Refreshing ALL creatures before the end of a story card or the end of the final battle

Hi guys, it was my understanding that the DL's creatures are all refreshed at the beginning of each story card, and the beginning of the final battle, as are the Hero's equipment cards.

We noticed this rule which confused us a bit

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Refreshing Creatures
At the start of any challenge, if all of the Creature cards in play are exhausted, refresh all the Creature cards.

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Refreshing Equipment
At the start of each Story Stage and the Final Battle Stage, all of the Hero’s Equipment cards are refreshed.

And again...

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Equipment cards are refreshed at the beginning of each Story card and the Final Battle.

Creature cards are refreshed at the start of a challenge whenever all of the Dungeon Lord’s Creatures cards are exhausted.

Does this imply that it's possible for all the DL's creature cards to be exhausted before the end of a story card?  This also implies that during the final battle, after the fourth challenge (or when all creatures are exhausted) the DL can refresh all their creatures again...  I'm pretty certain that's not the intention, surely?  Those two rule segments would allow the DL during the final battle to refresh their creatures before the fifth challenge, but the Hero wouldn't be allowed to do the same.

Thanks

Yes, the DL refreshes all his creatures at the beginning of a challenge if he has no refreshed creatures.

You shouldn't compare the creatures to the hero's treasure, more to the skills. Like the hero gains bonus dice from his skills, the DL chooses a creature to get additional dice.

This leads to interesting choices for power cards that can exhaust or refresh creatures.

Darcy,

The rules you quoted are correct.

- The Hero refreshes equipment at the start of each Story stage and Final Battle stage.

- The DL refreshes when all his creatures are exhausted at the start of a challenge.

There are some hero abilities that let you exhaust creatures early to say remove a high level creature from the rotation early on. There are also some DL abilities that let you exhaust creatures early which lets you remove low level creatures from the rotation early on. So it's entirely possible that the creature rotation may not line up with the Story cards, and that's perfectly fine...because again, the DL refreshes his creatures when they are all exhausted.

The DL must always use a creature for a challenge or he would almost surely lose the challenge immediately. The Hero on the other hand can win challenges without ever using Equipment. Think of it this way, the Hero has Equipment, Attribute dice, and Skill dice where as the DL only has Creature dice. Taking those away would be crippling to his chances to win.

Just keep in mind that the Hero and DL are not played the same and rewarded the same. They are intentionally asymmetrical, so rewards, refreshing, and ways of gaining dice are not always the same. So in regards to the final battle, the Hero has to manage his resources carefully and decide whether to risk an early win or hang on for the long haul of all 5 FB challenges.

In summary, play it exactly like the rules you just quoted.

Hopefully that helps explain what's going on.

Tom

Cool! That keeps me happy... I thought it was a bit bizarre but that totally makes sense. It is a bit of a shame in the final battle as the DL becomes significantly more powerful upon the fifth challenge whereas the hero is by now quite weakened... Still, if nothing else that adds incentives for the Hero to finish the job early Thanks for the reply!

I've had clever Heroes use that against me!

They boxed me in by looking at my creatures and exhausting a key creature so I couldn't use the right creature for the right job!

If the Dungeon Lord couldn't refresh his creatures once they had all been used/exhausted, what would he Attack with? Makes sense to me.