Alchemist Class Deck Preview

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

First, I would like to emit a gentle squeeing noise, then inform you that many Class Deck characters are soon to exist as Pathfinder Pawns! (If you're looking for pawns for the iconics, you'll find the Rise of the Runelords iconics in the NPC Codex Box and the ones from Skull & Shackles and Wrath of the Righteous in the Inner Sea Pawn Box, which also includes pawns for many of the characters in the upcoming Goblin decks!)

Since we've already had someone make the case for Damiel as the best character ever, we're skipping right to the Alchemist Class Deck preview this week. This deck is the brainchild of Lone Shark designers Liz Spain and Paul Peterson (and if you know them, you are now probably a little afraid and a lot excited). Let's get to it.

Damiel 2: Alchemical Boogaloo

Everyone's favorite potion-maker made his Pathfinder Adventure Card Game debut in the Skull & Shackles Base Set, wherein he flexed his Craft skill and threw as many Noxious Bombs as he could get his hands on. He was also fond of that set's Fire Lance, a tasty little firearm that featured the Alchemical trait. We've brought back the Fire Lance, and given it a big brother.


There was supposed to be an earth-shattering KABOOM!

As you can see, this Damiel's skipped the Craft checks for alchemical goodies and spell work and gone straight to automatic recharge, Valeros-style. He can also throw alchemy bombs as kickers to his Ranged attacks. Roles for this new Damiel are called Miscibility Master (because we respect the classics) and Mindchemist (because Liz is just a little insane).

The New Class: Cogsnap and Mother Myrtle

The other two characters in this deck are the definitely unstable Cogsnap and the grounded, nurturing Mother Myrtle. Cogsnap has some of my favorite character art in the whole game; you can tell just by looking at him what sort of character he is. He blows up monsters then harvests them for parts. My favorite role for this fellow is the Bloodbomber, whose flavor text reads, "To bloodbombers, all liquids can be turned into explosives, including what remains after the explosion." [Mike: My work here is done.] Maniacal cackling is basically a requirement if you want to play Cogsnap.


Heheheheheheheheheh... boom.

Mother Myrtle, by contrast, is a sweet old lady. A jaunty sprig of holly rides atop her hat. She carries bundles of grain and a bowl of something nourishing. I'm sure she only uses that scythe to harvest herbs. And her roles are Preservationist and... Reanimator?


I bet the witch in Hansel and Gretel looked friendly too.

Myrtle is a spellcaster who's very thrifty. She likes to keep things cycling, and she knows a little about a lot. I find her to be a very well-rounded character to play; I hope you like her.

Where's the Candy?

To close, I thought I'd share with you some of the cool new boons we've put in this deck, including some sneak previews of a whole bunch of Mummy's Mask cards that we just couldn't wait to put into print. This deck is all about the Alchemical trait and elemental damage types, so I've got a shield that's useful if you accidentally blow yourself up, some silver-tongue elixir, and possibly my favorite ally art yet.


You can't go wrong with a little flensing jelly. Put it on your toast, grease up a door hinge, or strip the skin off your most recent kill. It does everything!

The Alchemist Class Deck is in stores April 27, and available for preorder now.

Until next time, Pathfinders!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

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Tags: Alchemists Class Decks Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
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Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Liars! :-P wrote:
As you can see, this Damiel's skipped the Craft checks for alchemical goodies and spell work and gone straight to automatic recharge, Valeros-style.

I think you guys forgot to put the actual character card image in here for Damiel. :)


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Well, I *was* going to take Grazzle into Bloodsail Corsairs, but now I think Mother Myrtle will be my go-to when I get around to that.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

The Cogsnap, Balazar, Tontelizi, Lini superfungnome party may soon be rampaging through a another run of Wrath.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Long awaited! I'll be picking this up.

I do miss the thing from the deck that got eliminated.

Dark Archive

Hooray! Bombs and firearms. I can't wait for my subscription to ship!

Silver Crusade

So even though this Damiel looks like a minmaxed version of S&S Damiel, I think I have to vote Mother Myrtle as the BEST ALCHEMIST EVER!


What am I missing? How can Damiel use things like the Flame cannon without a ranged skill?


Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
What am I missing? How can Damiel use things like the Flame cannon without a ranged skill?

Everyone has at least a d4 for Ranged. Throw 4d8 on top of that and you have a big boom. Or you put 2d8 on another combat check, Ranged skill or no.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
What am I missing? How can Damiel use things like the Flame cannon without a ranged skill?

Or you can use the Flame Cannon with S&S Damiel or Cogsnap.


jones314 wrote:
Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
What am I missing? How can Damiel use things like the Flame cannon without a ranged skill?
Everyone has at least a d4 for Ranged. Throw 4d8 on top of that and you have a big boom. Or you put 2d8 on another combat check, Ranged skill or no.

Apologies, I did not clearly articulate the problem. Damiel's power requires him to make dex based combat checks. But he cant do that with the cannon without the the ranged skill. Does Damiel have some other way to allow him to make a ranged based combat check? It seems odd to pair him in the preview with a card he cant really use all that well.

Adventure Card Game Designer

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Two fun facts about the flavor text I wrote for these cards:

1) If you ever want to know why I picked Pathfinder to launch my adventure card game mechanic, know this: the words "bleachling lunatic" are a game term.

2) Liz and I love love love mushrooms. Tanis, Gaby, and Chad think mushrooms are agents of the Devil. So Liz and I made sure that they can't play Mother Myrtle without thinking about mushrooms all game long.


Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
jones314 wrote:
Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
What am I missing? How can Damiel use things like the Flame cannon without a ranged skill?
Everyone has at least a d4 for Ranged. Throw 4d8 on top of that and you have a big boom. Or you put 2d8 on another combat check, Ranged skill or no.
Apologies, I did not clearly articulate the problem. Damiel's power requires him to make dex based combat checks. But he cant do that with the cannon without the the ranged skill. Does Damiel have some other way to allow him to make a ranged based combat check? It seems odd to pair him in the preview with a card he cant really use all that well.

He's not using that power. He's simply using the Cannon for what it is - 1d4 + 4d8 and he gets to recharge it because it's alchemical.


A gunslinger could obviously use their full array of powers with the cannon, and be far more effective with it, for that one check. Then it goes back in the box
Damiel, on the other hand, can recharge it and keep using it over and over, even if it isn't quite as powerful


Mike Selinker wrote:

2) Liz and I love love love mushrooms. Tanis, Gaby, and Chad think mushrooms are agents of the Devil. So Liz and I made sure that they can't play Mother Myrtle without thinking about mushrooms all game long.

Keith has not weighed in on this very important matter.

Also, are they magical mushrooms?


Is it just me, or does mother Myrtle have very pointy ears for a human?


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Whenever the Witch class deck gets out, we need a bunch of mushrooms cards.


Since 'Flame Canon' in my mind rather evokes something like a giant flamethrower, can someone explain, RPG-wise, why it would have both Bludgeoning and Fire traits? Does it have like two modes of operation, or it fires cannonballs that cast Fireball on impact, or ...?


Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
jones314 wrote:
Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
What am I missing? How can Damiel use things like the Flame cannon without a ranged skill?
Everyone has at least a d4 for Ranged. Throw 4d8 on top of that and you have a big boom. Or you put 2d8 on another combat check, Ranged skill or no.
Apologies, I did not clearly articulate the problem. Damiel's power requires him to make dex based combat checks. But he cant do that with the cannon without the the ranged skill. Does Damiel have some other way to allow him to make a ranged based combat check? It seems odd to pair him in the preview with a card he cant really use all that well.

I think SnS Damiel was too powerful out of the gate. He will probably have a role card with range skill. I think this is a better design.

Grand Lodge

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Longshot11 wrote:
Since 'Flame Canon' in my mind rather evokes something like a giant flamethrower, can someone explain, RPG-wise, why it would have both Bludgeoning and Fire traits? Does it have like two modes of operation, or it fires cannonballs that cast Fireball on impact, or ...?

Focused concussion?

Aliandra Giltessan wrote:
So even though this Damiel looks like a minmaxed version of S&S Damiel, I think I have to vote Mother Myrtle as the BEST ALCHEMIST EVER!

RIGHT?!??! She's got that bardic dual-spelling and a way to recharge when she should be banishing. Gads, give her one of those one-shot +10-to-combat-spells and she'll be terrifying.

Grand Lodge

On Mother Myrtle's flavor text, should creatures REALLY be skittling, rather thank skittering?

I mean, clearly, they come in a rainbow of colors and MM probably considers them candy, but, seriously...

Silver Crusade

James McKendrew wrote:
Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
So even though this Damiel looks like a minmaxed version of S&S Damiel, I think I have to vote Mother Myrtle as the BEST ALCHEMIST EVER!
RIGHT?!??! She's got that bardic dual-spelling and a way to recharge when she should be banishing. Gads, give her one of those one-shot +10-to-combat-spells and she'll be terrifying.

I mean, I mostly meant that she was a sweet, old, creepy lady, and we can def never have too many of those in the card game. But knowledge to recharge everything is awesome too!

UPDATE: Just realized that with a power feat, she can make a knowledge check to recharge blessings, cuz divine trait.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
James McKendrew wrote:
Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
So even though this Damiel looks like a minmaxed version of S&S Damiel, I think I have to vote Mother Myrtle as the BEST ALCHEMIST EVER!
RIGHT?!??! She's got that bardic dual-spelling and a way to recharge when she should be banishing. Gads, give her one of those one-shot +10-to-combat-spells and she'll be terrifying.

I mean, I mostly meant that she was a sweet, old, creepy lady, and we can def never have too many of those in the card game. But knowledge to recharge everything is awesome too!

UPDATE: Just realized that with a power feat, she can make a knowledge check to recharge blessings, cuz divine trait.

Wow. That's a huge deal. I think we're gonna see a LOT of Mother Myrtles out there in the wild once this deck comes out.

Sovereign Court

Myrtle is cool, but Damiel all the way!


cartmanbeck wrote:
Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
James McKendrew wrote:
Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
So even though this Damiel looks like a minmaxed version of S&S Damiel, I think I have to vote Mother Myrtle as the BEST ALCHEMIST EVER!
RIGHT?!??! She's got that bardic dual-spelling and a way to recharge when she should be banishing. Gads, give her one of those one-shot +10-to-combat-spells and she'll be terrifying.

I mean, I mostly meant that she was a sweet, old, creepy lady, and we can def never have too many of those in the card game. But knowledge to recharge everything is awesome too!

UPDATE: Just realized that with a power feat, she can make a knowledge check to recharge blessings, cuz divine trait.

Wow. That's a huge deal. I think we're gonna see a LOT of Mother Myrtles out there in the wild once this deck comes out.

THAT is interesting - although it'd be Knowledge 7 for even a base-set blessing, and you probably want to put at least some points into her wisdom, so it's not a given.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

MightyJim wrote:
cartmanbeck wrote:
Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
James McKendrew wrote:
Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
So even though this Damiel looks like a minmaxed version of S&S Damiel, I think I have to vote Mother Myrtle as the BEST ALCHEMIST EVER!
RIGHT?!??! She's got that bardic dual-spelling and a way to recharge when she should be banishing. Gads, give her one of those one-shot +10-to-combat-spells and she'll be terrifying.

I mean, I mostly meant that she was a sweet, old, creepy lady, and we can def never have too many of those in the card game. But knowledge to recharge everything is awesome too!

UPDATE: Just realized that with a power feat, she can make a knowledge check to recharge blessings, cuz divine trait.

Wow. That's a huge deal. I think we're gonna see a LOT of Mother Myrtles out there in the wild once this deck comes out.
THAT is interesting - although it'd be Knowledge 7 for even a base-set blessing, and you probably want to put at least some points into her wisdom, so it's not a given.

Sure, but with a d8+2 from the start, you're looking at recharging (ALMOST) any blessing just under 50% of the time on average, and you can eventually have d8+5, meaning you'd only fail to recharge a B blessing on a 1. Pretty huge. If you combine it with a reveal-to-boost-Knowledge boon (I know there's at least one book in Wrath of the Righteous that does this, right?) then you're gonna recharge blessings ALL the time.


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cartmanbeck wrote:
MightyJim wrote:


THAT is interesting - although it'd be Knowledge 7 for even a base-set blessing, and you probably want to put at least some points into her wisdom, so it's not a given.

Sure, but with a d8+2 from the start, you're looking at recharging (ALMOST) any blessing just under 50% of the time on average, and you can eventually have d8+5, meaning you'd only fail to recharge a B blessing on a 1. Pretty huge. If you combine it with a reveal-to-boost-Knowledge boon (I know there's at least one book in Wrath of the Righteous that does this, right?) then you're gonna recharge blessings ALL the time.

Good point - I'd forgotten about reveal boosts to knowledge checks. This does look good.

Grand Lodge

Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
UPDATE: Just realized that with a power feat, she can make a knowledge check to recharge blessings, cuz divine trait.

EEEEEK! That's kinda frightening (once she gets the "or discard" power). Recharging to explore? Time to stockpile Pearls of Wisdom.

Adventure Card Game Designer

Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
It seems odd to pair him in the preview with a card he cant really use all that well.

but . . . it's a cannon. It goes boom. yay, boom!


Cogsnap could probably wrong a few sweet combats out of that cannon before giving it up.


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Tanis O'Connor wrote:
Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
It seems odd to pair him in the preview with a card he cant really use all that well.
but . . . it's a cannon. It goes boom. yay, boom!

Big booms are great! And I suppose that Damiel shines when using the second power. I think I just got thrown by "He can also throw alchemy bombs as kickers to his Ranged attacks," and was trying to find a way to make that true.

Your blog posts are wonderful, I just need to remind myself that they aren't canonical rules.


Googam wrote:
Cogsnap could probably wrong a few sweet combats out of that cannon before giving it up.

By the time you get the cannon you have enough upgrade feats that you will fire every single turn. As long as you keep winning, you have the resources to never give it up.

Silver Crusade

Slacker2010 wrote:
Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
jones314 wrote:
Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
What am I missing? How can Damiel use things like the Flame cannon without a ranged skill?
Everyone has at least a d4 for Ranged. Throw 4d8 on top of that and you have a big boom. Or you put 2d8 on another combat check, Ranged skill or no.
Apologies, I did not clearly articulate the problem. Damiel's power requires him to make dex based combat checks. But he cant do that with the cannon without the the ranged skill. Does Damiel have some other way to allow him to make a ranged based combat check? It seems odd to pair him in the preview with a card he cant really use all that well.
I think SnS Damiel was too powerful out of the gate. He will probably have a role card with range skill. I think this is a better design.

Hopefully. The lack of static bonuses are going to make him very risky early on. Not to mention blessings won't help much.


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I can tell I'm going to be torn between Mother Myrtle's roles. Also, I keep reading it as Moaning Myrtle.

Pathfinder ACG Developer

I'd believe this Myrtle might hum, mutter, and cackle, but let's leaving the moaning to Harry Potter's Myrtle.

Adventure Card Game Designer

Joshua Birk 898 wrote:


Big booms are great! And I suppose that Damiel shines when using the second power. I think I just got thrown by "He can also throw alchemy bombs as kickers to his Ranged attacks," and was trying to find a way to make that true.

I probably had S&S Damiel in front of me while writing that, honestly, and missed it in revisions. Mea culpa.

Joshua Birk 898 wrote:


Your blog posts are wonderful, I just need to remind myself that they aren't canonical rules.

Oh, good heavens, please do remind yourself of that early and often.


Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
UPDATE: Just realized that with a power feat, she can make a knowledge check to recharge blessings, cuz divine trait.

Except its a When you would banish trigger - it's clearly there for spells.

Most blessings are "discard to" effects.
EDIT: Just noticed she can upgrade to a "discard" trigger. That will be powerful. But at least she doesn't start with it.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

zayzayem wrote:
EDIT: Just noticed she can upgrade to a "discard" trigger. That will be powerful. But at least she doesn't start with it.

In OP, she only has to survive two scenarios without it before she gets her first power feat. Even a 50/50 shot of recharging every blessing is pretty good, plus she'll likely run Cure for when her discard finally does pile up and she can start the whole process anew.


We also don't know how many blessings she'll have in her deck though. It might not be that many.


Hawkmoon269 wrote:
We also don't know how many blessings she'll have in her deck though. It might not be that many.

Swoops in and ruins all the fun speculation...


cosined wrote:
Hawkmoon269 wrote:
We also don't know how many blessings she'll have in her deck though. It might not be that many.
Swoops in and ruins all the fun speculation...

Oh. Sorry. I mean... uh... her deck could be nothing but blessing and spells! Like, half and half or something!

Silver Crusade

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Hawkmoon269 wrote:
cosined wrote:
Hawkmoon269 wrote:
We also don't know how many blessings she'll have in her deck though. It might not be that many.
Swoops in and ruins all the fun speculation...
Oh. Sorry. I mean... uh... her deck could be nothing but blessing and spells! Like, half and half or something!

We will also allow some items with the liquid/alchemical trait.


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Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
jones314 wrote:
Joshua Birk 898 wrote:
What am I missing? How can Damiel use things like the Flame cannon without a ranged skill?
Everyone has at least a d4 for Ranged. Throw 4d8 on top of that and you have a big boom. Or you put 2d8 on another combat check, Ranged skill or no.
Apologies, I did not clearly articulate the problem. Damiel's power requires him to make dex based combat checks. But he cant do that with the cannon without the the ranged skill. Does Damiel have some other way to allow him to make a ranged based combat check? It seems odd to pair him in the preview with a card he cant really use all that well.

Much like the RPG, I expect him to have plenty of ranged weapons that use Dex and thus will be the basis of his offense. Meaning he'd use the cannon (repeatedly!) for its 2d8, which is an awesome recharge-a-card boost.

Beyond that, yes, it would take an as-yet-unseen feat for him to use the Cannon for his combat check, and still discard some other potion to add his Int.
(( Or, as Tanis noted, maybe the text is not 100% accurate. :) ))

What I love about these previews is also what I hate - they make me want to play all of the characters and I just don't have a group for that. Heh.


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Longshot11 wrote:
Since 'Flame Canon' in my mind rather evokes something like a giant flamethrower, can someone explain, RPG-wise, why it would have both Bludgeoning and Fire traits? Does it have like two modes of operation, or it fires cannonballs that cast Fireball on impact, or ...?

It shoots cannonballs via an exothermic reaction. So, not only are you getting hit by a big lump of metal, that lump of metal is superheated.


I got my order e-mail! Shipping soon! Yay! Exclamation points!

Grand Lodge

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Got mine last night. Woot! Alchemist's deck, and a couple of accessories for Guild Rerolls. B-)


Very excited about this one! My wife has pointed out, "You have been excited about all of them," but the design team has really been coming out with some fun and creative mechanics in recent sets.

Adventure Card Game Designer

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fuji6100 wrote:
Very excited about this one! My wife has pointed out, "You have been excited about all of them," but the design team has really been coming out with some fun and creative mechanics in recent sets.

Glad you like! We've been having fun doing the work, which generally means the design will end up fun.

Scarab Sages

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I agree that the recent sets are way better than the earlier sets. I really hope that some of my favorite classes (like Bard) get some love with a second, better deck later. With more than like three dex-based weapons in the set.

Or maybe they'll have a (not-Lem) bard in some combo-class deck.


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These new 3 character sets are so much better. Mechanically and in terms of characterful cards.

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