Ripe's page

Guess I'll have to wait for Steam version...

I get "Your Hardware does not support this application, sorry!" message when I try to run it in AMIDuOs. Wish it would say what is the problem with it... could be something simple.

It can't be emulator since in store it say it require Android 4.0.3 and up and when I check version in AMIDuOS it's 4.2.2 which mean it should work just fine. So what else could it be? I doubt that it's because I'm still using trial (free) version of AMIDuOS...

Ripe wrote:

A simple questions:

- if I use emulator (most likely AMIDuOS) to play on my desktop will I have a problem buying a season bundle?
- will I be able to collect gold (not that I care much since I'll probably never buy chests)?

No problem with either.

I am using AMIDuOS, I bought the season bundle, and I collect gold just fine.

Thank You.

A simple questions:
- if I use emulator (most likely AMIDuOS) to play on my desktop will I have a problem buying a season bundle?
- will I be able to collect gold (not that I care much since I'll probably never buy chests)?

Don't forget you also can't evade Lady of Pain... well, you can but then you can't win a scenario.

I'd say it would also depend on how that "Before you act" power is worded...

If it's something along the line of "Before you act, each character at your location..." then you cancel it for everyone. Otherwise, you cancel it only for yourself.

But in any case, I'd say you can only use it if you are the one encountering the non-villain monster.

1. Yes, Dominator would go back into the box even if you defeated it since it can't be seized.

2. It would be new random ship.

You can also use Wand of Enervation [if you still have it] to reduce difficulty a bit... beating a DC of 20-23 is still a challenge but it's certainly easier than having to beat DC 28.

Considering S&S Coral Capuchin specifically say "Reveal this card and discard another card to..." I'd say that yes, you can discard/recharge Staff to get desired effect.

Interesting... Athnul adds different trait on Main and Role card. On main card she add Bludgeoning and on Role she add Piercing trait to her combat check.

I think this was the first time that base powers text on the Main and Role card is different... was that by design or is it a typo?

Wow... people asked for "Adventure 7" and now we got not only that but "Adventure 8" and "Adventure 9" as well!

On another note... each character have 12 power feats available and completing AP in both RotR and S&S you end up using 7 of them. So how could we run out of Power feats? Card feats I can understand since we used 8 out of 10 but Power feats?

You can use her scouting ability BEFORE moving [either on your own or other player turns] so during early AP's [B-3] you can pretty much ensure that you know what you [or others in your party] will encounter on EVERY explore!

That knowledge should reduce amount of damage taken and you'll mostly need cures to "heal" cards discarded for additional explores.

And once you get the ability to encounter boons... well, you'll pretty much stop exploring with her. I think our record was removing 12 boons during 1 turn without Alahazra doing single explore action [that was in 6 player game... and 4 out of 5 players knew what they'll face on first explore!].

Few notes:
- Battle Aspergilum require you to recharge a card with Divine trait in order to add additional d8 against Demon or Outsider.

- Imrijka have Knowledge skill

- Blessing of Deskari can only be used on your own checks

Worldwound exploration rule #2: Thou shalt only explore if combat capability or evasion is in thine hand

OR if you know exactly what you'll encounter... which Alahazra does.

You keep forgetting about one of Imrijka's abilities:
"You may recharge (□ or reveal) a card that has the Divine or Ranged trait to add 1d4 and the Divine and Magic traits to your check against a monster."

So when you encountered Ghost [the first time] you could have used that Crossbow twice... first you revealed it to make a combat check into ranged check, and then recharge it to add d4 and Divine & Magic traits to your check. It would leave you without weapon but you wouldn't have to face that same Ghost two more times during scenario.

Imrijka also have Knowledge [Wisdom +2] which you keep forgetting. Check may say Intelligence/Knowledge but that just mean Intelligence OR Knowledge.

"You may recharge (□ or reveal) a card that has the Divine or Ranged trait to add 1d4 and the Divine and Magic traits to your check against a monster."

Can you use that power if you already used Ranged weapon on the check? And if you can, can you use the same weapon to trigger this power or it should be another one?

I know that the rules state that you can only use one card of each type per step, but those are two different steps [determine skill used and adding dies to check] so there should be no reason why you couldn't use same weapon for both. Or am I reading the rules wrong?

That was very nice read... and I can't wait to try out Bloodlust Corsairs.

Just one thing... link leading to your page is broken. It leads to wellybumpus.com [which is non-existent] instead of welbybumpus.com

No it doesn't... like you said, it would be too powerful if it did.

And to make it even worse, since Tricorn is an Item it prevents you from using Old Salt's Bandana to add the trait.

... the Safe House! Once you close this location you can just banish a card (not a small payment, but still) to evade the Villain and avoid her moving-around shenanigans. Can't believe we didn't notice that before. ...

Don't forget that while it's open Safe House give you an option to recharge a card at the start of turn to look up at top card of any location deck. That could also help you avoid the Villain until you're ready.

Not having a WotR at hand, but doesn't Battle Aspergillum require you to recharge a card with Divine trait in order to add additional d8 against Outsider or Undead? Making it somewhat less useful...

Another thing... just because you banished all boons at Collapsing Bridge it doesn't mean you no longer roll to see if it's effect happen. Which could be helpful considering you get to reshuffle the location deck afterwards.

Ulkreth was also in the FAQ:

Ulkreth has me attempting a Knowledge check while I am already making a check to defeat. Do you really want that?

No—that Knowledge check needs to happen earlier.

Resolution: On the henchman Ulkreth, change "If the check to defeat has the Acid, Cold, or Fire trait, succeed at a Knowledge 8 check to add 5 to it" to "If you succeed at a Knowledge 8 check, or if your check has the Acid, Cold, or Fire trait, add 5 to your check to defeat". (Note: This card also appears in the Character Add-On Deck.)

If a card says I can attempt a check to affect my check to acquire or defeat that card, when do I attempt that check?

Immediately before you start the check to defeat or acquire.

Resolution: On page 10 of the rulebook, in the second paragraph of Encountering a Card, add the sentence "The card you're encountering might require or allow a check that can affect your check to acquire or defeat; you must resolve that check before you begin the check to acquire or defeat."

This actually make Ulkreth somewhat easier to defeat...

Too bad you forgot about Scenario rule... far as I can remember, every Henchman in the scenario was Undead and since trigger was "non-villain bane" you "cheated" yourself out of 4 cards at minimum. Possibly even more since there were another Undead or two you faced...

Ripe wrote:

I'd go with "examine" mostly because shuffling the deck have lot bigger chance of ending up being beneficial to players [despite banishing boons] then just returning cards back in order they were... and I can't see bridge collapsing being beneficial to players.

I guess knowing what the Boon:Bane ratio at the location might help figuring out what the intent behind the card text is.

I have to admit, I worked on the same 'unlikely to help players' idea and came up with the exact opposite assumption - returning cards in order means players know exactly what's coming and when

Failing a check and having bridge collapse should be a penalty, not a benefit and yet, other then removing of boons [which may or may not be useful] I don't see much of a penalty in failing that check. In fact, failing that check is greatly beneficial to players.

Let us list benefits:
- you find out if there is a Villain at that location [that alone make banishing boons worthwhile]
- you learn exactly which Monsters and/or Barriers remain in location deck with Villain/Henchman
- removing Boons also mean reduction in number of Explores needed to clear out the Location [in case it's used in scenario where Henchman don't automatically give chance to close a location]

Those are benefits that players get no matter what. So the question is, what is more rewarding:
- knowing the order in which Banes arrive
- having a chance to put Villain/Henchman on top of location deck

I'd say that giving them a chance to put Villain/Henchman on top after you already reduced number of Explores needed on location is a greater benefit then simply knowing order in which Banes arrive.

I'd go with "examine" mostly because shuffling the deck have lot bigger chance of ending up being beneficial to players [despite banishing boons] then just returning cards back in order they were... and I can't see bridge collapsing being beneficial to players.

I guess knowing what the Boon:Bane ratio at the location might help figuring out what the intent behind the card text is.

Maybe I have this wrong but 6 minutes into the video Jirelle encounters the buccaneer and by the scenario she has to summon and encounter the ship Man's Promise. Only she is not commanding the ship at this time so the ship "man's promise" is banished (SS Rulebook pag. 17). Can you still encounter the buccaneer or does Jirelle has to battle the shark. I myself are confused on this.

I love the channel by the way!

Jirelle was commanding the ship since it was her turn.

Ripe wrote:

I'm not sure how useful Viper Strike will be in the future considering most monsters in Wrath are immune to Poison...

On another note, when will you post your next S&S scenario?

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to take a look at that. I just used the default deck list for all of them.

I'm not sure when the next S&S is going to be. I'm in the middle of selling one house and buying another and don't have time for 2 videos a week right now.

It's not just Poison damage... you'll be dealing with a lot of Demons and pretty much all of them should be immune to Electricity and Poison. And there will also be some Undead who have Poison [and Mental] immunity. So there is a good chance that Viper Strikes could end up dead cards in your hand...

There is a thread somewhere on this boards discussing usefulness of various elemental traits in Wrath so you might want to check up on that as well.

I'm not sure how useful Viper Strike will be in the future considering most monsters in Wrath are immune to Poison...

On another note, when will you post your next S&S scenario?

I just realized that your ship got wrecked during the scenario, which you didn't address in any way other then banishing plunder card.

I can't remember which ship you used for the scenario and what it's penalty is, but all of them add some form of penalty when they're wrecked. A penalty that might force a change in the way scenario is played...

Here is a few points:
- Ranzak CAN'T take Cure back because of a spell Jirelle acquired during scenario and he CAN'T take Noxious Bomb back because of Thieves Tools he acquired. At the end of scenario you can only take cards from box to reset your deck if there is not enough cards of that type between all the players decks and plunder cards... which is not the case here.

- Besmara's Tricorn add 1d8 to any Constitution, Fortitude, Wisdom or Survival check while you're on the ship... and it can be used for other players checks. You forgot about it and used a blessing on few of those "before you act" checks with Villains Lirianne did to add to add just another d6! And speaking of Besmara's Tricorn, Jirelle might be a better choice to have it since none of her dies are better then what Tricorn add, unlike Lirianne and Ranzak.

- Treasure Hunt say "each character may attempt a check to defeat this barrier" which would imply that you can do it even if you're not at the same location as character who originally encounter it

On a side note, you should have used a blessing to acquire that Pearl of Wisdom with Jirelle... you give it to Lirianne and roll a d12 on any non-combat check with her. And getting similar items for Ranzak [Constitution] and Jirelle [Dexterity] would be nice.

Also, I noticed that you forgot to reset your hand on a few occasions...

There is a possible [probable?] typo on Deck list: Blessing of Sifkesh and Blessing of Xoveron are both listed as being part of AD 5, while there is no new blessings in AD 4.

Ripe wrote:

A few easy to miss rules:

- if you don't have a skill listed on a check you can still roll a d4 on a check requiring it. So with Ranzak you can choose to use Divine skill to acquire a blessing and roll 2d4 needing to get a 5 to succeed making it an easier check then some you tried to make during scenario...

- if your ship is anchored at a location, all characters start scenario at that location

Also, I'm not sure you played Barroom Brawl correctly... card state that every character at location encounter it and anyone who don't defeat it take damage. Which would imply that all characters need to make a check, regardless of whether someone succeeded or not.

Ah yes the base d4, I generally don't think of that. I didn't know about the anchored ruling but that makes sense. I haven't looked up the official ruling on Barroom Brawl but there is definitely text that says if any character defeats it then it is defeated. I view it this way: if someone defeats it the brawl is ended by that character and there is no longer a brawl going on.

Thanks for your feedback!

You might be right about Barroom Brawl considering other similar cards either say "summon and encounter" [Crab Swarm] or "must succeed at a check to defeat" [Bucket Brigade] about what each character at location need to do... so while those two don't care about whether anyone else succeeded or not BB might go away as soon as someone defeat it.

A few easy to miss rules:
- if you don't have a skill listed on a check you can still roll a d4 on a check requiring it. So with Ranzak you can choose to use Divine skill to acquire a blessing and roll 2d4 needing to get a 5 to succeed making it an easier check then some you tried to make during scenario...

- if your ship is anchored at a location, all characters start scenario at that location

Also, I'm not sure you played Barroom Brawl correctly... card state that every character at location encounter it and anyone who don't defeat it take damage. Which would imply that all characters need to make a check, regardless of whether someone succeeded or not.

As I said, I never played Pathfinder RPG so I had no idea it was that focused on combat... and I'm afraid you're correct, Pathfinder is not something my group would enjoy since we prefer to have a balance between combat and role-playing [which is probably why we also enjoy various Storyteller RPG's].

And in that game, having +2 [or +3] to attack is nowhere near as important as having +2 [or +3] on saves... especially since we consider any roll of 1, 2 and 3 to be automatic fail. Which tend to get ugly when faced with "save or die" type of poison.

Then again, two of my most enjoyable times playing Paladin was in Ravenloft and Planescape settings... there is just something about being more or less disliked or outright hated by almost every NPC you encounter [even other LG ones in Planescape!]

Just a few observations:
- Jirelle's structure damage reduction work as long as she is in a party [doesn't matter if she is on ship or not]
- Ranzak always get a d4 to acquire a boon [which work great considering he also get to roll a d6 to see if he can explore again if he acquired a boon]
- Ranzak can also evade ANY bane [including Villains and Henchman] and send them to another random character at his location
- why you kept using Cutlass with Jirelle when she had Cat-o-Nine-Tails which is far superior weapon [even Rapiers are better then Cutlass]? With Cutlass you get a d10+d6+3 which give you a spread of 5-19 [average 12], while Cat give you d10+3d4+3 and a spread of 7-25 [average 16]. Also, because they're both Swashbuckling weapons, you can ALWAYS re-roll one die when you use them giving you an even higher average with Cat...
- don't forget that most Allies give you Swashbuckling trait on non-combat checks when used to explore again, so if they're used with Jirelle, you can reroll one die when facing Barriers or trying to acquire a boon!

Yeah, I personally found the Paladin's stat array surprising. The Paladin has always been a mostly martial class. The I would've had STR d10, DEX d4, CON d8, INT d4 WIS d8, CHA d8, with Melee: STR +2, Diplomacy: Charisma +2, Divine: Charisma +1. This puts the Paladin just behind the Barbarian and Fighter in pure melee ability (in Rise of the Runelords, anyway, not sure about anything after), while offering a decent Diplomacy and Divine.

I find d8 for Strength with Melee: Str +2 to be just right. I'll admit that I never played Pathfinder RPG but in "classic" RPG even when I played Paladin, I never put more then 14 [and I'd usually put just 12] in Strength due to his "good" BAB.

Charisma was always Paladin's main ability score [going as far back as 1st Edition D&D!] due to almost all of his class abilities are Charisma based, followed by Wisdom with Constitution and Strength fighting for 3rd place with Constitution usually winning. In the end, it would usually depend on how good I'd roll for my ability scores since we never use Point buy system, it's usually one of the 4d6 [or 3d6, if we want to challenge ourselves] variants...

That's interesting... as someone who never played Pathfinder RPG having Paladin use Wisdom for spell-casting seemed normal to me because that is what they [and Rangers] use to cast spells in "classic" RPG.

Few additional questions:

1. There are characters that say "Instead of your first exploration on a turn..." who allow us to do something else instead of exploring. If I use that power and then decide to use blessing/ally to explore do I still have to encounter Bucket Brigade or do I get to encounter next card in that location deck?

2. Alahazra's Stargazer ability allow us to scry top card of location deck and then encounter it if it's a boon. Since Bucket brigade is on top, I just "wasted" a divine card, correct?

If you need to roll an 8 on d8 in order to succeed, then you're most likely screwed to begin with... but if all I need to succeed is 5, then I'd rather have to roll 2d4 then d8.

As Zeroth mentioned, PACG doesn't reward you for rolling high but it does punish you for rolling low.

No, as Firedale posted a bit above the rulebook say this about exploration:

PLAYING A SCENARIO

...
YOUR TURN
...
Explore: You may explore your location once each turn without
playing a card that allows you to explore; this must be your first
exploration for the turn. You may never explore on another player’s
turn. When you explore, flip over the top card of your current location
deck. If it’s a boon, you may attempt to acquire it; if you don’t, banish
it. If it’s a bane, you must try to defeat it (see Encountering a Card on
page 10). Many effects allow you to explore again on your turn, and
there is no limit to the number of times you can explore.

So you can only Explore during your own turn and during Explore step.

You can use stuff like "Detect Evil", "Detect Magic", Alahazra's Stargazer ability and like to encounter cards outside of Explore step [and in some cases, even outside your own turn!] because, as Hawkmoon said, those effects don't count as exploring.

Sorry to but in, but what do you mean by this:

...(which had worked fine until Alahazra started to keep her examining power for her own turn so she could encounter the boons) ...

Doesn't Alahazra's Stargazer ability to encounter boons she just examined work regardless of whose turn it is?

No, you can't use an ally or anything else to explore during someone another players turn.

1. Non-combat checks to defeat monsters and damage: if I fail a non-combat check to defeat a Monster/Henchman/Villain [like Pirate Council and Charisma/Diplomacy check] do I still take damage like I would if I failed a combat check?

2. If I understand it correctly, revealing a card does not count as playing it, so I could reveal Old Salt's Bandana to add Swashbuckling to the check and then recharge Emerald of Dexterity to use my Dexterity die on the check. Am I understanding it correctly? What happens if I recharge Emerald first... can I still reveal Old Salt's Bandana? And if I have two items with reveal power, can I use them both?

I thought you can't look at which Blessings get used when you shuffle a Villain into random location deck [regardless of where you take the blessing].

Especially since KNOWING which Blessings were used does give some minor [or major if all the other Blessings of that type are used by players or already accounted for!] advantage to players while searching for Villain once again. If you know what blessings were used then finding one of them is almost equivalent to finding a Henchmen... either way you know Villain is not in that Location. Which does make a game somewhat easier for players and I'm not sure that was game designers intent with whole Villain mechanic.

I'd actually go for option #3: if BrineBones get shuffled into a location [which you can't know if it happen or not until you find him there] you treat him as any regular monster you encounter.

Once that encounter is over, no matter if you win, loose or evade him [and you can evade him!] Scenario card triggers it's post encounter part so you advance the blessings deck and then shuffle Brinebones back into blessings deck.

The way I see it, BrineBones is potential threat you may or may not encounter during a scenario... if you're lucky he could be 31st card in Blessing deck so you will never encounter him during the scenario. Or you may encounter him only once. But you may also be extremely unlucky and encounter him 10+ times.

Well, there are a bunch of different types of Caltrops used throughout history... one design [most common one] is four spikes arranged so their end points create a tetrahedron [a d4] but there are also designs using six spikes and even some with eight spikes. Their design also determine how much balance issues came out of stepping on one.

Agreed, it would be nice to get a definitive ruling on this.

One "benefit" I could see from making a ruling that monster from my example is defeated would be that it would make introducing a future Villain with "If the check to defeat does not have Divine trait, 'Villain' is undefeated." power possible.

At the moment introducing a Villain like that is not an option since doing that would make soloing the adventure path with any non-spellcaster almost impossible since they wouldn't have a way to defeat such Villain. Introducing a weapon like this would make that possible [and then you can only blame yourself for not keeping one of those when you get them... especially if it was given to you as Loot].

Also, I'm not sure what you mean about (Caltrops vs Ancient Skeleton) causing issues with thematic accuracy... Skeleton might ignore damage effect from them but uneven footing and balance issues still remain allowing you to either evade or defeat that Skeleton.

Let us look at this from slightly different angle... what playing this mace and using it's power represent: Character draws his Mace, offers a prayer to a deity asking for help in defeating his opponent and said deity responding by adding some of his divine energy to damage dealt.

In Card game terms each action is represented as follows:
- revealing a mace: drawing a weapon and readying it for use
- discarding a card: offering a prayer to deity and asking for help
- adding Diving skill: deity responding by adding divine energy to damage

Now let us imagine that opponent that character is facing can only be harmed by using divine energy which in card game terms that would mean a check to defeat need to have Divine trait [there is a precedence for that since in S&S character add-on deck there is a monster requiring check to defeat to have Magic trait]... would that opponent be defeated or undefeated following a successful attack using this weapon?

Thematically, I would say yes, he is defeated. But going by the rules as written at the moment, arguments could be made for each option.

There is no Glibness in S&S but Strength and Speed add +3 to checks using Strength or Dexterity skill.

Well, you do get two Loot cards for winning the scenario so it's not a big stretch to assume those were part of that "legendary treasure"...

Wasn't there a similar discussion awhile ago about Noxious bomb [or maybe it was Alchemist fire] adding Craft skill to combat check and what that mean?

Going by card lists, there is no Teleport spells in S&S... there is one in RotR and some class decks, but it's deck 4 and regatta is final scenario in deck 3.

From pg. 2 of the Rulebook:

RULES: THE GOLDEN RULE

If a card and this rulebook are ever in conflict, the card should be considered correct. There is one exception to this: When the rulebook uses the word “never,” no card can overrule it. If cards conflict with one another, then Adventure Path cards overrule adventures, adventures overrule scenarios, scenarios overrule locations, locations overrule support cards, support cards overrule characters, and characters overrule other card types. Despite this hierarchy, if one card tells that you cannot do something and another card tells you that you can, comply with the card that tells you that you cannot. If a card instructs you to do something impossible, like draw a card from an empty deck, ignore that instruction.

So Becalmed trumps over Jalhazar's Wheel.