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Sh*tty
Things were going okay. I started by explaining how we were encountering Army barriers incorrectly. That was okay. They understood. We hit our first Demonic Platoon; Flenta went Combat, Kyra went Divine and Enora went Arcane. Army defeated and location closed. Second Platoon encountered at the Abyssal Rift. Flenta fails. We lose 4 cards from the blessings deck. Flenta had blessings in her hand but didn't use them. Arghhh! (Also, blessings only add d4 against demons this scenario!) And it gets shuffled back into the Rift. (I still had a chance to defeat it and close.) Chorussina pops up at the Molten Pool and we throw the kitchen sink at her to help Enora defeat her and the servitor demon. Luckily the Banner of Valor was in play. Closed. Rift spits out the Platoon again and both Fenta and Enora fail. 4 more blessings and it gets shuffled into Paradise Hill.
By this time, we lost 10 blessings from two failures on the Demonic Platoon. (1 from the initial start of turn and 4 discards.) We were running out of time. And we did.
Moral of the story, always use resources available to you to down henchmen and close locations; don't waste the chance. Pay attention to your cards. The Banner of Valor sitting in your hand isn't much use if you don't plant it at a location. Just because things were easier in prior scenarios, don't get cocky and figure it will continue.
Sounds like you've got this one's number for next time.
Between the Knights and the Banner, you can get d8+d6 to almost any henchman/villain check in this scenario; though it likely means grouping up more than might otherwise be optimal.
And yeah, even as d4s, those blessings are still great for stabilizing the luck factor.
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Yeah, we do have it down for next time. But Flenta was holding on to her blessings and that wasn't the smart move.
One question about Army barriers. Are they encountered where you are located? Example from last night: Flenta was at Chasm of Shadows, Enore in the Molten Pool and Kyra at Abyssal Rift. Kyra encounters the barrier and we all start our checks. If Flenta had the Banner planted at the Chasm, she can use it, right? Armies are big and attack everyone where they are.
The other thing is that some of us chose to pick off skills with the Knights since they end up being rewarded after 1-2 (with three skill feats, basically). Flenta chose Dexterity and Intelligence so far so she wasn't able to use the Knights in the battles.
Characters at the location with the banner get the d8 ("While displayed, add 1d8 to checks against banes that have the Demon trait by characters at that location."). My suggestion was essentially that it _might_ be worth grouping up to clear through locations instead of spreading out, purely to take advantage of the banner.
True enough that some characters won't get the Knights in their favored check type, especially for characters with only 3 in that type, or who are spread over multiple options (Melee + Arcane, etc).
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Yeah, that's how I read it to them. That the Banner will help anyone with checks against Demons (monsters or barriers) as long as they, the character, are at that location.
Earlier in the game, we were spread out but once a couple of locations are closed, then we start to group up. The Arcane (or Knowledge) and Divine checks of 11 on the Demonic Platoon isn't bad when you are +4 on your character sheet and +2 from Mythic Charges plus 1d6 from a Knight (Kyra has Wisdom and Enora has Intelligence checked) then your base die. It's not too bad. Unless you roll like poo. Or the combat check is a fail.
And the other part of Chasm is that you are replenishing Mythic Charges if you are below 2! So no excuse not using one for a d20. But you gotta pay attention and use your resources. (And you can't play characters for other people, sadly.)
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Yeah, that's how I read it to them. That the Banner will help anyone with checks against Demons (monsters or barriers) as long as they, the character, are at that location.
Earlier in the game, we were spread out but once a couple of locations are closed, then we start to group up. The Arcane (or Knowledge) and Divine checks of 11 on the Demonic Platoon isn't bad when you are +4 on your character sheet and +2 from Mythic Charges plus 1d6 from a Knight (Kyra has Wisdom and Enora has Intelligence checked) then your base die. It's not too bad. Unless you roll like poo. Or the combat check is a fail.
And the other part of Chasm is that you are replenishing Mythic Charges if you are below 2! So no excuse not using one for a d20. But you gotta pay attention and use your resources. (And you can't play characters for other people, sadly.)
Is your Kyra WoTR or CD? If WotR, you've got the extra D8 from her ability against the Demonic Platoon (and can choose any of the checks; I forget if Divine is the easier or harder number).
And yeah, you can remind people they have other useful cards, and suggest doing so for critical rolls, but any more than that and you become That Person. Don't be That Person. :P
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Is your Kyra WoTR or CD? If WotR, you've got the extra D8 from her ability against the Demonic Platoon (and can choose any of the checks; I forget if Divine is the easier or harder number).
And yeah, you can remind people they have other useful cards, and suggest doing so for critical rolls, but any more than that and you become That Person. Don't be That Person. :P
My Kyra is the WotR version. And I didn't want to recharge a blessing or spell to get the 1d8. (I was confident with 1d12 + 1d6 + 6 to beat an 11.)
And we do remind her to use a blessing sometimes but she has to be the one to decide to use a charge or to discard (recharge) her weapon for extra damage. It is a 19 combat check so not simple.
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I had the opposite experience. Again, this was played with CD Kyra and Agna.
Like Keith said, between the banner and the Knights, that gives an average value of 8, so when Agna does a perception she's already averaging 11 before her D8 or any other modifiers (like Dog or blessings, which we didn't bother to use at times).
The locations were fairly forgiving as well.
So yeah, there was no pressure or danger at all this game, it was far too easy (with 2 players), and we finished the game with 18 blessings in the deck.
We were glad to move onto deck 3 where the challenge isn't tied proportionately to the group size.
2 tables this Thursday. 1 played 1-2E. The other played 1-3A, 3B and 3C...
Anyways, 4 players is a lot easier to manage. And there were more spells and blessings this time. I just couldn't pull the Blessing of Nethys so I could actually get a blessing upgrade. Or a spell upgrade :(
We discovered that the Banner of Valor says close (not permanently close). And that the location also draws the Banner of Valor. Do we actually draw the Banner if we close the location?
We discovered that the Banner of Valor says close (not permanently close). And that the location also draws the Banner of Valor. Do we actually draw the Banner if we close the location?
You can only do so if you haven't already drawn it from the box, so it's usually impossible at this point unless you skip that scenario.
The difference between close and permanently close is probably also moot here. "Temporarily closing a location only prevents the villain from escaping there during this encounter; it does not trigger any of the other effects of closing a location, and the location opens again immediately after the encounter."
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The second time through, we only had three players, which GREATLY eased our victory. With Kyra and Meliski trying diligently to clean out the Molten Pool, Sajan's Banner of Valor made their Demonic Platoon checks easy, and rerolls were available in a pinch.
Kyra's power-heals brought Sajan back from the brink on more than one occasion.
Sajan once again savaged all things combat with his combination of Acrobatics-based weapons, Dexterity Skill Feats, Mythic Path (Champion), and Slashing bonus (Kama/Kusarigama FTW!). His acquisition of a Venomous Fighting Fan +1, his last Dexterity Skill Feat, and a new Tier will no doubt make things even more frightening in 1-3A... Minimum roll with the +1 fan and three mythic charges is 17 (d10+d4+15).
All I'm waiting for is a bunch of monsters immune to Slashing...