Drunkenping's page

I'm having a hard time grasping summoned villains, henchmen, and monsters. I've read the most recently updated rulebook and a lot of threads on this forum. My understanding for summoned cards:

Summoned cards are from the box. They come from the box and they go back to the box. No exceptions. Summoned monsters that are evaded are banished back to the box (rulebook p.13). Cards that place summoned monsters on a location deck (e.g. Sanctuary or Medusa Mask) are not, they do not belong to a location deck they belong to the box. Defeating a summoned villian doesn't allow you to close a location or win the scenario (rulebook p.13). Summoned henchmen don't come from a location deck; therefore, defeating them doesn't allow you to attempt to close a location (rulebook p.17). Unless the summoned card says otherwise, summoned cards are not placed next other cards - after resolving the encounter banish the summoned card back to the box. Summoned card cannot summon other cards (rulebook p. 12).

I think this clears a lot of things up for me after writing it down. Hopefully this helps others, too :P

I do still have one question, if summoned cards do not come from a location deck (rulebook p.17) are they still part of the location for the purposes of "At This Location" powers? I want to say "yes" but I think I was wrong on just about everything I listed above, at some point.

I've read a couple of threads regarding the desire for some added difficulty to the game. Likewise, I've heard some people (like myself) who are not familiar with the Pathfinder RPG and wish for some added context and 'role playing' for the game.

Has anyone put forth the effort to create their own cards? How about adding story cards? I think this would be an excellent way to create a stand alone expansion pack (for Paizo ;) that could potentially be used across multiple base sets to help mature the role playing aspect of the game as well as increase the difficulty.

A deck of 'story' cards could be added to the setup of the game. With each exploration a story card is discarded from the top of the story deck. Each card would have a power that would somehow add to the difficulty to defeat a bane or acquire a boon.

Flavor text could be added to help people tell the story of their character's campaign; however, I'm not familiar with the pathfinder RPG so I can't suggest any content relevant material.

I haven't come up with a deck of cards myself. I hardly find time to play the original game in the first place, my group is still on adventure deck 1! Story powers could even be the same as other powers already found in the game for ease of creation.

Some raw story card ideas:

Wrong Path; If you fail to defeat the next bane move to a random location and reset your hand. The next boon you encounter may not be acquired, place the boon on the bottom of a random open location deck instead.

Veterans are about...; The difficulty to defeat the next bane is increased by the adventure deck number of the current scenario, if any. The difficulty to acquire the next boon is increased by the adventure deck number of the current scenario, if any.

Booby trap; Before the encounter take 1d4-1 combat damage.

Escort diplomats; If you fail to defeat the next bane discard the top card of the blessings deck. If you acquire the next boon, discard a card of your choice from your hand.

Damsel in distress; If you fail to defeat the next bane discard a card from your hand and reset your hand. The difficulty to acquire the next boon is increased by 1d6.

This idea has not been flushed out very much, but I thought some feedback from an active community would be nice.

I'm still a little amiss to the finer details of which boons extend their traits to a check. (I apologize for quoting multiple threads below, I hope this is not too confusing to follow.)

8. Boons that let you make checks give their traits to those checks.

If a card you play tells you how or when to make a check to acquire or defeat – and only in that case – apply that card's traits to the check.

I understand the "when" situations, as they are clearly illustrated in the following descriptions:

Ranged weapons give the Ranged trait. Magic weapons give the Magic trait. Divine spells that let you use Divine as your combat check give the Divine trait. For example, Lightning Touch tells you to make an Arcane + 2d4 combat check, and thus it applies Magic, Arcane, Attack, Electricity, and Basic traits to the check. Guidance, on the other hand, does not tell you to make a check, so it does not apply any of its traits to the check, regardless of the fact that it is only used in checks.

I'm not understanding the "how" aspect. Perhaps this has to do with evasion?

Mechalibur wrote:

Maybe there should be a note or something for or before evade, explaining that you still have to check the card to see if it can't be evaded (e.g. Grindylow) or if it has a trait that would prevent you from evading it (e.g. Ancient Skeleton is immune to mental, so Invisibility couldn't be used to evade it).

I think the second part is important, because as written, you check for immunity after choosing to evade it or not.

Immunity may not be in the right place. Discussing.

It makes sense that the Sleep spell applies the mental trait so you cannot use sleep against a monster that is immune to Mental. Is this the correct application of a card telling you "how to defeat" and thus giving its traits?

(As a side note does Invisibility have the Mental trait? Everyone seems to think it does, even though it doesn't say so on the card. Maybe I missed an errata on that card?)

Additionally, do spells like Fiery Weapon or the second power in Fire Sneeze apply all of their card traits to the combat check? Both these cards clearly state that the Fire trait is added, but I think this might be a case where these cards are telling you "how" and also add Magic, Arcane, Divine and (Attack for Fire Sneeze).