Thoughts on the new S&S characters


Rules Questions and Gameplay Discussion

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You'd put Meri up with Alahazra? Why's that?


Orbis Orboros wrote:
You'd put Meri up with Alahazra? Why's that?

I don't know Mechalibur's reasons, but my wife is Merisiel in our group, and I'd say she is pretty awesome. Evading, I'd say, is even more powerful in Skull and Shackles, and Merisiel can evade her encounter, not just monsters and/or barriers. Get a bad draw and have to take on a ship you can't beat? Evade it! Get a horrible barrier that will destroy the party? Evade it!

And my wife took the Smuggler role:
□ Add 1d4 (□+1) to your non-combat check.
□ When you acquire a card, you may give it to another character.

Non-combat checks include boons, ships, barriers and all kinds of other fun stuff. And she now acquires lots of cards with ease and hands them off to the character who can play them well.

But even if she'd gone Shadow, that would have been awesome too, since that role lets her leave evaded boons on top of the location deck, ignore "before" and "after" damage from monsters, and automatically succeed at her Knowledge check (no character in our group has Knowledge).

I'll also say, while Lirianne isn't flashy, I think she is pretty good. I've been playing her and I took Deadeye. My first two post role card power feats:
□ When you move to a different location during your move step, you may examine the top card of that location deck (□ and shuffle it into the deck).

My next:
□ When you are on a ship and a random ship is summoned, you may draw 2 (□ or 3) such cards and choose 1.

The summoned ship options is, I think, a pretty big deal. It I read that as applying to anytime a ship is summoned with Lirianne on the sihp, not just when Lirianne is going to be the one encountering it.

I think Mechalibur was pretty tactful having his "worst" ranking level labeled "Okay". I totally get that different characters impress different people in different ways, but I'm just saying don't discount Lirianne.


Orbis Orboros wrote:
You'd put Meri up with Alahazra? Why's that?

I play in a pretty small group of 2-3, so her evade power ends up being a lot better than it would in a larger group (you can't afford to miss as many explores with 4-6 people). In a large group I'd probably switch where I placed Merisiel and Lem, since Lem gets better the more people he can support, while Merisiel's contributions become more marginal. Skulls & Shackles has some straight up nasty barriers and monsters that Merisiel can shuffle back into the deck, giving about half a chance of you not having to see that card again. If there are cards remaining in a location, but the villain is on top, she can also shuffle them further in without having to lose a combat check on purpose.

The Shadow role is also phenomenal because of how many enemies throw out damage before and after encounters in the later scenarios. That alone has probably been the biggest pitfall for my group in the toughest scenarios. Smuggler has some decent abilities as well, as Hawkmoon pointed out.

Merisiel's position is a bit tentative though, seeing as I haven't played her to part 6 yet. I do think Alzahara's better, but I moved her down because I think Damiel needs his own tier. I could see all Merisiel's advantages maybe not being as pertinent as I anticipated in actual play, so that's why I'm hoping some people have late game experience with her.

Having the lowest tier as "okay" isn't just for being tactful, I also genuinely think every character has their strengths and can be an asset for their group if played to their strengths. Lirianne seems to be a bit less consistent than, say, Valeros, but when she wants to bring the heat, she absolutely does, and Deadeye has some neat tricks to add to the table.


Sometimes I get jealous that we only play in groups of 2. No matter how many times we run through an AP, we're not gonna get the permutations you guys in 4-6 character groups get.

For us, in a small group, Jirelle has been fantastic. Her reroll ability means she never requires blessings as a hedge against bad rolls, which lets us use them more often on explores, which suits us just fine. All her other skills are tertiary to that power, but the structural damage reduction and her free explores off Pirate and Swashbuckling boons is nice (though more often than not, this just has her picking up a lot of Harpoons?) Her strong Wisdom and ability to reroll is also a fringe benefit for Damiel, who's gotten a couple spells thanks to her help. If we had known about locations like Norborger and Torture Pit coming into AP5, we might've given moving at the end of turn some thought. It seems less relevant in AP6 as far as we've played (and I think we're on the second to last scenario, which gives a power feat, which kind of feels a bit 'haha, too late!') Instead, Diplomacy pairs well enough with her Explore Again on Pirate.

But really, it's all about that Swash. Rerolling two dice on every check she does is fine. In the scenario with that Force damage villain, we actually crafted around buffing strategy around rerolling die that rolled too HIGH (though it ended up not being necessary :D)

Going forward, for us, Damiel/Jirelle is the team to beat.


Hawkmoon269 wrote:

I'll also say, while Lirianne isn't flashy, I think she is pretty good. I've been playing her and I took Deadeye. My first two post role card power feats:

□ When you move to a different location during your move step, you may examine the top card of that location deck (□ and shuffle it into the deck).

I took these two power feats and I use them a lot. However, something dawned on me this evening when I read the power aloud.

I play it as if the shuffling part is optional, but could it be that it is mandatory? That would be Fog Bank all over the place and I'm not sure I'd spend two power feats for that. I hope the meaning really is "and you may shuffle it into the deck". How do you play it?


Yeah, I played it as may. In general, I don't think the intention of any power feat is to take away something the power did previously or make something about it worse.

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