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Descent: The Road to Legend — Preview #4Lord it Over the Heroes
Last week we discussed the overlord's lieutenants. Powerful beings in their own right, the lieutenants are merely pawns and agents that work the overlord's will in Terrinoth. It is the overlords who direct their assaults on the free cities, the overlords who marshall the forces the lieutenants command, and it is the overlords who scheme to become gods. Today, we examine what it means to be an overlord… AscensionEach overlord has a plot, his own aspirations and goals. Plots form the overarching story of each Road to Legend campaign as well as providing the overlord with a host of potent abilities and both short-term and long-term goals. There are three plots in Road to Legend, and each one is represented by a deck of seven special plot cards. For example, deep within the Applewood Forest dwells a mighty Beastman Lord. Perhaps he was a mortal man once, but his pacts with dark powers have forever tainted and twisted him. Every step he takes down the path to power, he leaves his humanity further behind. Ultimately, he plans to become a god… and the time of his ascension is nigh. ;)
;) Each plot card tells part of the greater story. This is the first card of the Ascension plot. It lays the stage for the action to come and gives the overlord a powerful benefit at the start of the game. As the game progresses, the overlord may spend his XP (which accumulated conquest converts into) to purchase further plot cards in place of other overlord upgrades (more on these later). Perhaps the Beastman Lord has early success with his lieutenant Sir Alric Farrow and manages to burn the city of Riverwatch to the ground. He might want to build a temple to harness all the fear and destruction he has wrought… to bring himself one step closer to godhood…
The XP cost for a given plot card is in the corner. This one is free! Sooner or later, a successful overlord will want to become a god. (Or blot out the sun. Or… you get the idea.) To do that, he's going to have to play his penultimate plot card. These cards share some commonalities across the various plots. First of all, they have a high XP cost (after all, these are the penultimate stage of the overlord's plot!). They also typically have some preconditions that must be met before they can be played, so a clever, brave, and lucky hero party can potentially keep the overlord from ever playing the card. Thirdly, they have some kind of permanent game-altering effect (usually bad for the heroes, naturally). Finally - and this is the kicker - for some plots they represent an alternate victory condition for the overlord. ;)
;) Each other plot has a card just as nasty as this one. But wait, you cry! If that's the PENultimate plot card, what's the final card? Glad you asked, Descent fan. The final card is a double-sided doozy labeled on one side "Victory is Mine!" and on the other "Curses! Foiled Again!" It looks like this: 
 What, you thought we were going to give away ALL our secrets? The Beastman LordOf course, in order to wreak all this havoc and become a god in the first place, a villain must first become an overlord, and not just any monster or wicked being can do that. It takes a special sort of cunning and ambition to become an avatar of evil. ;) There are six avatars available in Road to Legend, and judging by the poll currently running on our forums the Beastman Lord is by far the most eagerly anticipated. Each avatar has its own powers and abilities, and each suggests its own strategies. The Beastman Lord is a very aggressive avatar, focusing on large numbers of dangerous monsters and lieutenants. Of the three forms of treachery, Monster (red) treachery is the cheapest for him to buy and he may purchase more of it than any other form. His Humanoid monsters (a category that includes beastmen, of course, in addition ogres, giants, and more) are cheaper to upgrade to the next level, so it's entirely possible that the heroes could be facing silver-level beastmen during the copper level of the campaign! Still, his "attributes" section isn't very promising at first glance. "Attributes and abilities of a Diamond Master Beastman?" What does that mean? Aren't beastmen among the lowliest monsters? ;) Each monster has copper, gold, silver, and diamond level stats. Their classic "Journeys in the Dark" stats might not have a direct equivalent under this new system. That's a pretty hefty damage potential but, only 6 armor and 17 health? Can't we do something about that? ;)
;) The overlord can only play one upgrade card per week, so he may have to make some difficult choices. Well, that's more like it. As long as we're getting everything we ever wished for, how about a card that makes all my beastmen hit harder? Even harder than the ability to cheaply upgrade them to Diamond level? ;) Some upgrade cards are unique to a given avatar. What's that you say? Upgrade cards that affect beastmen also affect my avatar? Well, that sounds like an excellent start, then. Still, we're talking about four gold-level heroes kicking in the door to the Beastman Lord's keep. In the unlikely event that they manage to make it through packs and packs of awful, horrible monsters baying for their blood and come to confront the Beastman Lord himself, they can probably dish out 30-odd damage with sufficient pierce to drop the Beastman Lord in pretty short order. This can't be allowed. C'mon, look at the Beastman Lord. He's clearly made some pacts with some pretty dark and dire powers to get where he is today (remember how he's about four razed towns away from godhood?), so how about showing me some razzle-dazzle.
Each upgrade card costs XP, just like plot cards. Okay. Flying, Ironskin, Unstoppable — I like what I'm seeing. That's going to give me the flexibility and toughness necessary to, what was that? Avatar times three? Three times the hit points, three times the attacks, and three times the damage? Well… okay then. Bring it on, heroes! Look at that. In all the excitement I forgot to mention that the Beastman Lord has twice as many unique lieutenants as the other overlords and that one of them has the potential to instantly kill any hero he hits. Come back next time, when we rise to new heights of power. Read the other articles in this series: | |
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