Heroism enters the Saga #2: Shadani the Ratfolk Alchemist


Homebrew and House Rules


Me? Well, I'm just a great fan of the game and can't stop playing it with the misses. We just love the game so much and have played through RotR three times and are almost done with S&S now. Also, with the new box coming right around the corner, we can not wait for it to start shipping!

Now, since I'm such a fanatic, I started to develop some of my own characters. Granted, they are still under construction and need to be playtested. But I would love some user feedback.

I will post more when time goes by, but for now, here is my first shot!
Please, feel free to try this character at home and give my your feedback, positive and negative!

Shadani:
Female Ratfolk Alchemist
Strength d4 []+1
Dexterity d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
- Disable: Dexterity +2
- Stealth: Dexterity +2
- Ranged: Dexterity +1
Constitution d8 []+1 []+2 []+3
Intelligence d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
- Craft: Intelligence +2
Wisdom d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma d4 []+1

Favored Card Type: Item
Weapon: 1 []2 []3
Spell: 1 []2
Armor: 1 [] 2
Item: 6 []7 []8 []9
Ally: 2 []3 []4
Blessing: 4 []5

Powers:
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficient with: Light Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may discard a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Dexterity die +1d6 ([]+1) with the Poison ([]or Fire) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait, recharge it instead.
You may reduce damage with the Poison trait by 1.

Demo-Woman:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficient with: Light Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may discard a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Dexterity die +1d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) (+3) with the Poison ([]or Fire, Electricity, Cold, Mental, or Acid) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait, recharge it ([]or shuffle it into your deck) instead.
You may reduce damage with the Poison trait by 1.
[] Add 2 to your checks to acquire a boon with the Alchemical trait.
[] You may bury a card with the Alchemical trait to automatically succeed at a check to defeat a bane with the Trap ([] or Cache) trait.
[] You may bury a card to try to succeed at a Craft 9 check. If you succeed draw a random item with the Alchemical trait from the box.

Plague-Nurse:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficient with: Light Armors []Heavy Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may discard a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Dexterity die +1d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) with the Poison ([]or Acid) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait, recharge it instead.
You may reduce damage with the Poison trait by 1 ([] to 0, this also counts for damage with the Acid trait).
[] For your check that is against or has the Acid or Poison trait, you may recharge a card to add an additional 1d6 ([]1d12).
[] Add 2 to your checks to acquire a boon or defeat a bane with the Animal trait.
[] You gain the skill Fortitude: Constitution +2


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You have a very interesting character here. I have a major soft spot for Ratfolk, so I'm enjoying this. Standard disclaimer, then we'll get into it.

(Obligatory Note: I'm not a game designer. As long as you're having fun, it doesn't matter what I think. Until it's actually playtested this is just speculation, so take it with a big grain of salt)

Okay, here we go. As I said above, I love Ratfolk, and a Ratfolk Alchemist is awesome. Looking at skills, you have a very wide array here, with the end result being a pretty solid set. There might be too many secondary skills, especially considering they're all on big dice, but I'm not going to call it unreasonable at this point.

Cards and favored card type look like pretty standard fare for an alchemist. Perhaps more blessings than I'd expect, but it looks good. I do note that you have a spell to start out with and no way to not banish it on use. That's not a bad thing necessarily, but it's definitely a weakness to keep in mind (only previous character to do that was Ranzak).

And powers. Hand size and proficiency look pretty standard for an alchemist. You took the alchemical recharge with no variation. Not a bad thing, but you might want to consider if there's some way you can spice it up. Reducing Poison damage is a nice added bit of flavor, but unlikely to come up as far as I know, so probably doesn't cost much, so to speak.

Finally, there's your Alchemy Weapon power. Essentially, it's the Sorcerer spontaneous cast, but worse in every possible way. Since you're limited to alchemical items, it should be able to be a bit stronger, but you're only using your dexterity die, which means there's no initial modifier and it can't scale with skill feats. I feel using ranged skill is still reasonable and allows it to scale much better. It's still notably worse than the Sorcerer ability (only alchemical items, only +1 and not in your base skill), which is fine since it isn't your specialty.

Getting into the role cards, I notice a big red flag. The powers on the base card change going to the role card. Fire turns into Acid for the Plague Nurse, and into a whole bunch of things on Demo-Woman. This is not necessarily something that can't be done (there was a role card in one class deck that seemingly gave you a new power when you got it, but that was errata'ed away, though the door was left open to do that in the future), but I'm not sure this is the place to do it. The biggest issue I think I have is that I can see a player not understanding if the power feat is supposed to carry over to the role, since it's not the same power feat. And in this case, there's actually a quite simple solution. Take the power off the base card. You remove the ability to get the fire trait early, and it just becomes a role card feat, with no muss or fuss.

I like the ability to shuffle the alchemical items into the deck. Good evolution of the ability. Same with adding to checks to get alchemical items and to bury alchemy cards to open locks. Good simple effects that are still useful.

The last ability for Demo-woman, though, is a problem. I feel like it's just too breakable. Imagine if you've just had your last turn, and one of your buddies is going to fight the villain in a turn or 2, or perhaps you know you can't win the scenario. Well, in that case, you can just bury your hand and get something like 4-6 new items to choose from with no penalty whatsoever. Moreover, it's abusable for someone inclined to do so, as they can just do a solo scenario, never explore, then use all the cards in their deck to get new alchemical items until they have the perfect item list. Added to that is you draw the card into your hand. That means you can then turn around and proceed to do it again with the card you just drew. If you get to auto-success range (as easy as having a headband of Int+2 with 4 skill feats), then you can literally just draw every alchemical item from the box in one turn.
I think I'd make two changes. First, I'd limit it to once per turn, probably either at start or end. Second, I'd have you recharge the acquired item, so there's some penalty to your current hand for doing so. I think that takes the worst potential problems out.

For Plague-Nurse, the power feat to your poison reduction just feels like having your cake and eating it, too. The ability to reduce to 0 and the ability to use it on Acid should be two separate power feats. I feel putting them together just makes it feel clunky and forced.
The other 3 powers on Plague nurse I think are all quite good. YOu can simplify the animal empathy by just adding to checks against cards with the animal trait, as against is used for both checks to acquire and defeat. Also, is the poison check bonus supposed to be d6, d12 or d6 upgradeable to d12. It's unclear, so you should probably add an 'or' there.

Overall, I really like a lot of the ideas here, and I think it creates a more interesting card than your first. However, I think it's also going to need a lot more polish to really shine. Good Luck!


”isaic16” wrote:
Okay, here we go. As I said above, I love Ratfolk, and a Ratfolk Alchemist is awesome. Looking at skills, you have a very wide array here, with the end result being a pretty solid set. There might be too many secondary skills, especially considering they're all on big dice, but I'm not going to call it unreasonable at this point.

Yes, you are right, they are on big dice, but this to compensate for the 2 d4’s that Shadani is carrying. Furthermore: I used Damiel as my reference point, since he is the only Alchemist released thus far and I sticked with his 7 skills points. Granted his were spread out over a d8 and d10 and 3 skills, but I didn’t want to just copy him. That’s why the skills are as they are.

”isaic16” wrote:
Cards and favored card type look like pretty standard fare for an alchemist. Perhaps more blessings than I'd expect, but it looks good. I do note that you have a spell to start out with and no way to not banish it on use. That's not a bad thing necessarily, but it's definitely a weakness to keep in mind (only previous character to do that was Ranzak).

Again, Damiel is used here is a reference, with the differences that Damiel has a spell more and an ally less (I tend to use more Allies than Spells when playing Damiel) and his card feats are a little bit different.

You are right about the Spells though, I ‘ll come back on this point later.

”isaic16” wrote:
And powers. Hand size and proficiency look pretty standard for an alchemist. You took the alchemical recharge with no variation. Not a bad thing, but you might want to consider if there's some way you can spice it up. Reducing Poison damage is a nice added bit of flavor, but unlikely to come up as far as I know, so probably doesn't cost much, so to speak.

Maybe to your delight: I removed the Poison reduction as a standard power and made an Plague-Doctor exclusive and giving the innate ability to recharge some spells. I also made a little variation on the items. Making you need to succeed at a Craft 6 (50% chance at the start of the game) to recharge it. I will post the new powers later.

”isaic16” wrote:
Finally, there's your Alchemy Weapon power. Essentially, it's the Sorcerer spontaneous cast, but worse in every possible way. Since you're limited to alchemical items, it should be able to be a bit stronger, but you're only using your dexterity die, which means there's no initial modifier and it can't scale with skill feats. I feel using ranged skill is still reasonable and allows it to scale much better. It's still notably worse than the Sorcerer ability (only alchemical items, only +1 and not in your base skill), which is fine since it isn't your specialty.

This has been changed to Ranged Die + 1d8 (+1 +2) and removed the possibility to add Fire. I felt like the basis of the alchemist should be poison for this character and later (with the roles) give the possibility to choose to go either Walter White or Medieval style.

”isaic16” wrote:
Getting into the role cards, I notice a big red flag. The powers on the base card change going to the role card. Fire turns into Acid for the Plague Nurse, and into a whole bunch of things on Demo-Woman. This is not necessarily something that can't be done (there was a role card in one class deck that seemingly gave you a new power when you got it, but that was errata'ed away, though the door was left open to do that in the future), but I'm not sure this is the place to do it. The biggest issue I think I have is that I can see a player not understanding if the power feat is supposed to carry over to the role, since it's not the same power feat. And in this case, there's actually a quite simple solution. Take the power off the base card. You remove the ability to get the fire trait early, and it just becomes a role card feat, with no muss or fuss.

Fixed. Base card is now only Poison. Demoman can choose every element. Plague Doctor can choose to go only Acid. This was a good Red Flag of you! Thumbs up!

”isaic16” wrote:
I like the ability to shuffle the alchemical items into the deck. Good evolution of the ability. Same with adding to checks to get alchemical items and to bury alchemy cards to open locks. Good simple effects that are still useful.

Thank you.

”isaic16” wrote:

The last ability for Demo-woman, though, is a problem. I feel like it's just too breakable. Imagine if you've just had your last turn, and one of your buddies is going to fight the villain in a turn or 2, or perhaps you know you can't win the scenario. Well, in that case, you can just bury your hand and get something like 4-6 new items to choose from with no penalty whatsoever. Moreover, it's abusable for someone inclined to do so, as they can just do a solo scenario, never explore, then use all the cards in their deck to get new alchemical items until they have the perfect item list. Added to that is you draw the card into your hand. That means you can then turn around and proceed to do it again with the card you just drew. If you get to auto-success range (as easy as having a headband of Int+2 with 4 skill feats), then you can literally just draw every alchemical item from the box in one turn.

I think I'd make two changes. First, I'd limit it to once per turn, probably either at start or end. Second, I'd have you recharge the acquired item, so there's some penalty to your current hand for doing so. I think that takes the worst potential problems out.

I applied your two changes since you are probably right about the Abuse part. I think I even did that too with Damiel: I just threw everything in Intelligence so I could power up every bomb and auto-recharge the items I used to power them up. We even considered this to be too strong and went looking online if we played correct (which we did!). So I changed it. For now: It’s an “instead of first exploration”- thing and the cards gets to be shuffled in to your deck.

”isaic16” wrote:

For Plague-Nurse, the power feat to your poison reduction just feels like having your cake and eating it, too. The ability to reduce to 0 and the ability to use it on Acid should be two separate power feats. I feel putting them together just makes it feel clunky and forced.

The other 3 powers on Plague nurse I think are all quite good. YOu can simplify the animal empathy by just adding to checks against cards with the animal trait, as against is used for both checks to acquire and defeat. Also, is the poison check bonus supposed to be d6, d12 or d6 upgradeable to d12. It's unclear, so you should probably add an 'or' there.

Totally removed the Acid and Poison-reduction from this character.

The rest is fixed, thank you.
”isaic16” wrote:
Overall, I really like a lot of the ideas here, and I think it creates a more interesting card than your first. However, I think it's also going to need a lot more polish to really shine. Good Luck!

After the polishing, I would like to present the new Powers of Shadani. Please feedback it and thank you (in advance!). (Bold is changed/new)

Powers:
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficient with: Light Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may discard a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) with the Poison trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait, roll your Craft die. On a result of 6 or higher, recharge it instead, otherwise discard it.
After you play a spell with the Acid or Poison trait, you gain the skills Arcane and Divine equal to your Ranged skill until the end of the step.
Demoman:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficient with: Light Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may discard a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) (+3) with the Poison ([]or Fire, Electricity, Cold, Mental, or Acid) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait, roll your Craft die. On a result of 6 or higher, recharge it ([] or shuffle it into your deck) instead, otherwise discard it.
After you play a spell with the Acid or Poison trait, you gain the skills Arcane and Divine equal to your Ranged skill until the end of the step.
[] Add 2 to your checks to acquire a boon with the Alchemical trait.
[] You may bury a card with the Alchemical trait to automatically succeed at a check to defeat a bane with the Trap ([] or Cache) ([] or Lock) trait.
[] Instead of your first exploration on a turn, you may bury a card to try to succeed at a Craft 9 check. If you succeed draw a random item with the Alchemical trait from the box and shuffle it into your deck.
Plague-Doctor:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficient with: Light Armors []Heavy Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may discard a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) with the Poison ([] or Acid) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait, roll your Craft die. On a result of 6 or higher, recharge it instead, otherwise discard it.
After you play a spell with the Acid or Poison trait, you gain the skills Arcane and Divine equal to your Ranged skill until the end of the step.
[] For your check that is against or has the Acid or Poison trait, you may recharge a card to add an additional 1d6 ([]or 1d12).
[] Add 2 to your checks against cards with the Animal trait.
[] You gain the skill Fortitude: Constitution +2


(One quick note, I do take pride in my amateur copyediting skills, but don't take any wording revisions I suggest as gospel. Probably half the suggestions I make could use even further updates, so bear that in mind if something still doesn't look right)

Great work here. The Craft check isn't a big penalty while still making her feel different from Damiel. I will say that the wording probably needs to be fixed, as the use of 'Craft Die' is weird post-S&S. Try this:

When you would banish a card with the alchemical check, you may attempt a Craft 6 check. If you succeed, instead recharge the card, otherwise discard it.

I love the different take on her spellcasting vs Damiel, as it emphasizes a different aspect of their magic abilities. I do wonder if the fact that you actually do have a power related to spellcasting means you should add a second spell, though. It feels a bit wasted otherwise.

I think it's a good update to the crafting potions ability, but I feel that replacing an exploration is probably overkill. I'd just say 'at start of turn.' Also, instead of saying '...try to succeed at a craft 9 check.', I'd say '...attempt a craft 9 check. If you succeed...'

Lastly, your power feats are imbalanced. You have 13 feats in Demo-Woman, and only 11 in Plague doctor. An easy fix would be to move the shuffle power over, but that's certainly not the only solution. (I'm also not sure that Cache and Lock need to be separate power feats. You could probably justify a power feat to add both keywords.(


I will post a new Alchemist here soon, I'm still working out the kinks. But for now this character just didn't work out. So some powers will be changed a bit, some powers will be removed and new ones will be added. But for now: the basic idea is still the same and the suggested wordings will be taken in to notice when I'm editing this one.

I just feel too bad. It just didn't have the oomph of Damiel, because of the way RotR works with potions. So, that is a shame. But it's still a fun character!


Shadani, whose named got changed to Ninniz (which sounds more Ratfolk-y), has been given some HUGE changes to overall playing wise. He lacked too much and had too much. So most of his powers were altered or even stripped and replaced. His overall design is still: Blow stuff up with Poison Bombs, but some nuicances were added. I could tell you what changed the most, but I would rather that you just forget about Shadani and review Ninniz as his own character:

Ninniz:
Male Ratfolk Alchemist
Strength d4 []+1
Dexterity d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
- Disable: Dexterity +2
- Stealth: Dexterity +2
- Ranged: Dexterity +2
Constitution d6 []+1 []+2 []+3
Intelligence d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
- Craft: Intelligence +2
Wisdom d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma d6 []+1

Favored Card Type: Item
Weapon: 2 []3 []4
Spell: - []1 []2
Armor: 1 []2
Item: 6 []7 []8 []9
Ally: 3 []4
Blessing: 3 []4

Powers:
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficient with: Light Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may recharge a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +2d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) with the Poison trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card with the alchemical check, you may attempt a Craft 6 check. If you succeed, instead recharge the card, otherwise discard it.
Add 2 to your checks against cards with the Goblin trait.

Demoman:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficient with: Light Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may recharge a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +2d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) with the Poison ([]or Fire, Electricity, Cold, Mental, or Acid) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card with the alchemical check, you may attempt a Craft 6 check. If you succeed, instead recharge the card ([]or shuffle it back into your deck), otherwise discard it.
Add 2 to your checks against cards with the Goblin trait.
[] Add 2 to your checks to acquire a boon with the Alchemical trait.
[] You may bury a card with the Alchemical trait to automatically succeed at a check to defeat a bane with the Cache ([] or Lock) trait.
[] Before you reset your hand, you may bury a card to attempt a Craft 9 check. If you succeed draw a random item with the Alchemical trait from the box and shuffle it into your deck.

Plague-Doctor:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficient with: Light Armors []Heavy Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may recharge a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +2d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) with the Poison ([] or Acid) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card with the alchemical check, you may attempt a Craft 6 check. If you succeed, instead recharge the card, otherwise discard it.
Add 2 to your checks against cards with the Goblin ([] or Animal) trait.
[] You gain the skills Arcane and Divine equal to your Craft skill while you play or when you would banish a spell with the Acid or Poison trait.
[] For your check that is against or has the Acid or Poison trait, you may recharge a card to add an additional 2d4 ([]or 2d6).
[] You gain the skill Fortitude: Constitution +2


I like Ninniz. But I think when you say alchemical check you mean trait. "When you would banish a card with the alchemical check..."


I think this looks good, and really fun. Just a couple of notes:

When you would banish a card with the alchemical check, you may attempt a Craft 6 check. If you succeed, instead recharge the card ([]or shuffle it back into your deck), otherwise discard it.

This will apply to any case of banishing, not just playing it. That means you'll get to do this on boons you fail to acquire or cards you banish to close locations. And Craft 6 might be low. You can make that automatic with skill feats alone. I'd think about maybe "veteranizing" the check. Maybe 4 plus the adventure deck number of the card or something.

[] Before you reset your hand, you may bury a card to attempt a Craft 9 check. If you succeed draw a random item with the Alchemical trait from the box and shuffle it into your deck.

You might want to make that "At the end of your turn..." instead of "Before you reset your hand..." Otherwise, it could be done any time you can reset your hand, not just at the end of your turn. (Check out the change to the turn sequence FAQ.)

Also, if you take all the Intelligence feats, you are going to get a minimum of 7 on your Craft check, and you'll get a 9 80% of the time. Given you'll do this every turn, you'll load up with these items from the box. You might want to make it a bit less likely. Either a higher difficulty or something like "If you succeed draw 3 random cards, you may shuffle one that has the Alchemical trait into your deck." (No idea if 3 is the right number, just using it as an example.)

Conversely, you could also make it so the first power I mentioned was either recharge or banish (i.e. if you failed you still banished it). Then I wouldn't see this power getting you so many more Alchemical items as such a problem, since you are probably losing some anyway.

[] You gain the skills Arcane and Divine equal to your Craft skill while you play or when you would banish a spell with the Acid or Poison trait.

This will technically give you the Arcane and Divine skill when you banish a spell you don't acquire or as part of fufilling an instruction (like banishing one to close a location). I don't see how that makes any practical difference. (Damiel's problem was he got to recharge cards he was banishing, regardless of playing them, which was fixed.) But I figured it was worth noting.

Other than that, looks solid and balanced and fun.


Quick Question Hawkmoon:

This will apply to any case of banishing, not just playing it. That means you'll get to do this on boons you fail to acquire or cards you banish to close locations. And Craft 6 might be low. You can make that automatic with skill feats alone. I'd think about maybe "veteranizing" the check. Maybe 4 plus the adventure deck number of the card or something.

Are you telling me that if Damiel (from S&S) fails his check to acquire a Liquid with the Alchemical, he still gets the card, because it is banished, thus recharged?
That doesn't seem right, does it?

I just copied the power of Damiel, to be honest.


Donny Schuijers wrote:
Shadani, whose named got changed to Ninniz (which sounds more Ratfolk-y), has been given some HUGE changes to overall playing wise. He lacked too much and had too much. So most of his powers were altered or even stripped and replaced. His overall design is still: Blow stuff up with Poison Bombs, but some nuicances were added. I could tell you what changed the most, but I would rather that you just forget about Shadani and review Ninniz as his own character:

Overall, it looks good! though I do miss Shadani, I will review Ninniz on his own merits. You know the disclaimers, so I'll get right into it.

Donny Schuijers wrote:

Ninniz:

Male Ratfolk Alchemist
Strength d4 []+1
Dexterity d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
- Disable: Dexterity +2
- Stealth: Dexterity +2
- Ranged: Dexterity +2
Constitution d6 []+1 []+2 []+3
Intelligence d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
- Craft: Intelligence +2
Wisdom d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma d6 []+1

Favored Card Type: Item
Weapon: 2 []3 []4
Spell: - []1 []2
Armor: 1 []2
Item: 6 []7 []8 []9
Ally: 3 []4
Blessing: 3 []4

Everything here looks good. Skills might be on the high end, but I don't think it's unreasonable. You may consider +1 Ranged, since d10 is already good, but I don't know if you need to. Otherwise, no complaints at all.

Donny Schuijers wrote:

Powers:

Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficient with: Light Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may recharge a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +2d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) with the Poison trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card with the alchemical check, you may attempt a Craft 6 check. If you succeed, instead recharge the card, otherwise discard it.
Add 2 to your checks against cards with the Goblin trait.

I'm not sure about that first power. Two points, first, you're using ranged die, not skill, so it doesn't get buffed by skill feats. I assume this is a typo, but had to point it out just in case. As to the power itself, I'm really worried it's too strong. It's only a recharge, and you're essentially able to turn all bombs into Scorching Ray, which is a good spell for the base set, even before feats. 2d4 is probably a better power level. I'm still a bit worried there, but much less so.

Hawkmoon already pointed out the big issue here, which is good because I had completely missed it (Thanks, Hawkmoon!). As to teh Craft DC, it's a fair point that it becomes somewhat pointless text as the game goes on, and tying it to the AD number of the card does make sense. I think it's worth at least testing that.
For the checks against goblins, just so you know that will also buff your checks to acquire boons with the goblin trait (don't know if that is intended). If it is not, then you want 'check to defeat banes with' rather than 'checks against cards with'.

Donny Schuijers wrote:

Demoman:

Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficient with: Light Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may recharge a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +2d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) with the Poison ([]or Fire, Electricity, Cold, Mental, or Acid) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card with the alchemical check, you may attempt a Craft 6 check. If you succeed, instead recharge the card ([]or shuffle it back into your deck), otherwise discard it.
Add 2 to your checks against cards with the Goblin trait.
[] Add 2 to your checks to acquire a boon with the Alchemical trait.
[] You may bury a card with the Alchemical trait to automatically succeed at a check to defeat a bane with the Cache ([] or Lock) trait.
[] Before you reset your hand, you may bury a card to attempt a Craft 9 check. If you succeed draw a random item with the Alchemical trait from the box and shuffle it into your deck.

I don't think there's anything here I haven't discussed before, so I won't get into it too much. As to the DC for the craft check, I used a dc 12 check on one of my characters for a different power, and that number seemed to work pretty well, so that's probably a good starting point. I feel even if the power were weaker, 9 is not the right number, as it's easy enough to succeed at that you're more likely to feel bad about missing it, rather than feel good about hitting it, and that's not a good experience.

Donny Schuijers wrote:

Plague-Doctor:

Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficient with: Light Armors []Heavy Armors []Weapons
For your combat check, you may recharge a card with the Alchemical trait to roll your Ranged die +2d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) with the Poison ([] or Acid) trait. This counts as playing a weapon.
When you would banish a card with the alchemical check, you may attempt a Craft 6 check. If you succeed, instead recharge the card, otherwise discard it.
Add 2 to your checks against cards with the Goblin ([] or Animal) trait.
[] You gain the skills Arcane and Divine equal to your Craft skill while you play or when you would banish a spell with the Acid or Poison trait.
[] For your check that is against or has the Acid or Poison trait, you may recharge a card to add an additional 2d4 ([]or 2d6).
[] You gain the skill Fortitude: Constitution +2

Again, there's not a whole lot new to comment on here, so I'm not going to waste your time. I'd check Damiel's FAQ for how to deal with the whole banish thing, as I don't remember how they resolved it.

I don't know if 2d4 (2d6) are the right numbers for the Acid/Poison power, but they seem in the ballpark enough for a starting point. Definitely a risk of making combat too easy, though. If that turns out to be the case, you could do something like this (You may recharge to add 1d4 (1d8), and an additional 1d4 if it's a non-combat check).


Donny Schuijers wrote:

Quick Question Hawkmoon:

This will apply to any case of banishing, not just playing it. That means you'll get to do this on boons you fail to acquire or cards you banish to close locations. And Craft 6 might be low. You can make that automatic with skill feats alone. I'd think about maybe "veteranizing" the check. Maybe 4 plus the adventure deck number of the card or something.

Are you telling me that if Damiel (from S&S) fails his check to acquire a Liquid with the Alchemical, he still gets the card, because it is banished, thus recharged?
That doesn't seem right, does it?

I just copied the power of Damiel, to be honest.

With the wording printed on the card that came in the game, yes, but he shouldn't have been able to. So an FAQ corrected that. So you probably want to model it off the FAQ.

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