[PACS] [CAG II] [LEGENDARY] The Dragon's Demand by redeux (Inactive)

Game Master redeux

details forthcoming, please dot in the gameplay/discussion tabs

Hey all! VERY happy that this table looks like a go from the signups. A special thanks to Redeux for offering to BR what hopefully won't be a trainwreck!

I'm very passionate about the new opportunities for increased difficulty options in PACG. I'd like to bring a bit more tension and consideration to my games, if possible.

As a part of that, I'm not just going to try to bring in some of what I would consider the most powerful characters of PACG in here just to 'test' them against Legendary, but I do have a particular interest in trying out any of the the new Core and Curse characters.

I'm hesitantly considering playing Lem (Core) with Occult Adventures 1, but I'd be happy playing just about any new character as long as it would round out the team effectively. So I'm happy hearing what people would be interested in seeing me play, or what characters they're looking to play.

QUESTION FOR THE BR: Are we going to be playing this with the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP added to the box, or not? I have a small preference for adding it, but I'm largely neutral.

QUESTION FOR THE BR: Are we going to be playing this with the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP added to the box, or not? I have a small preference for adding it, but I'm largely neutral.

I largely run games at the direction of the players. Consider me a facilitator. So as long as something is within the rules and the group can agree on it, then I will try to make it happen. If the group stalls on a particular decision like this then I may make one to move things along.

So with that said - what does the party want to do?

I didn't know that adding Curse was an option, but I'm fine for either way.

For characters, I'm pretty flexible. I agree with Yew, that we definitely need to get a well balanced party, and I'm happy to pick whatever character will help support that. Lem (or any bard) well-played can be extremely strong, and I think they're generally under-rated by people that don't play them proper, so I'm happy to see somebody has already volunteered to take that.

In my experience with DD (finished first play-through about a week ago), Kyra (Core) is another one that's really useful. Because we ran into a LOT of undead on some of the scenarios, and the fact that her "Turn Undead" power gives a die (1d4/1d6) to any local character fighting an undead, entirely for free, is a great little bonus. Especially if we're playing a party that will stick together (which definitely seems a much stronger strategy now than it ever was before, because so many more characters now give local boosts, plus the Avenger mechanic). My only reservation with Kyra is that with Seelah and Lem already in the party, that's a lot of overlap in Divine which could leave us a lot of gaps in other places (especially Kyra and Seelah have a lot of overlap in skills between them). But in Legendary mode, I'm assuming that if we're going to have overlap anywhere, lots of Cure spells is probably a good place to have it. ;-)

That's one big advantage. When playing with Core normally, you don't have the luxury of having a lot of healing spells - in OP, there's no such restraint.

I'm happy to volunteer to play Lem. It's not my usual playstyle, but I think it really adds a lot to the team and I'm always happy to try new things. I really am happy to play almost any Core/Curse character, though, not just Lem. I think if I REALLY had to pick ones that I wasn't happy to play, it'd be Quinn, Fumbus and Valeros. And, to a lesser extent, Merisiel.

Quinn and Fumbus rely on a very specific type of Alchemical support which doesn't fully line up with Class/Ultimate Deck cards (though Core card replacements assist that to a point). Fumbus and Valeros, meanwhile, have very important, impressive Role options which most interest me about the characters, but we won't get much of a chance to use Roles in this AP (and I'm not a big fan of transferring a character over to another AP and losing any chance of getting the respective AP reward). Plus, Valeros' role cards also focus heavily on synergies that work best with post-Core cards that don't work too well with Class/Ultimate decks.

And Merisiel's knife-synergy weakens over time without Core boons, as magical knives in Class Decks won't match Core boons in names and so cannot be replaced. Pre-Core knives don't get to leverage her Stealth skill at all.

But any other character? I really am up for it. I can even see some fun elements with playing Kess or Sajan, for example. (Probably the most painful thing about Kess is that it's damnably hard to find almost any good Armor for her in the Class Decks, unless you play with Ultimate Add-On decks that I don't think are otherwise well-suited to her.)

Hi all!

Since no one initially expressed a strong preference, I decided to run with Core Seelah. She was my favorite from the original set, so I wanted to take her for a spin on this one.

Thing to note... I have zero healing spells until Tier 2. So getting somebody with some healing would probably be wise.

You can check out my deck handler (thanks Yewstance for that sexiness!).

My initial deck is definitely fighty with a few tricks here and there (Invisibility, Masque, and so forth). I'm hoping to build towards helping people at the same location which supports her initial power set. And I'll be leaning into Charisma (Divine and Diplomacy) as much I can, helped by Intrigue.

Looking forward to it!!

Hand: HOLY WATER, LONGSWORD, MASQUE, BLESSING OF THE GODS,

Displayed:
Deck: 11 Discard: 0 Buried: 0
"Current Location: Right here!
Hero Points: 0"

You can check out my deck handler (thanks Yewstance for that sexiness!).

You're very welcome!

You do like the aesthetic, then? I wasn't sure whether it'd be too jarring to people or not - especially my recommendation to use all-capital letters. (I also was really annoyed that I couldn't make white font with a black font border in Google Sheets.)

(Side-Note, I don't believe you can start with Core Invisibility, I think, since it's Level 1 not Level 0; I think you'd need to take a Spell 1 deck upgrade for it, but the BR can make a ruling on that if needed. The "Core replacement" mechanic is still very vague.)

=============

I'm still happy to go with largely anything. Lem is in my top 4 characters I'd be interested in playing, for sure, though I do not that we'd both end up going with Charisma-based Ultimate Intrigue characters. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, and having two people stacking same-location buffs may be particularly potent, even.

After more thought, I'd also be fine with Sajan - my first OP Monk character - and provide a guaranteed quantity of blessings to the party (though we'd increasingly want someone with Cure spells if so, given the frequent discard/damage consequences of Wildcards - so Sajan's an option if Maelwys0 takes Kyra). Core Harsk with the Hunter class deck also would be fine. If there's any non-Core character I'd play, it'd be the Summoner Zetha... but have an idea for a build of hers using the Season 4 Capstone one-use reward, and this campaign is only 3(-ish) adventures long, so using a one-off reward on her feels like it would be a waste.

Blah blah blah, long story short, my current interests have stabilized around something like the following (though willing to fill just about any other niche if requested).

-Core Lem (Occult Adventures 1, Ultimate Intrigue or Ultimate Magic)
-Core Harsk (Hunter, Ultimate Wilderness)
-Core Sajan (Monk, Ultimate Combat or Ultimate Equipment)
-Other (A Summoner or Witch?)

Just an FYI, i didn't get my Core/Curse set until today, and having just moved I still have a lot of unpacking to do. But I'll be reading up soon and hope to have posted scenario/etc within next week which will, in turn, give us 1 week to get wildcards/starting hands/locations/etc all picked out.

We will officially start the first scenario June 21st, and the convention lasts until July 21st. I am planning to continue this game until completion of Dragon's Demand, so the end date is less important.

I’ll fix Invisibility. The old version is good ‘nuff.

I like the aesthetic of the sheet. It gets the sheet closer to looking like real cards. I biggest sadness in playing on forums is not seeing the card art and even getting the colors and font makes it feel better!

Okay, I think I'm decided on Kyra. Overlapping skills be damned, she's just too useful to not have around, especially in a Legendary run.

So we have Seelah and Kyra so far, so it looks like Divine is covered pretty well. Having two people that can heal (eventually) seems like it would be really useful in Legendary, especially if Wildcards end up wrecking someone randomly.

Based on what Yewstance was mentioning he was wanting to play, I think it'd be best if I focused on someone with good Strength. Perhaps Core Valeros (Fighter + Ultimate Combat maybe?), but I'll need to take a peek at what other options are. If I'm playing a fighter-type, I'd be wanting to exploit the Core boon replacement rule as much as I can early on so my choice of Ultimate deck would largely depend on what offers better replacement cards.

Here's my proposed starting deck. This is my first time playing a cleric (and obviously, my first time trying to muck about with weird conversion rules and decks that are blended from multiple editions), so please feel free to suggest any changes

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n59Y15cOqRiUfLCIvc7uWXn55AMT-Eyy3Zq GP8whYhI/edit?usp=sharing

Obviously using Cleric + Ultimate Magic. And I added in a couple promo blessings because they have some version of "plays freely" on them (technically not, but they at least seem to let ME play a second blessing, even if nobody else can, right? Am I translating that properly) which could be really useful under the new rules.

I've only got 1 cure spell right now (plus my 1-card per turn built in heal), I'm a little worried that's not enough. Remove Curse seems like it'll be really good though, with the new curses. And Fire Snake is just too good to pass up. Electrified Web I just took because it looked fun (assuming we'll all be hanging out together a lot), but I might trade that back in for a second Cure, haven't finalized that yet.

Anything else I overlooked or that you'd recommend? The weapons and armor choices seemed pretty easy, items and allies were hard because there's not a lot of good options in either deck. I might swap more of the Spellbound blessings for Gods, just because Gods could actually become really good under the new Harrows hourglass... but also really unpredictable (and I like recharging the blessings, because it means less healing I need to do), so I'm still on the fence there...

Still waiting on the database to get the new set loaded, then i can get stuff set up.

Also, is the group going to be interested in a hangouts/discord chat type thing or would we prefer to keep everything in the discussion thread? I don't have a preference, just would like to see it unanimous if we move away from the discussion thread.

Okay with either...tend to be more up to date with Hangouts.

I prefer having a hangout/discord. Makes it far easier to communicate.

I'm happy with either Hangouts or Discord - slight preference for Discord with Hangouts being axed in the uncertain future.

I'm good with either as well. Hangouts isn't looking to be cut for another 6 months at least, so I'm fine to use it until then.

Okay, I got the first scenario up. Few things we need to settle.

1. If you haven't already, fill out your player sign-up with your character you're using, PFS ID and char number. When i create the chronicles after the first scenario this is where I'll get that info.

2. We are playing on Legendary Difficulty. The rulebook lets us choose 3 wildcards from the boxes we are using. I did end up adding the curse box to our game because When we get to AD3 we will be needing to add an AD4 of banes, which doesn't exist in DD. So I just added Curse at the start since that's where we'd be pulling banes from eventually. This also gives us a few extra wildcard choices. The OP guide states that all characters must agree on the wildcards. The wildcard choices can be found here (click). The list of choices will be available in each game update, and I'll copy the chosen wildcards into the scenario rules for each scenario.

3. I created a Hangouts. Like Nathan/Seelah, I tend to be more up to date with hangouts. If hangouts dies before we finish this adventure we'll transition over to discord. Link to hangouts (click to join)

4. Turn order and starting character. We'll need too come up with a turn order. I'm happy to just put something together and we can re-adjust as needed. Also in general i set the starting character to whomever would be next had the last scenario not ended. So if Seelah is after Kyra, and Kyra ended the scenario,then Seelah would start the next scenario. That's my default and the group just needs to let me know if you want anything other than the default. I've had some games with characters that do better if they start (such as Zetha/Reepazo) in which case I had a fixed starting character, we could also do a random starting character. Again, just let me know if anything other than my normal default is needed.

Still working out my specific starting deck, but my character has been decided, it's ID has been placed in the signup sheet, and I'm pretty much ready to go.

My preference is to be either third or fourth in turn order whenever possible. I'll refine my specific strategy to the team with time, but as a general rule all of my cards and powers may be used at any time. In fact, I encourage that my core power be used frequently, even if it empties my hand before my turn.

(And if you're curious about the name - continuing my trend of "Iconic characters with a more evil-themed Class Deck" - this version of Lem murdered his half-brother Meligaster after seeing how he abused their shared brethren, somewhat dampening his own outlook on the world in the process. Hence Occult Adventures rather than Bard.)

1* Rewards

I'll draw a new Item.

And I'm most interested in either/both an Item 1 and/or Ally 1.

And I might take the Fortitude/Perception power feat, because we don't have Perception in the group yet. But Hand Size is always good too... so I haven't finalized that choice yet, I will when I post my deck upgrades.

Reward: draw a weapon.

Upgrades: Drawn weapon, not sure on 2nd upgrade just yet. I’ll need to look over my cards.

Hero point: Power Feat: Hand Size 5

Draw Weapon 1
Other Upgrade Priorities
Item 1: 1d1000 ⇒ 344
Ally 1: 1d1000 ⇒ 212
Blessing 0: 1d1000 ⇒ 179

Hero Point
Power Feat
On a local check, you may discard an arm;or or the top card of your deck to add 1d4 (□ 1d6) and the Magic trait. (☑ If you would discard an armor or a blessing for this power, you may recharge it instead.)

Keep in mind that we have a VERY healing-heavy party (3/4 Divine Casters, including the healing-specialist Kyra and the support-specialist Lem who can sort-of selectively heal himself), so switching discard -> recharge costs may not be as powerful as usual.

DD-1*: Rumble Road - Lem Rewards

Lem banished Guard (Ally 0) during the scenario, and has an empty Ally Slot.

Tier Progression: (1.1) Lem gains a Hero Point.
Lem expends the Hero Point on a Power Feat, and checks off...
On a local non-combat check (☐ or another local character’s combat check) you may recharge a card to add 1d4 (☑ 1d6).

Scenario Reward: Lem will draw an Item 1.

Lem's Deck Upgrade preferences are as follows...

I'll take a power feat:
☑ Gain the skills Fortitude: Constitution +2 and Perception: Wisdom +2.

I'll also propose that everybody should automatically get their first choice boon (the card they drew from the box). And then we roll for 2nd choices where multiple people want the same:

Item 1 - Upgrade Bestiary of Garund -> Wand of Detect Magic
Ally 1: 1d1000 ⇒ 173 - Looks like Seelah has me beat here

Question to the group, I'm thinking about upgrading Chainmail to Shield Cloak. Chainmail has the advantage that it displays, so doesn't take hand space. But it is limited to combat damage only... how much elemental damage do you think we'll take here? Because I'm not sure if it'll be enough to be worth the swap, or just stick with the Chainmail for now?

I'm a big fan of display-able armors, so I vote the Chainmail.

There are times when Shield Cloak will sit in your hand, potentially for several turns, without accomplishing anything but taking up hand space. Chainmail, however, virtually has no such downside; just throw it out in front of you immediately and not have to worry about it.

Even if you do suffer elemental damage - if you're suffering 1d4+1 and roll a 3 or above, the chainmail is still probably better than the Shield Cloak.

Okay so if everyone gets their drawn choice that leaves:

Pig (Ally 0)
Fox (Ally 1)

Magic Chain Shirt (Armor 1)

Gorum's Iron (Blessing 1)
Prayer (Blessing 0)
Irori's Mastery (Blessing 1)

Noxious Bomb (Item 0)

Locate Object (Spell 1)
Elemental Treaty (Spell 1)

Shortbow (Weapon 0)
Dagger (Weapon 0)

Tentative 1* summary:
Valeros - Power feat, weapon 1, ??
Kyra - Power Feat, item 1, ??
Lem - Power feat, item 1, ??, ??
Seelah - Power Feat, weapon 1, ??

Remove Honaire from my list of desired Deck Upgrades.
Add Ally 0 (For Fencer) to the list as a lower preference.

I will not use my Treasure Hunter boon.

Upgrades:

Weapon 1: Replace Longsword with Katana +1 (Ultimate Combat 1)

Armor 1: 1d1000 ⇒ 982: Replace Heavy Wooden Shield with Champion's Do-Maru (Ultimate Combat 1)
Weapon 0: 1d1000 ⇒ 70: Replace Wakizashi with Greatsword (Fighter 0)

As a side note, despite my roll results, if you feel you'd make better use of a particular upgrade than I would, please say so in Hangouts. I'm usually willing to defer to other people if they have an amazing upgrade but poor roll for it -- I far prefer having a consensus on upgrades rather than roll-offs whenever possible.

Boon roll: 1d20 ⇒ 18 Nope

Upgrades
Replacing Weapon 0 Mace with Weapon 1 Captain's Cutlass

Replacing Ally 0 Clockwork Spy with Ally 1 Sharper

Item 0 Holy Water was banished so filling with Item 0 Singer's Solution

1* summary:
Valeros - Power feat, weapon 1, Armor1
Kyra - Power Feat, item 1, n/a (unless she takes something else. the ally1 is gone)
Lem - Power feat, item 1, Ally0
Seelah - Power Feat, weapon 1, Ally1

Boon rolls for CaG II

We will roll 1d20 every scenario. Nat20 wins player choice of one of these two boons:

Fangwood Thieves Reward #2: [ ] [ ] [ ] Divine Intervention: Check a box that precedes this reward to freely play a blessing on a check.

Fangwood Thieves Reward #3: [ ] [ ] [ ] What Resistance? Check a box that precedes this reward to treat a monster that is resistant to a trait as vulnerable to that trait.

Redeux boon 1*: 1d20 ⇒ 20 I'll go with #3 and I hope i didn't steal any luck

Kyra didn't take a second deck upgrade.

Convention Boon: 1d20 ⇒ 16 - Nope

Lem will take the Blessing 1 instead of the Ally 0, as stated in Hangouts. The non-Honaire Ally 0 is a significantly lower preference.

1* Lem Roll: 1d20 ⇒ 3

Crit?: 1d20 ⇒ 13

Lem will take the Blessing 1 instead of the Ally 0, as stated in Hangouts. The non-Honaire Ally 0 is a significantly lower preference.

updated chronicle, thanks!

A Complicatedish List of Upgrade
If nobody wants the Item 1 that came from the scenario, Seelah will draw Armor 1 and take Item 1. If NOT, She will draw Item 1 and take:
Ally 0: 1d1000 ⇒ 512
Weapon 0: 1d1000 ⇒ 698
Spell 0: 1d1000 ⇒ 515

Hero Point
Skill Feat
Charisma d8 ☑ +1 ☐ +2 ☐ +3 ☐ +4

DD-1A: Plans Gone Wrong - Lem Rewards

1A Boon Roll: 1d20 ⇒ 2 -> None.

Tier Progression: (1.2) Lem gains a Hero Point.
Lem expends the Hero Point on a Card Feat, and checks off...
ARMOR 0 [X] 1

Lem still has 0 remaining Hero Points.

Scenario Reward: Lem draws an Item 1, since he wants 2 Item 1s in total still. With his drawn Item 1, he takes the following Deck Upgrade...

I'll draw an Item 1 for somebody else, I don't think I want either Armor or Item right now.

I will however take the Spell 0, since apparently I'd misread the new scourges and none of them are Curses, so my Remove Curse is far less helpful than I'd hoped. So I'll swap that out for a Holy Light instead (Classic, not Core... because as far as I can tell the only difference is that the Core version is harder to recharge... ;-) )

Hero Point: Wisdom +1

Kyra's Item 1/Armor 1 in case Valeros is vying for it: 1d1000 ⇒ 352

1A Boon: 1d20 ⇒ 2 Nope.

Hero Point: Card Feat: 3 items

Draw an Item 1, use it to fill my empty Item slot with Staff of Minor Healing (Core version).

Skip my other upgrade, nothing seems really appealing for it.

Upgrades
Draw Armor 1 and take Kyra's Item 1 draw.

Replace Item 0 Singer's Solution with Item 1 Quick-Change Mask

Replace Armor 0 Scale Mail with Armor 1 Lockpick Shield

1-A summary
Valeros/Skizzerz - card feat, Item 1
Seelah/NathanDavis - skill feat, Armor1, Item 1,
Lem/Yewstance - card feat, Item 1, Item 1
Kyra/Maelwys0 - skill feat, Spell 0

Let me know if this isn't accurate so i can update, as this is what will go on chronicles/be reported

oh, and yes everyone gets a boon roll after every scenario. nat 20 wins a choice of one of two boons

1a: 1d20 ⇒ 3

Convention Roll - 1A: 1d20 ⇒ 6 - Nope

Boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 14

DD-1B: The Blood Vow - Lem Rewards

Boon Roll: 1d20 ⇒ 18 -> None.

Tier Progression: (1.3) Lem gains a Hero Point.
Lem expends the Hero Point on a Skill Feat, and checks off...
Charisma d10 ☑ +1 ☐ +2 ☐ +3 ☐ +4

Lem still has 0 remaining Hero Points.

Scenario Reward: We get the Riding Allosaurus Loot Ally. I don't believe Lem's the best carrier for it, but if it's left unclaimed by the party then I'll probably end up using it.

Lem's Deck Upgrade preferences are as follows...

Boonage: 1d20 ⇒ 8
Hero Point - Card Feat
Blessing 4 [X] 5

Upgrade
Taking Blessing 0 BLESSING OF ABADAR fills in empty slot.
I'm assuming there are enough blessings to go around. And am happy to determine the Loot Ally randomly

CaG Boon: 1d20 ⇒ 7

Hero Point - Card Feat (Ally)

Deck Upgrade
Ally 1: 1d1000 ⇒ 9 - Wow, I'll just stand at the end of the line in case there's one left, I guess! ;-)

Boon: 1d20 ⇒ 4

Hero Point: Skill Feat Strength +1

Deck Upgrade: Blessing 1 (Blessing of the Gods -> Blessing of Shax)

Folks may object to doing it this way but in case they don't...
Riding Allosaurus, 1.Val,2.Seel,3.Kyra: 1d3 ⇒ 2
Me! Funny that! If anyone has strong feelings, I'm happy to let it go. I'll be replacing Masque with it

1B summary
Valeros/Skizzerz - skill feat, blessing 1
Seelah/NathanDavis - card feat, blessing 0
Lem/Yewstance - skill feat, ally 1
Kyra/Maelwys0 - card feat, ally 1

Let me know if this isn't accurate so i can update, as this is what will go on chronicles/be reported

Nice! That was fun, and even after some awkward moments and a fundamentally hostile set of Wildcards - perfectly matched to add to the scenario difficulty - we still managed to beat it with 20% of the hourglass left over. Much closer than I usually see, though.

DD-1C: The Wizard's Estate - Lem Rewards

Tier Progression: (1.4) Lem gains a Hero Point.
Lem does not expend the Hero Point, and has 1 remaining Hero Point.

Lem Tiers Up to Tier 2.

Scenario Reward: The party gets to draw boons of any type based on the quantity of cards in the Auction Pile. Lem won't need to do so based on his desired Deck Upgrades, so he'll pass on deciding which boons to draw.

Adventure Reward: We get a Level 1 boon of our choice from our Class Deck. Lem will use this to replace...