Core Design: Kyra

We’ve been talking about the design of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Core Set characters, including Amiri, Lini, Sajan, Seoni, Valeros, and Lem. Today, we’re going to talk about a character that is Melee-capable, good with armors, a top-tier Divine spellcaster, a strong healer, and especially good versus undead. We’re talking about Kyra, cleric of Sarenrae.

The original, excellent, and slightly too wordy PACG cleric.

Because it was our first Adventure Path, Rise of the Runelords was establishing baselines both for iconic characters and also for character classes. Anyone who’s played the Pathfinder RPG for a while knows that the cleric is a very versatile class; to translate to the PACG, that meant giving Kyra both a d12 Wisdom and a good Divine bonus, making her a very competent spellcaster. To distinguish her from other primary spellcasters like Ezren, her cards list is more varied. In practice, Kyra’s d12+2 can cast and recharge spells as effectively as Ezren, but with 3 to 5 spells in her deck, she’s going to use a variety of methods to solve problems, including skills, powers, and cards of all types.

We also give her the original built-in healing power (thankfully, we were eventually able to clarify the wording). In this case Kyra can spend her explorations to heal someone (including herself) at her location. This became the fundamental cleric-healing power, later used by several characters. While keeping healing “local” seems obvious to people familiar with Pathfinder, in PACG it adds a subtle, important effect: when people get low on “health” (cards in their deck), on their turns, they come to Kyra for help. In practice, this often means negotiating where they want to take their turns so that they can be in the right place—i.e. Kyra’s—on her turn. Since Kyra has a large number of blessings in her deck, she can choose when to use them to help herself, to help others, and also when they can allow her to both heal vulnerable party members and still make progress exploring the scenario. As players gain mastery with the game, they learn that it’s important to figure out when to ask for help, and also how to not waste Kyra’s entire turn keeping them alive—classic shorter-term to longer-term systems mastery.

Kyra is also especially good against Undead, as you might expect from a devotee of the sun god. Her second power makes her better at defeating Undead (with weapon, spell, or raw skill), and also helps her avoid nasty effects from before- and after-acting powers. Adding the Magic trait is important for dealing with Incorporeal Undead. Early in her adventuring career, this can be especially helpful when big weapons fail to get rid of pernicious undead such as Ghosts and Shadows. When she gets a role card, Kyra could choose to focus on various aspects of Sarenrae as either a Healer, focusing on keeping everyone (including herself) going, or an Exorcist, leaning more into the smashy-smitey side of things.

During Skull & Shackles, we rested Kyra (be honest, if you had to choose a character to “go piratical” for a bit, would you pick Kyra over Oloch or Feiya? Neither did we.) The next version of Kyra was in the Cleric Class Deck, where she strikes a strong balance between martial and magical. As such, her skills and powers are quite different.

Same great cards list, brand new sword flex.

Class Deck Kyra is notably better with weapons, especially Swords, while she’s still able to marshal some potent divine impact. If you wanted to bring her into Skull & Shackles, she’s also pretty capable with navigation and swimming via her Survival skill. Her healing power takes a small hit in flexibility, but clever players can usually work around it. When she gains a role card, she can choose between Fireflower and Wastelander. The former focuses on the more aggressive aspects of the Church of the Dawnflower, while the latter helps Kyra and her companions get around in the world.

When it came time to put together a group of characters for Wrath of the Righteous, we (okay, I) wanted Kyra to be involved in the adventure into the Worldwound for two big reasons: one, I thought it was an excellent fit for the character; and two, I wanted to try a new approach to healing. For facing off against lots of demons, we built a Kyra who is expert at dealing with Undead and Demons, and a master at wielding the Healing Flame. She’s still capable of wading into melee with sword and armor, but she has a larger selection of spells than previous versions.

Bringing the Everlight into the demonic darkness.

In this incarnation, rather than spending her explorations healing people, Kyra instead adds a small bit of healing to her divine channeling. This changes up the play dynamics of groups facing a significant challenge, which is something that Wrath of the Righteous definitely can bring to the table. People who were big fans of Kyra gave me a pretty wide array of reactions at first, but as they gained more experience with her, they usually found her to be effective and fun. When she gains a role card, you can choose between Dawnflower’s Flare, which focuses on the offensive power of divine fire, and Everlight’s Grace, which focuses on the healing and protective elements of Sarenrae’s church.

For the PACG Core Set, we wanted to return to the “core” expression of the cleric. We adjusted to some of the changes from the Second Edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but also brought the things we’d learned from publishing roughly a dozen different clerics for PACG (and at least twice that many “healer type” characters). We struck a middle ground between her strongest and weakest melee prowess, alongside a very strong divine spellcasting ability and a strong personality. Her built-in healing power still requires that you be in the same place, for a small healing effect that doesn’t consume your ability to progress through the scenario. If your situation requires bigger healing effects, you can invest in boons that provide them.

These two images need to be remade, as the set icon in the placed images above is messed up.

She retains a version of her offensive channeling power against Outsiders and Undead, but this version can be used to help herself and others, again reflecting a change in approach from Pathfinder. The other skills that seemed especially appropriate were moved to a power feat, making them a player choice. Her deck list is adjusted slightly, but still represents a fairly even spread across all card types—Kyra has weapons and armor, spells and blessings, and items and allies. (And introducing the terms “heal” and “local” let us slash the word count of her second power.)

Friendly friend, or fighter of foes.

When she gains a role card (level 3 in the Core Set), she can choose between Dawnseeker and Smiter, effectively gaining a greater specialization in either the helpful or aggressive aspects of her faith. As a Dawnseeker, Kyra helps everyone local (including herself) with desirable boons, and is effective against more kinds of harm. Kyra the Smiter instead is helpful and effective against a larger variety of foes, including using Core’s new avenge mechanic and helping make sure that Kyra is nearly always ready for battle.

That’s it for Kyra today. This post is longer and more detailed than some of the others I’ve done lately. I’m curious if people are interested in the extra depth, if there are other topics they’d like to see (either in addition or instead), and if, like me, you all correctly believe that clerics are the best. :-)

Thanks,

Chad Brown
Adventure Card Game Lead Developer