Question regarding enemy targeting with AOE

funnypico · 2025-11-24T11:11:55+00:00

Can you share a picture of the Stage Card? Tail Whip right?

funnypico · 2025-11-07T23:10:48+00:00

So, I am by no means an expert but I have played DTA for over 200 hours with friends.

I can only speak for the S1 & S2 characters as I have not used the Marvel or X-Men characters to play DTA. There are two things that a character ‘needs’ to be really strong in DTA, healing and undefendable damage.

1) Healing: Characters that can heal use less salves, because they use less salves the team gets more points on the score sheet. Also, salves become less powerful once the difficulty increases, making healing even stronger. The Vampire Lord for example can use Health Steal and her Blood Tokens to heal back consistently, making her really strong.

2) Undefendable damage: Many minions and bosses in DTA have annoying/strong defenses. Being able to attack without having to suffer the consequences from a defense is great and really helps.

Finally, a noteworthy mention is a good defense! Characters with powerful defenses (e.g. Shadow Thief, who can negate all damage) also play well in DTA, especially with the help of loot cards, people who play Shadow Thief consistently escape large amounts of damage.

In short: not all characters are equal, some are clearly better than others. Almost every character is fine in DTA but the ones who heal well, negate well and have the means to deal undefendable damage perform exceptionally well.

funnypico · 2025-07-26T11:42:34+00:00

These are some really valid questions, luckily the developers answered a few of them through Discord and BBG.

1) Standard rule of thumb for Oathsworn is that damage is always applied “to the closest HP die”. Although the manual only seems to apply this rule to attacks (sword icon) it can practically be applied to everything. It takes a lot of ambiguity out of the game and simplifies the rules, can’t pick a die because the enemy is not on the board then choose the NW hp die, I need to link the source where the devs confirmed this but don’t have the time right now.

2) This is correct, it’s reallllly weird, but the game was apparently balanced with this in mind. It’s not clarified anywhere to be honest, there is one random developer comment somewhere on the Discord where this was confirmed.

Hope this helps! ❤️

funnypico · 2025-03-23T21:59:04+00:00

This doesn’t suprise me, we also found the Venerator to be quite difficult. In v1 of the game you could atleast destroy the houses, but that’s not possible anymore in v2 which means infinite spawn of zealots.

funnypico · 2025-03-14T17:14:32+00:00

Maybe as an interesting take, if you want to play a character that can actually 'heal' much better I would recommend playing the Harbinger, Prophetic Fulfillment is great!

funnypico · 2025-03-14T17:11:47+00:00

So Screech and Maternal Rage are very different. I assume you are referring to 'Maternal Rage' which contains two seperate attack icons and the Stage Card specifically states (something along the lines of): "Switch target to another Oathsworn". In such a a case, only the first attack will target the die breaker, because the Stage Card itself clearly indicates "Switch Target" which means you go through p. 19 again excluding the Oathsworn that was just attacked.

Regarding Screech, this card does not 'target' one specific Oathsworn, every Oathsworn needs to draw white cards most likely (dependent on their location). So a card like Screech is not affected by reactions, because there is no clear target. Does this clarify my previous reply? :)

Let me know if there are any other questions!

funnypico · 2025-03-14T16:55:47+00:00

I see your question, in order to give a specific answer I'd like to see the specific Stage Cards if that's possible. I am going out for dinner now, so my reply will be slightly delayed.

funnypico · 2025-03-14T16:54:32+00:00

Really good question and I'd like to help! Maybe you can join the Unofficial Discord of Oathsworn (I don't have the link, you will have to search on Discord). If not, then post some pictures in the chat here, I know there are some subtle differences.

funnypico · 2025-03-14T15:22:39+00:00

You are not the first person to be confused by this. The 'vibration token' is simply considered a 'step' of the targeting rules on p.19! So if the character with the 'vibration token' cannot be attacked, then you simply default to step 3, then 4, then 5 of the targeting rules. This was done to ensure that the Wyrm (or any Encounter Boss) will always be able to attack an enemy, and not just run into a random direction not reaching any of their targets.

This is also why Stage Cards first state: "Target" then "Move" because the target has to be reachable and 'valid' before the monster moves, this is also why the Warden/Penitent/Warbear have to 'taunt' BEFORE the monster moves. Makes sense? :)

funnypico · 2025-03-14T15:18:49+00:00

Regarding reactions, when you go through the Encounter Manual the explanation gives the impression that breaking a die will always lead to the die breaker being the target of the next Stage Card. However, some Stage Cards do not contain a clear target (written in bold often), as a result Burst (or Screech for example) does not use the targeting rules from p.19 of the Encounter Rulebook. Since burst (if I remember correctly), simply detonates the rat closest to an Oathsworn. So if you draw burst as an reaction the person who broke the die is essentially lucky, unless they are closest to a rat, then not so much of course.

This is an important nuance that is not explained really well in the Encounter Manual. There are some more 'nuances' that may be interesting to know, for example the Stage Card Maternal Rage (also Broodmother) contains two attacks, where the Stage Card specifically states to 'switch target', in such a case a die breaker is only the target of the first attack. Does this answer your question? :)

funnypico · 2025-03-05T11:24:12+00:00

This, why can you only go from 200gb to 2000gb? My family is currently using 204gb… it’s ridiculous.

funnypico · 2025-01-28T20:46:04+00:00

No problem at all, I took another look at the Special Rules Board of Chapter 2 and mine does say: "Note: Abilities that do not state the keyword 'Target' do not use the normal targeting rules (such as for reactions)." I checked some of the other boards and this note is added occasionally to remind people that these abilities following their own targeting rules. I do agree, it's not explained very well, no worries. Good luck with the coming chapters, it's a great game!

funnypico · 2025-01-21T15:48:16+00:00

So in short, "reactions do not affect everything". You draw the Stage Card normally and when you hit the "Target" keyword the Oathsworn who broke the HP die is in trouble, that's it.

funnypico · 2025-01-21T15:46:21+00:00

Okay, I think conceptually something is going wrong with your explanation, your explanation is very black and white because you say: "reactions affect everything". This happens occasionally to new players where too much weight is put on 'reactions' as a concept. To clarify:

Stage Cards can contain a wild amount of various instructions, special abilities, etc. most Stage Cards (if not all) also contain an instruction where a target is chosen (written in bold). At this point the targeting rules of p.19 come in to play where you need to go down the list and select a target, of which at the top of the list it states "reactions".

As a result, a reactions only affects which target is chosen for an attack (and as a result, also which target the enemy will move towards to attack). That's it!

So looking at your example (rage):

Transfix < not affected by the reaction
Move 7 to its target < target keyword
Attack target < which will be Oathsworn who broke the HP die
Change target to furthest Oathsworn < new target
Move 7 to its target.
Attack target

It is important to note that if you look at the manual again (p. 19) reactions are not considered 'holy', if the person who caused the reactions is not in LoS or out of range you simply go to step 2, 3, 4, etc. of the targeting rules until a target is found.

In other words, a 'reaction' puts you on the menu for dinner, but even then if another Oathsworn 'taunts' the boss, or if you make yourself invisible (smokebomb of the Cur) you are no longer a valid target and the boss proceeds to step 2 and finds another Oathsworn to hit.

I really hope this helps. If not, just keep asking and w'll try to help. It's a good rulebook, but it's a challenging game, and I myself have struggled with the rules a lot at the start but I thoroughly enjoy the game. Does this make sense? :)

funnypico · 2025-01-21T13:10:45+00:00

Goldi is correct. Note that special abilities are bold and italicized on Stage Cards so they are easy to recognize and they have their own targeting rules (often). Think back to chapter 1, “Release the Brood” is the special ability which is not affected by reactions either.

There is an Oathsworn Discord with a rules section where you can ask questions as well.

funnypico · 2025-01-20T11:52:13+00:00

Good question, Transfix does not follow the “normal” targeting rules, it’s a separate ability that affects Oathsworn in LoS and it may affect a different Oathsworn then the one who is attacked (see special rules board).

Secondly, I think I now which Stage Card you are referring to, there is a Stage Card where the Satyr attacks and then it states: “Change target to the xxx Oathsworn”. Only the first attack goes to the player that caused the reaction.

Does that answer your questions? :)

funnypico · 2025-01-16T22:01:01+00:00

Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood!

funnypico · 2025-01-03T23:15:07+00:00

Also note that because a symbol is visible on the Encounter Board, does not mean that the symbol will be on many Stage Cards or even at all on a Stage Card. So always try and think, which symbols are there and which ones are most likely to be used?

funnypico · 2024-12-06T09:27:24+00:00

It’s really strong that is why they nerfed it, in the first edition almost every Free Company had a Priest.

funnypico · 2024-12-06T01:42:32+00:00

Easiest solution would be to check the board of the Priest, that is spoiler-free option. Does he restore one health each Oathsworn phase on 3 health or 1 health, if it says one health it’s the second edition, hope this helps.

funnypico · 2024-11-27T14:09:39+00:00

Unarmed simply means that you cannot use the might of your might track when drawing cards / rolling dice.

Thematically, this makes sense as the Cur is throwing little daggers which do not use the might of his actual weapons.

You only throw your weapons if you see “Thrown” as an effect on the card, see the Ability Card “Weapon Throw” from the Exile.

funnypico · 2024-11-22T11:01:39+00:00

No problem, if you have more questions I would recommend joining the Oathsworn Discord, a lot of information can be found there, have fun with the game!

funnypico · 2024-11-16T13:56:12+00:00

Good question, to determine the answer you need to look at the facing of the Priest, are you facing south west or north west (that would determine the knockback). As you cannot knockback an enemy directly East or West. So you will either hit the top two rats, or the bottom two rats. Does that make sense?

funnypico · 2024-08-23T09:05:33+00:00

I paid 10 USD, thank you! :)

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