There´s also more stuff you can add to the game besides the standard components. Plastic treasure chests for the search tokens, minatures for the villagers, familiars. What I´m currently looking for, is a way to mark figures with conditions. I don't really like the token solution to keep track of conditions, and even damage on monsters/doors is hard to represent. I mean, it's not hard, but it can get unpractical. For the conditions I was thinking about something to put underneath the figure, like a flat base with a thin vertical metallic wire attached to it and then hanging something 3D there. Like, something floating above the figure. Something I could paint. Kickstarter sees the release of a few things like condition dices, and sometimes 3D models picturing conditions, but I have yet to find something that would look appealing to me.

I´ll ask bluntly, justy because I´m curious. I know nothing of the Terrinoth setting besides the fluff in the D2E quest books. What´s unique about the setting, or what makes it interesting compared to other fantasy settings?

Descent is a very frustrating game. It's a good game nonetheless, if you can take that frustration and elevate your level of play to bounce back on your feet. When you manage to do that and it pays off, then it's incredibly rewarding. That's what I´m always looking forward experiencing, personally. It can take many encounters for me and hours of try before I can get somewhere. But I like the work implied to get there. Most of the fun is strategizing and preparing. Adapting to a new situation. And then accepting that sometimes a good strategy can be annihilated by an even better strategy from the opposite side. You sort of have to give it credit too, because it's part of the game. There has to be luck involved on the dice roll and card draw, otherwise the faction on the lead would always win in the end, if people are consistent with their level of good decision making. On the other hand, it is true that a dice roll or a bad card draw (for the OL) can obliterate anyone's strategy and cost the quest. That's also why you need to try to get re-rolls, and manipulate your deck, at least to mitigate that risk. My advice is also to get past that conception that the improvement curve of the OL is nothing compared to the heroes' incredible margin for improvement thorough the campaign. That's just the way it is. The power the OL has, though, is the power of SELECTION. Whereas the heroes accumulate gear and are getting more and more powerful by getting more skills and enabling synergies, the Overlord gets to choose his/her weapons against that everchanging hero configuration. I can garantee that I could win quests based on solely open groups choice and a standard Basic deck. You don't really need that Level 3 OL class card to win. They have tons of armor? Take monsters with Pierce. They don't have Blast? Pick Kobolds. They have tons of regeneration effects? Take Crow Hags. Disrupt their fatigue economy, use Howl, Soul Shackle. Use Constrict, Immobilize, etc. This is all available to you from the very start (quest trait set aside). Then know when you´re losing. If you´re losing, then try to prevent them from looting. Kill a hero or two to get threat. Grab anything that might be relevant for the next encounter (if you´re playing the first encounter of a quest)

Where is the Web Trap ??? Nice read

I´m all for going all-in on games that I know will hit the table regularly, games that everybody enjoy playing, games that have such depth so I actually think about the game even when I am not playing, and games that have a strong community (quality community) where you can find support, guidance and alternative ways of playing. So yeah, I own everything D2E. But I didn't buy all that in a big bang (it would have been incredibly costly). I also own the D&D adventure games, which is also quite expensive when you put 4 big box games together, but that's also because I´m a sucker for variety. I didn't get the app (I tried it just for fun, but uninstalled it) so that product line is dead to me, but the physical stuff I will gladly invest in, until both my playgroups tell me they need a big break from the game, which they hinted could well be in 50 years when we´ve all retired and playing the game in a desert isle!

It saddens me to realize that misconception that Evil [in game] always has to lose in the end exists in some circles. Playing Descent as a way to entertain the hero players as opposed to the clash of two factions, is completely missing the point of the game in my opinion. It's completely childish of the hero players to force the overlord player to play dumb otherwise they wouldn't have fun. If the gap between the OL player skills and the hero players skills is huge, then the Overlord player should be trying to close that gap by sharing key information and making the hero players make informed decisions. If human beings cannot communicate between them in an attempt to make everybody happy, then playing a game like Descent might be a very bad idea at the first place...

Why did you do that? Why couldn't your Overlord player adapt to that? Sure it's challenging, but why are people giving up so easily? Did you also remove every item in the game with the Immobilize condition? Did you forbid your OL player to use Merriods, Elementals and Crypt Dragons? I mean, sure I sometimes hold my plays (not much anymore though, to be honest), but that's really shooting yourself in the foot. If I play against my 7yo then sure, but in an experienced group you can barely ignore the strengthes of the character you are playing. Again, not opposed to people making decisions against the game to improve fun factor. But at the same time I´m wondering why people cannot have fun with the game as originally designed/intended? It's nothing to do with playing competitively, it's about playing a balanced game between the two sides. If you deliberately omit rules or skills, and operate with a black list of all things, then how can this not affect your experience of the game? It's also kind of detrimental to the community as a whole as I cannot quite take a person's insight or opinion about things as seriously, if that person plays the game with heavy custom rules, and/or sub-optimal decisions made in that kind of scale? No offense meant, mate, but can you see what I mean?

Logan Lashley + Treasure Hunter. You can close the thread.

I have had it since last Monday. I love the figures. But I foresee this Nanok dude is going to do some damage to me and my minions...

I don't know if price ranges have increased, as it has always seemed to me liked they were skyhigh already. I paid 42$ for the new H&M pack. I can find it for cheaper, but then shipping costs make up for the difference and go beyond.

I am kind of shocked to see such request, to be honest. Of course - go ahead and select heroes & classes randomly if you want, same for monsters etc, if your group is having a blast doing so. Games are for fun after all so I´m really not against modding them if you think that would enhance your experience. But the strategic planning in this game (heroes side in your case), which is extremely important (for not saying critical to how the campaign is going to fare), takes a serious hit if you implement random selection rules like this. Besides obvious variance between the heroes and classes (different tiers, which means you can get 4 sucky heroes using your method), you REALLY need to build a team with complementary skills, and only deciding on an archetype is not going to make it. You have big differences between the classes of the same archetype. So yeah, what you suggest is a strong suboptimal choice the heroes are making before the campaign even begins. I am NOT saying you should be picking the same hero and class every game because you think it's the strongest. My playgroups have always had entirely different team compositions (some heroes and classes do recur, although never in the same hero composition). But you can at least choose classes that make sense together, and a hero with some form of affinity to your class. It also sucks being stuck with a bad combination of hero/class for the whole campaign. It also sucks having a hero ability or feat you can never trigger because you lack the skills to reliably do so. Hero players should take their time to select their team, so if they are taking too long either ask them to decide before the session begins, or help them deciding if you are the knowledgeable person in the group.

Maybe his ability Not me! has something to do with the fact we cannot find him

I would only pay $81 for Splig if it was a 5 ft tall collector version of him in titanium.

Chains cannot be an app-only product for the reason that the Overlord playing Mists cannot just say "good luck and good bye" when transitioning from Act I to Act II. Do you seriously think it's a possibility? I don't for a second. Then sure, all boxed expansions feed the app with tiles and monsters, but the only alternative that makes sense is that Chains should be played as a standard campaign and not using the app gameplay.

Rugal, are you possibly into the Rum & Bones 2 KS campaign? That would explain that urge for sea monsters and pirates fighting over ships

Sea is cool. I'd like some icy landscapes with yetis in their caves and barbarians in their tundras. Snow on one side and icy caverns on the other side. Desert and pyramids is another option. Jungle and temples another. Each of those could provide a brand new combination of monsters, and even heroes.

No way, you cannot just assume all the owners of Mists also own an iPad and have the app installed. You have to keep things consistent.

About conditions against monsters, Inflicting Terrify on a monster is surely a way to shut down its damage. Sure, a Deep Elf would still Pierce 4 you, but the vast majority of monsters get added damage, AoE effects and conditions on surge. Shutting that down on a map where you can't easily get to cover to get rid of it can be a big deal. Cursed is also nasty against monsters, so you can shut down these Pincer Attacks, Death Omens, Howls, Heal AND Overpowers along with all the nasty stuff from the lieutenants. Stun is also a top-tier condition. Any gear or hero ability triggering reliably some of these conditions will matter a great deal in a campaign. As the overlord in our group, I never consider buying Dark Remedy to counteract these. About balance in general, If one side plays well and the other one keeps pulling out suboptimal plays one after the other, then no conclusion can realistically be made about quest balance. The difference in playing skills is too great and will overshadow the fine tuning of the asymmetry between the two sides that FFG are trying to make in this game. You can say however that your playgroup is not balanced. Throw that statement to your group and see how they react, lol.

I would love me some new monsters, although picking open groups has become a very long process for me now given the choice. Another thing is that I probably only use 25% of all monsters being released since the core set. I´ve tried them all, but the worse ones are not picked again as long as I can have access to the better ones. So while new releases are always welcome, the new designed monsters have to be quite powerful in order to justify consideration, when compared to what we already have access to. That's also why I liked the Crow Hag, because this monster filled a spot that no other monster could claim earlier. So yeah, releasing more "skeletons" or whatever is probably only going to increase that "fat" of cards I always set aside when picking my monsters. Sure, Ardus and undead and so on, but that's a niche situation compared to wide use of a good monster like the Kobold, the Ettin and the Shadow Dragon (to name a few). I agree with the realization about Cold/Water monsters being under-representated. I too was expecting the difference in repartition to become more even, as new expansions/packs got released. On the other hand, every encounter in the game has at least access to one widely representated monster trait, so I´m fine with Cold/Water bringing fewer but more specialized monsters to the table.

@Volkren: The premises were all wrong, as you cannot possibly summon an agent on an encounter with no open group. Thanks anyway for your view mate @Charmy. I have to say that I really like reading you. Anyway, my situation is not better than your OL's. I am also facing Marshal with "By the Book" but above all "I am the Law", which means Kadlasar can expect a counterstrike at any attempt to take the warrior down. Firebreath would have to target another hero and rely on poor heroes placement, which is not going to happen bar a lucky Web Trap or an Immobilizing Merriod/Elemental. Both of which have other things to do (or do they? wouldn't I just let the heroes destroy the doors and try to focus on getting some damage through?). But yeah, at this point of the campaign, you can rarely afford giving away free attacks on your already (very) few monsters. What's even more obnoxious (yes, that's possible apparently) is that they have a Bard with Rehearsal. God I hate this card. A free Dark Fortune for each hero every round. Granted it eats up a song token, so that's one off some of the fatigue buffs, but negating the chance for the heroes to roll a most welcomed X on the dice or re-roll the black dice on an attribute test is such a game changer. As you may have concluded, I am yet to play the quest. I´m not even sure we will play it, as we´re just waiting for Prison of Khinn to reach its conclusion. One other possible quest after this one is the Rite of the Red Dawn, which looks like a "normal" quest compared to Shadowfall Mountain. Maybe I should let the heroes win Prison of Khinn so we can play Rite instead of Mountain I completely agree with you about the wincon being rotten. At this point of the campaign, killing anything else than the mage or the scout (which is all but trivial) is a luxury. I´m exagerating a bit, as you can certainly manage a kill or two if you spend a non-trivial amount of resources into doing it, but taking down buffed heroes with counterstrikes is a different story. Given all that, and if you don't count on getting any monster from encounter 1, I think the best shot at the quest is to get all the "champions" to attack, with the dragon trying to land a final blow. The Merriod can Flail, and the Elemental can both shoot and Water for fatigue if brought into range. I´m not even counting on Earth to ground the heroes (this say I have web traps) because they all have ranged weapons anyway. You mentioned about the trinkets negating surges. My heroes have this ring (bloodscript?) which grants Terrify condition on surge. Now luckily the dragon gets rid of it when he vanishes, but the other monsters can't possibly do that, as you have to lose LoS to the heroes and their familiars. So technically they could just land Terrify on the Ettin and the Merriod and ignore them. The Elemental still needs killing. I'm not buying Dark Remedy for that nonsense.

Open group. Yep, that's it, thanks. Awkward Edit: Encounter 2 doesn't seem impossible for the OL. How was your experience with it? I mean, smashing the correct gate will take time for the heroes and you get a master Shadow Dragon with a huge boost to defense (+4 shields as long as the lair hasn't been exposed). Granted it's a challenge to chew through each hero, and they could just kite the dragon I suppose.

Do you mean that in the example I took (only one Zombie figure ported to encounter 2) I could summon Kyndrithul (1 master, 2 minions) and still have the zombie? Summoning Kyndrityul makes the Zombie monster group from a 4/1 to a 2/0, thus allowing me to place both the agent and the Zombie. Does the zombie represent the totality of its monster group?

I have asked FFG for guidance here. In the eventuality that I´m right about getting the agent out again for free (although keeping all damage from previous encounter), I suppose I wouldn't be allowed to summon that agent again in that encounter. My head hurts right now

I guess there is also a possible (even likely) situation where only one Zombie survived from encounter 1, and I want to summon my agent on the Zombie group in encounter 2. I could swap the Zombie sitting at 1 life with Gargan Mirklace Since if I cannot find enough monsters to replace, the agent replaces the whole group. But for me it comes to the "set the figure and its damage aside" formulation. Encounter 2 doesn't say that I should place the monster group up to how many monsters survived in the previous round. It specifically says "set aside the figure & place directly on the Pond". Practically speaking, you move your minis to the side and place them directly on the tile. No considerations about group size or where the agent comes from. He/she was legally summoned during encounter 1 and gets another chance due to a twisted setup rules point in the second encounter. I guess that's another question to FFG?