by jgilbert0913
This is not a comprehensive list of hero choice, though I wish it was. If you are looking for that keep checking posts. I have not had enough experience with the game to have an informed opinion rating every hero published for Descent 2 versus all the other choices. I do have enough experience to tell, though, that some heroes are just better choices than others. A read through the forums show me that I'm certainly not the only person that holds that opinion.I also want to point out that this is not a thread complaining about imbalance. Full stop. Please do not interpret my thoughts that way.
I'm not complaining about any one hero or another. All heroes can be overcome by a clever overlord, I'm on board with that. What I lament is that some of the choices avalible as heros to us will never be chosen or played by my group. I suspect that goes for many of you.
So what I am attempting to do is give players a reason to pick the underdog-unchosen-loser-sad and frowny little hero card once in a while. I know you all know the hero card I'm talking about. It's the guy with the cool art work or the awesome ability that will only be used once every three or four sessions. You'd like to choose the little fella, but have not and will not because there is another choice that does the things you want but better or more consistently.
A little background: I am the owner of the game and while never having played Descent 1 I dove into the second edition full force and own every expansion up to, and including, labyrinth of ruin. My group has played through the Shadow Rune campaign a few times and is now starting the L. of R. campaign. We have explored many different combinations of heroes between us.
There has been no set Overlord and we rotate the duty/ privileged between us. We've all enjoined victory playing on either side so there in no inherent bias on one side's advantages vs another. Generally we think the quests are much more balanced than appears at first glance, though you do sometimes need to look at the big picture to see how this could be the case. I have played many games as both a hero and an overlord. In both cases I noted that the advantages some heroes have over others is pronounced. This is not a problem I have with the balance of the game exactly, but a problem when it comes to character selection.
My concern is this: We have a lot of content to choose from. For me and my group a large part of the appeal of being a hero is combining a tactical challenge with customization and the ability to individualize your role while working as group.
As I said before: not all heroes are equal. This creates a problem. There is a lot of fun looking content in this game that that has just not been accessible to us. It's just not appealing to choose a sub-par hero, even if it looks like it's abilities might be cool once in a while, because there are just some choices that are better than others.
You may choose a sub par person if you would like, but why would you do that if you know you are in for grueling session upon session where you are reminded that you you should have played that other guy? Sure you may choose someone because you want an challenge, but unless you are playing 1:1 it's kind of a bogus move to gimp your team-mates that way.
So my idea is this:
select and sort hero choices under the following categories:
-Powerful ( only the few best heroes. I'm looking at you Nanok.)
-Average ( most heroes )
-Situational ( Only the few worst.)
A hero who is powerful would give the overlord +1 XP upon selection by a player to disincentive it's selection)
A situational hero would net the heroes +100 gold to encourage it's selection.
My hope is that this system would open the hero selection process up enough so that all heroes of an archetype are worth considering rather than a select and elite few.
My questions are:
1. Are the rewards/disincentives I propose unbalancing?
2. Which heroes would you put into the Powerful or Situational categories?