The idea of reviewing the class decks has been bouncing around in my head for a while since it's pretty clear that some decks are better than others. I haven't seen any discussions of specific class deck contents, so here are my thoughts.
I'm not going to evaluate or rate the characters in the class deck themselves since I think each character has their own theme and flavor. I really enjoy the fact that there are noticeable differences in the overall strength between characters and believe those differences add to the richness of the game.
Instead, the primary crux of my evaluation is how the cards in the deck support the characters in the class deck. I'll be breaking the ratings down by card type and grade the selection of cards on an A-F scale. I'll also be giving an overall rating of the deck as a whole.
One thing of note is that I use a tier system to categorize direct attack spells based on how much damage they do and if there are other mitigating factors. Here's how I group them:
Tier 1 - Spells that can add 24 or more damage, most commonly via 4d6, 3d8, or 2d12.
Tier 1.5 - I put spells in this tier if they do damage equivalent to tier 1 spells but are generally weaker due to other factors, mostly their traits. For example I consider poison blast and vengeful storm tier 1.5 spells due to the large amount of creatures immune to them.
Tier 2 - Spells that can add 18-21 damage, most commonly as +3d6.
Tier 3 - Spells that can add 12-16 damage, the most common being the +2d6 spells.
Tier 4 - This tier is comprised of the basic attack spells that either add +2d4 or +1d6.
Here's my sorcerer deck review:
Weapons:
Weapons are generally afterthoughts for arcane casters (magi and bloodragers aside), even moreso for sorcerers as three of the four in the sorcerer class deck have a basic blast power. The only real use a sorcerer has for a weapon is something to use when fighting golems or other monsters that are immune to the attack trait. That said, all of the weapons in the deck – with one exception – are ranged dexterity weapons, which is complementary with the skills the sorcerers possess. The exception is the main-gauche +1, but it has the ability to recharge to prevent two combat damage, so I like its inclusion in the deck. For what you would expect, the weapon selection is fine. Grade C+
Spells:
The spell selection is quite serviceable, with a decent selection of attack, support, and utility spells. Some notables are black spot as a basic spell and life leech in AD5 for self-healing as an attack spell. There are enough utility and support spells spread out over the ADs if you’re playing Seoni, Qualzar, or Valendron and want to use their blast power as their primary attack power and use your spell card slots for utility and support. I do feel the attack spells are a smidgen weak; Lightning bolt in place of unearthly aim would’ve been a much better choice. As it stands there’s only poison blast in AD4 and sign of wrath in AD6 for top tier attack spells, and then wall of fire, swipe, and frost ray. AD2 has the weakest selection of spells with all three choices being somewhat weak, but every other AD has good choices. Grade: C+
Armor:
Like weapons, armor’s pretty much an afterthought for sorcerers. The blackcloth armor in AD2 is potentially useful for its reveal ability, but only Qualzar has perception so the reveal ability of the robe of vision is only very marginally useful. A reflecting buckler or reflecting shield would’ve been preferable to the robe of energy resistance. Nothing worth spending a card feat for, in any case. Grade: C-
Items:
The item selection in the sorcerer deck is pretty weak, frankly. The AD0-2 items are all mostly useless or mediocre, with no amulet of life, thieves/masterwork tools, ruby of charisma, or staff of minor healing. It’s not until AD3 that you’re presented with decent choices in the headband of alluring charisma and mist horn. But after that it’s back to mediocre items aside from the ring of energy resistance. Grade: D
Allies:
The ally selection is pretty decent. There’s the all-important surgeon in AD0, as well as an incanter, apprentice, and pyromanic mage to help with arcane checks. There’s a cat in AD3 for recharge assistance, and the very useful clockwork owl in AD6. Only AD4 has mediocre allies to choose from. You’re probably going to end up with 4-5 allies by the time you get to AD6 (especially since the deck’s items are so lacking), and there are enough solid choices to fill your deck. Grade: B-
Blessings:
The blessing selection for the sorcerer deck is fine. You get three blessings of Pharasma, and I like that for each AD except for AD6 you have two blessing choices – and I’ll give a pass for AD6 since they’re both the wonderful blessing of Nethys. There’s also a blessing of Achaekek in AD 5, which is nice. The only weaknesses is the two blessing of Erastils in AD 1, and the fact that there are three blessings of Sivanah and no blessings of Milani. A nice bonus for Seoni players is the fact that she starts with five blessings but there are only four blessings of the gods in the deck, so she can start with a blessing of Pharasma. Grade: B-
Summary:
I think the Sorcerer deck may be the most average of the decks overall, with none of the card categories having especially strong selections. The items are very weak, but since items are of tertiary importance to sorcerers the poor selection won’t drag your sorcerer down – likely you’ll end up commonly using items to fuel your blast power if you’re playing one of the three that has the ability. Spells are the most important cards for sorcerers and the deck’s selection is good enough – if uninspired – while selections for the next most important cards, allies and blessings, are solid. Overall Grade: C+
Personally, I think Unearthly Aim is one of the most broken spells of the whole game; the point is to give it to another character that uses weapons to turn it into a superior combat blessing on steroids.
In WotR, you can use it to outright avoid expending Mythic charges even on difficult encounters in the late game this way: Using a certain AD6 Weapon+5 Weapon, Zadims Executioner Role can easily get a static bonus of 6+6+5+8+16 = 41 (Melee + Charges + Weapon + Stealth + Unearthly Aim), which is unfortunate for a certain villain with a combat check of 66; any other character still ends up around 33, which trivializes almost every other encounter in the game.
I think that has much more use than a lightning bolt that will eventually be replaced anyway; especially once your AD gets high enough to reliable put it back into your deck after each scenario.