Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon - Tips & Strategies

After playing this game (and it’s sister game “The Legend of Drizzt”) 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.

PROBLEM:
I found myself ignoring doors as I explored in fear that I would find a trapped door and take an unnecessary damage. My strategy was that I would just continue down a path with no doors until eventually I would get to my destination.

So, I came up with this rule variant . . .

RULE:
1. Whenever you place a tile with a door. Take the next tile face down from the stack and put it in its own “behind the door” stack. Shuffle the “behind the door” stack each time you add a tile to the stack.
2. Draw from the “behind the door” stack whenever you explore and are placing a tile on an edge with a door.

SUMMARY:
This rule makes exploring rooms with doors relevant and increases the exploring factor in the game.

Want to keep all those small pieces together? Use zip lock bags for the various components. The snack bag size is plenty big enough for the HP tokens, though you may want to use sandwich bags for the bulkier pieces.