Hi all

Let me start by saying I have always loved the dungeon delving theme in board games.

As a child I spent countless hours with my cousin and friends playing Heroquest in the summer holidays. I had all the expansions including Ogres horde and Wizards of Morcar. These were some great times!

Now in my adult life my obsession with the dungeon theme continues with Descent. I have collected everything released to date! Although time is a scarce commodity these days I still enjoy playing when the opportunity presents itself.

Anyway back to the point........

I've read several articles which say the game is not balanced and the Heros are overpowered. Others say the overlord is overpowered. Now I think the general consensus is that the game does have its balance issues.

In a game like this with so many variables it is going to be difficult to completely solve this. Playing a campaign with four Heros allows for more player synergies than in two hero campaigns. Some Heros offer better synergies with one hero over another. That is just the nature of the game.

I think back to days of the Super Nintendo and street fighter 2. Man was I good using Ken but maybe not so good using Blanka. My point is if I wanted a challenge then Blanka was my beast and if I fanced an easier game then I went with Ken.

Seasoned descent players will soon know which Heros and monsters are better than others and the games difficulty will adjust accordingly depending on which combinations were used.

I think while balance is important in a game other factors like theme and character development are also needed which this game has in abundance.

What I'd like to ask is what house rules do you use to help smooth out the balance issues?

Just for starters I like to tweak the reinforcements based on the hero group limit. This was introduced in Labyrinth of Ruin. In First Blood for example in a four player game two goblins are placed at the end of the overlords turn not one.

Also another rule we use is to only allow the overlord to carry forward overlord cards equal to the number of Heros in the campaign into the second encounter of a quest. The rest of the unused cards are discarded. This stops the overlord saving them up, sacrificing encounter 1 where the rewards for winning do not give the winner a massive advantage in encounter 2 and launching a Hugh assault on the Heros in encounter 2.

Please share all your house rules. I'm sure there are excellent ideas being used in your own games and I would like to try some of these out in my house games.

I like both your reinforcement and OL card rule. We only allow heroes to be revived from a stand up or Revive action only. We play random heroes (but not a strict rule per se) and have considered the OL not belong allowed to put 2x1 monsters ion a position where they are not facing a hero.

Our games our pretty close, so they have worked well for us.

I believe the trick to House rules is to implement tweaks instead of major rule changes or errata and you have done that well with your changes.

Also another rule we use is to only allow the overlord to carry forward overlord cards equal to the number of Heros in the campaign into the second encounter of a quest. The rest of the unused cards are discarded. This stops the overlord saving them up, sacrificing encounter 1 where the rewards for winning do not give the winner a massive advantage in encounter 2 and launching a Hugh assault on the Heros in encounter 2.

I like this rule, though in my group, it's never been much of a problem.

The problem with creating a hard ruling on overlord cards not carrying over, is that it gives the overlord no response to situations in no-reinforcement maps. In which the heroes clear out everything first, and then search the whole area plus a potential secret room. This applies to a lesser extent with certain reinforce at the end maps as well, if you have a couple beefy guys who can take out the respawns as they come out.

Thankfully the game does a good job of keeping reinforcements high and imposing time limits to prevent most of these actions, but when creating rulings strictly involving "don't be a jerk" situations, so quickly you can find the shoe on the other foot.