paizo.com Recent Comments on PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the Monkpaizo.com Recent Comments on PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the Monk2021-02-09T19:30:32Z2021-02-09T19:30:32ZRe: Forums/Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: General Discussion: Paizo Blog: PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the MonkMark Seifterhttps://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgyu?PACG-Core-Set-Class-Strategy-1-Sajan-the-Monk#72019-10-25T21:39:57Z2019-10-24T21:44:34Z<p>I guess I just have never needed three blessings to succeed so far (my only failed combat checks so far have been ones on which I had fewer than two blessings available due to not having enough available in hand and among my allies, or just terrible luck on an almost-sure thing that I chose not to bless to avoid a very low chance of failing). One thing that might help me not need the third blessing in Curse but that wouldn't help in Core is the Harrow blessings; some of them are wildly more powerful than others and if you have the right ones, it can easily be worth more than two generic blessings (for instance, the Carnival blesses you and has a powerful dice flip power that guarantees that you can't get a roll result worse than rolling average on your best two dice and 1 on the rest of your dice, at worst, the Cyclone blesses you and gives +2 for every 1 or 2 you roll which is great with all Sajan's numerous small dice especially if you don't go Iroran Dedicant to reroll 1s and 2s, etc). Many of the best can be better than blessing twice (and Old Deadeye can just bless twice). Without Harrows, Sajan might wind up playing very differently. Before the Core set when you generally always were granted 3 of your 4 starting card powers before moving on to the role, it was usually easy to find one of the four to not take, but in Core, it's tricky because if you do take the extra blessing and the unarmed buff, as the article suggests, you're either stuck at hand size 5 or have to take one hand size increase over a role card feat. A bigger hand has been pretty pivotal for me, and if you go unarmed and dump the weapon to free up hand space, you don't need to hold a weapon like I do, but you need a card to recharge for each combat check, on top of any blessings.</p>
<p>Incidentally, if you're playing in Curse with Sajan, starting in Part 3, you want to look out for either of the two Rovagug blessings on the hour; they both let you banish random blessings from your discard pile to do something. If these come up and assuming you're confident of a win without dying, try to get as many of your worst blessings as possible in your discard pile and then banish them with Rovagug (even if you don't really need the effect from Rovagug to succeed) while acquiring as few new blessings that game as possible. This allows you to take your pick of Harrow blessings, which are all Part 1, and the best of which are still going to be your best blessings at least through Part 4. It also helps you avoid carrying over Part 0 blessings to the vault in Part 4 if you can get rid of as many of those as possible from your deck.</p>I guess I just have never needed three blessings to succeed so far (my only failed combat checks so far have been ones on which I had fewer than two blessings available due to not having enough available in hand and among my allies, or just terrible luck on an almost-sure thing that I chose not to bless to avoid a very low chance of failing). One thing that might help me not need the third blessing in Curse but that wouldn't help in Core is the Harrow blessings; some of them are wildly more...Mark Seifter2019-10-24T21:44:34ZRe: Forums/Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: General Discussion: Paizo Blog: PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the MonkShannonAhttps://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgyu?PACG-Core-Set-Class-Strategy-1-Sajan-the-Monk#62019-10-24T06:02:20Z2019-10-24T05:44:51Z<p>I'll certainly admit to not having played Curse yet. We're hoping to finish Core Set on Monday, then start up with Curse in November.</p>
<p>I will note one other reason that the extra-blessing Power Feat is good: not all three blessings have to come from Sajan. He gets to play one (or two) freely, but the other one can come from another party member. So he doesn't need three blessings in his own hand.</p>
<p>Anywho, it's nice to be back, and thanks for the kind words and disagreements over strategy alike. There are certainly other ways to go with any of the characters!</p>I'll certainly admit to not having played Curse yet. We're hoping to finish Core Set on Monday, then start up with Curse in November.
I will note one other reason that the extra-blessing Power Feat is good: not all three blessings have to come from Sajan. He gets to play one (or two) freely, but the other one can come from another party member. So he doesn't need three blessings in his own hand.
Anywho, it's nice to be back, and thanks for the kind words and disagreements over strategy...ShannonA2019-10-24T05:44:51ZRe: Forums/Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: General Discussion: Paizo Blog: PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the MonkMark Seifterhttps://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgyu?PACG-Core-Set-Class-Strategy-1-Sajan-the-Monk#52019-10-24T19:01:44Z2019-10-12T19:15:11Z<p>I usually fully agree with Shannon's strategy articles, and I mainly agree here too, but I'm playing Sajan through Curse as my first character in the revision (Runelords Sajan was also my very first PACG character, not counting Seoni in a Paizocon Swallowtail playtest with little white notecards), and I really can't recommend the play two blessings freely power feat as a first choice over hand size or even the increased versatility of damage resist (but especially hand size, since it's hard to even have 2 of 3 blessings available to use on the same fight in a hand of 5). Acrobatics weapons instead of unarmed can also get you pretty far unless you have very high density of boons from later parts (the shock kukri's reveal is nearly the equivalent of a part 4 unarmed recharge, or part 2 if you take the d10 power feat, but if you have a lot of strong part 1 harrow blessings, it might be hard to consistently draw boons of higher parts to recharge and it's much harder to do a series of combats or two combat enemy if you have to recharge each time). </p>
<p>Sajan is clearly a very versatile character that allows for an incredible variety of different strategies. Shannon's tips from the article can build a Sajan who has to keep blessings for himself and might only be able to fight once per turn but is definitely going to win that fight (and would definitely be better able to gain Respect in Curse Part 4 than I can with my Sajan). I prefer to have a variety of blessings that can also help allies in a pinch and explore as much as possible; our Paizo group always seems to be closer to running out of turns than previous sets, and I've not yet come across something that would have required three blessings to fight it. Admittedly, I'm late in Part 4 right now; I may find out in Part 5 or 6 that I fall behind in combat without the d10 unarmed or the second free blessing. If people are interested I can update you guys later if anything changes!</p>
<p>The article didn't go into this because it's Curse specific, but taking Blackjack and then just not taking all Blackjack's weapons in order to have a place to shunt away extra weapons but still have one ready if you lose your main weapon for some reason is a great way to make your deck cycle better with blessings even if you are healed, but just like Shannon mentioned for discarding your weapons in the article, that strategy puts you closer to death.</p>I usually fully agree with Shannon's strategy articles, and I mainly agree here too, but I'm playing Sajan through Curse as my first character in the revision (Runelords Sajan was also my very first PACG character, not counting Seoni in a Paizocon Swallowtail playtest with little white notecards), and I really can't recommend the play two blessings freely power feat as a first choice over hand size or even the increased versatility of damage resist (but especially hand size, since it's hard...Mark Seifter2019-10-12T19:15:11ZRe: Forums/Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: General Discussion: Paizo Blog: PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the Monkredeuxhttps://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgyu?PACG-Core-Set-Class-Strategy-1-Sajan-the-Monk#42019-10-13T02:41:37Z2019-10-12T13:14:34Z<p>Looking forward to the rest of this blog series. Nice work Shannon!</p>Looking forward to the rest of this blog series. Nice work Shannon!redeux2019-10-12T13:14:34ZRe: Forums/Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: General Discussion: Paizo Blog: PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the MonkKeith Richmond (Lone Shark Games)https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgyu?PACG-Core-Set-Class-Strategy-1-Sajan-the-Monk#32019-10-14T15:44:01Z2019-10-12T12:19:04Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">burgus wrote:</div><blockquote> This is very cool! Can you do this for Lini next?</blockquote><p>Shannon has already written Lini, actually! It'll go up in a few weeks, shortly before I do my next character blog, so that we can stay in lock-step with a Shannon strategy following each of my design blogs for the characters.burgus wrote:This is very cool! Can you do this for Lini next?
Shannon has already written Lini, actually! It'll go up in a few weeks, shortly before I do my next character blog, so that we can stay in lock-step with a Shannon strategy following each of my design blogs for the characters.Keith Richmond (Lone Shark Games)2019-10-12T12:19:04ZRe: Forums/Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: General Discussion: Paizo Blog: PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the MonkFirst World Bardhttps://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgyu?PACG-Core-Set-Class-Strategy-1-Sajan-the-Monk#22019-10-12T12:41:07Z2019-10-12T11:55:03Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">burgus wrote:</div><blockquote> This is very cool! Can you do this for Lini next? I wanted to play her with my party soon, but when I tested her in a solo play I wasn't so sure what she's actually good at and how I should use her mechanics. It also seems there aren't enough animal allies in core (except low level ones) and especially curse (which has almost only human allies) to make her a great choice. Please prove me wrong. </blockquote><p>I've played Lini through the first 3 scenarios of the Core Set and she seems solid so far. I can't speak to further scenarios or Curse just yet, though I will say that the Riding Allosaurus loot ally is a guaranteed reasonable animal ally soon into Core.
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As general strategies go, for most combat checks I end up recharging two animals: One for her power of Survival + 1d4, and another animal that adds a d4 to a combat or Survival check (Droogami, Bat, and Snake can all do this). Recharging the second animal for it's power also lets me shuffle them into my deck so I get them back sooner. A skill feat into Wisdom and a Power feat into +1d4 when a local check invokes the Animal trait are priority pickups, since Lini's combat power does invoke the Animal trait. A couple of attack spells are good to have for enemies weak to the Attack trait (such as swarms).
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Lini's starting deck is fairly reasonable: the Hide Armor can help significantly with a Con or Fort check you need to make, the dagger is primarily there to help your Survival combat checks, and the Balmberry is a fine choice until you find something better, like the Gem of Mental Acuity.</p>burgus wrote:This is very cool! Can you do this for Lini next? I wanted to play her with my party soon, but when I tested her in a solo play I wasn't so sure what she's actually good at and how I should use her mechanics. It also seems there aren't enough animal allies in core (except low level ones) and especially curse (which has almost only human allies) to make her a great choice. Please prove me wrong.
I've played Lini through the first 3 scenarios of the Core Set and she seems solid so...First World Bard2019-10-12T11:55:03ZForums/Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: General Discussion: Paizo Blog: PACG Core Set Class Strategy #1: Sajan the Monkburgushttps://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgyu?PACG-Core-Set-Class-Strategy-1-Sajan-the-Monk#12019-10-12T08:28:27Z2019-10-12T08:28:27Z<p>This is very cool! Can you do this for Lini next? I wanted to play her with my party soon, but when I tested her in a solo play I wasn't so sure what she's actually good at and how I should use her mechanics. It also seems there aren't enough animal allies in core (except low level ones) and especially curse (which has almost only human allies) to make her a great choice. Please prove me wrong.</p>This is very cool! Can you do this for Lini next? I wanted to play her with my party soon, but when I tested her in a solo play I wasn't so sure what she's actually good at and how I should use her mechanics. It also seems there aren't enough animal allies in core (except low level ones) and especially curse (which has almost only human allies) to make her a great choice. Please prove me wrong.burgus2019-10-12T08:28:27Z