It's funny because my store got Ardus and Zarihell but they are still waiting on Kyndrithul. He's probably sitting at a bar drinking some V

Alright so I´m going to give this a go: Top 5 coolest monsters 1- Crow Hag – Honestly everything is cool about it, the miniature looks awesome, its design is awesome, the ability quite unique, it's a bowl of fresh air for the Overlord who for once has something else to toy with than the usual stuff. Crow Hags 12 points from Sweden. 2- Rat Swarm – I hear some noise coming our way! It's probably a monster! - No look they´re just sewer rats, you can lower your blade... - Wait.. hang on... run!!! BOOOOM – Logan? Logaaaaaan!!!!!!! Seriously, the look on the hero players' face. Priceless. 3- Broodwalker – I have been waiting for a monster with terrain-related abilities. I am very glad it came to light with the Broodwalker (although I´d like to see some more). Now I am very sceptical as for the Broodwalker's capability to sustain its movement disruption for very long, but the ability is very cool indeed. It's not very far away from the Wendigo's Freezing ability except all figures have it in the case of the Broodwalker and not only the master. It's kind of a huge difference because you could potentially lock down a passage with these monsters if the heroes are not well-prepared. Terrain is one of the most interesting aspect of Descent so I like content introduced to force the players to deal with dynamical terrain brought by this monster. 4- Chaos Beast – Because rolling 4 attack dices with Sorcery has never been as fun. I like mirror abilities a lot, so I like this monster a lot. Useful when you have some overpowered hero around, or a big baddy in LoS like Mister Mirklace. One would argue that the only fun is to roll many dices, it's quite straight forward after all, but the psychological aspect of it is what makes it fun in my mind. 5- Ynfernael Hulk – Just because I love my painting on them, which reflects the way they´re supposed to be in game. Fast, vicious and underworldly. Their abilities are cool too, after all it's the fastest large monster in the game. Top 5 monsters for melee attacks 1 – Hellhound – The sheer damage coming out of these ”things” is outrageous. I have seen them wipe out an entire party of armored heroes. With 4 figures, this is absolutely one of the best choices for tasks with violent purpose. The top of the monster mafia. Their move of 4 means they can reach contact very easily, and can also be used to block corridors. They are not that tanky, but that black defense dice in Act II is to be reckoned with. 2- Hybrid Sentinel – These monsters are made of steel and I cannot say enough good things about them. Resilient, hard hitting, they may lack powerful added damage upon surge, but the dice pool and Fire Breath on the master make up for it. Fly means they can harass the heroes and are resilient to hero positioning strategies. A plague for my heroes. 3- Rat Swarm – The ultimate glass cannon. For alphastrike only, they´re bad at everything else but that's not what we expect from these guys do we? 4- Arachyura – Three dices in Act I, and both have Pincer Attack which is a huuuuuge deal. Pierce comes as a cherry on the cake if you can afford the double surge. Not tanky, but surprisingly good defensive dices compared to other monsters. 5 - Ynfernael Hulk – The fastest large monster in the game, for a nice +3 damage on surge for the master. This is not strictly better than some of the other large monsters, but their reach makes the difference in my mind. They have Knockback to give them that impact (and deal additional damage if used in conjunction with damage dealing terrain spaces), and both monsters get the yellow dice in Act II (not all minion monsters get that upgrade). A solid choice they are. Top 5 monsters for ranged attacks 1 – Bandit – With 5 figures, these guys are pretty nasty at short range, dealing Doom condition (one of the best conditions around) and providing a way to disrupt searching abilities from the heroes. The only downside is that the Overlord needs to choose the terms of the fight with them otherwise the heroes will slaughter them. Therefore these are best combined with abilities giving them additional movement or defense to guarantee their protection. 2 - Crow Hag (I only have limited experience of them) – I´ve witnessed some crazy sequences involving these monsters. They´re not that great for dealing damage, but if you couple them with another monster group then they can completely shut down healing. The master's Death Omen ability only asks to be spammed twice a turn, inflicting these Terrify, Doom or Stunned conditions. 3- Goblin Archer – 5 figures and okay surge abilities, the increased range being particularly useful as you can operate slightly further away from the heroes. Good damage output if you can keep them close to the master. The master's damage output is quite impressive for a tiny creature like that if you consider the extra damage on surge. The Act II version allows for longer range, which is always nice. 4- Lava Beetle – Are often underestimated but they have some incredible damage output when used in the right situation. The worst enemy is a dice roll without surge, though, so I tend to keep these extra surge OL cards at hand. Like some other fragile monsters, you need to choose your moment for storming in with these guys, as they are glass cannons effectively. 5- Medusa – Only listed for the infliction of conditions. Very useful in Act I, much less in Act II when dealing damage is harded to achieve on skilled up heroes. Best coupled with a second monster group rather than operating on their own. Top 5 utility monsters 1 – Changeling – The perfect utility monster for these Basic II Overlords. You can never get wrong with Changelings, plus they´re great in battle. Let's say it: they´re really nasty. Whisper is very useful against these low-willpower hereos, forcing them to move can be a huge deal to enable things like Blast, pushing them into Lava or into range of some hard-hitting monster. I have used Changelings as much as I could in this game, especially for these quests where heroes needed to open locked doors using attribute tests. 2- Ironbound – To protect these Lieutenants, these monsters can be a lifesaver. They are a big deal in those quests focused on keeping a specific monster alive. 3- Barghest – Howl is very good. I sometimes use it twice a turn if in range. Piling on fatigue tokens on the heroes shut down their skills (at least the ones that matter) so they´re really a great weapon in general. The only requirement is on willpower so they're not going to be that useful against every hero group, but they can still be justified in my opinion. 4- Dark Priest – Only for these heroes that are low on willpower. Same reasons as stated for the Barghests. 5- Flesh Moulder – For the Heal ability of their master, especially when coupled with a Lieutenant. Healing themselves can be a big deal as few monsters have that capability, making heroes waste actions on them. I sometimes purchase the Dark Resilience Universal card because it is such a big deal to delay the killing of your master monster or lieutenant, so that's why I like Heal a lot. Top 5 blockade monsters 1 – Golem – I think it was quite obvious, but immunity to Pierce and conditions make this monster a rock especially for these corridors. Now I would actually not pick them if my hero group was very strong on damage sans Pierce, because at the end of the day even master Golems go down if heroes have 8 attacks at the guy (barring familiars). Still, hard for me not to list it. 2- Plague Worm – Put them in a position so they can block a corridor, so the heroes effectively need to chop down three walls of flesh. Worms are resilient and can trigger burrow to push figures one step further to their destination. A classic for me. 3- Kobold – Filling every space of a room with a Kobold can be good enough as a blockade, The heroes need to spend many actions trying to tear that wall apart. A wall that regenerates every turn. 4 - Giant – Very resilient and hard-hitting monsters. I use them a lot whenever I need some extra punch. 5- Broodwalker (limited experience of it) – Heroes cannot easily go around these monsters and need to kill them in order to clear the way. If your heroes are not completely geared up the Broodwalkers can be a decent alternative in my mind, especially if you can couple them with monsters shooting from behind or Bone Horrors. Enough to delay them I suppose. I prefered to list them in my top 5 even if I lack experience with them just to highlight that possibility (otherwise my #5 would have been Shadow Dragons for the same reasons as the Giants). Top 5 monsters for mobility 1- Harpy – Fragile, but extremely mobile and come with 4 figures. The Swarm ability is intimidating for heroes trying to catch these guys, and an incentive for keeping the Harpies in formation at all times. They need to stay together anyway in order to use the master's Flock ability, which only asks for being spammed turn after turn. Goes down very quickly if caught individually, though. 2- Carrion Drake – Twice as tough as the Harpies, same range but do not get the extra movement from the Harpy master and come with one less figure Still, very useful, especially if the lack of resilience from the Harpies is an issue. 3- Hybrid sentinel – One step higher defensive-wise from the Carrion Drake. Sometimes you gotta give the job to the professional. Perfect compromise between mobility and attack/resilience, even if I consider them as shock attack troops rather than scouts. I guess I am ranking them as high as 3rd due to their flexibility. You cannot go wrong with them regardless of the task, but I also find them distracting as you really want to make use of their high combat proficiency, potentially getting in the way of getting the job done (as far as delivering an objective is concerned). 4- Deep Elf – They are mostly intended for guerilla tactics, but they can work sometimes to achieve an objective, especially if you can still find a window to use their high pierce attacks. But it's like putting all of your eggs into the same basket considering how many figures you get (only 2). Hardly reachable by normal means, but skilled up heroes will have no problems taking them down without too much hassle. Once cornered they go down very quickly. 5- Goblin Archer – The poor overlord's choice instead of Harpies. Scamper is very useful and makes up for the lack of Fly. Goblins are a solid choice for these race quests whenever the above monsters cannot be chosen. Top 5 combo monsters 1- Aura monsters like Demon Lord/Mirklace or (to lesser extend) master Broodwalker + Dark Charm or Treacherous Shadows. Free damage by simply moving around the monster. 2- Lava Beetle when used in conjunction with web traps or any trap card allowing you to keep heroes in a position that allows you to use Blast. 3- Bandit/Goblin Archer with Wristlet of Wind, giving them higher snipe range. 4- Toss-abilities (Throw from Ettin, Burrow from Plague Worm etc) and Pit spaces. Be gone! 5- Rat Swarm Merge ability + Blood Bargaining. Hilarious, but very situational.

My list would require some serious revision given everything that has been released for this game in the last 12 months However I realized the task as being virtually impossible without giving a context to this list. It is obviously doable to ask people to give their Top 10 based on personal preference, like: - Which monsters you think are the coolest, e.g. which ones do you tend to choose just for their fun factor. - Which minis do you prefer, e.g. which monsters do you pick almost regardless of stats based on appearance soleley - That sounds awful, I´m glad I don't have to ask the same question about heroes - Which monsters do you almost instantly field based on how you can relate to a given piece of lore - some poster above said he loved Skeleton Archers as they reminded him some good ol' memories. People would probably agree that this context is radically opposed to the context of a Top 10 monsters based on efficiency exclusively. I think a fair part of all lists presented so far comprise of a mix of these, mine included. Chaos Beasts are cool (to me anyway) but they shouldn't be in my Top 10 because they can only be used 1% of the time, to give an example. However, that also means we hit a problem instantly, as monsters cannot all be compared against each other. I cannot for instance compare Kobolds to Shadow Dragons. They each fill a utility window that is radically opposed to each other. I can definitely say which one I prefer between Shadow Dragons and Crypt Dragons, and between Kobolds and Reanimates, but mixing the two seems silly. Following that logic, there seems to be several distinct "classes" of monsters, leading me to wanting to split this "Top 10" into several Top 5 lists. Maybe you can come along with this decision. So this is what I am suggesting: Top 5 coolest monsters Criterions: Monster art or how the mini looks like, cool/fun ability, or interesting piece of lore related to that monster. How powerful/efficient the monster actually is is not relevant for this category. Top 5 monsters for melee attacks Criterions: Damage output, ability to spend surges, resilience in close combat, ability to getting into range quickly, and ability to disrupt heroes (like condition dealing). Top 5 monsters for ranged attacks Criterions: Damage output (from attack OR effect - Lifethirst would count in here for instance), range, ability to spend surges, resilience, mobility, and ability to disrupt heroes (like condition dealing). Top 5 utility monsters Criterions: Accounts for monsters with powerful non-combat related abilities. No (direct) damage or condition. It can be the Heal ability of the Flesh Moulder, the Hideous Laughter or the Changeling, the Howl of the Barghest or the Summon of the Sorcerer, to give a few examples. The number of figures able to trigger the ability is also a criterion, for those where only the master monster can execute the effect. Top 5 blockade monsters Criterions: Monsters that are purposely placed and used to delay the heroes. Resilience (defense, health, defensive abilities), miniature size, abilities making it harder for the heroes to go past the monster (like the Overflowing of the Broodwalker, or the Web of the Cave Spider, for instance), and monster count are the first requirements, other abilities come next (including combat efficiency). Top 5 monsters for mobility Criterions: Monsters that are specifically chosen to get to an objective, possibly protecting it, and deliver it to a destination. Mobility/agility is the prime criterion, including all movement related abilities (like Fly or Scamper). The second criterion is resilience, and thirdly any other useful ability (including combat proficiency). Top 5 combo monsters Criterions: Monster who have a potential (but reliable and realistically achievable) affinity/synergy to some other element in the game, including other monsters, one or several Overlord cards or plot cards, or anything else (terrain, map layout, hero skill, anything really). Any crossover allowed as long as the categories are respected. As always, I will let you brainstorm with this and come back with my own list some time this week. Hope for some interesting discussions coming out of it! Template (1st position being your BEST pick): Top 5 coolest monsters 1 - 2- 3- 4- 5- Top 5 monsters for melee attacks 1 - 2- 3- 4- 5- Top 5 monsters for ranged attacks 1 - 2- 3- 4- 5- Top 5 utility monsters 1 - 2- 3- 4- 5- Top 5 blockade monsters 1 - 2- 3- 4- 5- Top 5 monsters for mobility 1 - 2- 3- 4- 5- Top 5 combo monsters 1 - 2- 3- 4- 5-

Yeah but what about ranged healing abilities like Radiant Light?

If the space where the token lies is occupied by a figure, is then LoS blocked by that figure, or is LoS to that space all that matters?

Descent is like a good wine, buy a few boxes and store them in your basement next to your best bottle. Then when your kid comes of age, crack the box and have a nice moment together. And after that, well you need some shelf space It depends whether you intend to paint your figures or not. Some people like buying miniatures cases, there are some on the market which are quite sturdy and can contain a lot, although you have to live with the eventuality that at some point there will be too much content and it won't all fit anymore. Then it is my opinion that these boxes are really ugly, expensive, and take a lot of space, but if you can hide it somewhere I guess it's one of the best options. I personally put the miniatures in various boxes (other emptied game boxes that I happen to havea around) in standing position. I made some cardboard bases for some of the monster groups so they don't just glide on the side when I manipulate the box, but none of it is really travel-friendly. When I need to carry the minis, I use show boxes with some clothes wrapped around the minis. That's the best way I know even if it doesn't sound "pretty". For info, I´m using public transport so I can't quite take one of these Plano boxes with me. Then you have to think about how you want to access your Descent stuff. I personally hate when I have to spend 20 minutes just getting access to the game components, it has to be swift and painless. So this is what I do: Current campaign: - Tokens in a screw boxes. These types of boxes are golden as token storage for any board game. I use them a lot and they are quite inexpensive. Keep the screws somewhere, lol. - Folder with printed information about the campaign, game rules, campaign book, FAQ etc. - Core game box with everything needed to play the next 1-2 quests. That means the cards and the tiles, mainly. - Expansion box for the minis if they don't fit in the core box. Heroes stuff is all stored in a large plastic bag so every player can just crack his own bag and unfold hero sheet, skill cards, class tokens and whatnot. The rest: - I store all tiles in plastic zip bags in a big game box. I keep them gathered by number. - All overlord-related stuff in an expansion box. - All heroes-related stuff in another expansion box. - All stuff I don't use at the moment in another expansion box (like Tainted cards, extra Threat tokens, co-op components, skill tokens etc)

Those are very good questions. I agree with Ceasarsalad101 about the fact the ability specifically states which attack "attributes" are used, so by exclusion the rest should be ignored, including things like Sorcery, which doesn't fall into any of these "attributes". It doesn't completely make sense to me, though. I can get behind why Sorcery wouldn't apply, as it implies a decision from the player (how much range you´d like to trade for damage, and vice-versa, but I´m having more troubles getting my head around why an in-built Pierce X would not apply. However, still, from a pure technical perspective, the answer is that you cannot use non-surge abilities. Sometimes things don't make sense thematically but they don't always have to As a general rule of thumb for this game, if an effect or ability describes its scope in a specific manner, you can always assume anything that is not mentioned is out of said scope. About your second question, I think the answer lies in the fact discarding the shadow soul token because a new one is put into play is not part of the skill executing that effect. Therefore you cannot trigger your Endless Void on that event, since it must refer to the text on a skill card. The "discard the old token" is actually linked to the ability listed on the Shadow Soul familiar card itself, stating that you cannot have have more than one of these in play at any point in time. From there, the indirect consequence is that if at anytime you would have two shadow souls, you must discard the old one from play. Now for the lulz, although nobody would argue that the familiar card is not a skill card per say, it technically belongs to the Shadow Walker skill deck based on its back

It does have some strategic significance: - You can measure movement range from each entrance space and place monsters accordingly. E.g. force heroes to spend fatigue to reach your monsters in melee. - You can "guess" the heroes sequence based on hero placement. - Whenever you can place monsters on the tile connected to the entrance, you can place things like Changelings next to the hero you intend to target with some attribute-related spell. Or any monster you may want to place adjacent to a hero with high risk of being affected. Maybe you don't want to do this if none of the front heroes are good targets for an effect like this. It's situational, obviously. I´ll agree it shouldn't matter much in most situations, but I can think of a few situations where my heroes re-positioned themselves after seeing my monster placement.

Ah but I'm not in disagreement with that for that particular reason, if you´re playing for the fun of trying out these H&M quests with these new monsters then by all means do it My playgroup will not have the chance of playing many of these quests after all, so that's definitely on the - side. These rewards won't be seen anywhere, that's the sad consequence of it. My point being that even though that would be by choice [for not playing rumors], I sort of feel like there is not much to gain from the OL perspective to warrant it, therefore the choice of NOT playing them has always seemed to be the best one by a fair shot. On the other hand we are playing the mini-campaigns as well, so there is close to no incentive for playing Trollfens/LoW/MoR quests this way, not for the reason stated anyway. But if your playgroup only want to play regular campaigns then maybe spicing things up with the mini campaign rumors can be an option. I found LoW quite uninspiring, but you definitely want to try out these Marsh tiles from Trollfens and even Manor of Ravens with his huge Lieutenant. As always, people do what they think is fun. While I can find some fun in playing a rumor quest "just for the lulz", I also find the fun in Descent as being my own character progression. Therefore if everybody gets geared up to the teeth while I sit with my Pit Traps broke and beaten, I sort of start to feel bored, lol. EDIT: Andrew made a good point about the increase of length in a campaign. That's also a factor. While I think the mini campaigns are a bit too short to my taste, a regular campaign does take a fair amount of sessions to be completed. Which means you are stuck with the same "setting" for a very long time, as opposed to playing shorter campaigns with more variety, giving you also more diversified experience of the game in my opinion.

So... we (FFG) change the rules to make the Rumor Quests more appealing to the Overlord, so he/she has better incentive for NOT playing them and get free rewards out of nowhere. That's a hell of a way to promote Rumor Quests, lol

I just checked and yeah you´re right. Funny I missed that part, although I don't think I´ve ever drawn one of these Rumor Quest cards, so that's probably why. Not sure what the point is behind that change, my heroes would pick a rumor quest all day long for the reasons stated earlier. There is no kind of reluctance for doing so, quite the opposite.

I agree that a little more variation on the hero classes would be welcome. I´m tired of facing the same combinations all over again But if new classes are worth playing compared to well-established ones then it means it would be quite powerful by design, therefore I would also plead for more OL cards to broaden his choices as well.

Omnislash, maybe I misunderstood you but what you wrote about the Overlord getting the reward automatically if the quest is not chosen is just false? I´ve never seen or heard this ever. I just checked the Trollfens book (I have been wrong in the past about a few rules so I´m not saying my understanding is better than yours) but there is no mention of an effect stating that if you still had Rumor quest cards in play at the end of an Act then the Overlord would get their respective reward. What you suggest doesn't make sense to me anyway because if I win every quest as the Overlord then Heroes never get to choose the next one, so I could virtually have 3 Rumor quests on the board and never attempt them only to get three additional relics for free at the end of the Act? I hope you haven't played it like this Anyway, Rumor quest means a pile of additional search tokens to salvage, a % of them being treasure chests and secret treasure rooms. But any item is worth gold, plus they grant a powerful effect. And then you have an additional shopping phase. It means 5 more item cards drawn from the deck for each rumor quest played, and an additional possibility to sell existing gear for better one. So yes, 50 gold earnt in a quest (which is very very low) can be a big deal if these 50 gold plus half the value of a second tier item can get the heroes a top tier item. So yes, there is HUGE benefit for the heroes for playing a Rumor quest even if they lose. I would only play a Rumor quest as the Overlord if there was a Relic to get that would be a huge deal to the campaign on a quest I had a decent shot at winning. Let us say this situation almost never occurs. The other possibility is if I´m getting too much ahead of the heroes as the overlord, e.g. you could play a rumor quest to try to even up the power between the two sides by giving the heroes some gold and more items to consider buying. Let us say my hero players tend to kick my ass pretty badly so that's not a situation I tend to be in nowadays (as opposed to when we started with this game). And no, threat tokens are a lure in my mind. They are definitely "something" by definition, but their impact is marginal at best. I´ll take the threat when killing a hero only once I know who is winning the quest we´re playing, which is a sad consequence of the way they were designed. This being said, don't take me wrong, I want the threat to get me the couple of plot cards that are worth the price. Just never want to fuel that payment by playing a rumor, that's all. EDIT: Removed the first part due to Atom4ge's reply below. The subsequent point with "doesn't make any sense" is still valid, though.

... and the mighty Zachareth who had caused mayhem across the country suddenly reached for a chair and sat down for a moment to regain his breath, while the battle was raging around him...

I have sent the question to FFG for confirmation. Hoping for an answer soon (if they do follow these forums, chances are they will refuse to help me, lol).

I also realized heroes placement might be done as part of the quest setup if not placed on default entrance. Quest setup is performed after monsters have been chosen, so.. yeah......

This would also mean Open Groups are decided during Overlord setup, before quest setup but after Heroes setup, the latter comprising of placing the figures on the map. Thanks a lot

Well you need to read the quest rules before you can decide which open groups you want to use I can't always pre-read the quest rules and decide before a session, since we might be playing several quests in a row, and it also depends on the gear the hero players purchased. I haven't found any indication of the importance of figure placement order anywhere on the web.

There is clearly no other plausible interpretation than the one you are making, Zaltyre. There is no shadow of doubt this extra dice cannot possibly persist between attacks. The reason why I raised this question is that every ability in the game is regulated by rather strict rules statements which tell when such abilities trigger and when their effect effectively stops. General rules prevail, then eventual exceptions are handled on a one to one basis. So despite the fact we still remain in the realm of common sense to provide an answer to this very question, I just find surprising that FFG formulated the Bull Rush ability in a way that could suggest that it could be cumulative, for lack of indication of the opposite. I am also considering this from the perspective of new players who might not have the capability to refer to other abilities to deduce the ruling of that particular ability. I do think the wording is poor.

Just asking for a confirmation to a very basic question that has been bothering me for a while. 1- Is there any rule stating the hero players must place their figure on the map BEFORE the Overlord places his monsters? 2- Would the hero players know at the time they place their figures on the map about which open groups have been chosen for the quest? Is that information known at that point? The only mention of this that I could find are from the Shadow Rune quest book, where the book says the Overlord should perform the setup, and the paragraph saying heroes must place their figure comes before monster placement, but I´m unable to say if there is a particular order to respect or if all steps are carried out simultaneously. Individual quests always stipulate hero placement first in the setup section, assuming heroes are not placed on the Entrance in which case default is used as per the quest book rules without any mention on the quest description. About open groups, the quest information is open as everybody knows, and its contents are therefore read and understood by all parts before proceeding to setup, however should the "open group" variable be resolved at this point, having the Overlord announce which monster groups have been chosen, or can the information be provided only once heroes have placed their figures on the map? I cannot deny there is a strategic aspect in this which might be beneficial to the Overlord for being able to place figures AFTER heroes do. What do you think? PS: Please don't hate me for finding caveats for making the OL life easier

I think so too, but skill cards are specifically refreshed at beginning of turn, and effects that state "until end of turn" do not apply any longer as if they immediately terminated by this "end of turn" trigger. Some plot cards state that the card can be left exhausted for the effect to apply as long as it is exhausted, but I cannot find any other example of an ability, monster especially where there is no mention of the end of effect. Common sense says it should be as part of a single attack, but the text can be interpreted as it could last forever for lack of event or step making it reset. As part of combat, damage and surges are resolved as part of that sequence, but there is no real mention that I know of that states what happens to your "attack pool" (or defense pool if that matters). Speaking of which, Disciple grants extra dices to the next "attack pool" or "defense pool" but the card specifically says they only last for one attack, and then the card of course refreshes at start of Elder Mok Disciple's turn EDIT: Even the extra dice from One Fist states it differently. It says add the dice to your attack and by the way it is formulated I would think it is added to his attack pool, so basically each time that applies, he adds the green dice to whatever dices he gets from his weapons and abilities. Bullrush could have stated "Roll an extra dice for the attack if the target was not adjacent from the monster at activation", so why didn't they write it this way if so was the intent? I think my playgroup would not argue (well otherwise they´re in trouble, lol), but newer players could interprete it as if you were getting an extra dice all the time. And if it's until end of turn, you can still turn this into something crazy when your monster gets to attack several times, assuming you´re combo:ing off with some OL cards.

Without saying your hero party was poorly skilled or played badly or anything, I have to agree that your damage output doesn't seem right for that stage in the campaign. I haven't checked your particular team composition as the previous poster did, but I cannot deny what he/she said would kind of explain your difficulties in clearing that encounter. Then sure, nobody's exempt from the magical X moment which seems to occur from time to time, but basically your heroes had 8 attacks to get rid of that Ettin, which should have been plenty enough. Now our group might play this quest next time (we´re slightly behind you in the campaign), and again we´re in a vaccuum here in terms of how team composition will look like and other factors. So by the looks of the quest, I can definitely see Merrick get a couple of tokens out before the heroes storm in. But I can also definitely see the heroes kill an Ettin on turn 1, and not doing so would be really unlucky (or lucky on my side I guess) therefore they should have plenty of time to knock at the door before Merrick gets more tokens out. I´m not trying to say the quest looks easy on the heroes, but that Ettin has got to die turn 1 (if not both Ettins, really) and then Plague Worms should be sniped from distance or whatever. If we play that quest (and assuming I have the same choice of monster group) I would expect myself to toss maybe 2-4 villagers. Plague Worms can be kited to some extend, and if you kill 1-2 of them then the overlord cannot easily chain the Burrow ability to get you into that pit. This being said I agree with you they are a very nasty choice of open group given the implications of that pit in that particular quest, so it might not be as easy. Then I haven't checked the second encounter, so it might be it is slightly geared towards the overlord if you just look at the win ratio stats, but that doesn't prove anything obviously. My conclusion is that if you are getting very unlucky on a critical moment of a quest then it can mean you lose on the spot. I have experienced this a lot of times as the overlord, but I definitely see it happen from the heroes side too. This said you can always run for the search tokens too and still come back strong from a lost encounter/quest. To be honest, while I understand the frustration of losing a challengeless encounter, it doesn't look to me like there is major unbalance in that encounter for the reasons stated above. But you can still steamroll and win obviously, which tends to feel like unbalance, but so is every quest of Descent, sadly.

It could be done technically, but with the limitation that you cannot port the Act III elements to other campaigns, which is a huge limitation. But yeah, you would need to add 1/3 of the whole game released so far including expansions to support a new Act, so that's extremely unlikely, especially if you were considering this for a mini-expansion.

I think the art on the One-Fist hero card is terrible, but the mini itself looks quite cool to me. I think they all look really nice, but then of course if these are 3D renders then we can expect worse quality on the actual figurine. Guys, did you notice the Bullrush ability on the Dark Minotaur stated "Each time... add..."? This is bothering me, because I don't think that I´ve seen anywhere that the attack pool got reset to the printed attack dices on the card prior to rolling the dices. So because of this phrasing, if I Dash:ed a Minotaur to a group of two heroes which were not adjacent to the monster at activation. I would roll RRB on the first attack, and RRRB on the second one? And a subsequent Frenzy for a RRRRB attack on a third figure thank you very much? That would open up for crazy shenaningans so I guess something's not quite right about it. Thing is, the rules don't seem to state anywhere that you have to reset your attack pool when declaring an attack, on the contrary you define your attack pool by the combination of printed attack dices on the card AND eventual abilities. Since nothing resets Bullrush (there is no "until end of turn" or "until end of attack"), I guess you can use counters to keep track of your extra red dices for future atatcks, like a permanent +1/+1 counter on a creature in Magic? That sounds too insane to be true, lol.