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What follows is an experiment of sorts, an intellectual exercise at role (not character) creation.
One observation that I’ve seen made by various players is that the role choices available to the characters in the various PACG adventure paths usually consist of a role that is especially suitable for the challenges of the adventure path and another that is more generic in nature. The first role tends to be tuned to concepts that are peculiar to the adventure path, such as many of the characters from the Skull & Shackles adventure path have powers that capitalize on the banes and boons of that adventure path (e.g., powers effective against banes with the Aquatic trait, or powers that rely on cards that are only found in S&S, etc.). This role is often much less effective in other adventure paths. The second role, meanwhile, can often be slightly less effective than the first when used in its particular adventure path, but the role is relatively useful in any adventure path.
After perusing the ideas and discussions put forth in the recent What would *you* change? and Class Deck Suggestions topics, I began to consider the possibility of expanding the stable of available characters simply by creating additional roles for existing characters. Would it be possible, I wondered, to take an existing character from one of the adventure paths and create alternate roles that would be especially suited to the other adventure paths while leaving the core character (skills, cards, core powers) intact?
Now anyone that has followed my shenanigans in the Homebrew and House Rules forum has seen me present a variety of magus characters, whether alternate versions of Seltyiel or other characters. I admit that Seltyiel is among my favorite of characters (along with Oloch, another hybrid of warrior and [divine] spellcaster). Seltyiel is also a character that I often see described as “weak” or “one-dimensional” (okay, I’m paraphrasing). I was also a bit inspired by the Sigilus, a magus archetype that uses rune magic; and though I couldn’t turn Seltyiel into a Sigilus, the concept of Seltyiel using rune magic led to an idea for one of the roles.
So each of the roles below uses the core Seltyiel character as found in the Skull & Shackles Base Set, but tailored to the other adventure paths. In each case, I looked at the other characters for that adventure path, as well as the concepts that the adventure path used, then I developed a role that I hoped would be appropriate to, but not overpowered for, the adventure path in question.
In concept, each of these roles would [if something like this were ever implemented, which is a pipe dream] have a blurb along the lines of:
"You may choose this role after completing Adventure 3 of the [AP Name] Adventure Path."
As the foundation upon which the PACG series is built, the characters in this set are actually rather generic in nature. So I developed this role based on the model of the other Rise of the Runelords characters as well as a thematic concept derived from the background of the Runelords.
SELTYIEL (WRATHKNIGHT)
A Wrathknight releases his anger as a magical onslaught against his enemies.Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)(□ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
At the (□ start or) end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell in your discard pile.
□ You may discard (□ recharge) a spell that has the Attack trait (□ or a weapon) to add 1d4 (□ 2d4)(□ 3d4) and that card’s traits to the combat check of another character at your location.
□ When you play a blessing to add to your Arcane check, add d12 instead of the normal die.
The concept of this role is that Seltyiel’s infernal patron (Asmodeus) has insinuated a basic knowledge of wrath-based rune magic into Seltyiel’s subconscious as he has progressed through the adventure path, giving him a sort of rune mastery when it comes time to choose a role. The concept was also inspired by one of my favorite pieces of Wayne Reynolds artwork, the cover to Ultimate Magic (and I’ve changed the execution of the power to be different from other Seltyiel roles I’ve created that were inspired by the same piece of art).
The power allowing Seltyiel to contribute to another character’s combat check led to the adjustment to Seltyiel’s core “recharge” power – since the character would likely be using his spells more often, he would need to recharge spells more often.
The blessing power was modeled after other characters from the Rise of the Runelords adventure path; and this seemed like a nice way to tie this character/role into the AP.
This role was developed as a way of focusing on Seltyiel’s darker nature and his patron, Asmodeus. It’s sort of a derivation of Seoni’s similarly “evil” role.
SELTYIEL (HELLBOUND)
Those that serve the Infernal powers know where their destiny leads them.Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell in your discard pile.
□ You may recharge (□ reveal) a card that has the Corrupted trait to reduce Fire or Mental damage dealt to you by 2 (□ 4)(□ to 0).
□ Add 2 to your check that invokes the Corrupted (□ or Electricity or Fire) trait.
□ When you play Blessing of Asmodeus, you may recharge it instead of discarding it.
This is a character that has embraced his dark side, and one which doesn’t want to redeem cards. This role is really only usable in the Wrath of the Righteous adventure path, the only adventure path that has cards with the Corrupted trait (for now). Where the Wrathknight role presented a version of Seltyiel that actually helps other characters, the Hellbound role promotes using Seltyiel alone
This adventure path provided us with Traders, Curses, Triggers, and accuracy (i.e., not succeeding at checks by too much). Of those, I focused on Triggers, with Seltyiel’s mastery of magic giving him preternatural awareness to avoid dangers. I felt that the accuracy piece was already covered by another magus, Ahmotep, so I didn’t want to pigeonhole the magus as a accuracy expert in Mummy’s Mask. Traders didn’t seem like an appropriate area to provide powers; and curses seemed more appropriate for divine spellcasters.
SELTYIEL (SPELLRAIDER)
Eldritch awareness helps a Spellraider to evade dangers.Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell (□ or you may succeed at a Craft 7 check to recharge a weapon (□ or an item)) in your discard pile.
□ At the start (□ or end) of your turn, you may display any number of spells that have the Arcane trait. You may discard a displayed spell to ignore the effects of a card that has the Trigger trait (□ or the before you act powers of an encountered bane). Recharge the displayed cards (□ or shuffle them into your deck) before you reset your hand.
□ Add 2 to your non-combat check that invokes the Arcane trait.
This role turns Seltyiel into your point man, pushing him in front of the party to explore a location without fear of Triggers (as long as he has sufficient spells in his hand). He’s much less combat-oriented than his Skull & Shackles counterpart (especially the Spellblade), but becomes the party’s canary in a mummy-infested coal mine.
These roles aren’t perfect by any means, and I’m sure I’ll refine them as I wait with eager anticipation for the new Seltyiel to be released in the Magus Class Deck. I’m open to suggestions for refinement of these roles, of course.
In addition, if you have ideas for alternate role cards for other characters, allowing those characters to be used in other adventure paths (e.g., Jirelle for Rise of the Runelords, Oloch for Wrath of the Righteous) while using the core character as presented in the original adventure path in which they appeared*, I’d enjoy seeing them.
* And some characters are fortunate enough to appear in multiple adventure paths, allowing you to take any of those core versions and create a new role for an adventure path in which they don’t appear (e.g., Lirianne in Mummy’s Mask).
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I think this is a great idea as well, and it really shows how much you like the Magus class. I hope you will be satisfied with the Magus CD!
Regarding the WotR role, I have some heavy criticism, which you should not take personally - thematically, everything is great, and I appreciate the effort you put into this thread, but in terms of gameplay, this role is much much worse than his other role for WotR. I'll walk you through the powers, tell you my thoughts and suggest some alternatives:
□ You may recharge (□ reveal) a card that has the Corrupted trait to reduce Fire or Mental damage dealt to you by 2 (□ 4)(□ to 0).
Mental damage is almost never reducable, and I think when it is, it was an accident by the devs (Mike commented on a thread about this and listed less than 10 cards in the history of PACG that let you reduce Mental damage), so the power that lets you do that becomes much weaker. I'm also not sure how prelevant Fire damage is in WotR; apart from the Molten Pool, I can't think of many cards I've recently seen while playtesting that deal Fire damage. I don't think I would use 2 Power Feats on this power, even less 4, especially since a lot Corrupted cards (besides Blessings) are pretty bad to keep around unless you redeem them, which gets rid of the synergies with the powers here.
Suggestion:
□ You may reveal a card that has the Corrupted trait to reduce Damage dealt to you before (□ or after) you act by 2 (□ 4).
Add 2 to your check that invokes the Corrupted (□ or Electricity or Fire) trait.
You've got two options here - either you try to acquire a Corrupted boon, or you use a Corrupted weapon to define your combat check (you are most likely aware, but just in case - Corrupted Blessings don't add their traits). In case of acquiring a boon, I guess that is fine, even if it happens rarely. In case of the combat check, you are using a Corrupted weapon, which most of the time either means it is one-handed and has a heavy cost associated to playing it, or two-handed without a heavy cost, but can't be used with his signature power. Also, most Demons are immune to Electricity. If you want to make the power worthwile, the bonus will need to outpace the potential penalty to be attractive.
Suggestion:
Add 2 (□ 5) to your check that invokes the Corrupted trait.
When you play Blessing of Asmodeus, you may recharge it instead of discarding it.
Unfortunately, there is no Blessing of Asmodeus in WotR, so if you'd play him out of the box (I think that's the whole point of this thread), this power is completely useless.
Suggestion:
When you play a Blessing with the Corrupted trait on your check, add 1d12 instead of the normal die.
I know some of these changes go against the flavour you originally envisioned, but they'd make the role much more potent for the AP. Seltyiels other role is basically easy mode for WotR giving the focus on combat checks, so a WotR role really needs to be strong to be competitive, at least imho.
I have some heavy criticism, which you should not take personally...
As long as you don't tell me that my mother was a hamster and my father smelled of elder berries, we're cool. ;)
Actually, I welcome constructive criticism. This is going to sound like a cop out, but I didn't devote a huge amount of time to developing these roles. All of them combined took about an hour of "work," as opposed to other characters I've posted that went through many hours over several days of refinements before I posted them here (and those characters had plenty of room for improvement). And as the (non-existent) Blessing of Asmodeus demonstrates, the lack of homework on my part was a mistake.
I was going to provide an itemized response to your points and suggestions, but I generally agree with the points and like the suggested alternatives, so I don't see the point. To answer one "question," yes, I knew that the Corrupted trait isn't granted by blessings. The concept I was going for was when other boons are used (primarily weapons, but there are some others).
One question, though: why the power feat jump from 2 to 5 for the Corrupted trait power? Most cases I can recall have a progression by from 2 to either 3 or 4 (though there might be one or more cases I'm forgetting).
I just realized that the version of the Hellbound role I posted above accidentally omitted the 3d6 power feat on the core magus power. Oh, and I forgot it in the Spellraider role, too. That's what I get for copying and pasting and forgetting to edit. Oopsie!
For argument's sake, let's just assume I'm going to incorporate your suggestions (and that I don't forget the 3d6 magus power feat ;) ), turning the Hellbound role into:
SELTYIEL (HELLBOUND)
Those that serve the Infernal powers know where their destiny leads them.
Powers
Hand Size 5 □ 6 □ 7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)(□ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell in your discard pile.
□ You may reveal a card that has the Corrupted trait to reduce Damage dealt to you before (□ or after) you act by 2 (□ 4).
□ Add 2 (□ 5) to your check that invokes the Corrupted trait.
□ When you play a Blessing with the Corrupted trait on your check, add 1d12 instead of the normal die.
That's only 11 power feats, though, so we'll need to add something.
So brainstorming yields the following outlandish ideas (picking only one, mind you):
□ When you discard a card that has the Corrupted trait for its power, you may recharge a random card from your discard pile.
□ When you would discard a card that has the Corrupted trait for its power, you may recharge it (□ or shuffle it into your deck) instead.
[Note that this would replace the Corrupted blessing power if the shuffle advancement is included.]
□ You may bury a card that has the Corrupted trait to shuffle 1d4 cards from your discard pile into your deck.
Or something like that (I've focused on powers that key on the Corrupted trait, but that doesn't mean that I'm intent on an additional power necessarily following that path).
Oh, and imagine that the Spellraider role I presented above has a 3d6 power feat advancement option in the core magus power.
...it really shows how much you like the Magus class. I hope you will be satisfied with the Magus CD!
"Guilty!" on the first count and "me, too!" on the second. ;)
To be fair, Seltyiel was the easiest for me to use to illustrate the concept since I've been considering so many magus characters/roles lately. Had I chosen another character, I would have had to take a lot more time - and I was in too much of a hurry to do that. I just wish I'd done more homework before posting the initial ideas. ;)
Thanks for all of the feedback. :D
I was considering doing something similar for a certain goblin spellcaster to make him fit better into a certain goblin pirates campaign I might or might not be working on. :)
I look forward to seeing both.
When I have time, I'll look at another character to see what I can come up with for them. Imagine a water druid in Skull & Shackles, or an occultist in Wrath of the Righteous...
Thanks for your ellaborate response. I also like the Magus class, and I also tried to come up with a custom magus (Skirnir/Kensai, still have my notes), but I dropped that project at some point and don't feel competent enough to give you feedback on your other characters (they all look fine to me on a glance).
Regarding the 11th power feat, I feel like all the suggestions you listed work well, so you could choose the one you like best thematically.
Regarding the power feat jump from 2 to 5, this depends a lot on the actual cards that are Corrupted. You may know that I'm working on an alternate AP for the WotR box, so I compiled a lot of data about the set, including a spreadsheet about the Corrupted cards. Judging from that list, the only checks that invoke the Corrupted trait are the ones to acquire such cards or using a Corrupted weapon on combat check, as the other Corrupted cards never define your check (feel free to correct me). Regarding the Corrupted weapons, there are only 7 distinct ones in the set:
One-handed:
Anarchy Hammer, Traitor's Blade, Unholy Aspergillum+3, Rod of the Viper
Two-handed:
Blackaxe, Soulshear, Stalker's Crossbow
The problem now is this:
The two-handed weapons don't work with the signature power and both Traitor's Blade and Stalker's Crossbow are ranged, which doesn't make them very good choices compared to a one-handed melee weapon that is not corrupted. The Unholy Aspergillum +3 needs someone to discard a blessing in order to be played, and it's not even a good weapon itself, which means you are better off just using a normal weapon and having the blessing played on you. When I was writing the original post, I thought Rod of the Viper was two-handed as well (I realize now it is not), so that would leave you with the Anarchy Hammer, which is mostly great, since the only penalty of being Corrupted it having -5 against Demons. The Rod of the Viper is also great (you can ignore the Corrupted trait if you don't use its display power), and there are two of them, so this makes things a bit better.
In my opinion, the bonus needs to compensate for these disadvantages to make them even a viable choice; it has to compete with the +3d6 for the two-handed weapons, most likely against his mythic path bonus for the ranged weapons, and independent from this also against the discarding of a card which is inherent in a lot of corrupted weapons. Since you could always just play his other role and get an easy +4 to all swords without any disadvantage (there are plenty swords to use in the set), I think +5 is necessary to make it competetive. It also guarantees that the gets the Corrupted blessings, which is a nice fit thematically.
In the end, the +5 of the power merely makes the Anarchy Hammer break even with the main enemies of the sets, demons, and brings the Rod of the Viper up to 1d8+7. While that is plenty strong, his other role can easily get 1d8+6 with a Longsword +2 and even more with later swords, and the Rod has the disadvantage that its discard power adds the Poison trait, which is again useless against Demons (in contrast to discarding said Longsword). The +5 looks awesome on paper, but once you factor in the situations where you can use it, it's not that crazy powerful anymore.
This demonstrates why I should have waited longer and done more homework before posting the initial ideas. So after seeing the info that Doppelschwert provided, I had a V-8 moment and went through the cards in the box. I would have sworn that there was a spell with the Corrupted trait. I was wrong.
I’m going to make further adjustments to the Hellbound role.
I’m going to change the damage adjustment power. It functions mechanically, but I can’t wrap my head around how it works from a roleplaying perspective. The original thought behind the inclusion of the Mental trait in the (original) damage reduction power was that Seltyiel had endured five years of torture in his backstory and that he had become inured to mental suffering. Also, bolstered by the promises of Asmodeus, his forays into the Abyss and facing demonic foes wouldn’t be as hard for him to accept as his more noble comrades. I think that there is a way we can represent that without breaking the “Mental damage … cannot be reduced” model:
□ When you would discard a card as Mental damage, you may roll a d6; on a (□ 3), 4, 5, or 6, you may recharge the card instead.
I'm still a bit leery of it as the current wording means that you would roll a d6 for each point of Mental damage that you suffer. From an efficiency perspective, it might be better to simply roll once for all cards suffered as Mental damage. We'll go with the first version (for now).
I’m going to adjust the blessings power, reverting to the recharge result vice d12, and adding a variation on Arueshalae’s Fallen role blessing power:
□ When you play a Blessing with the Corrupted trait on your check (□ any check), you may recharge it instead of discarding it (□ and you may ignore the Corrupted trait on the top card of the blessings pile).
And I’m going to incorporate the “healing” power I brainstormed above, but with some tweaks. First, as a magus, Seltyiel isn’t a healing type of character. The concept is that he is drawing upon his inner reserves of corrupted arcane power to recover. Healing in this way should be more costly for him, so I’m changing the card usage from bury to banish. There are plenty of blessings, so the risk analysis the player will have to conduct will be in whether or not Seltyiel can use his other powers effectively.
□ You may banish a card with the Corrupted trait to recharge 1d4 cards from your discard pile (□ or you may shuffle them into your deck).
So the revised role becomes:
SELTYIEL (HELLBOUND)
Those that serve the Infernal powers know where their destiny leads them.
Powers
Hand Size 5 □ 6 □ 7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)(□ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell in your discard pile.
□ When you would discard a card as Mental damage, you may roll a d6; on a (□ 3), 4, 5, or 6, you may recharge the card instead.
□ You may banish a card with the Corrupted trait to recharge 1d4 cards from your discard pile (□ or you may shuffle them into your deck).
□ When you play a Blessing with the Corrupted trait on your check (□ any character's check), you may recharge it instead of discarding it (□ and you may ignore the Corrupted trait on the top card of the blessings pile).
And on a side note, if I were ever to create these roles as cards, I would probably add a line at the bottom indicating that they are meant for use with the Seltyiel character card found in the Skull & Shackles base set. An alternative method would be to use the Skull & Shackles AP indicator on the cards.
Once the Magus Class Deck is released, I might create similar versions based on that version of Seltyiel (using the core powers).
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Once the Magus Class Deck is released, I might create similar versions based on that version of Seltyiel (using the core powers).
I'll just say that you will very likely want to do so, because the new version of Seltyiel is <almost> assuredly much better than the version from S&S. (Like... way better.... and you can ignore the "almost" there, because.... yeah)
You. Are. Such. A. Tease.
One last tweak to the Hellbound role. I didn't like the wording of the Mental damage power - the implied inefficiency was killing me. So I've changed it to:
□ When you are dealt Mental damage, you may roll a d6; on a (□ 3,) 4, 5, or 6, you may recharge the cards instead of discarding them.
I've deliberately focused the power on discarded cards for Mental damage; if there are any game effects that would force Seltyiel to bury or banish cards for Mental damage, he would have to bury/banish them. The power allowing him to heal makes up for it.
If I don't receive any further suggestions for revisions to any of these roles, I'll probably put them up on Drive Thru Cards. I'll put the Seltyiel Bladebound role on the back of the Mummy's Mask role (Spellraider), which will require that I also put the Nightshard card up on DTC (found in the Bladebound role link).
For those that have created PACG cards at DTC, can I go back and edit them once I "finalize" them for purchase/view? If not, I'll hold off a bit.
Once I put the cards up on DTC, I can work on some other character(s).
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For those that have created PACG cards at DTC, can I go back and edit them once I "finalize" them for purchase/view? If not, I'll hold off a bit.
Yes you can go back and change them, but it's kind of an annoying process, so I would recommend trying to get them to their final version before you actually make them on there.
I'll review all the roles this week, haven't had time to really go through them yet. Any chance you could repost the current version of all of them?
I made a few more minor tweaks.
Here are the current versions of each of the AP-specific alternate roles for S&S Seltyiel.
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SELTYIEL (WRATHKNIGHT)
My anger is my ally, a burning storm I release against my enemies.
Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)(□ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
At the (□ start or) end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell in your discard pile.
□ You may discard (□ recharge) a spell that has the Attack trait (□ or a weapon) to add 1d4 (□ 2d4)(□ 3d4) and that card’s traits to the combat check of another character at your location.
□ When you play a blessing to add to your Arcane check, add d12 instead of the normal die.
SELTYIEL (HELLBOUND)
Those that serve the Infernal powers know where their destiny leads them.
Powers
Hand Size 5 □ 6 □ 7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)(□ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell in your discard pile.
□ When you are dealt Mental damage, you may roll a d6; on a (□ 3), 4, 5, or 6, you may recharge the cards instead of discarding them.
□ You may banish a card with the Corrupted trait to recharge (□ or shuffle into your deck) 1d4 cards from your discard pile.
□ When you play a Blessing with the Corrupted trait on your check (□ any character's check), you may recharge it instead of discarding it (□ and you may ignore the Corrupted trait on the top card of the blessings pile).
SELTYIEL (SPELLRAIDER)
Eldritch awareness helps a Spellraider to evade dangers.
Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell (□ or you may succeed at a Craft 7 check to recharge a weapon (□ or an item)) in your discard pile.
□ At the start (□ or end) of your turn, you may display any number of spells that have the Arcane trait. You may discard a displayed spell to ignore the Trigger trait on an examined card (□ or the before you act powers of an encountered bane). Recharge the displayed cards (□ or shuffle them into your deck) before you reset your hand.
□ Add 2 to your non-combat check that invokes the Arcane trait.
Thanks for looking!
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I would recommend you consider having a power involving curses on the Spellraider role. Perhaps replacing that last power with "[ ] When there is a Scourge displayed next to your character card, add 2d4 to your check that invokes the Arcane trait." This way you're giving a boost to both combat and non-combat checks, but only when you're under the effect of a curse.
Otherwise, they look really good. I very much look forward to you getting your hands on that Magus deck in August. :-D
Ah, so instead of getting rid of curses (which is where I figured a curse-based power would be more appropriate to a divine spellcaster), you're suggesting a power that takes advantage of being cursed. Interesting.
I'll take a look at your suggestion and see if there are some other possible applications and then post back in here with my ideas (if I have any) or the final version.
On the issue of other characters, I've been looking at other characters that might also benefit from this kind of treatment. Characters that have been featured in multiple adventure paths (e.g., Valeros, Kyra) probably don't need AP-specific roles since they have enough other roles to be playable pretty much everywhere. Actually, that's not completely true. It would probably be more accurate to say that they have sufficient flexibility that they're a much lower priority. Similarly, characters that have been featured in class decks (soon to be character decks) similarly have flexible roles. That they're also much lower on the prioritization (in my mind).
So I guess I'm most focused on characters that have been featured in only on adventure path and which haven't appeared in class [character] decks. And of those, the ones that can't be unlocked to use other class [character] decks are higher in priority than those that can't. And the ones that will be featured in or which are likely to be unlocked to use announced character decks (e.g., Crowe using the Magus Class Deck and psychics) are lower in priority than those that won't fit that description.
That really narrows the high priority list down quite a bit.
@roles:
Personally, I think recharging Corrupted blessing is very strong, and I wouldn't hand it out as a power. On the other hand, I mostly play with little healing, so a recharge feels like a greater power boost to me than it probably is, and I may be biased.
I think from cartmanbecks list, Jirelle is the worst offender, as her base powers already want the set she is in, and Pirate Queen is completely useless outside of SnS. Alain, Shardra and Zadim on the other hand seem very set agnostic; I think both of their roles are equally suitable in each AP, as compared to many characters with specialized AP roles.
Another character with a set specific role is Arueshalae, since her Fallen role is totally useless outside of WotR as well (due to a lack of corrupted cards).
D'oh! You're absolutely correct. Other "recharge instead of discarding" uses of blessings have only worked with one blessing, or for a limited use. There are far too many blessings with the Corrupted trait in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path for the current version of the power to be considered balanced. I'll definitely have to change it. Perhaps:
□ When you play a blessing with the Corrupted trait on another character's combat (□ or arcane) check, you may recharge it instead of discarding it (□ and you may ignore the Corrupted trait on the top card of the blessings pile).
That may not be limited enough, though it definitely works against Seltyiel's inherent selfishness.
Even better:
□ When another character plays a blessing with the Corrupted trait on your arcane (□ or non-combat) check, they may recharge it instead of discarding it (□ and they may ignore the Corrupted trait on the top card of the blessings pile).
I'll take a look at Jirelle as my next character. I agree that Arueshalae is very focused on the Wrath of the Righteous adventure path, but that's really the only adventure path that the character should work in since she's a product of the AP. I can see Jirelle working through any of the adventure paths, though.
I adjusted the Hellbound Corrupted blessings power as above.
I adjusted the Spellraider powers more than was suggested. The last two powers were adjusted to:
□ At the start (□ or end) of your turn, you may display any number of spells that have the Arcane trait. You may discard a displayed spell to ignore the Trigger trait on an examined card. Recharge the displayed cards (□ or shuffle them into your deck) before you reset your hand.
□ When a card with the Curse trait is displayed next to your character card, you may add 2 (□ 4) to your check that invokes the Arcane trait.
Jirelle is actually a bad candidate for this kind of treatment. The AP-specific role character expansion concept really only works when the base character is somewhat generic in nature, like Seltyiel. Two of Jirelle's core powers, one of which is a power feat, involve ships, so they can't be ported into the other APs. Jirelle really needs a new version in a class/character deck to become functional in other APs.
So looking at other characters that have appeared in APs, don't have class/character deck versions (such characters are a much lower priority because players have options), and have one or both of their roles AP-specific I see:
I'm not looking at the Goblins (yet). So all of the characters in both the Rise of the Runelords and Skull & Shackles APs, except for Seltyiel and Jirelle, have class/character deck versions that provide them with flexibility for other APs. So we have to start with the Wrath of the Righteous characters. I'm not looking at Arueshalae, either, for the reasons I cited above.
All of the characters in WotR have two roles that are generic enough to be useful in any AP. There are a few that have a power focusing on a trait that is less common in some other APs (e.g., Alain and Mount cards with the Lancer role), and Adowyn's core power would be a bit more limited in the other APs since the only cohorts she'll see in those are the ones that belong to characters, including Leryn. By and large, though, these characters are playable all around.
Mummy's Mask has a few characters that need some help.
Zadim's Executioner role is keyed to Mummy's Mask, which has far more instances of the Poison trait than any other AP. He also has a core power focused on the Poison trait, so the core character will be somewhat less useful in other APs.
Ahmotep has a core power allowing her to recharge spells for powers on cards with the Staff trait, and there are almost none of those in the other APs. This is a core power, though, so creating additional roles based on the core character wouldn't accomplish anything.
Channa Ti's Oasis Caller role is very useful in Mummy's Mask, but much less so in other APs where there are very few cards with the Curse trait.
Drelm's core character rules suffer from one of the power feats allowing for expansion to include Blessings of Wadjet, which only appear in Mummy's Mask. So additional roles won't help him much (unless you just assume that players will limit their options by not taking that useless power feat).
Of those, Channa Ti looks like the only one that this concept supports well enough to pursue ideas.
I've uploaded the finished Seltyiel roles to the Board Game Geek at:
Rise of the Runelords
Wrath of the Righteous
Mummy's Mask
Note that it's the same file at all three locations, but I uploaded it to the file submissions for each AP since some players might limit their searches to files for specific games and not everyone has Rise of the Runelords (too bad for them). So you only need to download one file, not all three.
I've presented them as cards that you can cut out and slide into sleeves, or you can just print the file and use that just as you use the downloadable character sheets.
Also, even though these role cards can only be used with the Skull & Shackles version of Seltyiel (not the Magus Class Deck version), I used the other logos for the APs based on which one applied to the role, hopefully making it easier to identify which one(s) to use.
Alternate roles for other characters are slated for the future (after I finish off the Harrow Character Deck and upcoming non-Gunslinger gunslingers projects).