by Diegann
Hi,Like I said in another post, I was finishing the first half of the Shadow Rune campaign, playing as overlord against 3 heroes. My friends are old time rpg players and very competitive, they will come up with very good strategies, they will optimize their turns and be sure to use all their abilities, feats, and get all the treasure in a level, for sure. A mixture of being 1 against 3 good players, shadow rune campaign being very easy for the heroes (at least the quests I played, fully errataed), that 3 heroes against 1 overlord is not good when picking big monsters and of courses some mistakes, made me painfully lose all encounters. I got tired and bored of that snowballing, they also started asking for more monsters because clearly it was impossible for me to beat them, so I decided to quit, and try a second time from the beginning, this time in Heirs of Blood, a much less one-sided campaign. I also decided to make them manage 4 heroes, so I can always use full-powered monster groups (and because I suspect that, whatever playtest the developers did for this game, they mostly designed everything for 1 vs 4, and full monster groups).
I will be using this thread as a log for our campaign, and hopefully to get counsel and strategies to try to beat the heroes to a pulp. I dont care about winning the campaign, in fact I would prefer to lose as the overlord, but in a last second desperate effort, not an easy walk! I fully know that I win by achieving objectives and preventing heroes to achieve theirs, although I would love to be able to kill them once in a while (I have yet to kill the mage, even if ganging up with many monsters!).
On saturday, we started Heirs of Blood. We played the first encounter, Acolyte of Saradyn. Their group is composed of:
Avric Albright (healer)
Syndrael (knight)
Jain Fairwood (archer)
Leoric of the Book (mage)
This is a very though group in my opinion, especially with that frigging reanimate and its blue+red dice and 3 movement (it should be 2!) always around the mage.
I am using the DESCENT TO MADNESS plot deck (Tristayne Olliven), because the one I used in Shadow Rune, the Skarn one, was crap, except for Skarn itself as a monster.
I can also choose whatever monster I want that exists in descent second edition, when choosing open groups (we have printed all monster information and we proxy them).
I managed to win the encounter, and felt mixed feelings about it. They got all treasure in the level (last turn they run to get the last 2 when they saw I would win, they will always maximize their winnings) so I got 2 exp, they got 200 gold. So, mixed feelings, 200 gold is huge. They bought a great crossbow that costs 175 and moves 1 square a monster that is hit, and gave it to the archer, Jain. They also bought for 1 EXP jains ability to, by spending an action and 2 fatigue, steal a random overlord card... This power is... not good for me. I know that Jain being such a good character, losing a random card for her to lose most of her turn might not be that bad, but its another thing that messes with my head, I cannot have overlord cards that I have to wait to use (for example traps) and well, sometimes you have to save as much cards for second encounter as possible, and I am sure I will lose many, many cards with this power. And at 1 exp point, c´mon! Also, because I never get to kill heroes, I wont be getting many extra cards...
With my 2 EXP, I thought about spending 1 to buy 3 threat, so I would have 4 threat now. I thought about buying "Descent to madness" plot card, for 3 threat. That card allows me to make all heroes do a saving throw and get 1 threat if they lose (if one passes, descent to madness ends), once per encounter, at 1 threat cost. I will of course try to use it all encounters and get as much threat as possible, at least THAT cannot be robbed by friggin Jain! This plot deck has many good cards that I will be able to buy and use, if I get enough threat.
Ok, sorry for the wall of text. I won, but they present a very big challenge. What quest would you recommend for me to choose next, that would give me the greatest opportunity to win again? Also what to do about that Jain robbing overlord cards skill? Any other ideas, strategies, monster-pickings or recommendation, to try and destroy my micro-managing, over-achieving, power-hungry friends?
Cheers!