is ok but weaker than frenzy.

Uncontrollable power has no value at all, you can't use it to force a miss, just spend a surge on fatigue dmg instead of dmg boost. That's quite weak. That deck also has a single trap to start with (grease) and it doesn't immobilize.

This play session was the most disappointing ever and I've learned 2 things from it:

-Basic II is weak and situational.

-2 player games are totally unbalanced depending on the class combo played.

If anyone has had more success against the 2 new classes, please share your advice.

Regarding the Basic 2, I doubt anyone will convince me of it's usefulness.

@MadBat:

I think your group was playing the two new classes incorrectly. Many of the skills you mention require that the hero exhaust the card. Exhausted cards cannot be used.

As for the Basic 2 deck, I've found that this deck is most useful when the group is well balanced, with one player of each class, whereas Basic 1 is best when the party has obvious deficiencies in certain stats. Additionally, Basic 2's value comes from having so many cards that replace themselves when they fail to take effect. The ability to have a search token run away from the person searching it is pretty nice, too.

@MadBat:

I think your group was playing the two new classes incorrectly. Many of the skills you mention require that the hero exhaust the card. Exhausted cards cannot be used.

As for the Basic 2 deck, I've found that this deck is most useful when the group is well balanced, with one player of each class, whereas Basic 1 is best when the party has obvious deficiencies in certain stats. Additionally, Basic 2's value comes from having so many cards that replace themselves when they fail to take effect. The ability to have a search token run away from the person searching it is pretty nice, too.

And where did u read that they didn't exhaust and played this more than once per turn?

I've read all the cards before letting them play the new classes.

They played correctly. Exhausted the 2 cards (giving, taking and giving to other hero) and still recovered 2-3hp and 2 fatigue each per hero turn.

Regarding mimic, this indeed is the only good card in basic 2.

I just never got lucky and didn't get it when I needed it.

I just had a flash idea for a new class - the Druid (because I can't think of anything better): summons "Straw Man" tokens to the map which must be attacked by monsters if legally able. They take a hit and go "poof" but serve their purpose in distracting monsters. =)

They also can cause a lot of damage, but that damage is immediately discarded as soon as the straw man has been dispatched. You might be able to win a fight with a straw man, but you can't do it only part way. ;-)

I've read all the cards before letting them play the new classes.

They played correctly. Exhausted the 2 cards (giving, taking and giving to other hero) and still recovered 2-3hp and 2 fatigue each per hero turn.

Knowing what the cards are / say would probably help with this. I think it came from a misunderstanding that one card was being used twice (give the insight token), and another card allowed for taking it back in between. It sounds like one gives the insight token, and the other card takes it back and gives it out again. (Though if it's to "another" hero, it may be that you can't give it to the hero that had it in the first place, but not knowing what cards you're referring to is difficult; they aren't on descentinthedark.com and some of us don't have Trollfens yet.)

It's like you said, he has to give it to another hero... himself.

Basically, the prophet gives the token to the stalker, so stalker gets -1 wound and -1 fatigue token, but so does the prophet tanks to his passive that says adjacent heroes get the same bonus (and thus he casted this for free, getting his one fatigue back).

Then he uses the skill that says "pick the token and give it to another hero" and simply gives it to himself.

Hence he gets the bonus (casting this for free again) and so does the stalker.

Now, he can even discard the token for a total of 3 wounds healed at no cost (not even a single action).

I can live with the free heals of the whole party.

But I can't cope with the mass fatigue reduction.

Fatigue is was made the heroes think carefully about their actions. Spend it for extra moves or a big attack...

Spend an action to rest and there goes the OL with his extra attack from a monster that could have been killed.

Well this is completely negated thanks to the prophet class. First thing he does on his turn is exhausting the cards that just got refreshed (unless he has to place himself first to be adjacent to other heroes).

This mechanic also has the added value that the heroes never split as they get to big of a bonus from the prophet.

Hence it's even harder to separate and kill them.

I fell in total despair, when he got a ranged weapon... as from then on, he didn't even need to move to crush me with his rune.

Why can runes be equipped by everyone anyway...

From that point, I lost 2-3 monsters a turn, could usually reinforce 1, couldn't depend on traps thanks to his accessory and simply couldn't go for objectives as in trollfens, most objectives (2 out of 4 quests) for the OL are completely dumb: survive 9 rounds!!

I did win the 1st quest as it was not a survive thing, but a race and 2 heroes vs 4 group of monsters is totally unfair for the heroes. They needed to split to even have a chance at winning the race and well the prophet doesn't work well if split.

Makes me wonder if this was playtested at all (probably only with groups of 4 heroes)

Insane.

It's like you said, he has to give it to another hero... himself.

Basically, the prophet gives the token to the stalker, so stalker gets -1 wound and -1 fatigue token, but so does the prophet tanks to his passive that says adjacent heroes get the same bonus (and thus he casted this for free, getting his one fatigue back).

Then he uses the skill that says "pick the token and give it to another hero" and simply gives it to himself.

Hence he gets the bonus (casting this for free again) and so does the stalker.

Now, he can even discard the token for a total of 3 wounds healed at no cost (not even a single action).

I can live with the free heals of the whole party.

But I can't cope with the mass fatigue reduction.

Fatigue is was made the heroes think carefully about their actions. Spend it for extra moves or a big attack...

Spend an action to rest and there goes the OL with his extra attack from a monster that could have been killed.

Well this is completely negated thanks to the prophet class. First thing he does on his turn is exhausting the cards that just got refreshed (unless he has to place himself first to be adjacent to other heroes).

This mechanic also has the added value that the heroes never split as they get to big of a bonus from the prophet.

Hence it's even harder to separate and kill them.

I fell in total despair, when he got a ranged weapon... as from then on, he didn't even need to move to crush me with his rune.

Why can runes be equipped by everyone anyway...

From that point, I lost 2-3 monsters a turn, could usually reinforce 1, couldn't depend on traps thanks to his accessory and simply couldn't go for objectives as in trollfens, most objectives (2 out of 4 quests) for the OL are completely dumb: survive 9 rounds!!

I did win the 1st quest as it was not a survive thing, but a race and 2 heroes vs 4 group of monsters is totally unfair for the heroes. They needed to split to even have a chance at winning the race and well the prophet doesn't work well if split.

Makes me wonder if this was playtested at all (probably only with groups of 4 heroes)

Insane.

Who was the character playing the Prophet arch-type? If it was Elder Mok, then don't allow him to be in any campaign. He's very OP and if he ever gets the staff of light he can heal himself for 8Fatigue and 8Health a turn. He's absolutely broken and his heroic just adds insult to injury.

Who was the character playing the Prophet arch-type? If it was Elder Mok, then don't allow him to be in any campaign. He's very OP and if he ever gets the staff of light he can heal himself for 8Fatigue and 8Health a turn. He's absolutely broken and his heroic just adds insult to injury.

it wasn't mok. We played the new classes with their respective new hero.

And Mok is a joke next to Augur Grisom.

His feat adds insult to injury by giving every hero in los 2 health and 2 fat regen... for free (no action again).

Should I ever play a hero, I wouldn't pick any1 else

The game balance is working for me, we played the interlude 'Pilgrimage' in LoR and I lost to the OL by 1 turn. Classic game!

I am playing a band of pretty average heroes (Widow Necro, Logan Treasure Hunter, RayHart(?) Champion, Ashrian(?) Spirit Speaker) maybe that's why we are getting good balance. I made a couple of bad moves as well and was severely punished!

Augur does seem overpowered, but I guess there are more racing quests overall than survival ones. Have you tried running away if you have to survive 9 turns? Do you have CK monsters - kobolds could be handy because there are so many of them.

Who was the character playing the Prophet arch-type? If it was Elder Mok, then don't allow him to be in any campaign. He's very OP and if he ever gets the staff of light he can heal himself for 8Fatigue and 8Health a turn. He's absolutely broken and his heroic just adds insult to injury.

it wasn't mok. We played the new classes with their respective new hero.

And Mok is a joke next to Augur Grisom.

His feat adds insult to injury by giving every hero in los 2 health and 2 fat regen... for free (no action again).

Should I ever play a hero, I wouldn't pick any1 else

Nah, Mok beats Augur Grisom imo

Give Mok 4 experience points, make him a prophet with Soothing Insight, Forewarning, Battle Vision and All Seeing

Mok could give the Insight Token to his partner twice a turn technically. This would grant his partner 4 health and 2 fatigue a turn and heal Mok for 4 Health and 2 Fatigue a turn + once per encounter discard an OL card of his choice from the OL's hand.

That doesn't include any phat lewt the two acquire during the mini-campaign.

Is there any link where I could see all the Prophet skills? The previews had almost all but they are missing 2.

You are completely wrong about Basic 2.

============================================================

It contains six awesome cards that only work effectively when you have a mage AND a warrior in the party. That is a huge mistake on your part.

Mental Error requires a warrior to go off reliabily

Blinding Speed x2 requires a warrior to go off improved

Uncontrollable Power x2 is far more effective against a mage.

Grease Trap requires a mage to go off with a stun

Couple those three of those cards with Befuddle.....and you own.

Sorry but when you're playing a 2 hero game, and neither is a mage or warrior, you go Basic 1 , absolutely no questions asked.

Who was the character playing the Prophet arch-type? If it was Elder Mok, then don't allow him to be in any campaign. He's very OP and if he ever gets the staff of light he can heal himself for 8Fatigue and 8Health a turn. He's absolutely broken and his heroic just adds insult to injury.

it wasn't mok. We played the new classes with their respective new hero.

And Mok is a joke next to Augur Grisom.

His feat adds insult to injury by giving every hero in los 2 health and 2 fat regen... for free (no action again).

Should I ever play a hero, I wouldn't pick any1 else

Nah, Mok beats Augur Grisom imo

Give Mok 4 experience points, make him a prophet with Soothing Insight, Forewarning, Battle Vision and All Seeing

Mok could give the Insight Token to his partner twice a turn technically. This would grant his partner 4 health and 2 fatigue a turn and heal Mok for 4 Health and 2 Fatigue a turn + once per encounter discard an OL card of his choice from the OL's hand.

That doesn't include any phat lewt the two acquire during the mini-campaign.

I have no idea why you insist on Mok. His skill is indeed insanely good, but only profits to him.

Augur will have every hero 3 spaces around him (him included) get a heal if an attack deals no dmg and his feat boost hp and stamina for all heroes in los. He's the better party member.

He also has more HP and stamina compared to Mok.

Regarding Basic 2, you make it seem as if there aren't any cards dealing with healers or scouts and that just confirms my point. It's a weak deck vs less than 4 heroes as without the added bonus, the cards aren't worth it at all.

Even if the 2 heroes would have been warrior and mage (which no one sane would go for in a 2 heroes game...), I'd still pick basic 1 for reliability.

With this deck, you'll also lose a lot of flexibility and everything you do will be predictable.

If you need a boost on an attack to kill their healer, well no luck, your mental error is efficient against a warrior and the heroes kinda now you'll be very reluctant to use it against anything else.

Same with every skill. It's very situational and you'd have to get extremely lucky for the correct hero archetype to be in the perfect position for you to use that skill with added bonus.

The deck would have been more viable if a different bonus affected 2 different archetypes.

For ex. Grease could have stunned the mage and increase to 5 the moves of a warrior...

Pity they didn't think of that.

The game balance is working for me, we played the interlude 'Pilgrimage' in LoR and I lost to the OL by 1 turn. Classic game!

I am playing a band of pretty average heroes (Widow Necro, Logan Treasure Hunter, RayHart(?) Champion, Ashrian(?) Spirit Speaker) maybe that's why we are getting good balance. I made a couple of bad moves as well and was severely punished!

Augur does seem overpowered, but I guess there are more racing quests overall than survival ones. Have you tried running away if you have to survive 9 turns? Do you have CK monsters - kobolds could be handy because there are so many of them.

I have some CK monsters, but not those from Well and Altar.

Besides, kobolds would be a very bad idea because the first 2 usually deal no dmg (only blue dice, hard to surge and even with surge, you'd need at least 2 monsters around hero to get a decent boost) and Augur's heroic would make all heroes get 2 hp back on no dmg dealt.

Kobolds would serve to slow down a bit, but with 4 kills a round, I doubt the heroes will mind.

It'd still take a miracle to last 9 rounds. And wasn't the only use of kobolds to abuse that magus spell that got nerfed?

Also regarding fleeing, there are elements in the quests preventing you to go that route.

Like heroes can save survivors from a cart in one quest or force your harpy master to come straight at them alone to get insta killed next round.

It's thus not advised to run...

There is a quest that allows you to increase the speed at which the OL can win, but it involves leaving a monster on the sinking

cage. I tried grouping my monsters there, but the heroes made short work of them, even Bol Gorreth.

I did make a placement mistake with my zombies on that quest though. I could have lasted one more turn... and it still wouldn't have been close.

Right. I assume you have tried blocking and gathering around the objectives etc, which it sounds like you have, so maybe it is just an overpowered combination. Like you stated as well, Basic 2 may not be the best choice either. Maybe its best to avoid this combination next time!