Cameron Loewen
United States
Redmond
Washington
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One of my favorite additions in the Road to Legend (RTL) expansion is the tiered monster upgrade system and the general re-balance of all of Descent's original cast of monsters. This, coupled with the reinforcement counter, forces RTL overlord to make some difficult choices in order to get the most out of his minions. I've decided to write this guide to help beginning RTL overlords learn about their cast, offer some recommendations on how to use each monster type, and discuss which category of monster upgrades (humanoid, beast, or eldrich) you should emphasize in your campaign.
I'll begin by describing each monster, outlining a few recommendations on how to best use it and assign a rating of 1 to 5 stars. The rating represents how useful that monster is when it is compared with all other monsters, not how powerful each monster is in single combat. Thus, Golems may be the toughest Eldrich meat-shield monster, but they are still not very efficient when compared to Kobolds, for example.
Bane Spiders 
Average Copper attack (master): 3.9 damage, 2.0 range (+0.5 range/damage)
Average Silver attack (master): 4.2 damage, 4.2 range (+1.0 R/D)
Average Gold attack (master): 6.1 damage, 2.3 range (+1.5 R/D)
Average Diamond attack (master): 6.4 damage, 4.5 range (+1.5 R/D)
With the introduction of the reinforcement counter, your monsters have become a very limited resource. Each spawn card should be played with the specific purpose of killing or setting up a hero kill that turn; anything else is usually inefficient and results in a waste of perfectly good monsters.
Unfortunately for Spiders, their usefulness is very situational. Their damage and health are below average, Poison is pretty marginal, and Web was severely nerfed by an RTL errata. They're also large based, which makes them difficult to spawn in places where they will be useful and tough to maneuver around blocking heroes.
Spiders generally lack the punch to seriously damage the party's tank, so always use their high speed to move next to and attack weaker heroes, if possible. Also note that, as one of the only Magic/Ranged characters with low damage and no pierce, Spiders hate the Wizard's Robe.
Beastmen 
Copper (master): 4.5 damage (7 damage)
Silver (master): 6.4 damage (10.4 damage)
Gold (master): 7.4 damage (11.9 damage)
Diamond (master): 7.7 damage (12.2 damage)
Beastmen are paper tigers. The damage potential of even a Copper Master Beastmen is enormous, but they simply do not have the endurance to survive a hit. This makes them vulnerable to Blast and Cone runes and makes the damage gap between Beastmen and the tougher monsters more narrow than it might otherwise appear.
Beastmen are still great spawns due to their ability to quickly injure or kill the party tank (and/or everyone else), who is typically worth a lot of XP to you.
Beastmen are usually poor choices for dungeon setup- because of their slow speed and few HP, they don't usually survive to attack even once before they are all slain. It's also good to note than bronze level rank-and-file beastmen are quite bad (though the Masters, as always, are wonderful) compared to their Silver and Gold versions. Beastmen upgrade well because their damage and command bonuses increase at later levels.
Beastmen are worth spawning if they can each make a full attack against a hero and you can avoid getting the Master killed by a hero's guard order. They are also useful to augment a big horde of monsters with the BeastMaster's command bonus.
Avoid spawning beastmen if they cannot attack a hero that turn.
Blood Apes
Copper (master *berserk): 4.4 damage (4.9 damage *6.4 damage)
Silver (master *berserk): 4.7 damage (5.7 damage *7.7 damage)
Gold (master *berserk): 6.6 damage (8.1 damage *10.6 damage)
Diamond (master *berserk): 6.9 damage (8.4 damage *11.4 damage)
The Blood Ape is the monster that has benefited most from the increase in monster toughness introduced by RTL. Because their health and armor are so high (4 armor & 18 health for a normal Silver Ape!), heroes will have a very difficult time chewing through them with shop or copper items. The damage output of Bronze and Silver apes is low, but with their high speed, great toughness, and leap attack, they should be able to reach vulnerable characters easily and survive to attack them many times.
Unless you aren't upgrading the Beast category, Blood Apes are an excellent spawn. They are best used against heroes fighting in a corridor: enter combat with a leap attack and, next turn, shift your Apes sideways in the middle of the corridor to split the party in two.
It is almost always worthwhile to add the "Jungle Drums" treachery card to your deck if you have upgraded your Beast monsters. It provides you with more HP/armor's worth of monsters than any other single overlord card in the game, and the Master Apes are reasonably strong if Berserk.
Consider using Hell Hounds with Master Apes to trigger their Berserk ability with Aura or Cone Attack.
Chaos Beasts
Chaos Beasts cannot be spawned or reinforced, and are rarely seen in RTL. Their morph ability prevents average damage from being easily calculated, but Chaos Beasts are very weak at copper level and grow rapidly stronger as they are upgraded (bonus yellow dice -> morph dice and 1 bonus sorcery at each level.)
When choosing dice for Morph, use as many green dice as possible. They provide the best damage, and you can use Sorcery for range if you need to. Chaos Beasts do not compare well against Demons or Dragons, the top tier 4 monsters. They lack damage, survivability, utility, and speed. There are no notable tactics for using Chaos Beasts- just plod forward and use the red melee dice as often as possible.
Dark Priests
Copper (master): 4.8 damage (6.5 damage)
Silver (master): 6.5 damage (8.1 damage)
Gold (master): 8.1 damage (9.8 damage)
Diamond (master): 9 damage (12.3 damage)
Dark Priests are amazing monsters. Their abilities are great, their damage is amazing (and consistent), they generate huge amounts of
threat, they are easy to spawn (and you can spawn Masters without spending treachery), they have a great aura, they can attack at range, and they generate EXP for you by cursing heroes.
It's best to use Dark Priests behind a wall of tougher monsters (Blood Apes are ideal for this purpose), moving out to shoot and scooting back to let their armor boosting aura make their wall even stronger. They work nicely with the other cheap eldrich monsters, such as skeletons and sorcerers, and with the "Doom!" power card.
It's tough to go wrong spawning Dark Priests, even if you haven't upgraded eldrich monsters at all. I recommend holding onto the "Black Order" card until the heroes reach an especially tough room or choke-point, and then spawning the Master Priest just out of sight at the room's doorway. Dark Priests can tough a otherwise tough room into a real nightmare.
They work especially well with monsters that have high natural armor and lots of HP, and with other ranged monsters.
The "Dark Brothers" treachery card is very expensive, but quite powerful. Eldrich monsters do not have many decent monster treachery cards, so this might be your best bet.
Deep Elves
Copper (master): 2.5 damage, 2 pierce (3.0 damage 4 pierce)
Silver (master): 4.4 damage, 3 pierce (5.4 damage 6 pierce)
Gold (master): 4.7 damage, 4 pierce (6.2 damage, 8 pierce)
Diamond (master): 6.6 damage, 5 pierce (8.1 damage, 10 pierce)
Deep Elves were made much weaker by their transition to RTL. They can still only be spawned by the "Lone Assassin" treachery card, which is terribly over-costed, and their damage potential has been greatly lowered. The elves rely on pierce for most of their damage, but it is likely to be wasted against most targets. The elves gain in power quickly when upgraded, however.
The biggest problem with the solitary Deep Elves is that a well-placed guard order can counter their shadowcloak ability and slay them before they can make an attack. They are not particularly tough, and they have no ranged attack, so avoiding a guarding hero is very difficult.
It is rarely worth including the "Lone Assassin" card in your deck.
Edit: As noted in the discussion following this post, Frost isn't half bad. For full effect, you'll want to do 5+ damage on the initial strike, however, which means you'll need silver+ level Deep Elves. Deep Elves are very rare in dungeons and encounters.
Demons
Copper (master): 4.2 damage, 3.9 range +1 R/D (+2.5 R/D)
Silver (master): 6.1 damage, 2.3 range +2 R/D (+4 R/D)
Gold (master): 6.4 damage, 4.5 range, +3 R/D (+5.5 R/D)
Diamond (master): 6.7 damage, 6.7 range, +4 R/D (+6.5 R/D)
Demons can only be spawned by the Demon Prince's Lieutenant or found in dungeons/encounters. Their abilities are excellent and their statistics are very solid- they are toughest tier monster, and the most damaging in 1 on 1 situations. Using demons is easy- move forward and begin nuking heroes. Using knockback to push heroes through the punishing aura of a high-level demon is fun, although very difficult to set up.
Dragons
Copper (master): 3.5 damage, pierce 2 (4.0 damage, pierce 3)
Silver (master): 5.4, pierce 3 (6.4 damage, pierce 4)
Gold (master): 5.7, pierce 4 (7.2, pierce 5)
Diamond (master): 6.0 damage, pierce 5 (7.5, pierce 6)
Dragons are a great tier 4 monster, but they need to be upgraded to realize their full potential. Their damage and pierce level both grow as you upgrade the Beast monster category, which, combined with breath gives Dragons the potential for enormous bursts of damage to several heroes at once. Higher level dragons, like demons, essentially get double armor/level increases, because of Fear. Dragons cannot be spawned, but they are more common than demons in encounters and dungeons.
Ferrox
Copper (master): 2.5 (3.0)
Silver (master): 4.4 (5.4)
Gold (master): 4.7 (5.2)
Diamond (master): 6.6 (8.1)
Ferrox are more useful then they appear, thanks to their "Bleed" special ability. Each hit by a ferrox, even if it is blocked by armor,
will deal 1-3 damage. This is good, because Ferrox have an otherwise poor damage output. They are slightly tougher than beastmen, but just as slow. The main problem with ferrox is that they do not upgrade well- their bleed ability is most useful against the party tank because it ignores his armor but bleed does not increase as your Humanoid monster level increases, and their base damage never climbs high enough to really threaten the tank. Thus, you'll usually be inflicting only bleed damage with Ferrox, even if they're Gold level.
Ferrox are less efficient than Beastmen at attacking support characters, because of their lower damage. Ferrox should primarily be spawned if you are early in the campaign, you have no higher level spawns to use, or if the party tank is running low on health. Use Ferrox to attack the character with the highest armor.
The treachery card "Drinkers of Blood" is usually not worth including in your deck.
Giants
Copper (master): 4.9 (5.4)
Silver (master): 6.9 (7.9)
Gold (master): 6.9 (8.4)
Diamond (master): 7.4 (8.9)
Giants are reasonably tough and, at copper level, are the strongest tier 4 monster. They do not upgrade well compared to Dragons or Demons, however. Giants never inflict competitive damage (less than beastmen!), and they do not possess a secondary offensive or defensive ability like Sorcery or Fear to boost them at higher levels. Sweep, Reach and Stun are all solid abilities that work well together, but it can be difficult to set up a decent sweep against the heroes, due to the Giant's slow speed.
Giants are the most common tier 4 monster in dungeons and encounters, but they cannot be spawned or reinforced. Charge cards work especially well with giants, allowing you to engage heroes and lay down a decisive sweep one turn before the party's tank blocks moves out from to prevent your advance.
Golems
Copper (master): 4.2 (4.7)
Silver (master): 4.6 (5.6)
Gold (master): 6.1 (7.6)
Diamond (master: 6.4 (7.9)
Golems do not have a lot going for them. They do pathetic damage, are very slow, and do not show up very often. Their stone bodies are reasonably tough and immune to pierce, which is nice, but it's not enough to make up for their total lack of power and speed. Golems are only ever useful as screeners for other monsters who can actually inflict damage, such as skeletons, sorcerers, and (especially) dark priests. If you do choose a Golem in dungeon set up, place it far back in the level, blocking the doorway to a monster-infested room. Spawn as many ranged monsters as possible behind it, and use them to pop out and harass heroes as they approach, retreating to cover after each shot.
You can spawn Golems using the Lone Golem card, but it is terribly underpowered for its insane 3-point treachery cost. Never include it in your deck. Golems are very rare in encounters and dungeon levels.
Hell Hounds
Copper (master): 1.3 damage, pierce 2 (1.8 damage, pierce 3)
Silver (master): 3.2 damage, pierce 3 (4.2 damage, pierce 4)
Gold (master): 3.5 damage, pierce 4 (5.0 damage, pierce 5)
Diamond (master): 5.4 damage, pierce 5 (6.9 damage, pierce 6)
Hell Hounds benefit greatly from being upgraded, but are terribly weak at copper level. Their damage increase is low, but their pierce
level has a nice growth rate and their ability to hit multiple targets at once with their breath attack multiplies their offensive power to an acceptable level.
Hell hounds are not resilient, but they are easily spawnable and rather swift, so setting up a nice breath attack is not too difficult.
Hell Hounds should only be spawned if you can strike with the breath attacks of both hounds against at least 2 heroes.
Hell Hounds should never be spawned at copper level.
The "Dogs of War" spawn card is overpriced and should probably not be used.
Ice Wyrms
Copper (master): 5.4 damage, 2.8 range (5.4 damage, 2.8 range, +0.5D/R)
Silver (master): 6.7 damage, 5.0 range (7.7 damage, 5.0 range, +1.0D/R)
Gold (master): 8.0 damage, 7.2 range (9.0 damage, 7.2 range, +1.5D/R)
Diamond (master): 9.0 damage, 7.2 range, +1.5 D/R (10 damage, 7.2 range, +3.0D/R)
Ice Wyrms are the strongest of the new Tomb of Ice monsters, and are comparable in strength to Demons. Ice Wyrms are not as tough as other tier 4 monsters but, due to their Ghost ability, they cannot be harmed by adjacent figures using melee attacks. Trapping melee heroes so that the Wyrm is their only target (using Stun, Web, or the Wyrm's own bulk) is very effective.
Lastly, Master Wyrms have the Swallow ability, which is absolutely devastating. Swallowing a ranged or magic hero who relies on a two-handed weapon can force the heroes to effectively deal half damage to the Wyrm (Ghost protects the Wyrm from Melee heroes without Reach, and the poor soul sitting on the stomach tile won't be able to use his or her two-handed weapon.)
Wyrms are extremely rare in RTL, and cannot be spawned. They appear in only one dungeon and on one rumor.
Kobolds
Copper (master): 2.2 (2.5)
Silver (master): 2.5 (3.5)
Gold (master): 4.4 (5.9)
Diamond (master): 4.7 (6.2)
The primary purpose of Kobold spawns in the normal Descent game was to slow the heroes down with a lot of bodies, and to use the masters to slightly reduce the cost of your traps. With the inclusion of the reinforcement counter, the usefulness of Kobolds as a monster has been demolished.
Kobolds are not a significant threat to heroes in battle due to their low damage, weak constitution, and slow speed. Tougher monsters, such as Blood Apes, make better meat shields than Kobolds, and hiding your master Kobolds in the smaller RTL dungeon levels to get their discount on your traps is almost impossible.
Kobolds should only be spawned if you have a great deal of threat, the need for a large number of weak meat shields to block movement, and have not upgraded your Beast or Eldrich monsters at all.
The "Kobold Horde" treachery cards are not worth adding to your deck.
Lava Beetles
Copper (master): 3.2 damage, 2.5 range (3.2 damage,2.5 range, +0.5D/R)
Silver (master): 3.5 damage, 4.7 range, pierce 1 (3.5 damage, 4.7 range, pierce 2, + 1D/R)
Gold (master): 3.5 damage, 4.7 range, pierce 2 (3.5 damage, 4.7 range, pierce 3, +1.5 D/R)
Diamond (master): 5.4 damage, 2.8 range, pierce 3 (5.4 damage, 2.8 range, pierce 4, +1.5 D/R)
Lava Beetles are goofy looking, slightly sub-par cousins to Bane Spiders and Hell Hounds. Blast isn't terribly exciting on a monster with such a low damage potential, Burn is marginal, and (unlike Hell Hounds) their Pierce bonus doesn't really ever fully compensate for their awful damage. Plus, they're terribly slow and have an awful spawn card that gives you only two normal Beetles. The Lava Beetle treachery card is terrible, especially considering your other options for Beast treachery. Hell Hounds are the better option in nearly all situations.
Manticores
Copper (master): 1.7, pierce 1, Quick Shot (2.2, pierce 2, Quick Shot)
Silver (master): 3.5, pierce 2, Quick Shot (4.5, Pierce 3, Quick Shot)
Gold (master): 3.9, pierce 3, Quick Shot (5.4, Pierce 4, Quick Shot)
Diamond (master): 5.7, pierce 4, Quick Shot (7.2, Pierce 5, Quick Shot)
Manticores are rather pathetic at copper level, dealing almost no damage with each shot. Fortunately, they are also the monster that improves the most as their monster category is leveled, increasing in both damage and pierce ratings at essentially a double rate, due to Quick Shot.
Silver-Diamond level Manticores can inflict great damage through heavy armor twice per turn, are reasonably tough, and have a great speed rating. You should avoid exposing your Nanticores to enemy attacks by moving out to fire a volley and using the Manticores great speed to return to cover before you can fall victim to a hero's battle action.
High HP screeners, such as blood apes, and monsters that provide the command ability, such as Beastmen or Nagas, are especially useful when combined with Manticores. The "Doom!" card, command bonuses, and "Rage" event cards provide double benefit to Manticores, because they fire twice per turn.
Manticores are uncommon in dungeon levels and encounters, but can be spawned via the "Lone Manticore" treachery card, which is very worthwhile if you have upgraded the level of your Beast monsters.
Medusae
Copper (master): 4.2 damage/range (4.7 damage/range, Quick Shot)
Silver (master): 6.1 damage, 2.3 range, +1 R/D (7.1 damage, 3.3 range, +1 R/D, Quick Shot)
Gold (master): 6.4 damage, 4.5 range, +2 R/D (7.9 damage, 6.0 range, +2 R/D, Quick Shot)
Diamond (master): 6.7 damage, 6.7 range, +3 R/D (7.2 damage, 8.2 range, +3 R/D, Quick Shot)
Master Medusae are really good. They do very good damage, and their combination of Stun and Quick Shot allows you to really shut down hero strategies by forcing almost everyone to take half-turns until the Medusa is dead. When attacking with stun monsters like Medusae, it's usually best to either spread your stun attacks evenly among heroes (with your priority being to prevent attacks against your monsters) to maximize the damage potential of the current battle or two pile all of your stuns onto one hapless hero. The tokens do not stack, but only 1 is removed each turn- a hero with 7 stuns on him isn't going to be much help for a long time. The Rage card works well with Master Medusae, because of their Quick-Shot ability, as does the Master Beastman's Command aura.
Keep in mind that the Medusa is rather fragile and lacks a defensive ability, so keep it out of LOS and use smaller monsters to soak up guard tokens, if possible.
The Medusa treachery card is alright, but only because Humanoid monster treachery cards are generally poor. The "Lone Medusa" card that you're forced to add to the standard overlord deck is useful only for the threat you get when you discard it- lone normal Medusae aren't ever particularly useful.
Naga
Copper (master): 4.2 damage, 4.4 range, +1 D/R (4.2 damage, 4.4 range, +2.5D/R)
Silver (master): 6.1 damage, 2.4 range, +2 D/R (7.1 damage, 3.4 range, +4.0D/R)
Gold (master): 6.4 damage, 4.6 range, +3 D/R (8.4 damage, 7.6 range, +5.5 D/R)
Diamond (master): 6.8 damage, 7.0 range, +4 D/R (8.8 damage, 9.0 range, +6.5 D/R)
Naga were never solid monsters in normal descent, but they have received a huge boost in RTL. Their damage potential is amazing (up to 14 for a Master Silver Naga- that's more than a Master Beastman!), they are quite tough, very fast, and provide a command aura to your nearby monsters. Their only real drawback is the rarity of Master Naga in encounters and dungeon setups. There are many options for using regular Naga in dungeons, however, and they are one of the best creatures to upgrade via the "Brilliant Commander" power card.
Nagas are best used behind a thin screen of cannon-fodder monsters, with heavier monsters and ranged shooters behind it. Once the Naga has the opportunity to engage, use it to base as many heroes as possible to prevent maneuvering, then strike and move just out of range with your more fragile melee monsters (such as Beastmen) to prevent melee retaliation against them from the trapped heroes. Another downright evil use of Nagas is combining them with the "Rolling Boulder" trap card- perfect for all of the aspiring Spider Queens out there. Grapple prevents a hero from escaping as the boulder moves inexorably forward. Bonus points are awarded if the Naga survives. 
Nagas can be spawned via the "Lone Naga" treachery card, which is quite good if you have upgraded your Beast monsters.
Ogres
Copper (master): 4.7 damage (5.2 damage)
Silver (master): 6.6 damage (7.6 damage)
Gold (master): 6.9 damage (8.4 damage)
Diamond (master): 7.3 damage (8.8 damage)
Ogres in Descent have always suffered from an unfortunate trifecta of disadvantages that combine to make them virtually useless. They've got a large base and only 3 movement points, making them ponderous to maneuver and forever doomed to attack the party's tank- a foe that is typically all but immune to the Ogre's pathetic damage output. This hasn't changed in RTL, but the relatively higher toughness of the Ogre and the increased power of Undying make it a decent meat-shield to block up a room entrance and let your dangerous monsters attack through it.
Unfortunately, the Ogre's large base prevents slow monsters (such as Beastmen) from moving forward to attack the heroes and back into safety behind the ogre in one turn, but the strategy is more workable with Skeletons and Razorwings. The only way to stop these monsters from striking the heroes is through guard orders, which the ogre can disrupt through knockback. Even if you inflict no damage, you can still throw a guarding hero behind a wall (or another hero) and prevent him from taking his shot. Other goofy uses of knockback include "pit basketball", throwing a hero into a pit, hauling them out, and tossing them back into the pit, and throwing heroes through the upgraded aura of another monster (a Hell Hound or Demon.)
Ogres work best with fast and/or ranged monsters which can attack through them, event cards that can increase the Ogre's movement, and Pit traps. Ogres can only be spawned via the "Lone Ogre" treachery card, but are common in dungeons and encounters. The "Lone Ogre" card is overpriced and is not really ever worth adding to your deck.
Razorwings
Copper (master): 4.4 damage (4.9 damage)
Silver (master): 4.7 damage (5.7 damage)
Gold (master): 6.6 damage (8.1 damage)
Diamond (master): 6.9 damage (8.4 damage)
Razorwings have become top-notch monsters with their RTL rebalance. Copper level Razorwings now roll a Red and a Green die (4.4 damage), instead of a Red and a Yellow (2.5), which makes them almost twice as damaging. They still won't be a threat to the party tank, but their high speed and "Fly" ability allow your Razorwings to attack whomever you want. Just watch out for Grapple.
Razorwings work well in almost any situation. It's incredibly difficult for a party of heroes to prevent Razorwings from flying out of cover to kill the Archer or Wizard and retreating back in order to deny the party from using battle actions. The Razorwing's high armor and HP only make it more likely that they'll be able to survive "guard" attacks and repeat the process over and over again. Razorwings work best with "Tank" monsters such as Ogres and Blood Apes that can prevent the heroes from reaching the middle of a room and using ranged battle actions against your Razorwings.
Spawning Razorwings is always a good idea, if you have upgraded your Beast monster category. Even if the heroes are not currently fighting any other monsters, have your Razorwings strike once and dive back into cover a ways back in the dungeon. The heroes either need to go back to attack the Razorwings (at which point you can retreat even further back), slow down their progress with constant guard orders (stay in hiding until they begin fighting monsters on another front), or ignore the Razorwings entirely (free attacks.)
The "Death on the Wing" treachery card is decent, but it has stiff competition for beast type monster treachery . It's a fine choice,
especially at low campaign levels. At higher levels, the Manticore, Naga, and Blood Ape spawn cards are more efficient, however.
Shades
Copper (master): 2.0 damage, 3.9 range, 2 pierce (2.0 damage, 3.9 range, 4 pierce, +0.5 D/R)
Silver (master): 3.9 damage, 2.0 range, 3 pierce (3.9 damage, 2.0 range, 5 pierce, +1.0 D/R)
Gold (master): 4.2 damage, 4.2 range, 3 pierce (4.2 damage, 4.2 range, 5 pierce, +1.5 D/R)
Diamond (master): 6.1 damage, 2.3 range, 4 pierce (6.1 damage, 2.3 range, 6 pierce, +1.5 D/R)
Shades are excellent. Their damage potential is higher than Skeletons and, while nearly as fragile as Skeletons and lacking Undying, all Shades (even normals) have both Ghost and Stealth, making them a pain in the ass to kill. Their spawn card gives you fewer shades than you get Skeletons, but their higher damage evens that out somewhat.
Shades are useful for screening valuable monsters (don't forget that Dodge cards can force heroes to re-roll the Stealth die!), trapping melee heroes into places where they are forced to waste turns, and are even decent at making a bid to take down the Tank due to their high pierce value.
The treachery Shades card is probably not as good as Dark Brothers or Legions of the Dead, but it is playable.
Skeletons
Copper (master): 3.2 damage, 3.5 range, 1 pierce (3.2 damage, 4.5 range, 2 pierce, +0.5 D/R)
Silver (master): 3.5 damage, 7.7 range, 2 pierce (3.5 damage, 8.7 range, 3 pierce, +1.0 D/R)
Gold (master): 3.5 damage, 8.7 range, 2 pierce (3.5 damage, 9.7 range, 3 pierce, +1.5 D/R)
Diamond (master): 5.7 damage, 5.9 range, 3 pierce (5.7 damage, 6.9 range, 4 pierce, +1.5 D/R)
Skeletons are the standard ranged monster in Descent and RTL. They do halfway decent damage, are quick on their feet, and are the
most common monster in the game.
Skeletons work a lot like Razorwings in RTL, jumping out from cover, firing a shot, and ducking back. Thanks to their great range, good speed, and small size, it's easy to spawn skeletons and take a shot against whoever you want each turn. Skeleton spawn cards are common and, unlike Razorwings, you receive a Master Skeleton with each. On top of that, Skeletons have a decent pierce growth as they level, meaning that Silver and Diamond level skeletons (but not at Copper or Gold) actually inflict higher average damage than Razorwings.
The might of Skeletons is checked by a couple of serious weaknesses. Skeletons are second most fragile monster in RTL, right after Kobolds, and they will not survive a hit without a timely undying roll. Hero guard orders translate almost 1:1 into skeleton casualties, low damage shop item blasts are lethal to skeletons, and any hero can kill 2 skeletons per turn with a battle action (provided LOS.) You'll get high damage and large numbers from your spawns, but they go down very quickly. If your heroes don't have blast, tack an extra star to the Skeleton's rating.
Skeletons work well behind tough screeners, such as Ogres or Blood Apes. Using skeletons requires only basic tactics- spawn them, move up, shoot, take cover. Skeletons will never survive an attack, so don't clump them up for blast or an opportunistic battle action. Skeletons also work well with the "Crushing Blow" power card, which allows you to destroy the Blast runes that counter skeletons so well.
Note that Skeletons do not benefit much from upgrading to Gold level.
The "Legions of the Dead" treachery card is very good, and is worth adding to your deck if you've already purchased "Dark Brothers".
Sorcerers
Copper (master): 2.0 damage, 3.9 range, +2 D/R (2.0 damage, 3.9 range, +2.5D/R)
Silver (master): 3.9 damage, 2.0 range, +3 D/R (3.9 damage, 2.0 range, +5 D/R)
Gold (master): 4.2 damage, 4.2 range, +4 D/R (4.2 damage, 4.2 range, +6.5 D/R)
Diamond (master): 6.1 damage, 2.4 range, +5 D/R (6.1 damage, 2.4 range, +7.5 D/R)
Sorcerers were one of the most dangerous and cost-effective monsters in regular Descent. In RTL, they are much less dominating. Their damage at copper level is pathetic, their armor and HP are terrible, and they are slow with poor range. Fortunately, they improve rapidly as the Eldrich category is upgraded, almost doubling in power at silver level.
Sorcerers are most efficient when they are not targeted first- use either a tough screening monster to block attacks, or other monsters
with even greater offensive punch to draw the hero's fire. Beastmen work well with Sorcerers, and a group of upgraded Sorcerers compliment a tough dungeon boss very well.
Sorcerers should be spawned if the heroes have already begun fighting a room full of monsters, especially if the room contains a tier 4 monster such as a Demon or Troll that will draw attacks away from your Sorcerers, or if they can ambush and kill one of the heroes instantly.
Never spawn copper level Sorcerers!
Sorcerers are the most common dungeon-level boss monster type, and are common in encounters and dungeons. The "Dark Masters" treachery card is overcosted, but is somewhat playable. The "Dark Brothers" card is better in most situations, however.
Trolls
Copper *bash (master *bash): 2.5 *6.4 pierce 2 (4.4 *7.6 pierce 2)
Silver *bash (master *bash): 2.9 *7.0 pierce 2 (4.7 *8.2 pierce 2)
Gold *bash (master *bash): 4.7 *8.2 pierce 2 (6.6 *9.4 pierce 2)
Diamond *bash (master *): 6.6 *9.4 pierce 2 (6.9 *10.0 pierce 2)
Trolls are the most dangerous monster you have at your disposal, but also the most unpredictable. Their "Bash" ability is almost always worth using, and gives Trolls the highest damage potential of any monster in the game (a 28 damage sweep with reach and pierce 8!)
Trolls do not become much stronger as the humanoids category is upgraded; their bash ability will either work and instantly kill whoever you're attacking, or it won't and you'll miss entirely. Trolls are ALWAYS a threat to the party, however. Even a copper level Troll will inflict about 16 damage at pierce 2 with sweep on a successful bash.
Trolls are uncommon in dungeons and encounters, but can be spawned by the "Lone Troll" spawn card, which is one of the best Monster Treachery cards in the game. Ensure that you have a "Charge", "Rage", or "Aim" card in your hand before spawning the Troll, and make sure you can attack with it on the turn that it enters play.
Wendigo
Copper (master): 3.0 damage (3.5 damage)
Silver (master): 5.4 damage (6.4 damage)
Gold (master): 6.2 damage (7.2 damage)
Diamond (master): 8.1 damage (9.6 damage)
Wendigo are good monsters, but you'll probably never see them in RTL. Their damage potential is decent after their awful Copper level incarnation and they have a nice combination of sturdiness and Stealth, but there is no good way to put them on the board. Their treachery card is way outclassed by Jungle Drums in the Beast category, and your dungeon setup options for them are non-existent.
Monster Category Discussion
Beasts: Blood Apes, Bane Spiders, Dragons, Hell Hounds, Manticores, naga, Razorwings
Eldrich: Golems, Demons, Sorcerers, Dark Priests, Skeletons, Chaos Beasts
Humanoid: Beastmen, Ogres, Kobolds, Giants, Deep Elves, Ferrox
So, which category of monsters is the most dangerous as a whole? It depends on your avatar, but I think that it's usually worthwhile to upgrade two categories of monsters. You should always level the cheapest category for you, and probably one other.
- If your primary monster category is Eldrich, then I think Beasts are the optimal secondary category. Eldrich monsters are mostly fragile ranged attackers, and these monsters work best when screened from the heroes by a tough meat-shield. Beast monsters have great speed and toughness and count a number of the best meat-shields in the game amongst their ranks. High level eldrich monsters love being coupled with a few silver beasts, such as Blood Apes.
- If your primary monster category is Humanoid, then I think you can actually save your EXP and not level either of the other categories. Most dungeons have humanoid-only setup options, humanoid spawn cards are common, and your many sweep attack creatures benefit greatly from treachery events. Just be aware that you're going to be relying on Beastmen and Trolls for most of your damage. Get the "Lone Troll" card ASAP. If you're playing an Avatar with cheap monster treachery, I'd advise upgrading Beasts rather than Eldrich. Beast monster treachery cards are among the best in the game.
- If your primary monster category is Beast, then I think it's a difficult decision about which other category to upgrade. You do need to upgrade one, however, because there are very few beast-only dungeon setup options. I'd give a slight edge to using Humanoids as your secondary category, because many of your Beast monsters have the capability to strike multiple heroes at once via breath, leap, or quick shot, and would benefit greatly from a Beastmaster's command aura. Since Beastmen work so well with these monsters already, it makes sense to fortify them as much as secondary choice. It's interesting to note that, although Beasts have the best treachery spawn cards (and benefit the most from Dark Armor), the avatars for which beast upgrades are cheapest have the most difficult time buying monster treachery.
The general strengths & weaknesses of each category are as follows:
Eldrich
Pros: Great damage, undying monsters, ranged attacks, common in dungeons/encounters, lots of spawn cards, Demons.
Cons: Fragile, slow, very vulnerable to blast, poor treachery spawn cards, many monsters that are very weak at Copper level.
Humanoids
Pros: Toughness, very common in dungeons/encounters, monsters are relatively strong at Copper/Silver level, Beastmen do incredible damage.
Cons: Slow, no ranged attacks, high tier monsters do poor damage, generally poor damage growth as the category is upgraded. Beastmen are easy to kill.
Beasts
Pros: Fast, versatile, great toughness, good damage growth as the category is upgraded. Lots of great treachery spawn cards.
Cons: Rare in dungeons/encounters, almost impossible to field a beast-only dungeon setup, many monsters that are weak at copper level.
If you found this list to be helpful, please donate a GG or two. I'm trying to earn my BBG avatar. 
If you have any thoughts or feedback, please post it. I'm curious about what all of you other overlords think about the RTL monsters.
Update: Earned my avatar, almost entirely due to this thread. Thanks. In return, I've updated the thread with a little editing and some thoughts about the monsters of Tomb of Ice.
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Bonaparte
United States
DesMoines
Washington
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Very well done. If I had any geek gold, I would give it to you.
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Very useful and very nice !!!
Great !!!
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Oliver Biesler
Germany
Frankfurt/ Main
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Great work, Cameron.
Your comprehension and hints are very helpful! 
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Connor Alexander
United States
St. Augustine
Florida
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Very good article, and I generally agree. There are a few points I don't totally agree with you on (Skeletons are my all time most powerful tool, their hit and run ability is almost incomparable) and I favor the Eldrich monsters the most in general, but this was a great stat analysis.
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Matthijs v S
Netherlands
Arnhem
Unspecified
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Great article!
Do Master Deep Elf still have frost in RTL? Because destroying vital equipment seems powerful to me, and would make the 'Lone Assassin' card much more useful
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K M Drake
United States
Yorkville
New York
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MrSkeletor wrote: Why are you webbing the weak characters? Web the tank, then ignore him!web is probably the tanks worst enemy - no ranged weapon and low fatigue means he is wasting more turns than web ranged or magic characters are.
I would agree with this when employing the old web rules. But the campaign web rules make webbing lugs an often fruitless endeavor.
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Cameron Loewen
United States
Redmond
Washington
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Thanks for your generous tips and recommendations!
Master Deep Elves still have Frost. You can usually count on the Elf getting 5+ damage and instantly forcing a shatter check on the hero's armor, after which you'll get a 67% chance to force another shatter check on the hero's weapon next turn, if he needs to attack. For each check you'll have a 17% chance to shatter something. This will typically work out to about a 26% chance to destroy the victim's stuff, greater if you can hit the armor multiple times in the turn before the hero shakes the frost token, or if you can force them to use a battle action. That's actually not half bad.
Web was updated in the RTL rules so that characters can roll their melee trait + the number of web tokens that they've got to break webs. That means that the tank is usually going to escape webs as he begins his turn, unless you've really thrown a ton of webs on him.
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Kevin Wood
United States
Alexandria
Virginia
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MrSkeletor wrote: TheBalrog wrote: MrSkeletor wrote: Why are you webbing the weak characters? Web the tank, then ignore him!web is probably the tanks worst enemy - no ranged weapon and low fatigue means he is wasting more turns than web ranged or magic characters are.
I would agree with this when employing the old web rules. But the campaign web rules make webbing lugs an often fruitless endeavor. Ooops! I haven't got (or read) the final rules yet, so my bad!
I was very happy to read the modification to Web in RTL (change: when rolling to remove web tokens, the hero gets to add in the number of dice s/he would roll for a melee attack).
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Andy Stout
United States
La Jolla
CA
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I'm currently playing the Great Wyrm (specialty: Beasts), and wow, there are NOT many beasts around the dungeons. I'm considering upgrading Eldritch before I upgrade beasts, even (seems to be a lot of Sorcerors and Skeletons around).
Of course, if my chance to get upgrades comes around and I've got between 25 and 29 conquest, I'm definitely upgrading to silver before their next dungeon...
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I currently have Road to Legend and Well of Darkness on the way. This review makes me suddenly wish I had Alter of Despair coming as well.
The Well of Darkness monsters are the golems, kobolds and ferrox. These all appear to have pretty questionable value in RtL.
The Alter of Despair monsters are the deep elves, blood apes, trolls, dark priests and chaos beasts. Of those 5, three of them look to be among the most useful monsters in RtL.
Which makes me wonder if leaving out Alter of Despair will throw off the balance a bit in the heroes favor.
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Jeff Long
Canada
Saskatoon
Saskatchewan
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As always, I love any detailed discussion of anything concerning a balance analysis in Descent.
Curiously absent from your analysis is any mention of the 'Soar' ability. It seems to me the existence of this ability explains the low damage output of Manticores, Dragons and Demons at the Copper level, because in Outdoor encounters, they are essentially invulnerable (starting Heroes with only one skill pretty much have no chance of doing damage at range 5, which is what they need). However, though we have started playing our campaign, I have specifically disallowed myself from going through the Encounter and Dungeon decks to find monster-appearance frequencies, so perhaps this isn't frequent enough to worry about. Still, that would be my theory.
Another consideration that seems very important to me at this point (though perhaps this is simply my inexperience of "we've only played half of the first turn of the game" speaking) is which monsters accompany your Lieutenants. For instance, the Beastman Lord "favors" humanoid upgrades, but if you look at the Lieutenants available to him, Beasts are by far the best way to go in terms of beefing up a lieutenant encounter (in fact, ONLY Sir Alric has any Humanoids at all, and even he has twice as many Beasts as Humanoids). How important it is seems to me to depend on the Plot you are playing (and in the Eternal Night in our game, it seems to me to be very important indeed).
Great discussion overall!
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Matthew M Monin
United States
Branford
Connecticut
8/8 FREE, PROTECTED
That guy
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dragonstout wrote: I'm currently playing the Great Wyrm (specialty: Beasts), and wow, there are NOT many beasts around the dungeons. I'm considering upgrading Eldritch before I upgrade beasts, even (seems to be a lot of Sorcerors and Skeletons around).
You WILL want to get beasts upgraded to diamond by the end though, for reasons that will become obvious.
-MMM
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Matt Price
United States
San Francisco
California
Member of the San Francisco Game Group since 2005
This is a customized Bane Tower from the game Man o' War
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Those reasons haven't yet become obvious, Matthew. Why will I want to get beasts to diamond level?
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Tony M.
United States
Chicago
Illinois
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Q, Regarding Blood Apes
ThePotatoman wrote: They are best used against heroes fighting in a corridor: enter combat with a leap attack and then shift your Ape sideways in the middle of the corridor to split the party in two.
Leaping ends the ape's movement, so he cannot shift sideways until the following turn, correct ?
No splitting the party as part of the actual leap attack....if the ape swung his tail around, that would violate the "straight line" requirement of leaping.
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Matthew M Monin
United States
Branford
Connecticut
8/8 FREE, PROTECTED
That guy
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mattprice wrote: Those reasons haven't yet become obvious, Matthew. Why will I want to get beasts to diamond level?
Check out the Dragon's keep.
-MMM
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Nice article.
Playing as the sorcerer king I upgraded eldritch first. But seeing the rarity of beasts in dungeons, I think I want to upgrade humanoids instead of beastmen next. Most of my conquest tokens are coming from dungeons.
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David Moore
United States
California
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This is a great article except you have one problem: knockbacking a character through an Aura only causes the Aura effect to be applied once and only if they end their Knockback adjacent to the figure with aura. This is because the figure doesn't actually "travel" during Knockback, he/she is simply placed by the effect.
Other than that, this is an amazing guide.
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Cameron Loewen
United States
Redmond
Washington
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Updated with the new monsters from Tomb of Ice.
Quote: knockbacking a character through an Aura only causes the Aura effect to be applied once and only if they end their Knockback adjacent to the figure with aura. This is because the figure doesn't actually "travel" during Knockback, he/she is simply placed by the effect.
Are you sure? I haven't seen anything in the FAQ to suggest that that is the case, and definition of knockback just says "move the target up to 3 spaces..."
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Posted Tue Apr 1, 2008 11:05 pm
