A lot of how good cards are depend on the character. For example, if you were playing Vika, you would be more interested in having more blunt weapons. As Valeros doesn't really care about what kind of weapon he's wielding, he just mostly looks for the most damage and utility ignoring the weapons traits. (Although, I will say having a weapon with the Magic trait is a good thing, as is having a variety of different types of weapons like Slashing, Bludgeoning, and Piercing. I don't know how important it is in this set of Mummy's Mask, but some enemies will modify your attacks based on those traits, and ghosts can't even be defeated without magic!)
However, you're correct. In a lot of cases, a B card can be a lot better than a card of a higher tier. Really, unless you are a character that cares about the adventure deck number of a card (some do), you should really ignore it except for purposes of what you can upgrade. How the card works itself is way more important.
Item 1 -> Spell 1 -> Armor 1 -> Blessing 1 -> Blessing B is the order of what I want from most to least.
Seeing as there's 3 Item 1 found this scenario, hopefully it's not a problem. :)
My card feat is going to be +1 Spell.
Edit: Looks like I am getting an Item 1, so:
(Changed out my Flame Staff to Binder's Tome with the Item 1)
(Adding Eloquence back into my deck with the card feat)
Thanks for the helpful answer.
The Elven Breastplate includes this language: "If you are proficient with heavy armors, you may recharge this card when you reset your hand." Does this mean:
a) If I already have the Elven Breastplate in my hand, when it's time to discard cards and add new ones to my hand, I can recharge it instead of discarding it. (For example, if I already had another armor in my hand and didn't want to carry two).
or
b) After I've drawn cards to replenish my hand, if I see that I have the Elven Breastplate (and don't want it, perhaps due to having another armor in hand), I can recharge it then and there. And if so, why would I want to do that (unless I get to draw another card to replace it at that moment).
or
c) something else I haven't thought of.
It would be a)
And you nailed the exact reason why it's good. :)
Looking through the Fighter Class Deck, I'm surprised by how underwhelming most of the tier 1 cards seem to be. Am I missing something?
(I'm posting as a player, rather than as a Box Runner here. This is all purely opinion, for the most part.)
As Grazzle pointed out; which card is 'good' partially depends on the character. I will make the following comments.
Weapons: It's worth pointing out that cards with the Magic trait are often beneficial, because monsters with the 'incorporeal' trait (ghosts and such) cannot be defeated unless you use a spell or a magic weapon.
(However, Mummy's Mask has almost no ghosts, oddly enough, so a bit of a moot point here.)
Armor: The Magic armors usually have a line of text that says "You may recharge this when you reset your hand", which is an extremely big advantage. A lot of players (especially in older sets) are of the opinion that Armor cards aren't very good, because they fill up your hand (preventing you from drawing more Blessings or Allies) and don't actually do anything most turns, and when they do something it's often not much (like protecting you from 1 or 2 damage, which you could otherwise discard fine).
Exactly how useful armors are varies with the player, the set and even the scenario, for certain; but the fact remains that a lot of players simply don't like filling their limited hand size with armors. So the ability to recharge them freely at the end of the turn is great; it gets them out of your hand so you can draw something better, but still leaves them in your your deck. Remember that cards in your deck are loosely equivalent to your 'Hit points'; since you only die when you've got no deck left and need to draw a card.
Even if you do like having armor in your hand, you probably don't want more than 1 piece of armor (since a single armor can generally be buried to prevent all damage anyway) at a time, so if you have 2 armors in hand you can recharge any redundant ones if they're magical.
Fighter Class Deck: However, it's also worth noting that the Fighter Class Deck is one of the oldest of the Class Decks (along with the Wizard one being used by Darago). The design of Class Decks changes a bit over time, and the average quality of the boons tended to go up in later decks. Personally, I have no doubt that Valeros will do perfectly fine with his Fighter deck for this adventure path, but if you are hungering for more options (and more powerful options) then you're allowed to use an Ultimate Add-On deck, such as Ultimate Combat or Ultimate Intrigue, alongside your Class Deck, if you choose to purchase one. Absolutely not necessary, but it's an idea if you think more cards will cause you to have more fun.
Oh, and you two just discussed what I was talking about with armors before I'd posted. Ninja'd!
Blessing 1 (Blessing of Abadar) -> Weapon B (Ranseur) -> Armor 1 (Elven Breastplate). .
Regarding the two new special loot items (weapon and armor), I'm assuming that the weapon should be taken by someone without weapon proficiency. And I'm guessing that the armor having the alchemical trait makes it a good fit for Damiel?
I'm slowly wrapping my head around how the leveling process works in PACG. I think it's:
1. upgrade 1 card in your deck every scenario
1a. The pool of available upgrades is from your original class deck (and possibly 1 add-on deck if you have one).
1b. You are limited by the cards that you acquired in the just-ended scenario. If no Weapon 1 card was acquired, you can't select a Weapon 1 card from your deck.
1c. You are limited by your fellow party members' selections of upgrades. If only one Armor 1 card was found, and two players both want that upgrade, only one of them can actually take that upgrade.
1d. The basic trait matters when you first build your deck at the very beginning of playing your PC, and doesn't matter after that for card upgrade choices. (Yes? - not so sure about this one).2. specific scenarios may offer additional rewards. Last scenario, we got an extra card upgrade. We don't know yet whether this scenario (that has just ended) has any particular rewards.
3. Additional rewards (feats) are received based on the number of scenarios that a PC has played. After scenario 1, I got to check one box in the Skills section of my PC card (skill feat). After scenario 2, I got to check one box in the Powers section (power feat). After this scenario (#3 for me), I won't get any feats. After the next scenario (#4), I'll get to add a single card to my deck, expanding it from 15 cards to 16 (card feat); (I'm not sure what the process will be for choosing which card this will be). I'll get no feats for scenarios 5 & 6, but will then repeat the same sequence starting with scenario 7. Yes?
Tl;dr: unless there's a special reward particular to the scenario, I think the only change that I need to make now is a single card upgrade, correct?
I think this is the 4th scenario applied to Valeros so you should get a card feat.
Basic only matters when you first build your deck and when you gain a card feat. So me, you, and Grazzle all get card feats now. We increase our deck by one to 16 adding a card of our choice. But that card needs to be basic. However if the card you pick for an upgrade is the same type then you could upgrade it.
For example Lini is choosing spell for her card upgrade. I want to put a spell B into my deck (Fire Sneeze) instead of a basic spell (Probably Viper Strike)
So I roll off for my preferred upgrades.
Everyone else lists the upgrades they want in order and rolls a d1000 for them.
If no one else lists the spell B then I add a spell to my deck and it will be the spell B. If someone else beats my roll for spell B then I add a basic spell to my deck. If I get beat on my roll for Blessing 1 and 2 people beat my roll for the 2 blessing B we found. Then I just don't upgrade anything.
And yes the early class decks are pretty bad.
Oh and Lini can't put weapons or armor in her deck so passing on the 2 new Loot cards.
Thanks for the input - very helpful. And I had ordered Ultimate Intrigue about an hour ago, as I was looking through the cards and remembering what you had said on this topic earlier. :-)
So based on these comments, I'll swap my order of preferences to:
Blessing 1 -> Armor 1 -> Weapon B
Btw, I'm realizing that I'm probably getting some skewed ideas about gameplay and strategy because of how much healing we have in this party. While I'm keeping an eye on my deck, I'm generally not hesitating to discard cards if it seems like a good reason. But I can see how much more fraught that must be in a group that lacks much (or any) healing.
This was only my 3rd scenario, but I get your point and will do that after the next one.
Why can't Lini put weapons or armor in her deck? Wasn't there a point earlier where you wanted me to pass you a weapon?
She can't rebuild her deck with weapons/armor in it. She can definitely have them in hand, though.
As for the Spear, it's a melee weapon which isn't very good for Damiel. I don't want it either.
The Scarab Buckler, however, is amazing. I don't *need* it, but I wouldn't mind having it. Probably better for someone else though as I can already prevent elemental damage with my armors. But if no one else wants it I'll take it for the next scenario.
I plan on keeping trading out my Quarterstaff for Remove Curse, fyi.
Well, if no one else wants it I'll take the Spear, though I will happily defer to anyone else if they want it. I have no shortage of good weapons now, and I would assume the Spear would be particularly helpful to someone without proficiency.
My Card Feat will be +1 Spell. I'll put a Lightning Touch back into my deck with the feat.
I'm not super dying to have the loot we got. If other people want it, feel free to have it.
For card upgrades, I don't know what I want yet. I'm on a work computer so I don't have the deck list in front of me right now. I'll take care of it as soon as I get home
So, for upgrades, we had 3 item 1, 1 blessing 1, and 1 armor 1.
Lini - first choice is spell B
Darago - hasn't stated yet
Damiel - first choice is armor 1
Grazzle - first choice is Item 1 - should be confirmed because there are 3 to choose from.
Valeros - first choice is blessing 1
Does that correctly summarize?
Darago's card upgrade will be Weapon B to replace Rapier with Quarterstaff.
The Quarterstaff then be immediately traded out at the Sunburst Market.
A couple of item B go to waste but that all works out.
So, finalizing my deck. Please correct me if any of this is mistaken:
1. Upgrade one of my Blessing of the Gods to Blessing of Abadar (using the Blessing 1 upgrade). Add Blessing of Abadar to deck and remove Blessing of the Gods.
2. Temporarily (for this one scenario) trade my Mace weapon for Spear of the Watchful Guardian. Add Spear of the WG to the deck and put Mace in Set Aside.
3. Visit Sunburst Market and trade (for this one scenario) my Longsword weapon for Blessing of the Elements. Add Blessing of the E to my deck and put Longsword in Set Aside.
4. Draw starting hand.
Yes? All sound correct? Assuming that this is ok, I'm going to go ahead and draw my hand so that we can get rolling whenever everyone is ready.
Fyi, I'm likely to have very limited chances to post tomorrow until tomorrow evening.
All correct; looks great to me, Valeros/Abraham! As for why your Deck Handler is showing 11 cards, I can't tell at a glance. There's an odd unmerged cell where the Longsword is in Set Aside, which might cause a problem, but it shouldn't. If you want, you can share/send your Deck Handler, with edit permissions, to one of us and we may be able to help. You can send it to my gmail account or send and edit-enabled link in Google Hangouts; whichever you prefer.
REWARD SUMMARY -- SCENARIO 3-1C: UP FOR A SWIM?
AAUGHWHY // Darago - Weapon B + Card Feat: Spell
Abraham Z. // Valeros - Blessing 1
khazkhaz // Damiel - Armor 1
bigguyinblack // Lini - Spell B + Card Feat: Spell
GM Andrew // Grazzle - Item 1 + Card Feat: Spell
As previously mentioned in Hangouts.
I'm afraid that I'll be travelling for much of this weekend, with unreliable access to Internet (or an appropriate device in general). From about Friday 4am EST to Sunday 7am EST I will likely be unable to post much, if at all. I will endeavor to update the game state as soon as I return (or whilst travelling, if that turns out to be possible).
If I don't get the spell I'll take one of the many blessing Bs.
I believe that I'm due for a card feat this time, which I will use to add a Blessing of the Gods to my deck. Then I'll use my scenario upgrade to take a Blessing B to upgrade that Blessing of the Gods to a Blessing of Gorum.
When we move forward to the next scenario, unless someone else wants a turn with the Spear of the Watchful Guardian, I'll take it again (once again trading out my Mace for it). And I'll once again trade my longsword at the Sunburst Market, most likely for a Blessing of the Elements.
If any of these choices seem like bad ones to any of you, please advise.
I'll relent the Spell 1 for now since I got one last time. I'll take a Spell B.
(Eloquence -> Find Traps)
Looks like I didn't get the spell this time. I'm pretty ok with my deck right now; I'll let Damiel pick their upgrade and then decide based on what's left.
Assuming I get the spell 1 I am considering adding Locate Object instead of Charm Animal.
Locate Object has me examine cards in the location deck until I find a boon, Encounter the boon, Then shuffle the deck.
So sometimes it will work like an ally and just give me another explore.
Sometimes it will hit 1 or more nasty triggers wiping out my hand.
But sometimes those triggers will have me encounter the card allowing 1 spell to clear 2+ cards.
I think it is worth trying out. If it is bad I can switch it out easily.
(Lini's Boon roll = 1)
Congratulations on the successful boon roll! As mentioned in the initial post, a "1" or "20" pass. Which of the Society Rewards would you like to claim?
You do have to pick your reward now (or in the near future), but you don't have to apply it to any of your PACG characters until you want to. I need to report on the reward you've chosen and then the official pdf sheet with your reward will be sent to you in the future.
I'll be updating the gameplay thread shortly.
(Gentle reminder I am leaving for Gen Con in less than 24 hours. I wouldn't expect the same pace from me at all during the con)
Taking an item for my card feat, and a Weapon 1 for my upgrade. I'll swap Blowgun with Fire Lance, and add a Noxious Bomb.
Also, as a small correction for Valeros and Lini's benefits. In Hangouts, it was stated that you pick Card Feats, fill them with basics, then take your card upgrade. That's not strictly true, but it's a mostly correct simplification.
Normally, we simplify this to mean "Switch out one of your cards for your chosen Card Upgrade", but that's not actually accurate. For example, if I had (basic) Potion of Fortitude in my deck and I banished it during the scenario, then I wanted to pick an Item 2 card upgrade, my new Item 2 would fill the empty slot left over. I won't be able to re-add in my Potion of Healing at all, even if I would have preferred to replace something else.
In short, it goes.
1. Pick Card Feats, if any.
2. Pick your Card Upgrade(s), add them to your deck (do not remove cards yet, technically).
3. If you have too many of a card type for your decklist, remove some so it matches. If you have too few, pick basics from your class deck to fill it up.
This is sometimes frustrating. I know this from experience by playing as the Goblin Poog, who has an amazing item (Dogfinder) that he 'owns' that's banish-on-use. It's treated as a basic for him, so he can just put it right back in post-game... but if he takes an Item as his Card Upgrade then he'll no longer have a spare slot to put it back in. It sucks.
With Damiel taking the Weapon 1, I think I'm actually going to not take a card upgrade this scenario. That's an option, right?
With Damiel taking the Weapon 1, I think I'm actually going to not take a card upgrade this scenario. That's an option, right?
You are absolutely allowed. You're also allowed to take a Card Upgrade and not actually keep whatever you gain out of it.
There might be a very small benefit in doing so. If, for some reason, you later decide to play Season 4 with Darago, then there's scenario rewards from 4-P1 and 4-P2 which explicitly care about card upgrades you've had listed on your chronicle sheet, whether or not you 'use' them. Probably not something worth considering, though.
With Damiel taking the Weapon 1, I think I'm actually going to not take a card upgrade this scenario. That's an option, right?
Didn’t know you wanted it. Do you want to roll for it?
(Lini's Boon roll = 1)Congratulations on the successful boon roll! As mentioned in the initial post, a "1" or "20" pass. Which of the Society Rewards would you like to claim?
You do have to pick your reward now (or in the near future), but you don't have to apply it to any of your PACG characters until you want to. I need to report on the reward you've chosen and then the official pdf sheet with your reward will be sent to you in the future.
[dice=BR Boon roll 3-1D]1d20
I'll be updating the gameplay thread shortly.
I'll pick Dark Archives. If I apply it to Lini can I check off the 2 goals to use it 2 extra times before actually using it?
I was thinking of saving it until tier 3 or 4 when we all have a lot of good spells we want and pulling spells in hopes of more spell upgrades.
Correct; you formally apply it to a character, and then once it's applied you can 'earn' those extra 2 uses. A character can only have one society reward applied to them at a time.
All right. Applying it to Lini now then.
It looks like Card Upgrades have been distributed and card feats taken. Let me know if anything here looks inaccurate.
REWARD SUMMARY -- SCENARIO 3-1D: UNDER PRESSURE
AAUGHWHY // Darago - None
Abraham Z. // Valeros - Blessing B + Card Feat: Blessing
khazkhaz // Damiel - Weapon 1 + Card Feat: Item
bigguyinblack // Lini - Spell 1 + CONVENTION BOON: Dark Archives
GM Andrew // Grazzle - Spell B
Mine looks right.
Looks right.
Just as a final post about it so people remember, I am at Gen Con now, so posting is going to be less frequent.
Got it; have a great weekend!
Confirming that Valeros will take a Blessing for his card feat, adding a Blessing of the Gods to my deck, for a total deck size of 16.
For scenario loot, Valeros will use one of the Blessing B to upgrade one Blessing of the Gods to Blessing of Gorum.
As in previous scenarios, he will visit the Sunburst Market and trade his Longsword for a Blessing of the Elements.
He will again trade his Mace for Spear of the Watchful Guardian.
He will NOT take the Tablet of Languages Lost.
Working on starting location and hand now. I drew my initial hand but there were no weapons in it, so I'm not sure if that means I redo the whole thing, or something else? - edit: never mind, figured it out.
Back home, so my posts should (ahem) improve now.
Apparently they didn't lol.
If there isn't a blessing one I'll take one of the Bs.
Fantastic work all! I'm afraid the proper scenario conclusion (including the rewards) will have to wait some time. I don't have access to the PDFs right now at work.
You win 2 more pieces of Loot; Akhentepi's Armor and Game of Afterlife. Their card texts can be found in the Loot Tracker spreadsheet above the game headers for now. Grazzle and Lini have completed their 6th scenario and must advance to Tier 2. Everyone else may choose to advance their characters to Tier 2, and I recommend everyone do so. You also get the adventure reward, which I'll cover in my proper post.
For the time being, though, I'll add the list of Acquired Cards here so that you can work on your Card Upgrade decisions if you want. Let me know if you acquired anything that appears to be missing here.
ACQUIRED CARDS
---------------------
Camel (Ally B)
Embalmer (Ally C)
Tussah Silk Coat (Armor B)
Blessing of Thoth (Blessing 1)
Blessing of the Ancients (Blessing B)
Blessing of Bastet (Blessing C)
Blessing of Thoth (Blessing 1)
Blessing of the Elements (Blessing B)
Blessing of the Elements (Blessing B)
Blessing of Thoth (Blessing 1)
Djinn Favor Amulet (Item 1)
Kohl of Uncanny Discernment (Item B)
Flash Freeze (Item B)
Acid Flask (Item B)
Embalming Fluid (Item 1)
Immolate (Spell B)
Torch (Weapon C)