So, universally my game group likes D1 more than D2 and we're all sad that D2 is what Descent looks like from here on out. That said, we still run campaigns for both at the same time. The most negative voice about D2 played OL this past time and was walked all over (in his mind) and complained that D2 is too luck based with less strategy than D1. We all agreed for a while, but I'm starting to re-think that critique. What does everyone here think about the luck based nature of D2? Is it more, less or the same? I think his issue is that the armor varies, and that does come to luck.

Granted, this isn't the only issue...line of sight and large monster movement is just foolish, but the luck thing bugged us for a while...but I'm starting to think it might not be that much diff luckwise to RtL

Well, the bit about armor being rolled rather than static is obviously a shift towards luck in general. It easy enough to house rule that figures have a static armor value based on the dice shown, though, if you want that back.

I don't think the OL's position has changed too much in terms of luck. The heroes are definitely less luck based than 1E though. No longer drawing skills at random, even hero selection is non-random by the book. They still draw items at random for shopping, but at least they get to see them before paying nowadays.

You could return to the random "draw 3 pick 1" for hero selection (have the OL deal out hero cards without looking too closesly at them, since they're double-sided these days.) We allow the player to pick archetype and then deal 3 heroes of that archetype. This should cut down on awesome hero syngergy somewhat, and help to ensure that the middle-tier heroes see some play as well.

D1 definitely more luck based. For heroes their skill selection was random. You could get good one or bad ones and then stuck for the rest of the long game.