by LoneCoder
So here's some of my thoughts on the game to help players be more competitive. Feel free to disagree and suggest your tips and I'll add them to this post.Hero's should always try to clear searches on the first encounter of a map, if they are playing the campaign. Often winning the first encounter only has a small impact on the second. It's more important in the long run to get the searches for better gear. If no one goes for the searches the hero's will be losing constantly on the later quests since they are so far under-geared. On the introduction quest, getting the loot is the only thing that matters.
Armor up. Every hero starts with a grey dice, which averages 1.33 shields per roll. Once you've been downed you only come up with like 4 hit points on average. You need armor.
Melee classes will tend to get hit more often than ranged classes. The dice are more generous with range than in 1st edition.
Yellow dice (usually with ranged) have 3 surges. Red dice only have one. So you can sometimes sit back and snipe comfortably from 6+ if you've got range bonuses.
Fatigues are almost always worth less than health. Spend them first if you can.
OL can sometimes take a bunch of free shots before completing the scenario. Hero's can do the same with the searches.
Don't play Grisban the Thirsty. He's too slow and his ability is terrible.
Necromancer class is very strong. You usually get an extra attack each turn and the animate can be used to block hallways. Your starting weapon sucks to make up for it. Don't buy exploding animates first since your weapon sucks and it's almost like spending 2 actions and 2 fatigue to do one blast attack that will hit friendlies as well.
OL should always wean his deck down to 15 cards. I personally threw out the traps, since my players had the attributes to avoid them.
The entire 2nd edition campaign seemed like it played in less time than a single Sea of Blood tier.
Players should never miss a chance to get past monsters or heros that are about to plug a door or hallway to block an objective.