Corbon said:

My group just had a discussion about this, when to actually play dark relic and on whom. Is it played

A. When a blank is rolled on the treasure draw, before the treasure is revealed on any hero of the overlord's choice

B. Same as A with the heroes choosing who gets the dark relic

C. After the treasure has been drawn from the deck on a hero of the overlord's choice

D. Same as C with the heroes choosing who gets the dark relic

E. After the treasure has been drawn and been given to a hero on the hero who received the treasure

Personally I tend to vote for A or C. Could you clarify this for me?

Thanks in advance!

It´s somewhat like E., but without the OL knowing which treasure card the hero just received (or is about to receive).

See this FAQ entry:

Q: Dark Relic: Is the overlord allowed to see the treasure
card a hero draws before deciding whether to play this
card?
A: No.

So when the heroes flip the card from the treasure deck the overlord has to look away at the beautiful landscape outside, and when they have decided to give the treasure to a certain hero the overlord goes

'Bwahaha, would you roll a dice please, certain hero?'

'Oh, you haven't rolled a blank, have fun with your glass armor. Muahahahahaha!!!!'

Is this the official way it should be played?

The FAQ-ruling seems rather strange to me. Normally the overlord sees the treasure right away. Why shouldn't he if he wants to play a dark relic?

As mentioned above I would have played dark relic before the actual treasure gets drawn and then simply assign the glass armor to any hero of the overlords choice.

I vote A cause simply these rules were meant for quests hence the OL can play it on any player he wants cause EVERY player gets a treasure. The OL can't see the treasure since that would make it far more powerful so it is simple once you roll a blank (or more) the OL chooses who gets the dark relic and plays it. As far as how good it is i would say PRETTY good since you don't get to take it off until you get into town and you have to pay 500 gold. Anyone who has played the campaign understands how important money is early on. Now on later levels even though you cut a treasure card i would have to say it is far less powerful.

Unrelated to the present discussion (which, I believe, has nearly reached its conclusion), I'm curious to read everyone's reaction: can the OL play The Black Ring dark relic on One Fist?

VonSwarzenhausen said:

Heh, good question. Undoubtedly he can play it, but it may very well simply fall off as One Fist does not have the two hands necessary to equip it.

In other words, the OL would be wasting his Dark Relic if he used it on One Fist and chose the Black Ring.

Very nice answer. By the way, I think the Black Ring is better played on non-melee characters, to maximise its effect (I played it once on Landrec and it was real fun...for me).

What happens if a hero with a rune-forbidding armor gets the darc relic "Sunder the Grave". Does he have to unequip his armor? What happens if he reequips it?  If reequipping such an armor drops the rune, this would render the card quite useless.

The hero who receives a dark relic must immediately
equip it, un-equipping other items to do so if necessary.
Worse, the hero cannot unequip or drop the dark relic. In
fact, the only way to get rid of a dark relic normally is to
die, at which point any dark relics the hero is carrying
are discarded.

The quotes rules cover it all, in my opinion. The hero definitely has to unequip the armor to equip the Dark Relic.

And since he cannot unequip or drop the Dark Relic, he wouldn´t be allowed to re-equip the rune-forbidding armor.

Makes indeed full sense oO

Thank you.

This appears to be the most balanced solution of them all anyways, or regardless of what relic you play the players will always put it on a hero worth 2CT rather than 4CT

Hmm. To the usefulness I have to add, that I played yesterday the lodestone in a normal game of descent (not RtL) on a character who had a shop weapon in pack and 3 potions equipped.

I did this because it was the less harmful dark relict in my opinion. Have to add here, that I decided for myself to help the heros a bit to win the game with their last breath as I had already plenty of possibilities to overwhelm them because they really had bad luck with the treasures (3 heros, 3 chest, 4 other items, 1 rune of healing, one destroyed item by myself as OL, 2 armor and one useless ranged weapon).

So I tend to say the dark relict cards are pretty powerful in some cases. Even if they would have got rid of the relict with the doll card, the lodestone did cost them the 3 potions + the money which they would have received by selling the shop item (i think it was a crossbow) + the copper treasure (potentially worth 250, sell value 125) + 200 gold for the doll. Money impact even in a campaign: 575 gold (for me spending 15 thread or so).

I played with the idea to play the glass armor on the already cursed tank of the party which would have killed him easily and given me 5 CT (due to the curse).

The Curse Doll does not help to get rid of a Dark Relict. You´ll need "Remove Curse" for this, which costs 500 gold, IIRC.