Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game - Tips & Strategies

After playing this game (and it’s sister game “Wrath of Ashardalon”) we noticed how difficult it is to level characters, regardless of the scenario. This is caused by the rule that only allows the group to level a character when someone rolls a natural 20 while attacking or defending. We felt that this took away from the role-playing theme because our characters did not really grow during the mission except through the acquisition of items. So, we came up with the following house rule to remedy the situation.

The players may choose to level a character during the Hero Phase by spending 10 xp.

This adds a bit of flexibility and allows for more of an “rpg experience” by giving players the ability to decide for themselves when to level a character if the dice aren’t rolling their way. The cost of leveling is doubled if you choose to do it this way, so rolling the natural 20 would still be preferable. Spending such a large amount of experience becomes another tactical decision that the players must agree on.

This rule could also eliminate one scenario which we kept running into at the end of Ashardalon missions. Our party is flush with experience from our many encounters. Maybe one party member has leveled from a lucky roll. What are we to do with all of this xp? We invariably end up cancelling a large number of the encounter cards that would otherwise make accomplishing our objective more difficult. When the group is forced to decide between cancelling an encounter or leveling a hero, the game becomes more interesting at its climax.

There are 3 phases each turn; hero-, exploration and villain phase. In the exploration phase a monster will be placed on the new tile. Then comes the villain phase where first the villain and then the monsters does their stuff. It’s like pandoras box hitting you in the face every time you explore a new tile (are the heroes that stupid – walking in to an ambush around every corner?).

If you combine the hero phase with the last part of the Villain phase where monsters act and roll d20 for initiative (like in D&D RPG) to see who goes first, it will make much more sense. At least I think so…

If you don’t place a tile during the exploration phase OR drew a tile with a black triangle on it, you are facing an encounter card at the start of the villian phase.
This rule makes the encounter kill you and not the monster you meet and doesn’t make any sense at all.
I’ve played with a friend removing the rule where you have to draw an encounter card if not placing a tile and only done it when a black triangle show up. This way the monsters and not the unavoidable encounters will be the threat. It worked just fine but to balance it you might wanna buff the monsters some.

An encounter with the rules as written in the rule book:
The heroes round the corner and looks straight into the eyes of a fearsome umberhulk!
Wulfgar: “CHAAAARGEEEE!!!”
Drizzt: “Wait! If we focus on that bad-a** monster we’ll get our buts sprayed by lava and die! It’s much better to let it chew on our heads while continuing to explore – it deals less damage than the praying lava…”