Do the writers hate the Silver Crusade faction?

[Undone]

In the days prior to season 5 when faction missions were in every adventure you would have things like "You must brand a (Powerful) creature before you kill it.", "You have to steal something from a good aligned merchant", "You have to convince someone to surrender even though they attack you on sight." All of the faction missions were MUCH more difficult than most of the other faction missions and in some cases Especially noticable in some season 4 7-11's where 9 of the factions had "Kill the boss" the Silver crusade had a really tough one, and in another doing the SC faction mission triggers an avoidable encounter with a strong good aligned dragon.

In season 5 and 6 it seems like they're at it again only it's even worse. In season 5, the year of the DEMON where you literally fight with the crusade on an every other adventure basis. Yet there were few faction missions and they aren't nearly as easy as most of the others. I say this as someone who has 2 silver crusaders and at least one PC of everything but grand lodge (2 Edge, 2 Dark Arch, 1 of the rest) all of the other faction missions I've ever had have been either easy or flat out impossible (You lack knowledge X, Linguistics, or whatever skill).

So does anyone else feel like the writers hate the SC faction?
Is it because they don't like the goodie goodies?
Am I just wrong?
Does anyone feel like there is any faction which consistently has hard faction missions besides SC or even harder than SC?

[Nefreet]

PFS scenarios are written by quite a few authors.

I doubt they've all ganged up together against any one Faction in particular.

Have you tried bringing up your concerns with them? Their names are on the front cover of each scenario (and many post avidly here in the forums).

[p-sto]

I have to admit the faction I've had the most fun with in season 6 is the Sovereign Court. The tasks weren't all that huge but they felt important to the faction and the boons awarded were interesting.

I don't think the following requires spoiler tags since it's all fairly high level and scenario descriptions tell which scenarios are relevant to which faction but in the spirit of erring on the safe side...

Spoiler:

That said I haven't at all been disappointed by the Silver Crusade faction missions. Trial by Machine and Valley of Veiled Flame were both things a Silver Crusader could take a large amount of personal pride in. Granted, compared to the Segang Expedition meeting the faction goals in Trial by Machine was a bit harder for a player to discern but really if you're roleplaying a character focused on justice and redemption it shouldn't be all that hard to stumble your way through it.

[Low Templar in SE Asia]

It's always harder to be good! ;)

[BigNorseWolf]

Bringing up specific problems with a faction/feat/fruit/equipment/spell/class gets a much more useful response than trying to read hate into that specific problem.

[Ascalaphus]

I play Silver Crusade and I haven't really noticed the problem you're talking about. So far it's been relatively straightforward and doable; smite the baddies but don't lose sight of good people who need help rebuilding, or straying people who can be redeemed.

[Undone]

Ascalaphus wrote:

I play Silver Crusade and I haven't really noticed the problem you're talking about. So far it's been relatively straightforward and doable; smite the baddies but don't lose sight of good people who need help rebuilding, or straying people who can be redeemed.

My problem is that in my experience for every one like Night March there's two like waking runes and word's of the ancients. There are a couple of easy ones (I looked through my old SC characters) but the majority of them are far harder than the "Make 1 skill check" version given to most other factions.

Also it might not be as bad in season 6 but I've not played much season 6, most people don't want to play it after the silver mount collection, in season 5 there just aren't many faction missions for SC.

[Leathert]

Words of the Ancients has a straightforward skill check for Silver Crusade. Sure the DC is quite high, but it's a high level scenario. (Now the Cheliax mission in that one might spell some trouble).

[Ascalaphus]

I can't really comment on how hard the pre-S5 Silver Crusade missions are; since they don't count for PP anymore I only pay attention to them as flavor text.

I haven't played many SC things in S5 (there aren't many, that I know of). In Weapon in the Rift it was basically "do what you were gonna do anyway, and do it really well". I guess the one in Scars of the Third Crusade was a bit finicky, but that whole scenario was finicky.

Valley of Veiled Flame and Paths We Choose were IMO totally reasonable SC missions. Not a walkover, but not all that hard. There was one in Trial by Machine but I didn't play SC during that one, I didn't really understand what was happening with that.

As for S6: get over the Silver Mount Collection. It's not representative for the rest of the season so far. Yeah, it was a nasty adventure. But even Trial by Machine was okay, and Technic Siege was amazingly good.

[BretI]

Ascalaphus wrote:

There was one in Trial by Machine but I didn't play SC during that one, I didn't really understand what was happening with that.

Our group was disappointed since we did it and none of us had Silver Crusade characters in it. The boon would be nice for any character able to complete the task.

[Mattastrophic]

I recall doing a pretty detailed study of Season 3 to check on a hunch I had, and my conclusion was that the faction deserved the title "Easy Mode Crusade." At least in Season 3, the numbers entirely disprove the original poster's assertion.

-Matt

[Undone]

Ascalaphus wrote:

As for S6: get over the Silver Mount Collection. It's not representative for the rest of the season so far. Yeah, it was a nasty adventure. But even Trial by Machine was okay, and Technic Siege was amazingly good.

I have but the rest of my group don't seem to be so interested in S6 after the first and second ones. Most of them were fed up before the technic siege was ran (I liked it a lot) and didn't play it or any future S6 except hall of the flesh eaters and the new 1-2.

Quote:

I recall doing a pretty detailed study of Season 3 to check on a hunch I had, and my conclusion was that the faction deserved the title "Easy Mode Crusade." At least in Season 3, the numbers entirely disprove the original poster's assertion.

Hmm may be it is a seasonal issue? I my silver crusader was mostly a season 4 character (He has like 20 of the season 4 adventures and some AP's on him) and remember some rather

As for

Quote:

Words of the Ancients has a straightforward skill check for Silver Crusade. Sure the DC is quite high, but it's a high level scenario. (Now the Cheliax mission in that one might spell some trouble).

It has a fairly high DC and incurs a suspicion point if failed. Admittedly every single faction mission hampers the main quest so perhaps I just might be remembering a particularly bad instance of it along with waking rune which is a particularly EGREGIOUS case of it. Andoran has a really problematic one as well.

For those who disagree which faction do you think is the worst for missions.

[Mattastrophic]

From what I recall from the study of the Season 3 numbers, Osirion and Taldor had the highest DCs, required the largest variety of skills, and had consistently less likelihood of a given faction mission being completed simply by accident. Silver Crusade was the "easiest," though Andoran was also pretty "easy."

As for Season 4, I challenge you to find a Silver Crusade faction mission more difficult to complete than Osirion's mission from King of the Storval Stairs.

I believe campaign staff stated on multiple occasions that this divide was by design. The most popular factions were given an easier time with their missions, while unpopular factions had it rough.

-Matt

[BigNorseWolf]

Definitely. My silver crusade druid did more osirian/qadirian missions than most osirians/qadirians.

[Undone]

Mattastrophic wrote:

From what I recall from the study of the Season 3 numbers, Osirion and Taldor had the highest DCs, required the largest variety of skills, and had consistently less likelihood of a given faction mission being completed simply by accident. Silver Crusade was the "easiest," though Andoran was also pretty "easy."

Again looking at it now it might be a seasonal thing.

Mattastrophic wrote:

As for Season 4, I challenge you to find a Silver Crusade faction mission more difficult to complete than Osirion's mission from King of the Storval Stairs.

That is one of the only season 4s I've not played so I can't comment. I highly doubt it's more difficult than

Spoiler:

branding a creature which can limited wish 3 times and then killing it.

although I could be wrong.

Mattastrophic wrote:

I believe campaign staff stated on multiple occasions that this divide was by design. The most popular factions were given an easier time with their missions, while unpopular factions had it rough.

This feels like literally the worst possible design since it enforces the popular factions being the best factions making them more popular followed by penalizing those who pick the less popular factions.

[Gwen Smith]

BretI wrote:

Ascalaphus wrote:

There was one in Trial by Machine but I didn't play SC during that one, I didn't really understand what was happening with that.

Our group was disappointed since we did it and none of us had Silver Crusade characters in it. The boon would be nice for any character able to complete the task.

My table also completed that mission even though there was not a Silver Crusade member present. (I'm guessing the cleric of Sarenrae had enough synergies to make it the natural thing to do.)

[Mattastrophic]

Undone wrote:

That is one of the only season 4s I've not played so I can't comment. I highly doubt it's more difficult than ** spoiler omitted ** although I could be wrong.

Yep, the Osirion example is certainly more difficult to accomplish.

As for the popularity issue, I agree that it was a terrible design. Fortunately, the factions which actually got the axe were story-based rather than popularity-based.

-Matt