In Skull and Shackles it has been changed to "which skill you're using." And it literally just means the name of the skill. Not the size of the physical die.
But the question with Damiel is whether they want the "Aid trick" to work. As originally written, it does. But the temporary FAQ update is still a bit ambigious as what constitutes "while playing". Does while playing mean that since Aid is played during "play cards and use powers that affect the check" he only has it for that tiny step and not for when he actually assembles the dice (which is the point at which the size of the physical dice actually matters)? Or does it mean that he has to while the card's affect are being applied? (i.e. Aid also tells him to add dice, so does he have the power while he's assembling dice?) Or does it mean he has it for the rest of the check after the moment he plays it?
That part has to be worked out still.
In Skull and Shackles it has been changed to "which skill you're using." And it literally just means the name of the skill. Not the size of the physical die.
But the question with Damiel is whether they want the "Aid trick" to work. As originally written, it does. But the temporary FAQ update is still a bit ambigious as what constitutes "while playing". Does while playing mean that since Aid is played during "play cards and use powers that affect the check" he only has it for that tiny step and not for when he actually assembles the dice (which is the point at which the size of the physical dice actually matters)? Or does it mean that he has to while the card's affect are being applied? (i.e. Aid also tells him to add dice, so does he have the power while he's assembling dice?) Or does it mean he has it for the rest of the check after the moment he plays it?
That part has to be worked out still.
Well exactly. But if we're talking about from a roleplaying standpoint, it only makes sense.
Mr. Damiel, as amazing as he is, encounters a Frostbite spell carved into the stall door at the local Alehouse and says "You know what? I think I can make a potion out of that." While resolving his ablutions he requests divine Aid and takes a moment to piece together a rough formula. He finishes up (literally and figuratively) and although he learned the spell, it's just "meh". He casts it on the Bloodmoon Pirate in the next stall, and it's banished because it was an entirely forgettable experience.
Yeah, that might be open for interpretation, but the way I read "while you play... a spell that does not have the Attack trait" is that you only have the skills at the single moment that you play the spell, so you only gain the skills for powers relating to the spell. For the most part, this will actually not come into play at all with non-attack spells since they don't typically use the Arcane/Divine skill for anything other than the banish/recharge condition which is covered by the other part of the power, but there might be a few spells that do.
Again, this is what I believe the intent to be and what they meant by the wording. I'm kind of starting to think they should just rework the whole power with something like this:
"Arcane: Intelligence +1
Divine: Intelligence +1
(Anti) Power: When you play, would banish, or make checks against a spell that has the Attack trait, you lose your Arcane and Divine skills."
I think something like this had been suggested before. The rationale behind this would be to give Damiel a better chance at acquiring his spells and actually be able to use the Arcane and Divine skills for more than just spells (like checks for closing or against banes) since he should have a good general ability in these skills. And the +1 is just my first guess at what they should be. A +2 might be more appropriate. Just a thought.
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A +2 would be extremely powerful with his other skills. Even a +1 is a lot. I think the reason for the power being how it is specifically because they DONT want him to better at non-spell magical checks, not just for attack spells. I understand the thought behind giving them to him permanently sans attack spells, but he's already an extremely powerful character, and doing that would just break him. He needs to have some downsides besides a crappy charisma, and this is kinda sorta almost that.
Effectively, the power works as giving you the skills for the card you played, the whole card you played, and nothing but the card you play.
It's worth nothing that it is far easier to boost craft than boost both arcane and divine. Also, boosting craft synergies with all of Damiel's alchemical die rolls.
When you look at the character in isolation that anti-power seems like an appealing solution, but in practice it will require damiel to spread skills boosts across a wide variety of rolls and dilute his power. That may be worth it in order to let him acquire spells, but we should consider the implications of decoupling his arcane/divine skills from craft.
I would prefer
"Damiel has arcane and divine skill equal to his craft skill. When you play, would banish, or make checks against a spell that has the Attack trait, you lose your Arcane and Divine skills."
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That would mean he would have those skills equal to his craft at all times except those you specifically mentioned, which is definitely not the intent. They do not intend, for instance, for him to have those skills at that level when performing, say, an arcane or divine check to close a location..
I would prefer
"Damiel has arcane and divine skill equal to his craft skill. When you play, would banish, or make checks against a spell that has the Attack trait, you lose your Arcane and Divine skills."
Especially when you take into account that puts him at THREE +3 skills and TWO +2s. That's beyond insane. Limiting it from attack spells really doesn't even come remotely close to balancing that out.
When it gets right down to it, he's probably the strongest character since RotR Lini (in the S&S set, he needs Tot Flask) even without that power altogether.
Especially when you take into account that puts him at THREE +3 skills and TWO +2s. That's beyond insane. Limiting it from attack spells really doesn't even come remotely close to balancing that out.That would mean he would have those skills equal to his craft at all times except those you specifically mentioned, which is definitely not the intent. They do not intend, for instance, for him to have those skills at that level when performing, say, an arcane or divine check to close a location.I would prefer
"Damiel has arcane and divine skill equal to his craft skill. When you play, would banish, or make checks against a spell that has the Attack trait, you lose your Arcane and Divine skills."
Yeah, I was just throwing the idea out there to give him Arcane/Divine for everything but Attack spells mostly for the sake of simplicity and what made sense to me. I agree that if he were to get them in this way, they need to just be a +1 bonus for each. Anything more than that would be too much.
Either keep him at the +3, but only for non-attack spells use (make sure the intent is clear with no Aid malarkey in the final FAQ), or drop it by 2 and give him the skills only excluding attack spells. If he did get the skills, he is mostly only getting a significant benefit with Divine checks as most Arcane checks also include Intelligence as it is.
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When it gets right down to it, he's probably the strongest character since RotR Lini (in the S&S set, he needs Tot Flask) even without that power altogether.
Honestly, I dropped Tot Flask the first chance I got. It's nice, but for as many liquid items as their are in the deck, I never found myself really hurting for one. To me it's one of those cards that looks like it's built for him, but the first power makes it more for... Well, everyone else. It works well as a combo with one or two other liquids in your deck, like Heroism or Healing.
Now if Fire Lance (holy crap is that thing amazing for Damiel!) had Liquid, maybe I'd have kept the Flask. Probably not, because I keep around a Call Weapon just for that. Explore, recharge for a fight. Call Weapon, explore and fight again!
Damiel has one downside. Well, actually he's amazing and has none, it's just me. I recharge my spells 100% of the time, and almost always roll very well. However, when it comes to the Craft check to recharge cards discarded for combat potions's extra dice, I have yet to pass a single one, and and I use that power at least 2 or 3 times per scenario.
Pick up Jack, he almost guarantees you pass your craft checks.
I'd say Damiel's biggest downside is his Charisma die. Some of the most valuable assets each character will have in S&S (unlike RotR as a general rule) are allies. Having the right ally at the right time in some scenarios is quite literally the difference between life and death. Damiel's worst ability is acquiring those allies. Granted, this can be compensated for by having a potion of charisma, but that still will take up precious item slot(s) in your deck, and still doesn't work for the allies that need a WIS/Survival check. He also never gets many of those allies to take along (his max ally deck restriction is 2). Otherwise, though, he is a great character.
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Yea I got him, but I didn't go Ally on the card feat, and I'd rather have Mogmurch more so I passed on him. 2d6 to anything, even with potential damage, is better to me than a d10 to one skill that I only ever fail in one situation (plus I have a Potion of Lubrication).
Two of my items are Sapphire of Intelligence and Onyx of Constitution, so Charisma checks rarely bother me. That, and having two Sivannah blessings in my deck for non-combat Cha.
Andrew, it sounds like you play him very differently than I do. Without the Tot flasks, I can see why you wouldn't want Jack.
Personally, I would never consume his previous item slots with gems, I would much rather have the Tot flasks, bombs, and potions ofs healing/glibness/heroism.
Bulldozer, I agree that he struggles to get allies, but use one slot to compensate. The tot flask assures that you almost always have glibness when you need it, and it solves diplomacy problems not just for you, but for everyone at your location.
The problem with using the tot flask to get a potion when you need it is that, unless I misunderstand the rules, you can't actually use it when you need a potion. You have to use it before you need the potion, meaning that you have to either constantly scout ahead or take up one of the cards in your hand with a card you'll need for maybe 1 out of 10 checks. That's why, even with Damiel's recharge ability, I don't want highly specific non-combat potions in my deck. If the stars align and I get it when I need it, it's great. Otherwise it just slows me down.
True, tot flask works best when you have scouting (Alahazara makes everyone better). But there are plenty of times when you know you want a bomb, healing, or heroism before you flip your card.
I always want a bomb and heroism (once I acquire one). And that is why I took the tot flask too :) For healing, I've got a cure spell and Oloch, so not wasting a potion slot on that.
Glibness would hardly be wasted, anyway. Dem allies...
Why not just:
"When you play a spell that does not have the Attack trait, you gain the skills Arcane and Divine equal to your Craft skill *for all powers listed on that spell*"?
All I've done is replace "until the end of the step" with the bits between the *s. Since recharge checks are now listed as powers, I don't see why this wouldn't work just fine and capture the original intent (as far as I understand it).