Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Core Conversion Guide
Last updated: November 07, 2019.
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Rules
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Characters and Roles
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Locations
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Cohorts
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Scourges
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Ships
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Story Banes
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Monsters
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Weapons
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Spells
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Armors
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Items
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Allies
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Blessings
Rules
The rules for which older cards get put into recovery need to be broadened in certain cases.
The Transition Guide on page 26 of the Core Set Rulebook says "If a card you banish to play has a check that can allow you to do something other than banish it, put it in a recovery pile and attempt that check at the end of the turn." You should also put it in a recovery pile if you have a power on your character card or on a displayed card that can allow you to do something other than banish that card.
Some scenarios, villains, and henchmen care about the number of closed locations.
Whenever you count closed locations, count the number of locations the party has closed whether or not they are still in play.
This applies to the S&S villain Commander Kyan Kain, Season of the Righteous villain Ylyda Svyn, and Season of Factions’ Favor henchman Ahkair’s Slander, as well as many scenarios.
When a location is closed, the new rules have you put it back into the vault, then characters at that location automatically move and the current player can no longer explore. But locations from older sets should stay in play when closed, and a few characters need some adjustments related to moving and/or exploring after a location is returned to the vault.
When you would put a location card back into the vault, flip it over. If it does not have a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game logo on the back (meaning it's an older location), it stays in play and local characters do not automatically move; closed locations are automatically guarded. If the location does have a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game logo on the back (meaning it's a newer location), return it to the vault and replace the following powers on the following characters until the end of the turn.
- S&S Feiya (Sea Witch role): Replace “When you close a location, you may move” with “Closing your location does not prevent you from exploring”.
- Barbarian CD Amiri: Replace “At the end of your turn (□ or when your location closes), you may move.” with these two powers: "At the end of your turn, you may move. / □ Closing your location does not prevent you from exploring."
- Barbarian CD Amiri (Immovable Object role): Replace “At the end of your turn (□ or when your location closes), you may move (□ or you may recharge a card).” with these three powers: "At the end of your turn, you may move. / □ Closing your location does not prevent you from exploring. / □ At the end of your turn or after your location closes, you may recharge a card."
- Barbarian CD Amiri (Unstoppable Force role): Replace “At the end of your turn (□ or when your location closes), you may move. (□ If you do, you may then examine the top card of your location deck.)” with these two powers: "At the end of your turn, you may move. (□ After using this power, or when you move after your location closes, you may examine the top card of your location deck.) / □ Closing your location does not prevent you from exploring."
- Ranger CD Wrathack (Sentry role): Replace “After you close a location, you may move” with “Closing your location does not prevent you from exploring”.
- Sorcerer CD Seoni (Dragon Initiate role): Replace “At the end of your turn (□ or when you close a location), you may bury (□ or recharge) a spell to move.” with these two powers: "At the end of your turn, you may bury (□ or recharge) a spell to move. / □ Closing your location does not prevent you from exploring."
(Note that this replaces the following text from the Transition Guide on page 26 of the Core Set Rulebook: “Since closed locations are banished, ignore effects that involve interacting with closed locations, and treat the term ‘open location’ as referring to any location on the table.”)
Characters and Roles
Since all characters are considered proficient with Light Armors, characters and roles that have a feat for Light Armor proficiency should be given an additional hand size feat instead.
On the following characters and roles, replace the Light Armor proficiency feat with an additional hand size feat.
- RotR: Lem and Lini
- S&S: Alahazra, Lem, and Lini
- WotR: Seoni (Corruptor role only), promo character Ekkie
- MM: Ezren and Simoun
- Cleric CD: Zarlova (Scholar role only)
- Druid CD: Lini
- Hell’s Vengeance 2 CD: Nyctessa
- Magus CD: Talitha (Staff Master role only)
- Oracle CD: Alahazra
- Rogue CD: Lesath
- Sorcerer CD: Amaryllis and Valendron
Note that this applies only to characters that have proficiency with Light Armors as a feat—that is, with a checkbox. Characters who have the proficiency without a checkbox don't receive this adjustment.
Core allows characters to be proficient with many new things.
In addition to treating all characters that have the Arcane or Divine skill as proficient with the corresponding trait, add these proficiencies to the following characters:
- RotR Lem: Instrument
- RotR Sajan: Liquid (Drunken Master role only)
- S&S Damiel: Spell
- S&S Lem: Instrument
- MM Ahmotep: Staff
- MM Damiel: Alchemical
- MM Mavaro: Arcane and Divine
- MM Yoon: Fire
- MM Zadim: Poison
- Alchemist CD Cogsnap: Alchemical
- Alchemist CD Damiel: Alchemical and Spell
- Alchemist CD Mother Myrtle: Alchemical, Arcane, Divine, and Liquid
- Bard CD Bekah, Lem, Meliski, and Siwar: Instrument
- Fighter CD Flenta: Arcane Item
- Hell’s Vengeance 2 CD Emil: Poison
- Magus CD Talitha: Staff
- Occult Adventures 1 CD Meligaster and Rivani: Mental
- Occult Adventures 2 CD Erasmus and Mavaro: Arcane and Divine
- Occult Adventures 2 CD Yoon: Fire
- Rogue CD Wu Shen: Poison
- Sorcerer CD Qualzar: Mental
- Ultimate Equipment CD Reiko: Poison
- Witch CD Feiya and Raheli: Arcane
- Witch CD Kasmir: Arcane and Healing
- Wizard CD Radillo: Mental
The "one card of each type per party" limitation means that characters that are allowed to play more than one card of a certain type need to be able to play them freely.
Replace the following powers on the following characters:
- RotR Sajan: "You may play any number of blessings on your combat check; recharge them instead of discarding them" becomes "On your combat check, you may play any number of blessings freely; recharge them instead of discarding them".
- MM Ezren (Spell Sage role): "You may play 2 spells on a check; only 1 may determine the skill you use for the check" becomes "On any check, you may play a spell freely".
- Alchemist CD Mother Myrtle: "You may play an additional ally on your check (□ or any check)" becomes "On your check (□ or any check), you may play an ally freely".
- Bard CD Meliski (Brawler role): "You may play 2 blessings on your combat check (□ and recharge them instead of discarding them)" becomes "On your combat check, you may play a blessing freely (□ and recharge any blessings you play instead of discarding them)".
Recovery requires that alchemists work a bit differently.
Replace the following powers on the following characters:
- S&S Damiel: Replace “When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait, recharge it instead” with “During recovery, you may recharge Alchemical boons instead of banishing them”. Replace “When you play a spell that does not have the Attack trait, you gain the skills Arcane and Divine equal to your Craft skill until the end of the step” with “For your check against non-Attack spells, you may use Craft”.
- MM Damiel: Replace “When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait for its power, you may discard it instead (▢ then you may draw a card).” with “During recovery, you may discard Alchemical boons instead of banishing them.” and “▢ When you put an Alchemical boon into your recovery pile, you may draw a card.” On his Toxicologist role, that second power gets at the end “(▢ or you may search your deck for an Alchemical boon and reload it).”
- Alchemist CD Cogsnap: Replace “When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait for its power, you may (▢ discard it or) banish another card that has the Alchemical or Liquid trait instead.” with “When you would put an Alchemical card in your recovery pile, you may instead put a different Alchemical or Liquid card in your recovery pile.” and “▢ During recovery, you may discard Alchemical boons instead of banishing them.” On his Bloodbomber role, that second power is “▢ During recovery, you may discard (▢ or recharge) Alchemical boons instead of banishing them.”
- Alchemist CD Damiel: Replace “When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait or a spell for its power, you may recharge it instead.” with “During recovery, you may recharge Alchemical boons instead of banishing them.” and “On your check to recharge a non-Attack spell, you automatically succeed.”
- Alchemist CD Mother Myrtle: Replace “You may use your Wisdom skill for your Arcane (□ or Divine) check” with “You may use your Wisdom skill (▢ +1d4) for your Arcane (▢ or Divine) check”. Replace “When you would banish (▢ or discard) a boon that has the Alchemical, Arcane, Divine, or Liquid trait for its power, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 plus the card’s adventure deck number. If you succeed, recharge it (▢ or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.” to “When you attempt to recover an Alchemical or Liquid boon, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 plus the card's level. If you succeed, recharge it (▢ or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.” On her Reanimator role, the latter power becomes “When you attempt to recover an Alchemical or Liquid boon, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 (▢ 5) plus the card's level. If you succeed, recharge it (▢ or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.”
WotR promo character Ekkie has a power that cares about the Basic trait.
On her character and both sides of her role card, replace "For your check that has or is against a card that has the Animal or Basic trait (□ or has an adventure deck number less than the current scenario), add..." with "On your check that invokes the Animal trait, or your check against a level 0 card (□ or a card whose level is less than #), or when you play a card of that level to determine which skill you're using, add..."
Druid CD Lini’s Menhir Savant role has a bunch of powers that only work at closed locations.
Add the following power to that role (with no feat checkbox): “When a location closes, you may place a marker on it; if you do, don’t put the location card back into the vault, but characters there may immediately move as usual. Treat locations marked by this power as closed and guarded.”
Fighter CD Flenta has a power that cares about cards that don’t have adventure deck numbers.
Replace “After you play a spell that has the Arcane trait for its power, draw a random spell from the box that does not have an adventure deck number and has the Arcane trait and recharge it” with “After you play an Arcane spell for its power, recharge a new Arcane spell that is level #–2 or lower (minimum 0)”.
Hell's Vengeance 1 Urgraz's Tyrant role needs an adjustment to account for recovery piles.
Replace "▢ When another character at your location would banish (□ or bury) a card from her hand for its power, you may bury a boon to put that card in your hand" with "▢ When another character at your location would banish (□ or bury) a card from their hand for its power or from their recovery pile, you may bury a boon to put that card in your hand."
Hell’s Vengeance 2 Lazzero’s spell recharging power needs to happen during recovery.
Replace “▢ When you would discard a spell for its power, you may recharge it (▢ or shuffle it into your deck) instead” with “▢ When you would discard a spell during recovery, you may recharge it (▢ or shuffle it into your deck) instead”.
Witch CD Kasmir's last power needs an adjustment to work during recovery.
Replace "▢ When you attempt a check to acquire or would banish a card that has the Healing trait, you may recharge a spell to gain the skill Divine: Intelligence +0" with "▢ On your check against a Healing card, you may recharge a spell to gain the skill Divine: Intelligence +0".
Locations
The Core Set Rulebook makes it clear that using a power on your character card is playing your character card. But the Festering Maze of Sloth's card play limits shouldn't apply to character powers or cohorts.
On the RotR location Festering Maze of Sloth, change "You may play no more than 1 card per check" to "You may play no more than 1 boon per check."
Cohorts
The Witch Class Deck cohorts need to remain in play so you have the skills you need during recovery.
Instead of reloading the card, you’ll just mark it when it’s no longer usable. Use the following text for the second power of each cohort:
- Centipede: “If this card has no markers, on your combat check, you may discard a card and mark this card to add 1d12 and the Poison trait; if you have a role, add an additional 1d12. At the end of your turn, remove the marker.”
- Compsognathus: “If this card has no markers, on your before acting check, you may discard a card and mark this card to add 1d6; if you have a role, add an additional 1d6. At the end of your turn, remove the marker.”
- Daji: “If this card has no markers, you may discard a card and mark this card to heal 1d4 spells; if you have a role, heal 1d4+1 spells instead. At the end of your turn, remove the marker.”
- Flesh Poppet: “When you defeat an Undead monster, you may recharge a card to mark this card. On your combat check, you may remove all markers on this card to add the Undead trait and 1d4 for each marker; if you have a role, instead add the Undead trait and 1d8 for each marker.”
- Flying Squirrel: “If this card has no markers, you may recharge a card and mark this card to move; if you have a role, any 1 local character may move with you. At the end of your turn, remove the marker. You may not use this power during an encounter.”
- Snapping Turtle: “If this card has no markers, when you suffer damage, you may recharge a card and mark this card to reduce it by 4; if you have a role, reduce it to 0. At the end of your turn, remove the marker.”
Because of those changes to the cohorts, Feiya's Beast-Bonder role needs adjustment on two feats that required her cohorts to be in her hand. Use the following text:
- ▢ On your turn, you may mark a displayed Witch Class Deck cohort (▢ or reload an Animal, Arcane, or Vermin ally) to examine the top card of your location. (▢ Then you may discard a card to explore your location.)
- ▢ You may bury (▢ or discard) a displayed cohort (▢ or an Animal, Arcane, or Vermin ally) to reduce damage dealt to you to 0.
Scourges
Mummy's Mask scourges don’t work like new scourges.
Use the Core Set’s scourge rules for new scourges and the Mummy’s Mask scourge rules for its scourges. Treat cards that banish scourges as removing them and vice versa.
Ships
The Skull & Shackles promo ship Goblin Weidling moves characters to closed locations when wrecked.
If you're banishing closed locations, change that power to “When you encounter a card, each other character at this location moves to a random location.”
Story Banes
Villains and henchmen count as story banes.
Correspondingly, replace “non-villain, non-henchman” with “non-story bane”, and replace “non-villain, non-henchman bane” with “non-story bane barrier or monster".
Also, powers that previously affected both villains and henchmen now affect story banes, and powers that affect henchmen (but not villains) affect non-villain story banes.
In homebrew scenarios, feel free to use cards of either type as the other.
Older scenarios don't have dangers.
(This will only come up only if you add new banes to an older set.) If you're playing with the Wrath of the Righteous box, the danger is the servitor demon. In any other set, if the danger is not defined, the danger is a new monster.
Monsters
Greater Shadow cares about the Basic and Elite traits.
On the WotR monster Greater Shadow, change the second power from “If the check to defeat has the Basic or Elite trait, the Greater Shadow is undefeated” to “If the check to defeat either does not have the Magic trait or a blessing has not been played on the check, the Greater Shadow is undefeated”.
Weapons
Javelin of Lightning won't go into the recovery pile when it's just buried, so the During Recovery power shouldn't mention burying.
On the WotR, Alchemist CD, Goblins Fight CD, Inquisitor CD, Occult Adventures 1, and Ultimate Wilderness weapon Javelin of Lightning, the During Recovery power should be "You may succeed at an Arcane or Divine 14 check to recharge this card."
Spells
Some spells need a bit more help with recovery than the Transition Guide offers.
On all spells except those listed as exceptions below, if you play it by discarding it from your hand, change that action to "banish." If you play it by displaying it, change any "discard" action while displayed to "banish." Then change any discard/recharge text to “DURING RECOVERY If proficient, discard this card; you may succeed at [whatever specific check is listed] to recharge it [or to do whatever else it says to do—such as re-displaying, as in the case of Lab Accident and Winds of Vengeance] instead."
For example, the spell Lightning Touch would change from this:
For your combat check, discard this card to use
your Arcane skill + 2d4.
After playing this card, if you do not have the
Arcane skill, banish it; otherwise, you may succeed
at an Arcane 6 check to recharge this card instead
of discarding it.
To this:
For your combat check, banish this card to use
your Arcane skill + 2d4.
DURING RECOVERY If proficient, discard this card; you may succeed at an Arcane 6 check to recharge it instead.
Some exceptions:
- If the action to play is “Banish”: If it has no recharge check or after-casting cost or proficiency requirement, do not add a recovery power; just put it in your recovery pile and banish it at the end of the turn. If it has one, add “DURING RECOVERY If proficient, [do whatever it says] instead.” These spells include Consecrate/Consecration, Desecrate, and Unearthly Aim.
- If the action to play is “Bury”: If it has no recharge check or after-casting cost or proficiency requirement, do not add a recovery power; just bury it immediately. If it has one, change the cost to “Banish” and add “DURING RECOVERY If proficient, [do whatever it says] to bury this card.” These spells include Call Weapon, Charm Animal, Charm Monster, Charm Person, Commune, Dream Voyage, Entice, Hallow, Invoke, Miracle, and Time Stop.
- If the action to play is “Display” until the end of the scenario: If it has no recharge check or after-casting cost, do not add a recovery power; banish it at the end of the scenario. If it has one, add “DURING RECOVERY If not proficient, banish this card.” These spells include Aspect of the Bull, Aspect of the Tiger, Named Bullet, Phantom Steed, Shapechange, and Steal Soul.
- If the action to play is “Discard” but is not rechargeable: Change its cost to "Banish", and if necessary add "DURING RECOVERY If proficient, [do whatever it says] to discard this card." These spells include Holy Feast.
- Create Pit: Change the powers to “When you encounter a monster whose highest difficulty to defeat is 12 or lower, banish to evade it; you may instead bury this card, or banish it if not proficient, to recharge the monster into its location deck. DURING RECOVERY If proficient, discard this card; you may succeed at an Arcane 8 check to recharge it instead.”
- Create Spiked Pit: Change the last two powers to “When you encounter a monster whose highest difficulty to defeat is 20 or lower, banish to evade it; you may instead bury this card, or banish it if not proficient, to recharge the monster into its location. DURING RECOVERY If proficient, discard this card; you may succeed at an Arcane 10 check to recharge it instead.”
- Life Drain: Change the powers to “For your combat check, banish to use Arcane + 2d4 or Divine + 2d4, then you may heal a card. DURING RECOVERY If proficient, discard this card; you may succeed at an Arcane 9 or Divine 11 check to recharge it instead.”
- Monstrous Physique: Change the last two sentences to “Banish this card and bury your discard pile. If proficient, you may succeed at an Arcane 15 check to bury this card instead; if you fail, bury this card and your discard pile.”
- Remove Curse: Change the power to “Banish to banish a displayed Curse card. DURING RECOVERY If proficient, recharge this card.”
In Core, we clarified that each exploration in a turn is a separate step. The spell Dream Voyage needs to be adjusted for that.
On the Occult Adventures 1 spell Dream Voyage, change “end your explore step” to “you may not explore again this turn”.
The spell Safe Harbor doesn't work if there are no closed locations.
On the S&S spell Safe Harbor, if you're banishing locations, change the text to:
Display next to a location. While displayed:
• Instead of their first exploration of their turns, local characters may heal 1d4+1 cards.
• At the start of your turn or when a local character explores and encounters a bane, banish.
DURING RECOVERY
If proficient, discard this card; you may succeed at an Arcane 10 check to recharge it instead.
Armors
Since there are now Helm armors that care about the Helm trait, armors that have "Helm" or "Helmet" in their name gain the Helm trait.
Add the Helm trait to the following cards:
- Bejeweled Helm (WotR and Magus CD)
- Corroded Helm (WotR and Hell's Vengeance 1)
- Crocodile Skin Helmet (MM)
- Decemvirate Helm (WotR and Barbarian CD)
- Explorer's Pith Helmet (Ultimate Equipment)
- Helm (WotR and Paladin CD)
- Helm of Telepathy (Ultimate Magic)
- Helm of the Serpent King (WotR)
- Helm of the Valkyrie (WotR, Paladin and Barbarian CD)
- Kabuto Helmet (Ultimate Combat)
- Pot Helm (Goblins Burn! and Goblins Fight!)
- Spiked Helm (Warpriest CD)
Items
Some items need a bit more help with recovery than the Transition Guide offers.
If an item has a check to recharge, change its cost to “Banish” and change any recharge powers to “DURING RECOVERY (If proficient,) you may succeed at a (whatever check is required) to recharge this card.” If it was intended to be have another cost if not recharged, such as discard or bury, it should be “(Do whatever is intended to) this card; (if proficient,) you may succeed at (whatever check is required) to (do the other thing) instead.” There are some exceptions:
- All Wands should have the cost “Banish or bury,” and either bury immediately or get put into your recovery pile immediately. The Ultimate Wilderness Plants also function this way.
- The WotR items Tome of Mental Prowess and Tome of Physical Might: Change “Remove this card from the game” to “Banish” and change their last sentence to the power “DURING RECOVERY You may succeed at a Knowledge 30 check to banish this card; otherwise, remove it from the game.”
- On Alchemical items that you banish to play and that have Craft in the check to acquire, but do not already have a During Recovery power, add “DURING RECOVERY If proficient, you may succeed at a Craft X check to recharge this card” where X is equal to the Craft check to acquire the card + 2.
- The Ultimate Magic item Codex of Conversations: Change the power to "When you would discard for its power an ally that lists Diplomacy in its check to acquire, reveal this card to instead display and mark that ally; while displayed, ignore any powers on it. During recovery, attempt a check to acquire each marked ally. If you succeed, recharge it; otherwise, discard it."
- The Occult Adventures 1 item Lithomancy Stones: Change its cost to “Banish” and its last sentence to the power “DURING RECOVERY Banish this card. If you have the Perception skill, discard it instead; you may succeed at a Perception 10 check to recharge it instead.”
- The Occult Adventures 2 and Ultimate Intrigue item Harrow Deck should conform to the new version in Curse of the Crimson Throne:
Recharge to examine the top 3 cards of any character's deck and return them in any order.
Banish to examine the top 3 cards of any location and return them in any order.
DURING RECOVERY
Bury this card; you may succeed at a Perception 12 check to recharge it instead.
A few items care about closed locations.
- On the S&S loot item Letter of Marque, if you are banishing locations, change the power to “If your location would close, bury this card and choose a type of boon other than blessing. Add 1d4+1 random cards of that type to this location without looking at them, then explore your location. When this location is out of cards, it closes automatically.”
- On the WotR and Magus CD item Amulet of the Planes, change the cost to “Recharge” and delete the second power.
- On the WotR item Planar Tuning Fork, if you are banishing locations, change the power to “If a location would close, bury to choose and display a new location next to that location. (The displayed card does not count as a location.) While displayed, treat the closed location as if it had the At This Location power from the displayed card. At the end of your turn, banish the displayed card and close the location.”
- On the Ultimate Equipment item Boots of Friendly Terrain, change the second power to “At the end of your turn, reveal this card to move.”
Because "deck" now refers only to character decks, the item Seer's Headdress needs an adjustment.
On the Iconic Heroes item Seer’s Headdress, replace both occurrences of “any deck” with “a deck, a location, or the hourglass”.
Allies
Some allies need a bit more help with recovery than the Transition Guide offers.
If an ally has a check to recharge, change its cost to “Banish” and change any recharge powers to “DURING RECOVERY Succeed at a (whatever check is required) to recharge this card; otherwise, (do whatever the card originally required, such as “bury”) it instead.”
These allies include: Anesthetizing Slime, Bound Elemental, Bound Imp, Bound Lantern Archon, Bound Magma Spirit, Bound Ophidian Demon, Bound Shadow Demon, Brodert Quink, Crystalline Carnivore, Deathtrap in a Jar, Flensing Jelly, and the “other card” discarded by Mighty Steed.
(If there's no check, things happens immediately. So the S&S ally Dolphin reloads immediately if you are on a ship, while the Summoner CD ally Bound Lantern Archon has to wait until recovery.)
Now that summoning a boon and acquiring it puts it in your hand, the Bound allies need more specific timing.
On the Summoner CD and Ultimate Magic allies Bound Elemental, Bound Imp, Bound Lantern Archon, Bound Magma Spirit, Bound Ophidian Demon, and Bound Shadow Demon, change the last line to “While this card is in your hand or when you play it, treat it as either a monster or an ally.”
Blessings
Blessings should... well, bless.
When a blessing adds dice to a check, it counts as blessing the check. (This does not apply to other card types adding dice.)
Recovery messes with the timing for the blessing Sign of the Stargazer.
On the Occult Adventures 1 blessing Sign of the Stargazer, change both occurrences of “if you would discard a spell for its power, you may recharge it instead” to “when you play a spell that says you could recharge it during recovery, you may recharge it immediately”.
The "one card of each type per party" limitation requires an adjustment to Blessing of the Savored Sting.
On the Witch CD, Summoner CD, Hunter CD, and Ultimate Equipment blessing Blessing of the Savored Sting, replace "When you would fail a check, discard this card to reroll the dice, adding 2 dice to the roll; take the new result. If any other blessings were played on the check, banish them. You may use this power even if you played another blessing on the check." with "On your check, freely discard to reroll, blessing twice; any other blessings played on the check are banished."
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