either amulet of life or wand of shield make no sense


Rules Questions and Gameplay Discussion

Sovereign Court

Ok I haven't found anything saying there's a misprint in either of these cards, but something doesn't add up here.

Amulet of life is basic, only takes an int 4 to acquire, has and arcane and divine recharge of 7 or is discarded, and prevents 3 damage of any kind.

wand of shield isn't basic, takes 7 int to acquire, has only an arcane recharge of 8 or is buried, and only prevents combat damage and only 2.

How is this right, a card you start with is easier to get and better in every regard than the wand which you have to earn, the amulet you can just start with. Am I missing something here. This seems crazy, hell the amulet is just one damage away from the dang sihedron medalion that you have to beat 5 scenarios to earn. I just don't get it.


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Well, what you are not considering is that you can pair the Wand of Shield with another wand and use them as chopsticks.


Wand of Shield is a weak card, but not every card in the game is intended to be kept between scenairos. (similar to use once and banish allies)

When using only the already released characters Short Sword and Scimitar both weaker than the Longsword, but out of the three the Scimitar is not basic. It's an adventure game, not everything supposed to fit into the power curve.

I don't have it near me, but doesn't the Wand have the Arcane trait? Because then it's at least "good" for Seoni's autorecharge power.


I would have to take a look at cards, but I thought that the amulet of life was combat damage only.

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

The Amulet is Basic? I could have sworn it wasn't.


The Amulet of Life is Basic. It also can reduce any type of damage (except damage that may not be reduced of course.)

Amulet of Life wrote:
Discard this card to reduce damage dealt to you by 3.


But the wand of shield is good, don't you see! It's great for amping up your stress levels when you draw it in AP6 and have to wonder why this ultra-garbage card even exists, let alone why it's not a Basic or Elite!

(I hate Wand of Shield even more than I hate Short Sword +1 :D)


Dave Riley wrote:

But the wand of shield is good, don't you see! It's great for amping up your stress levels when you draw it in AP6 and have to wonder why this ultra-garbage card even exists, let alone why it's not a Basic or Elite!

(I hate Wand of Shield even more than I hate Short Sword +1 :D)

That goes for about 20 Items in that deck. Of course as awesome as the Items are in AP6, if they were easy to get, it would make the end easy. It certainly did in my 5-character party as the Sihedron Ring and that Ring that is reveal to prevent 4 of any type of non-combat damage are amazing.


We went through AP6 without even knowing those items existed! :D I didn't see a Sihedron Ring or that Elemental Ring or that Mighty Strength Belt until we beat Karzoug and I scanned through the deck.

I absolutely recognize that rarity is a factor, so I don't want to complain too much. However, I wish it wasn't such a factor that I didn't see a single one of those items until I beat the game. Or such a factor that the only time I encountered something on the level of Force Sling +3 was when it was the next card behind the Short Sword +1 I drew out of a treasure chest. Having played through the entire game of Merisiel, it would've been nice to find a cool item once in a while in those last few APs, instead of drawing and banishing endless Cloaks and Boots of Elven Kind, or to not use the same Deathbane Light Crossbow and Returning Throwing Axe from AP1 to AP6--tried a Venomous Dagger +2, too weak! Found a Venomous Heavy Crossbow +2 during AP6, at least. Only one AP late!

Results vary, I'm sure, but the loot game was not kind to my rogue.


This has been brought up before... there are a few answers that usually come up:

1. The cards don't have to be balanced. Basic just means it can be in your starting deck, it's not necessarily a measure of the card's power.

2. There's only one Amulet of Life, so the wand can be used if it's already taken.

3. The wand has the arcane trait, which means with the right feat, Seoni can automatically recharge it.


Zoltán Mészáros wrote:

Wand of Shield is a weak card, but not every card in the game is intended to be kept between scenairos. (similar to use once and banish allies)

When using only the already released characters Short Sword and Scimitar both weaker than the Longsword, but out of the three the Scimitar is not basic. It's an adventure game, not everything supposed to fit into the power curve.

I don't have it near me, but doesn't the Wand have the Arcane trait? Because then it's at least "good" for Seoni's autorecharge power.

As far as the scimitar is concerned it has the Finesse trait ,which is used with greater effect by the Swashbuckler coming with S&S ( I also wager to guess that a few of the class deck characters will have finesse as well, not to mention other skills that would be usefull like craft) , meaning that if you ran a new character through Runelords some (seemingly)lackluster boons might have new and impressive purpose.


ChaoticBlue wrote:
Zoltán Mészáros wrote:

Wand of Shield is a weak card, but not every card in the game is intended to be kept between scenairos. (similar to use once and banish allies)

When using only the already released characters Short Sword and Scimitar both weaker than the Longsword, but out of the three the Scimitar is not basic. It's an adventure game, not everything supposed to fit into the power curve.

I don't have it near me, but doesn't the Wand have the Arcane trait? Because then it's at least "good" for Seoni's autorecharge power.

As far as the scimitar is concerned it has the Finesse trait ,which is used with greater effect by the Swashbuckler coming with S&S ( I also wager to guess that a few of the class deck characters will have finesse as well, not to mention other skills that would be usefull like craft) , meaning that if you ran a new character through Runelords some (seemingly)lackluster boons might have new and impressive purpose.

I hope so.

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