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Eliandra's Best Character Ever: Erasmus

Friday, February 9, 2018

We continue our series of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game fans telling us who the best character ever is. One of our playtesters, Eliandra Giltessan, gives us a sneak peak at the iconic medium from Occult Adventures Character Deck 2 that has her over the moon.

People who know me may be saying, "What?! I thought you said Alahazra was the best character!" A year ago, that was true. Alahazra was the best character ever—in a world without Triggers. I recall when Skull & Shackles' version of Alahazra hung out at the Wishing Well and took all the boons from locations decks. Or Season of the Runelords, where the Oracle Class Deck's Alahazra examined nigh on entire location decks with a Scrying and a Headdress. Sigh. Good times.

But, my friends, we live in a world of Triggers. Gone are the days of "I only need one attack spell in my deck, right?" Now when Alahazra scouts, sometimes the cards bite back. She's still great, but there's room for the new best character ever: Erasmus.

At first look, Erasmus may not look like much. All d8s and d6s, with Arcane just d8+1 and Perception (of all things!) at d6+3. Well, let me tell you, Occult characters can do more with Perception than just defeat Camouflaged Pit Traps without rolling. They can fight and recharge and tell their Dwarf Mindblade friend to go kill things for them.

Let's move onto powers, cuz Erasmus has got some great ones! I'm developing an appreciation for characters who give you something to do with the junk cards you pick up, and Erasmus can bury his to change his results after the roll. No missed-by-1's with Erasmus, and when he overkills that Pit Trap with his massive Perception, he can coax away the consequences. His next power is the one I love oh-so-much: recharging boons at the start of your turn to add to all checks that turn. Not only does this make for great deck cycling, but it really takes the sting out of those early scenarios when you have no skill feats. That last power mentions something called "Spirit Relatives," and you may ask, "What does that mean?"

Ah, well, you see, Erasmus can channel the spirits of his dead relatives, and at the beginning of each scenario, he can pick one to give him some new skills and an extra d4 plus the adventure deck number. So when Grimslakes are threatening to eat your deck if you don't make a Fortitude check, you can pick Nissa. When you need to make an Acrobatics check, or when the villain makes you cry in a corner with no cards in your hand, you can ask for Baylock's help. After a power feat, you can even help other characters at your location.

"But Eliandra," you may say. "I'm stuck with one of these spirits for an entire scenario. That's not very versatile."

"Relax," I say to you. "We need to save something for roles." You see, Erasmus's roles allow you to put more than one marker on the card. Personally, I'm a fan of the Storyteller. Bury a card for a second token? Yes, please!

After all this gushing, you may still have your doubts as to whether this all works. Can Erasmus have one deck of cards and still be effective at all his roles? Yes. His powers more than make up for the small dice size, and the cards he doesn't otherwise need at the moment become the fuel to charge them. Erasmus is the first character where I put my skill feats in different skills every time, and I love it. He's the most versatile character I've seen, and he once closed two locations in his first turn armed only with a Force Missile and a Light Crossbow.

Vote Erasmus: Best Character EVER!

Elizabeth Corrigan aka Eliandra Giltessan
Adventure Card Game Playtester Extraordinaire

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Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Mavaro giggles at Erasmus's supposed "versatility." Mavaro has more versatility in his demon-hunting sword than any of Erasmus's ghostly relatives can offer. Mavaro forever!!!
Eliandra wrote:
..at the beginning of each scenario, he can pick one to give him some new skills

I am confused, it this how the Cohort is intended to work?

Apart from the unusual "two-faced" design, nothing indicates that wording principles have changed. So, I took "if you (don't) have a role card" to be an instruction HOW to play the card (i.e. which side to display when played) as opposed to WHEN (i.e. "at start of scenario").

Personally, if it's not for this blog, I would take that I can play Spirit Relatives at ANY time, up to and including during an encounter.

Am I missing or misinterpreting something?

EDIT: I'm asking, because I can't very well prepare for a Grymslake *before* someone actually stumbles upon one and we see what it does. If I *need* to display at start of scenario - I'll guess (barring a Scenario-defined check) pretty much everyone will go Arcane/Dexterity (depending on their combat choices) which would kinda defeat the whole purpose pre-role (and potentially even post-role, if the other role doesn't have a "move token" mechanic)
Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

No specific reason that you'd NEED to display the card right at the start of the scenario. Just like any other Cohort, this card gets added to your hand as soon as you draw your starting hand. So, you could choose to go last, and wait to see what the other players run into, before you display it. However, you wouldn't want to take the chance that you'd have to discard it, so I personally would be displaying it as early as possible. Once it's displayed, it's out there for the whole scenario.

Thanks for the peak Eliandra!

From what I see, I don't think you have to play it at the start of a scenario, but I also see no way to pick it back up and play it again. So, once it is played, it stays displayed. I would imagine a large part of your choice of where to put your marker will be based on how you've built your deck and what skill you'll need.

As always, I love Eliandra’s enthusiasm. (And also her designation. “Extraordinaire” - so true!)

Somehow the Occult decks were off my radar. Erasmus looks like a lot of fun. I’ll probably pick up his deck.

PS Eliandra, now we need Rebel to write about her favorite character...
PPS I cannot believe Eliandra has a favorite character without a built-in Divine skill. I would have bet money against that.
Silver Crusade

Thanks, all!

cartmanbeck wrote:
Mavaro giggles at Erasmus's supposed "versatility." Mavaro has more versatility in his demon-hunting sword than any of Erasmus's ghostly relatives can offer. Mavaro forever!!!

Uh-huh. You do realize that once Erasmus has a role card, he can bury a card to get any skill in the game except for Acrobatics (and Con and Cha)? At two dice plus a static? Erasmus will win the day!

Hawkmoon269 wrote:
I would imagine a large part of your choice of where to put your marker will be based on how you've built your deck and what skill you'll need.

I've actually found that I can vary up what spirit I use quite a bit, no matter what my deck. The cards I don't need when I channel one spirit end up being the ones recharged to fuel the start of turn power. But admittedly, I've been playing Erasmus in SoFa, so traders have let me shape my deck a bit at the start of each scenario. I really want to try him in a set without that benefit.

elcoderdude wrote:
PPS I cannot believe Eliandra has a favorite character without a built-in Divine skill. I would have bet money against that.

I know, right? I didn't think it would happen either. I don't even have a Cure in my deck! But Erasmus has convinced me that Arcane can be pretty fun too.

Cool blog and cool character, thanks for the write up!

I'm looking forward to the OA2 preview now; Erasmus alone makes it a good contender for the next CD to get.
Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

Is Kinetic Blast capped by the actual number of cards you have to discard as damage? Can Erasmus really decide to roll his d6 Strength against a difficulty 30 monster, then Kinetic Blast to roll something like +27d4 against it? Or does it cap at hand size?

If it's the first way, doesn't that mathematically make it an auto-win, except in situations where dice are penalized? (-2 per die rolled, count 1 and 2 as 0, that sort of thing)
Sovereign Court
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Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

The way it reads, "for each card you would discard as damage" is pretty clear that it is capped at the number of cards you would actually discard as damage. It is capped at hand size (or rarely, deck size).

I'm looking right now in Houston a place to play Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and I still can't find any. Is this game dead already?
Wafun Jorge Ho Kong wrote:
I'm looking right now in Houston a place to play Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and I still can't find any. Is this game dead already?

Gotta admit I suspect IRA is behind this post... or some other trolling agency...

Lone Shark Games
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elcoderdude wrote:
Gotta admit I suspect IRA is behind this post... or some other trolling agency...

Don't make me indict 13 of you.

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