Before you even set foot in the dungeon, both sides need to choose their forces. For the Dark Consul this is a relatively less complex choice since their progression is tied to the Mighty Monster Chart. The Heroes however, are at the mercy of the Loot and Treasure decks. After all, they won't survive the growing waves of minions for long, much less the looming Dungeon Boss, if they don't power up by desperately scavenging gear from the dungeon's depths. The purpose of this article is to help the Hero players build a party that will maximize the use of available Loot and increase that odds that the party is well kitted if and when they make it to the fearsome Dungeon Boss.
"But how does this pertain to party composition?" I hear some of you asking already as you line up a Hero party of fighters and brawlers. Simply put the Hero's ability to triumph over the Dungeon Boss is directly impacted but the Loot they draw. Playing a party where every Hero focuses on STR (strength) for offense will render every WILL and DEX loot card as useless. This can be crippling if your early Loot draws don't support your party and the Consul gains unchecked momentum.
To that end, I advise all new players to consider building a Hero Party that will make the most of whatever loot is drawn. In a four Hero game it will look something like this: Hero 1: STR based, Hero 2 WILL based, Hero 3 DEX based, Hero 4 STR based. E.G: Royal Paladin, Ember Mage, Glimmerdusk Ranger, Hearthsworn Fighter. Here is why:
The ratio of STR, WILL, DEX, ARM and OTHER Loot in the deck is as follows:
Forgotten King (FK) Loot Deck:
(12) STR
(12) ARM
(8) DEX
(8) WILL
(8) OTHER
48 cards total
SDE Classic 2.0 Loot Deck:
(13) STR
(13) ARM
(9) WILL
(9) DEX
(8) OTHER
52 cards total
Seeing this, it's clear the most common offense stat card in both decks is STR. However WILL and DEX are still prominent. With the random nature of the Loot Deck, a balanced party composition will give you the best odds of getting the gear you need to succeed. While there may be enough Loot cards in the deck to support a party of three Mages and an Archer, the odds of getting to that loot in time are very slim. In the FK deck you would need an average Loot draw of four cards -every turn- in a three tile game just to ensure you get through the loot deck before the Dungeon Boss shows up. (We will talk more about cycling through the Loot Deck in a later article). When playing with the SDE 2.0 loot deck, that average goes up. In my various gaming groups it's very rare that we even get close to the bottom of the Loot Deck.
Bad Loot drops are inevitable, and while you can never guarantee the order Loot cards will be drawn, a well balanced Hero party can mitigate this risk by increasing the odds that someone in the party can use whatever is drawn. Other factors certainly come into play when selecting the Hero party, like abilities, synergy, roles (Crowd control, support, boss slaying, healer etc...) and we will cover those in a future article, but for now this should give a fresh group of starry eyed Heroes a good start as they venture into the Dungeons and Ruins of Crystalia, which leads us to the next article. Next time we will discuss the basic tactical and strategic considerations of constructing a dungeon. After all, the Heroes can't have all the fun! >:D
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