We've Got Class, And We Know It

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

You've asked, so we've answered! Last August, we released seven Class Decks for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. These decks provide new characters and boons that can be added to any PACG Adventure Path, and they're your gateway to the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild Organized Play program. You've made it clear that you want more, and we're happy to oblige.

This August, we'll begin new monthly Class Deck releases, starting with the paladin in August, the monk in September, and the druid in October. After we complete the 11 core classes with the barbarian in November, we'll begin exploring classes outside the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. As with the previous Class Decks, each deck contains 109 cards, including boons that can take your character from the start to the end of any Adventure Path. Meet Maznar, a character from the upcoming Druid Class Deck:


Illustration by Mariusz Gandzel

Maznar is part of a small sect of dwarf druids revered by his people and by many inhabitants of wild places. He follows the Green Faith, a philosophy that commands respect for nature. Maznar draws on the power of his spells and his animal friends to protect himself and his party.

There's one big difference between the previous seven Class Decks and the new one. After hearing a lot of feedback, we decided to focus each new deck on three characters instead of four. This allows us to add more support for each character and her roles throughout her entire progression while continuing to bring you innovative character designs. Pre-order the Paladin Class Deck today!

Adventure Card Game Team at Portland's GameStorm This Weekend

The card game design team will be at GameStorm in Vancouver, WA this weekend, testing various goodies. Come find us in the Game Lab at the Vancouver Hilton!

Until next week, Pathfinders!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Class Decks Mariusz Gandzel Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
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Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

7 people marked this as a favorite.
Jorsalheim wrote:
Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)

If more people express interest, that's certainly a possibility!


Very nice. Excited to see some new characters.

Sovereign Court

Super excited about this. The once-a-month release strategy will be much nicer on my budget.


Sweet! I'm excited about the variety of cards contained in each class deck now that there are only 3 characters to focus on.


This may be a silly question, but would it be safe to assume that one of the characters from each deck will be an iconic? A new Amiri would be fantastic! :)


The Pale Grin wrote:

This may be a silly question, but would it be safe to assume that one of the characters from each deck will be an iconic? A new Amiri would be fantastic! :)

Pretty sure the answer is yes.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

The Pale Grin wrote:

This may be a silly question, but would it be safe to assume that one of the characters from each deck will be an iconic? A new Amiri would be fantastic! :)

Yup.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

How does getting a class deck in the middle of Season 1 work? Won't everyone be leveled-up and uninterested in scenarios that won't kill your new character?

Grand Lodge

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YAAAASSS. Cannot wait for this! I'd assume both from the chatter above and the content of the original seven that each new deck will have a new version of their iconic characters. Whoohoo!

I hope the new Sajan is more weapon-oriented, since the temple sword in the minis set is otherwise a bit of disappointment compared to the usefulness of the other cards packaged with the minis. :S


Cool. Assume each character deck has 3 characters where one of these is an iconic.

Monk is sajan
Üaladin is seelah
Babarian is amiri and
Druid is?


Druid is Lini


1 person marked this as a favorite.
mlvanbie wrote:
How does getting a class deck in the middle of Season 1 work? Won't everyone be leveled-up and uninterested in scenarios that won't kill your new character?

True, you probably won't want to start a new character mid season. Do you'll have to wait a bit to use them. But I think this helps with development time. And the hinted at "open" format might be something that works make them more usable even mid-season.


3 characters sounds like a fantastic idea. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Vic Wertz wrote:
Jorsalheim wrote:
Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)
If more people express interest, that's certainly a possibility!

I know there's been some hiccups with the complication of subscription offerings, but perhaps a deluxe/standard subscription distinction a la the comics would be a good way to include expansions like this to make it easy to "get everything"?


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm starting to warm up to the idea of three characters per deck. The only problem I really have now, especially in relation to organized play, is the simple fact that the change has happened. Having just three characters might help with letting the new decks from here on support those three characters much better, but where does that leave the first seven that have already been released with four characters? This does nothing to help their effectiveness, leaving us with a number of characters that will have far less support compared to the new characters, assuming this strategy does significantly help the new characters.

Basically, I'm hoping that there still might be something down the line to help the old class deck characters get the proper support they need and they don't just get left behind.


Alright, the RotR character add-on class decks are here :)

That'll get more use out of the #1 and #2 Iconic hero set


Vic Wertz wrote:
Jorsalheim wrote:
Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)
If more people express interest, that's certainly a possibility!

I am expressing interest.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
Malcolm_Reynolds wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Jorsalheim wrote:
Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)
If more people express interest, that's certainly a possibility!
I am expressing interest.

Consider me interested as well.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

Hawkmoon269 wrote:
mlvanbie wrote:
How does getting a class deck in the middle of Season 1 work? Won't everyone be leveled-up and uninterested in scenarios that won't kill your new character?
True, you probably won't want to start a new character mid season. Do you'll have to wait a bit to use them. But I think this helps with development time.

Remember this blog entitled "On Completing 14 Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Products in Two Weeks"? The first few words were:

Protip: That is insane, and don't ever do it. There. Don't say no one ever warned you.

Well, we've warned us. I don't think we're ever doing that again.


Vic Wertz wrote:
Jorsalheim wrote:
Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)
If more people express interest, that's certainly a possibility!

Interested

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
Jorsalheim wrote:
Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)
If more people express interest, that's certainly a possibility!

Interested!

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'm also really interested in doing a subscription for the ACG class decks.


I'd do a subscription for the class decks too. I get the logistical concerns behind not cranking out a million class decks at once, so I feel you; I also feel for the people who really want to play some form of Barbarian and won't be able to do so during Season 1. D:

Doesn't affect me, though. My wife and I just started Season 0 the other night, with no intent of actually playing OP in a store with reporting or any of that. I figure our Wrath play will follow the same trajectory: a sweet bonus campaign after we finish the main one, at which point I assume the class decks will be out and good to go!

Though in an extremely roundabout way I guess it does affect me, since I just thought about how much I'd like to play Seelah through Season 0... D:


Vic Wertz wrote:
Jorsalheim wrote:
Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)
If more people express interest, that's certainly a possibility!

Waiting for the wify to leave the room.... A little more....

OK : INTERESTED!

Now click the submist post button and just pretend you were watching naked pictures :-)


Could you give us a link what you are watching when you are under wifys eyes?


Interested!

Grand Lodge

pluvia33 wrote:


Basically, I'm hoping that there still might be something down the line to help the old class deck characters get the proper support they need and they don't just get left behind.

That is what I'm hoping for as well. I'm glad we hashed out that there should only be three characters per class deck, but is there going to be a deck that helps out those original 7?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Is the Paladin deck likely to be available at Gen Con or after? Trying to determine if I should pre-order or plan to pick it up at the show.


1970Zombie wrote:
Is the Paladin deck likely to be available at Gen Con or after? Trying to determine if I should pre-order or plan to pick it up at the show.

Vic said the July products will be available at Gen Con, and August products, such as the Paladin deck, will ship in August. Thread here.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

2 people marked this as a favorite.

There is a *small possibility* we might be able to give the Paladin decks an early debut at Gen Con, but we probably won't know until July.


Dear Tanis,
Thank you for your prompt and courteous reply to my silly question. Your feedback is always appreciated. :)

Dear Vic,
I would be interested in a subscription for class decks as well. :)


Vic Wertz wrote:
Jorsalheim wrote:
Nice! You really got Class. Looking forward to getting these. And if this is going to be an "ongoing thing" it would be nice with a subscription possibility somewhere down the line :)
If more people express interest, that's certainly a possibility!

I'm (probably) interested, but can you or Mike elaborate on how dropping to 3 characters per pack will allow you to better support those characters? What does that mean, exactly?

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

It allows them to focus the cards easier, first there is 100 cards they can use instead of 97. Second,because the cards only have to be split 3 ways they have more cards per character they can customize.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Exactly. The biggest issue people have had with the current class decks is that there aren't enough specific boons for each character. The fighter deck is a great example... one of the character uses polearms and has a special power that requires polearm weapons, but there are not enough polearm weapons to gain throughout the campaign. This will allow the designers to "spread the wealth" a bit more, giving each of the three characters more boons that work well for their specific abilities.

Sovereign Court

I just hope we aren't getting down to three characters by sacrificing the unique ones like Flenta and Wrathack.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

I doubt they would do that. The unique characters have gotten a lot of love on the forums, and they can probably see from registered characters that people have skewed toward those characters compared to others.


This has probably been dealt with on another thread, but has there been a suggested fix for the polearm incident? Using polearm weapons from the RotRL or S&S perhaps...one of my OP crew finally found a kindred spirit with a short man complex and now he is worried that all this discussion means he is essentially a broken character.

Sovereign Court

Unfortunately things like that are currently still a problem. It's unlikely any potential fix will ever allow using cards outside the current allowed cards (class decks, cards included in the minis packs). Hopefully we get a 3 character redo of these decks as some point, but not until we get a good number of new classes first.


Ok, I don't play the card game, and frankly, I'm wondering if my bookshelf will give out before my budget does.

But...the art for these previews has been really sweet, and I don't think I've seen all of it in the many books I get. I've been wondering about this for sometime...is there anyway to maybe do a pdf version of things like the bestiary pawns or these class cards? I would love having the art handy for NPCs in my game, and even if it wasn't a free thing like the old WotC art galleries (or the incredibly awesome old Dungeon supplement downloads), I'd be glad to push the budget just a tiny bit further for the chance to get a nice copy of this artwork.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Mr.Deanish wrote:
This has probably been dealt with on another thread, but has there been a suggested fix for the polearm incident? Using polearm weapons from the RotRL or S&S perhaps...one of my OP crew finally found a kindred spirit with a short man complex and now he is worried that all this discussion means he is essentially a broken character.

Nothing yet announced; thoughts do tend to whirl around in my brain about it, though.


cartmanbeck wrote:
The fighter deck is a great example... one of the character uses polearms and has a special power that requires polearm weapons, but there are not enough polearm weapons to gain throughout the campaign. This will allow the designers to "spread the wealth" a bit more, giving each of the three characters more boons that work well for their specific abilities.

I feel like this may be a design issue, wherein the problem wouldn't occur if some overlap between characters is imbued into the class decks.

In your fighter example, they might have had two fighters that can utilize polearms in different ways: one might recharge polearms rather than discard, while another might bury a polearm or axe used to make a combat check to gain an additional d8.

Then, with mild cross-over like that, there should be enough support card space available to satisfy the use of either character.

I'm a little worried that we'll see more repetition than variety, going down to 3 characters. I'm not opposed to the idea, but I am curious what it really means to the resulting decks.

Sovereign Court

The 3 characters can actually afford to be more unique from each other now, because you're knocking out one character who, while that character had a small unique aspect, that aspect didn't set him massively apart from the rest but took up cards that could have been used helping the other characters really shine.

I'd rather have one less unique-but-still-very-similar character than say "Oh let's do something unique like reliance on polearms... and then make it not unique by doing it for multiple characters in the deck!"

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Midnight Anarch wrote:
cartmanbeck wrote:
The fighter deck is a great example... one of the character uses polearms and has a special power that requires polearm weapons, but there are not enough polearm weapons to gain throughout the campaign. This will allow the designers to "spread the wealth" a bit more, giving each of the three characters more boons that work well for their specific abilities.

I feel like this may be a design issue, wherein the problem wouldn't occur if some overlap between characters is imbued into the class decks.

In your fighter example, they might have had two fighters that can utilize polearms in different ways: one might recharge polearms rather than discard, while another might bury a polearm or axe used to make a combat check to gain an additional d8.

Then, with mild cross-over like that, there should be enough support card space available to satisfy the use of either character.

I'm a little worried that we'll see more repetition than variety, going down to 3 characters. I'm not opposed to the idea, but I am curious what it really means to the resulting decks.

I think what you'll see is that the characters in the deck can actually be a little *more* diverse.

In the first wave of Class Decks, there are 97 boons supporting 4 characters. Now there will be 100 boons supporting 3 characters. Let's assume that in either case, a fixed percentage of the boons are "utility" cards that work equally well for any of the characters, and the rest are cards that work better for one character than the others. This is purely illustrative (as we don't actually have a fixed percentage), so to keep the math easy, let's call it 50/50, and assume that the non-utility cards are divided among characters equally. In the old decks, that would give you 48 utility cards and 12 cards for each character; in the new decks, that would give you 49 utility cards and 17 cards for each character, meaning each character would get a 40% increase in specialty cards. Again, not real numbers here, but you can see the point—with fewer characters, we can give each character more specialized stuff, and more specialized powers to take advantage of that stuff.


Vic Wertz wrote:

I think what you'll see is that the characters in the deck can actually be a little *more* diverse.

In the first wave of Class Decks, there are 97 boons supporting 4 characters. Now there will be 100 boons supporting 3 characters. Let's assume that in either case, a fixed percentage of the boons are "utility" cards that work equally well for any of the characters, and the rest are cards that work better for one character than the others. This is purely illustrative (as we don't actually have a fixed percentage), so to keep the math easy, let's call it 50/50, and assume that the non-utility cards are divided among characters equally. In the old decks, that would give you 48 utility cards and 12 cards for each character; in the new decks, that would give you 49 utility cards and 17 cards for each character, meaning each character would get a 40% increase in specialty cards. Again, not real numbers here, but you can see the point—with fewer characters, we can give each character more specialized stuff, and more specialized powers to take advantage of that stuff.

Ohhhhh... That helps a lot. I was sitting here thinking, "Really? We get one less character to fit a couple more cards in?" But also factoring in that you no longer have to provide specifics for that missing character, it makes a lot more sense.


Andrew L Klein wrote:
Unfortunately things like that are currently still a problem. It's unlikely any potential fix will ever allow using cards outside the current allowed cards (class decks, cards included in the minis packs). Hopefully we get a 3 character redo of these decks as some point, but not until we get a good number of new classes first.

You mention no fix for the polearm issue specifically but does that make him unplayable as in too frustrating to enjoy? I used the words broken character and there were no objections to those terms. I am wondering if anyone has continued to use the character, or should my friend simply change characters(we are only 3 gaming sessions in). I have been vague about the name because it isn't the character I use and I kind of forget the name...I usually call him Takeiteeeasy which fits the character and my angry short friend that plays him.


I just want to throw out there again the suggestion for "add-on" packs or individual cards sold through DriveThru. So maybe a "Fighter add-on" that gives you a few more cards. Or DriveThru sells some "Fighter Class Deck" cards as singles.

I think that would be a great way to let people customize their characters more, but still prevent them from keeping any card they want in their deck.

Sovereign Court

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I could get behind add on packs for only the decks with 4 characters, and only with the cards required to bring those characters to the same level of playability as the new decks. They'd have to be pretty cheap as well, people shouldn't have to pay at all to have decks that truly take advantage of their powers, but obviously free wouldn't happen.

Singles I can't get behind at all, either a single pack that fixes the decks, or nothing. That, and of course, a rule that you can't just buy multiple packs and use them, you are limited to using one add on pack just like you can't build your fighter from two fighter decks.


Andrew L Klein wrote:

I could get behind add on packs for only the decks with 4 characters, and only with the cards required to bring those characters to the same level of playability as the new decks. They'd have to be pretty cheap as well, people shouldn't have to pay at all to have decks that truly take advantage of their powers, but obviously free wouldn't happen.

Singles I can't get behind at all, either a single pack that fixes the decks, or nothing. That, and of course, a rule that you can't just buy multiple packs and use them, you are limited to using one add on pack just like you can't build your fighter from two fighter decks.

Why not a pack that you can buy singles from? That way people don't HAVE to buy the cards they won't use (but can still buy the whole pack if they want).


Andrew L Klein wrote:
I could get behind add on packs for only the decks with 4 characters, and only with the cards required to bring those characters to the same level of playability as the new decks. They'd have to be pretty cheap as well, people shouldn't have to pay at all to have decks that truly take advantage of their powers, but obviously free wouldn't happen.

Based on the card products Paizo has released, it seems like they have two main formats: 110 packs and 55 pacts of cards (the 55 card packs usually being used for things like their Face Cards products). Considering that, I'd think $11, 55 card packs would be the best format for Paizo if they were to make Add-On Decks for the first seven Class Decks. However, just introducing these as "patch decks" might not be very marketable, so I would think it would be best to also have one new character in each Add-On. Yes, this would mean that the original seven decks would now have 5 named characters available to their classes compared to only 3 for the rest of the classes, but I don't think that's a big deal.

Anyway, with a new character card, token, and role, and probably a little rule card like what is packed in with the Class Decks, that would leave 51 new boons for each Class Deck. Using the Fighter as an example, I think that would be plenty of cards to provide one or two new polearm and bludgeoning weapons per set indicator (including B) and enough fun spells for Flenta (including Attack spells). Even after that, there should still be room for more than ten other cards that you can use for whatever, like new fun armor or items or cards to support something fun for the new character.

You can do the same thing for the other Class Decks....

Bard: Add more Gambling and unarmed combat supporting itmes and more items in general and maybe a few new weapons, spells, and allies.

Cleric: Add more spells, including maybe some arcane only spells for Zarlova - Theurge support. Also, more items and maybe a few weapons and armor.

Ranger: Add more Ranged, Melee, 2-Handed, and Offhand weapons as well as more shields with the Offhand trait and spells.

Rogue: Actually, from what I've seen the Rogue deck is the only one that doesn't really seem to have any shortcomings. I guess you can add a few more Ranged and Finesse weapons and maybe some more allies or something. I don't know. Maybe the Rogue Add-On Class Deck would just be an opportunity to just do something really crazy with the new character.

Sorcerer: I don't think sorcerer is in that much trouble structurally either, but it's actually my least favorite Class Deck. It can maybe use some more weapons and armor choices and maybe some more items with the Magic/Arcane trait to get more use out of Qualzar's and (Runelords) Seoni's powers.

Wizard: And this is in my opinion the deck that's structurally in the worst shape. An Add-On deck would need some interesting robe-type armor so Darago's 2 pieces of armor aren't quite as bad. There needs to be more Ranged weapons and items to support Melindra. And there needs to be more Mental cards for Radillo.

The Add-On Class Decks would be an all-or-nothing add-in for organized play. You'd either play with just the Fighter Class Deck or the Fighter Class Deck with all Fighter Add-On Class Deck cards. The new characters would require the Add-On to play.

Otherwise, the only other option I could really like to see are character specific Add-On packs, and maybe a few general Class Deck Add-On packs offered through DriveThru, kind of similar to what Hawkmoon is suggesting. Again, it would be all-or-nothing if you want to add a pack, this would be things like a pack of just 15 or so new Polearm weapons for Tontelizi and such.

Anyway, just some thoughts. Sorry for such a long post.

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