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View Full Version : A few questions after our first playthrough...



Wyvern
2006-10-29, 02:16 AM
Got the game last week, played a 6 player game on Tuesday night gaming night (Seattle). 4 people were unfamiliar with OOTS, so the theme and humor really carried the first half of the game as new cards kept coming up (Elan's adventure, Haley's ridiculous bluff, Belkar's 'other' kidney, etc). I'd love to see what others recommend to speed things up - it took 6 hours to wrap this up (just a 3 lvl game) - but a fun time was still had by all.

A few questions (not rule clarifications) came up:

What's the deal with ranged attacks? Aside from PVP, it seems like there's absolutely no reason to use them - you have all the risk of attacking at range 0 (unless the defending monster doesn't have range to counter), and even then there's no loot rewards. Worse - you're likely to be handing a plum opportunity to the *next* player, having weakened a room somewhere and caused loot to drop. Maybe if you could move after a ranged attack? That's not to say I don't get the reason for ranged *weapons* as a means to attack fliers, I'm asking about ranged attacks.

Demon roaches - perhaps a tad too powerful? We had a stack of something like 12 monsters under a linear guild member on lvl 3. We might have been able to handle him at great loot expense, but it meant that everything else on the level was really strong too. Basically, the entire floor became really scary, so we'd've had to go back to lvl 2 for a number of rounds to "loot up" and then one person would have to sacrifice themselves on lvl 3 by giving up all their loot to beat the top of the stack.

Xykon + Demon roaches - scary, scary. He ended up at something like 48/48 atk/def. We needed a ton of loot, but that meant spending more time gathering on lvl *2* (see comment above about demon roaches and lvl 3) to head back down. Roy and I (playing Haley) both had tons of schticks at that point, but 48/48 is still scary, and a lot of my schticks were pvp/loot based. Is this normal? Any recommendations?

Thanks!
-Wyvern

Gamer5389
2006-10-29, 04:23 PM
The Screw This card "I Forgot They Could Do That" is able to cancel support abilities like Assist to weaken monsters. Other than that, a lot of it is just luck of the draw and what players decide to play. Making an unbeatable stack may or may not in a player's self interest. If you are Roy rushing to beat Xykon, then you want to make some unbeatable stacks so the other players won't have enough bragging rights from loot/shticks and vice versa. Also, there is nothing wrong with just running away from that stack.

For ranged attacks, if you are within walking distance of the stack, then the only advantages are the no loss ability on some monsters and being able to attack on the first move in exchange for not getting loot.

Range past walking distance, allows you get experience you wouldn't normally be able to get. If someone failed to defeat a stack and is waiting for the next turn to attack, you can use a ranged attack to take all the experience in that stack. Useful for monsters that give a lot of experience and the fact you know what you are up against.
Note: I'm assuming you mean normal ranged attacks which I believe are able to continue battling a stack.

Wyvern
2006-10-29, 07:45 PM
Ah - I did not realize that you could keep battling with ranged attacks - that might indeed make a difference.

The main problem I had with uber stacks was not that it'd make that room really hard to clear, but that it has the side effect of boosting the entire floor's worth of monsters.

-Wyvern

bwcMD
2006-10-29, 08:43 PM
You can't keep attacking with Ranged Attacks. The primary advantage (besides PvP, of course) is the ability to take out monsters you otherwise wouldn't be able to reach that turn, along with (at long enough range) hitting monsters outside of their own attack range. Even better are the Area of Effect ranged attacks, which allow you to take out multiple monsters at once. Of course, you do miss out on the loot (except for V, who can sometimes get some loot with Blackwing).

Gamer5389
2006-10-29, 11:34 PM
Sorry for the misinformation, I couldn't find the ruling book at the time. The reason why I don't find demon roaches to be overpowered because they are very situational. They are nasty only if the monsters have Assist, Hoard, or Outsmart and the players draw and (mostly) decide to play lots of them on the same level. Otherwise they are pretty harmless.

The Giant
2006-11-04, 07:01 PM
Yeah, the main thing to realize with Ranged attacks is that something like half the monsters in the game have a range of 0, and many more have a range under 3. Which means Haley can plunk away at tough monsters like Thog or Yikyik or the Ogre Chieftain from a distance at no risk to herself. Sure, you lose the Loot, but it's Haley; she has like 15 other ways to get extra Loot. The Ranged attack helps her safely get what she needs more: red X's for shticks.

And yes, you cannot continue to make Ranged attacks in one turn. One shot per turn only.