RISE OF THE DREAD MOON discussion

[j_dean80]

From Amazon itself or a third party?

Amazon through Prime

[Maalicia_Ironhoof]

2) The Magus Guard is covered in armour: Helmet, Shield and some serious body armour. Reduce movement to 6 and increase defence to 5.

I've contemplated this, but then actually becomes more of a tank than the chaos/dread warriors. I'd just drop the move to 6, leave def at 4, then they are a little slower to move than the chaos/dread warriors, but have the offset advantage of spells.

[The Admiral]

Yep, I can totally understand your logic there. I just like my stats to match my figures. I actually also increase my Chaos Warriors to 5 defence and reduce movement to 5 as I consider that they have Platemail and a helmet. However, for this quest I am using my Death Reaper figures instead of CW's. They have chainmail, helmet and a double handed weapon and so are 4/4/3/0/5.

[The Admiral]

Is there anywhere to ask official questions about this? I have a few questions? SPOILER ALERT! Don't read on if you want to know nothing about these quests.

1) "Magrian .... can cast each of the following Dread spells once per quest"

Does Magrian get any cast spells back for the second encounter?

2) "Shift Reality - .....Magrian casts one Dread spell it knows."

Does this have to be a still uncast spell, or any Magrian originally knew, already cast or not?

3) Does Dread Moon empowerment apply to Magrian and Sir Ragnar or is this already built into their stats?

4) I just want to make sure I am playing Caltrop traps correctly, as they seem almost harmless, especially so as many are directly next to a monster I want to attack anyway. As written, stopping on a Caltrop trap, either because you rolled a skull/BS or because that is where you wanted to stop, causes the removal of the trap and the Hero can then perform an action if they haven't done so already?

[HispaZargon]

1. in my humble opinion, YES. Otherwise would not make sense having some of their new abilities in the second encounter.

2. in my humble opinion, only an uncast spell could be cast using Shift Reality ability. Basically this ability allows her to cast two spells in the same turn.

3.- Definetively, YES, de official app considers the effects also for those characters.

4.- Good point. Probably the intention was only removing it if the trap is triggered, but yes, the rules says you must remove them just if you finish there your movement. This point should be officially clarified by AH.

[The Admiral]

SPOILER ALERT! Don't read if you don't want to know.

Excellent, that is how I played all three points. I've just finished. I really like how they have handled the final boss battle. It looked really easy with just the Big Boss and nothing else. Not like the usual packed rooms, but that was deceiving. Here is my report of that final battle:

Ketchup bursts through the door with a double 6. Zargon spawns a Mummy to protect Magrian and makes it an elite monster (roll of 5 = +1 Att, def and Body). He runs right around the room to behind Magrian and attacks with his Abagore's Butcher (2 x 3 dice attacks). Total miss and 1 skull which is isn't defended.
Portly is now ready with 2 Strength potions, Heroic Brew and Icy Strength, and a Dexterity to ensure he gets there. TERROR! He moves into the room but can't attack.
Drucidril moves in, and without an artefact fires her crossbow at the mummy (4 dice). 1 skull and it's defended.
The Arbalist, the last surviving merc also attacks the Mummy. 2 skulls with 1 defended.
Sallazar with only a Courage spell left, rubs his Ring of Echoes and retrieves his trusty Tempest spell. He enters the room and casts it on Magrian. CONSUME MAGIC! No effect and Magrian gets the lost BP back. Using his Keepsake Ring Sallazar casts Courage on Aramil.
Aramil reaches Magrian, takes Strength and Heroic Brew, and attacks with the Raven's Talon (attacks of 6 and 4) First attack inflicts 3 Body Points damage, the second nothing.

Now for Zargon's Riposte. Magrian casts Dreadlights on Aramil (who only has 2 defence dice), and with SHIFT REALITY! summons 2 Specters, and then regains a BP from the Queen and leaves the room. Aramil's Courage is gone. The Mummy attacks Aramil with 6 dice. 2 Skulls not defended. The 1st Specter casts Channel Dread (+1) on Ketchup who is on only 1BP, but rolls 2 and leaves the room. The 2nd Specter does the same. 2 again and it also leaves the room. The Mummy is now alone with all the Heroes and he is obviously killed, but there is nothing else the Heroes can do but wait for the coming assault.

A Specter comes through the wall and once again goes for that last BP on Ketchup. 3 and nothing again. The other Specter now enters and with a +1 rolls 4. The Barbarian takes a Healing Potion and rolls 4. Magrian enters, regains another BP and casts Fear on Portly, the biggest threat and with the reduced MP's of 2, he could be out the game for a while.

Ketchup attacks a Specter and kills it. Portly rolls 2 dice and gets a 6! Fear is gone. He takes his potions and charges Magrian. Two attacks of 7 with his Great Axe artefact. He rolls 4 Skulls doubled to 8 and none are defended....REFLECTION! onto the Dwarf who was on max BP's. Ouch! and he takes a 4BP healing potion. second attack is only 2 skulls. He has a Luck spell on him and he re-rolls the 5 missed dice, getting 2 more skulls. They are not defended and Magrian is dead. Drucidril fires her crossbow at the final Specter and rolls 1 Black Shield. Once again it's not defended and the quest is over.

This pack was great fun!

[The Admiral]

SPOILER ALERT! Don't read on if you don't want to know.

Strangers
Having played through the pack I found use for all the strangers bar one, possibly?
1) The 4 Mercs.
2) Zarese is the hooded face I presume.
3) The Shopkeeper and the dying Elf are the two old elves.
4) The final stranger is the 'hooded stranger' buying lunar charms. The only counter left is an Assassin and this doesn't feel right at all. I feel it should be just a generic hooded Stranger counter. So where does the Assassin appear?

[Otzma]

General question: What about a separate room/sub-forum for RotDM as with the other quest packs? I think that would make sense and make the search easier.

[wallydubbs]

I'm a little confused on the Mechanics of Disguised heroes. I understand that they can only attack with small weapons and can't cast spells, but it doesn't really specify if heroes can search or disarm traps while disguised... if you're in a room with multiple monsters and you stab one, doesn't that give away the disguise to the other monsters?
Can you search while monsters are present?

Quest 2 is the start of the disguise quests, the quest notes dictates what happens in the hallway or Magus Guards if you're disguised or not, but says nothing once they go past the goblin into the room with the Cultists. Do the Cultists ignore you too and just wait for you to try and stab them?

If the heroes are disguised couldn't they just go through the whole quest without attacking or fighting anybody?

In Quest 3 Dread of the Downpour, a disguised hero essentially just has to walk around knocking on every door without fighting?

Am I missing something on how all of this works? Unfortunately being up to page 40 i didn't go reading every post on here for the answer.

[SirRick]

There was never really any discussion on mechanics of this sort (mostly about the Specters and Channel Dread spell), and you are probably the only one I know actually playing the quests, so you didn’t really miss anything.

It seems the mechanics for being disguised depends on the quest itself. The rules on page 9 only state conditions in which you can lose your disguise. So I assume if a quest note mentions a benefit for being disguised, it should only apply to that particular room or situation. Otherwise the monsters you encounter should probably move and attack as normal, and you as a Hero player decide if you want to keep your disguise and fight with a handicap, or get rid of your disguise.

For Quest 3, you need to attempt to open each door you find, not knowing if it is a house or a room full of monsters, so opening a door with monsters in it should result in them moving and attacking as normal on their turn.

Also in Quest 3, Room D, the note mentions you can silently kill the two Magus Guards by walking up to them while disguised to instakill them. The two guards have statues standing between them so you could say they don’t have line of sight to each other. The rules do not say if statues block line of sight or not, so this is up to interpretation. It does seem odd if the two guards just stand there as you walk up to them and kill them one by one.

So from the rules and the quests mentioned (I did not look through all the quests yet) I would say that disguises offer no benefit unless there is a quest note referring to a particular situation. Elethorn at this point is a lawless domain with minions of Zargon roaming about at will, so it makes sense if they were to attack random citizens (the disguised heroes) for fun, or get angry if a gang of disguised hoodlums burst into their house and start rummaging around for treasure.