Riding Dog

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Goblin Squad Member. Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 13 posts. No reviews. No lists. 1 wishlist.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Rakle wrote:
I like that kit idea. Much better than everyone buying a kit that contained a 4 pound iron cooking pot, and 10 torches.

I had the same problem, so I mocked up a generic kit for every adventurer.

Cost is ~26sp w/ a hooded lantern (19 if you go the torch route; 9 if you remove the compass as well), with a total character carried bulk of 1L.

Backpack (0 carried bulk, as outfitted 1 bulk + 8L)
* Bedroll
* 4 pints Oil
* Mug
* Sack x5
* Hemp Rope
* Rations x5
* Waterskin
* Candle x10
* Piton x2
* Still has 3 bulk + 1L available for Alchemist Lab's, Healers Kit, tent, cookware, etc.

Belt Pouch (0 carried bulk, as outfitted 2L)
* Chalk x10
* Compass
* Flint & Steel
* Hooded Lantern
* Caltrops
* Still has 2L available

Ordinary Clothing

Satchel (0 carried bulk, with 2 bulk available)
* good place for formula or spell books, if necessary

Dagger in a Sheath (1L carried bulk)

If I'm reading the rules correctly, then the Backpack, Belt Pouch and Stachel are really great items for nearly every character to take to enhance their bulk for free. You get 6 bulk + 4L with 0 carried bulk as long as you are wearing the items. Am I right on this?


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

This is my 6-player solo team. I replaced Shardra with Arueshalae after I rescued her. I didn't even realize until that point that my team consisted of all female characters. Chalk a victory up for the ladies!

Character Name: Adowyn
Role Card: Blight Scout
Skill Feats: Str +1, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +1, Wis +4, Cha +1
Power Feats: All
Card Feats: Weapon +2, Spell +1, Armor +0, Item +2, Ally +1, Blessing +1
Weapons: Planar Crossbow +2, Sword of Subtlety, Force Sling +3, Stalker's Crossbow, Skirmishing Spear
Spells: Bloodscent, Breath of Life, Pillar of Life
Armors: Mantle of Faith
Items: Fortune's Arrow, Chalice of Ozem, Iron Flask, Amulet of the Abyss
Allies: Celestial Unicorn, Pegasus, Mastiff, Wolf
Blessings: Shelyn, Shax, Nethys x2, Noticula
Mythic Path: Champion

Character Name: Imrijka
Role Card: Cold Iron Warden
Skill Feats: Str +4, Dex +1, Con +1, Int +1, Wis +4, Cha +1
Power Feats: All
Card Feats: Weapon +2, Spell +1, Armor +0, Item +2, Ally +1, Blessing +1
Weapons: Marksman's Bow, Holy Glaive of Speed, Soulshear, Vorpal Blade, Stalker's Crossbow, Skirmishing Spear
Spells: Cure, Terraform, Flames of the Faithful
Armors: Stole of the Inheritor
Items: Boomcrown, Belt of Charging, Black Robe
Allies: Jesker Helton, Druid of the Leaf
Blessings: Shelyn, Shax, Nethys, Noticula x2, Iomedae, Abadar
Mythic Path: Guardian

Character Name: Arueshalae
Role Card: Redeemed
Skill Feats: Str +0, Dex +4, Con +0, Int +3, Wis +0, Cha +4
Power Feats: All
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Spell +1, Armor +0, Item +2, Ally +2, Blessing +1
Weapons: Flaming Spear +1, Marksman's Bow, Traitor's Blade, Starbow, Firebow
Spells: Cure
Armors: Immolation Cloak
Items: Ball of Twine, Mist Horn, Torc of the Heavens, Talisman of True Faith
Allies: Celestial Unicorn, Pit Gladiator, Chevalier, Druid of the Flame
Blessings: Starsong x2, Abraxas, Xoveron, Shax, Nethys, Noticula
Mythic Path: Trickster

Character Name: Seelah
Role Card: Wardstone Sentry
Skill Feats: Str +4, Dex +4, Con +1, Int +1, Wis +3, Cha +2
Power Feats: All
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Spell +1, Armor +0, Item +2, Ally +2, Blessing +1
Weapons: Blackaxe, Demonbane Longsword +2, Keen Scythe +2, Noriznigath, Dawnflower's Kiss, Holy Radiance
Spells: Life Drain, Weapon of Awe
Armors: Demon Armor, Bastion of the Inheritor, Armor of the Pious
Items: Banner of Valor
Allies: Chuffy Lickwound, Warhorse, Druid of the Storm, Pit Gladiator
Blessings: Shax x2, Sarenrae x2, Iomedae, Abraxas
Mythic Path: Marshal / Sword of Iomedae

Character Name: Kyra
Role Card: Dawnflower's Flame
Skill Feats: Str +1, Dex +0, Con +1, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +4
Power Feats: All
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Spell +2, Armor +0, Item +1, Ally +1, Blessing +2
Weapons: Blancher, Spellbreaker
Spells: Frigid Blast, Elemental Bombardment, Dismissal, Lend Mythic Path, Divine Blaze, Fiery Glare, Pillar of Life
Armors: Pauldrons of Unflinching Fortitude
Items: Dawnflower's Light, Thorncrown of Iomedae
Allies: Scribe, Thylacine, Runelord Alderpash
Blessings: Torag x2, Abadar x2, Iomedae, Abraxas, Deskari
Mythic Path: Hierophant

Character Name: Enora
Role Card: Occularium Scholar
Skill Feats: Str +1, Dex +0, Con +1, Int +4, Wis +3, Cha +2
Power Feats: All
Card Feats: Weapon +0, Spell +3, Armor +0, Item +3, Ally +0, Blessing +1
Weapons:
Spells: Death's Touch, Meteor Swarm, Blast Vortex, Icy Prison, Elemental Bombardment, Transmogrify, Hellmouth Lash, Schorching Ray, Ice Strike
Armors:
Items: Almanac, Skinsticher's Manual, Book of the Damned, Demon Hunter's Handbook, Fasciculus Labyrinthum, Spellbottle
Allies: Demon Hunter, Noticula
Blessings: Abraxas x2, Shelyn, Noticula, Terendelev
Mythic Path: Archmage

In addition, please add which cards you redeemed:
Cards Redeemed: Anarchy Hammer, Black Robe, Fasciculus Labyrinthum, Rod of the Viper, Skinsticher's Manual, Soulshear, Stalker's Crossbow, Traitor's Blade, Unholy Aspergillum +3

This party composition was very good by the end of the game. The annoying banes from the early Scenarios (Demonic Horde and friends...lookin' at you!) became trivial with Imrijka's ability to put them at the bottom of the deck or Adowyn's ability to scout for them. We made do against the Army banes with Kyra and Enora being able to fill most of the gaps. Arueshalae is a beast, basically giving RoTR Lini's power to a check on virtually every turn (also helpful vs. Armies!). Seelah with Holy Radiance is virtually unstoppable. Imrijka and Marksman's Bow was also a favorite. Adowyn shuffling Leryn back for the Stealth die addition was huge - her deck recycling was very useful.

6-Player Solo was very tedious though, moreso than any of the other adventure paths. The spreading banes, Armies, and the extra setup of mythic counters, Cohorts, etc. was a lot to keep track of for one person and I won't play with 6 on my next go around (I'll look forward to 6-player on the digital version in the future!). I haven't tackled the bonus scenario yet. The thought of 37 fights in a row solo is a little daunting.

But great fun overall - I liked the step up in difficulty and power as a one off. I also liked the optional capstone mission at the end, which I think should become a standard inclusion going forward. Most of the RPG Adventure Paths give many options at the end for "Continuing the Campaign" and including one or more of those in future sets would be really cool to test our final gear and powers.

Thanks Mike and Dev Team. Look forward to Mummy's Mask!!


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I have to agree with this. I'm not sure there is a Base or Add-on character that has Acrobatics as a skill. Ekkie does, but not everyone has access to her. That puts an inordinate amount of card pressure on a large group with slim margins of success. In my 6 character solo game, I have both Enora and Kyra that can help cover a skill deficit, but even so, when I played that scenario I started heavily scouting locations after closing 2 so I could isolate the Villian. I did end up only having to face two of those armies.

There is a huge time sink for Armies in a 6 player game as it is. Spending 15-20 minutes trying to figure out optimal skill/card usages to meet the checks just makes it worse. If Armies or similar cards are presented in the future, they should have 7 possible checks, leaving a bit more wiggle room for large groups.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I received my box yesterday with just the base set and my Iron Gods AP. My shipment tracking had the Add-on and promos included until sometime in the late afternoon when the emails went out, so I was under the impression that all of those products were in my box until I opened it, got frustrated, and checked my email.

Separately, to a prior point above, the print quality of the base set I received is erratic. The borders, both front and back, of a large amount of cards is very uneven. I haven't played with the cards yet, so can't say how obvious they are as "marked" cards, but it was certainly noticeable while sleeving.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I've been GM'ing a long-term (15+ years) gaming group at my house in Littleton, CO.

Unfortunately, real life (kids, work, etc.) have cut our game time down from weekly to monthly or oftentimes even less.

I'm looking for interested players in either adding consistency to our current group (currently in module 5 of Serpent's Skull), OR with enough interest, starting a brand new AP, with a hopefully more regular schedule.

I've also got a post on Meetups that goes into more detail.

Feel free to PM me with any inquiries.

http://www.meetup.com/Denver-RPG/messages/boards/thread/46142212


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Some minor spoilers ahead if you haven't played all the way through AP6.

Here's my 6-player solo setup:

Harsk, Seelah, Lem, Lini, Amiri, Seoni is the order of play. I settled on that order sometime probably in AP2. I liked having the scouting of Harsk and Seelah at the beginning and the firepower of Amiri and Seoni at the end. Lem & Lini provided their support in the middle, which I felt was very effective. I realized early on that I was very greedy and wanted to explore locations as much as possible (for loot!) and would frequently try to set the game up so that Amiri would encounter the villain for the final time with 1 card left in the Blessings deck.

With 6 characters, it was pretty easy most scenarios to close down 2 locations early on leaving plenty of time to explore for the villain and loot and have the appropriate characters at the ideal locations to temporary close when we ultimately faced the villain for the final time.

I will say that we discovered the Holy Candle very early and this was a lifesaver for the entire AP, especially for a greedy loot-monger like I turned out to be. I did have to replay a couple of scenarios over the course of the AP, but the Holy Candle probably saved me from having to replay at least a half dozen more. I found that I sometimes made bad decisions like not closing a location after defeating a henchman knowing that I had the Holy Candle available to give me extra turns. It was usually those times that I would roll a "1" when using it. :)

Early on, I didn't like this mix of characters and felt hampered because they were generally pretty weak at combat checks (except Amiri & Seoni)on their own in the early scenarios. Lem and Harsk were often left without many cards in their hands because they were consistently needed to help with combat checks across the board. However, by mid-AP, this team became very potent. Once Lem was able to add to his own checks, he became very powerful and was able to hold down locations by himself. Lini was borderline OP by the end and I don't know if she failed but maybe a handful of checks from AP4 onwards. Amiri was a beast the whole AP and probably took down 2/3 of the villains by herself (with Blessings, of course).

For the final battle, we obviously had a lot of healing in the group, so weren't taking a lot of discard damage. The first time we faced Karzoug was with 3 cards left in the stack.

Lini drew Karzoug and completed the first combat check. Amiri was able to handle the 2nd check, but was left only with Mokmurian's Club after taking damage and burying cards to enhance her roll.

(While we defeated him, he left us pretty damaged as we saved our blessings for the combat, not the before combat damage. On a side note, it was interesting as I was hoping to fail the Constitution checks on some characters so that I could take the Fire damage, since I had some items (like Sihedron Ring) that mitigated elemental damage, but not Poison damage).

Unfortunately for Amiri, this left her with only Mokmurian's Club on her turn, which she had to bury right away, leaving her empty handed. When she reset her hand, she unfortunately did not draw another weapon, leaving her barehanded with only 3 cards left in the stack. Lem performed a Scrying and sent Karzoug to the bottom of the pile, meaning we'd only have to face him one more time.

I wanted to have Amiri be the one to take him on as she was my powershouse villain killer the entire AP, but without a weapon, I was a bit hesitant, so I cycled through the characters, defeating one more henchman, acquiring one armor, and burying cards and resetting hands to hopefully acquire some more Blessings and aid cards for the final battle. I was planning to reset part of Amiri's hand, hopefully acquire a weapon, and come back around to her one more time for the final battle. However, when it was her turn, I did this, changed out 4 of 6 cards and still did not draw a weapon!

At that point, I didn't feel comfortable going through and burying another card to try that strategy again, so I decided to have Seoni explore and flip the villain and take my chances. She barely made her check to play attack spells and did succeed at making the first combat check.

I was intending to have Harsk take the 2nd check with the Venomous Crossbow +2, but when I examined all of my character decks I realized I had a fair amount of Blessings and decided to let Amiri take on Karzoug barehanded!

As you would expect, rolling a bunch of D12s (like 7 or 8), plus a D4 from Lem, plus 2d4 from Runeforged Weapons (in this case her hands), Amiri took down Karzoug with ease. Victory!

Overall, an epic and extremely satisfying ending! The burying mechanic in the final scenario adding a degree of tension was very befitting of a boss battle. Plus, the before combat checks were very difficult for this party, even with Lem helping out on most of them, so we were taking pretty consistent damage throughout the scenario adding to the excitement. The fact that there was no Blessings deck made for a great win-or-die event.

Thanks and Kudos to the Devs for a great experience - I can't wait for S&S and OP!!


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Here is my layout for playing 6-character solo:

I have the locations 8 across horizontally, with the location decks sitting above them.

The character tokens go right underneath the location cards.

The Blessings deck is off to the side of the play area.

I use a single stack method for each of the characters to reduce clutter on the table.

I keep the discards faceup, but on top of that stack I place the character deck facedown, and on top of the character deck I place the actual drawn hand faceup. So each character just has a single stack representing discards, deck and hand.

When I have to do a discard, I quickly fan to the back of the character deck and place the discard on top of the discard stack. When I have to recharge, I fan through to the character deck and place the recharge at the back of that stack.

When I have to do a heal or otherwise shuffle cards around, I just separate the stacks, shuffle into the appropriate one and recombine them.

When it is that character's turn, I quickly fan out the character hand, usually placing a card I know I want to use on top so that I don't actually forget to use it, which can be an issue when playing 6 characters solo.

I keep the character sheet cards laid horizontally across the table below the character tokens in the order that I want the characters to take their turn. Buried cards go under these as described in the rulebook. I also keep a die as a token counter on whichever character's turn it is, so that I don't forget when multiple characters are acting on a single turn. Moving the die also helps me to remember to advance the Blessings deck every turn.

For me, this method keeps my play area as compact and tidy as possible even though it does require some manual labor by having to fan my stacks.

The only time this single stack method has ever created a problem is when the entire character deck was in the discard pile. At that point, the whole stack was a faceup pile, including the character's hand. That only happened one time to a single character in the entire adventure path and when it happened, I just went to the conventional format until I had a recharge, giving me a natural (facedown) break between stacks again.

I just finished AP6 this weekend (Epic, btw) and this method served me faithfully the entire time.

ymmv


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Drogon wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
The press release here explains how retailers can sign up for the program.

Hi Vic,

The press release says that a store has to be registered with paizo.com/retailers. Well, I know I am registered (the little tag next to my name seems to indicate that), but I don't see any additional thing that needs to be done to assure that I am part of this program. As I am very interested in running this, I want to make sure I don't miss out, like I did with the Pathfinder Comic promotion last month. Any further information would be appreciated.

Love your store, Drogon. Count me in as a player interested in organized play!


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:

And if it had been this specifically:

NyferFen wrote:
If defeated, you may draw your choice of 1 random weapon, item, armor, or spell.
...we'd have people asking "do you mean I have to draw 1 random weapon, 1 random item, 1 random armor, and 1 random spell, and then choose 1 of those 4 cards?"

If event sequencing is the concern, then my suggestion would be to make situations like these explicit as per Mike's response above:

"If defeated, you may choose a Boon (except Ally and Blessing) then draw 1 random card of that type from the box and add it to your hand."

It's 20 more characters including spaces, but there is clearly room for that on the card.

I know it's nitpicking on a minor card but might be helpful if there are similar mechanics down the road.

Love the game, btw. Thanks!


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
kysmartman wrote:


The 2nd part of your question can be summed up as specifying who gets to choose which is something co-op games have to deal with. Imagine 2 other players played a blessing on that check. Did they help defeat it? Yep. So, who should get to choose. Also, you have 3 other players all lobbying you to pick a different type. This card specifies that the decision is 100% yours.

I didn't think about the wording from this angle. The text makes complete sense to me now from this perspective.

Thanks!


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

My group had a discussion over the first portion of text on this card as it seems poorly worded.

"If defeated, you may draw 1 random weapon, item, armor, or spell (your choice) from the box and add it to your hand."

Does this card mean draw 1 random weapon, or 1 random item, or 1 random armor, or 1 specific (the "your choice" above) spell?

Or, does it mean just draw 1 random weapon, item, armor or spell?

If it is the 2nd case, I don't see the point of the parenthetical "your choice" in the text. It seems completely superfluous and confusing.

It seems overpowered to be able to pick out a specific spell from the box, but the card seems to read that way.

If the "your choice" is meant to imply pick your choice of either a weapon, armor, item or spell, that is essentially implied by the "or" in the card text.

Alternately, it would seems a lot more efficient to just say "If defeated, you may draw your choice of 1 random weapon, item, armor, or spell.", with no need for any parenthetical comments.

Anyway, we played that the card was poorly worded and every boon was intended to be a random draw.

Any tips/clarification is appreciated.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I wanted to try the traditional 4 RPG archetypes as a group. Playing solo...

Character Name: Merisiel
Role Card: Thief
Skill Feats: DEX +2, CON +1, WIS +1
Power Feats: Hand Size 6, Weapon Proficiency, Recharge for 1D6+1, Add 2 to acquire...
Card Feats: Items (7), Ally (3), Blessing (5)
Weapons: Returning Throwing Axe +1, Venomous Dagger +2
Spells: none
Armors: Snakeskin Tunic
Items: Medusa Mask, Sihedron Medallion, Eyes of the Eagle, Holy Candle, 2x Masterwork Tools, Spyglass
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger, Ilsoari Gandethus, Shalelu Andosana
Blessings: 2x Shelyn, 1x Erastil, 2x Gods

Character Name: Ezren
Role Card: Illusionist
Skill Feats: INT +2, WIS +2
Power Feats: Hand Size 7 & 8, Add 1 to recharge, Add 2 to acquire...
Card Feats: Items (4), Spell (9) & (10)
Weapons: Dogslicer
Spells: Acid Arrow, Augury, Glibness, Haste, Incendiary Cloud, Lightning Bolt, Scorching Ray, Speed, Strength, Web
Armors: None
Items: Codex, Sage's Journal, Wand of Enervation, Sihedron Medallion
Allies: Acolyte, Brodert Quint, Sheriff Hemlock
Blessings: None

Character Name: Valeros
Role Card: Weapon Master
Skill Feats: STR +1, DEX +1, CON +2
Power Feats: Hand Size 5 & 6, Add 1d4 +1 to assist..., Use Melee in place of Ranged...
Card Feats: Weapon (6), Items (3), Ally (3),
Weapons: Bastard Sword +1, Greataxe, Greatsword, Longsword +2, War Razor +1, Impaler of Thorns
Spells: none
Armors: 2x Magic Chain Mail, Magic Half-Plate
Items: Cloak of Elvenkind, Crown of Charisma, Spyglass
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger, Sage, Poog of Zarongel
Blessings: 2x Gods, Torag

Character Name: Kyra
Role Card: Exorcist
Skill Feats: STR +2, WIS +2
Power Feats: Hand Size 6, Weapon Proficiency, 1d4 +2 to heals, Recharge Blessing of Sarenrae
Card Feats: Spell (4), Item (2), Blessing (7)
Weapons: Flaming Mace +1, Icy Longspear +1
Spells: Augury, Cure, Holy Light, Find Traps
Armors: Magic Full Plate, Magic Half-Plate
Items: Amulet of Life, Sihedron Medallion
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger
Blessings: Gorum, Irori, Lamashtu, 2x Sarenrae, 2x Gods


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Joe Abercrombie - First Law trilogy, gritty fantasy as if Tarantino directed a fantasy movie. Awesome representation of barbarians.

Brent Weeks - Night Angel trilogy - very fun world design. Kind of a new take on a ninja.

Scott Lynch - Lies of Locke Lamora - the long con in a fantasy setting.

Also, Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. In fact, Dresden Files by Butcher is awesome also if you like urban fantasy.

Also agree with previous poster on The Name of the Wind, which is epic and fantastic.