SimonB's page

Great! But when downloadable Character sheets will be updated? You know you hinder sales by not letting people to see if there is an interesting character to play? It's almost 14 months after last update and the amount of decks almost doubled...

Is there a chance to update downloadable Character Sheets with characters from new decks? It hasn't been updated since year now.

I just, because I can't help myself, want to emphasize just how much less complicated the world could be with combat as a skill and the listed skill added as a trait.

I don't see any complication in current ruling ( I mean, of course strict by-the-rulebook ruling). I also don't see any benefit of changing combat to a skill, only confusion that it will cause. I also don't find that approach intuitive at all.

If you make such fundamental change after 4 years of game's initial release, you have to carefully read every single card that exist in the game and predict every game-breaking combination, or you will open can of worms. The very first "combat-is-a-skill" problem I see, is that every unarmed character should roll d4 for his combat check, as none of characters have "combat" skill and any card can boost your combat, instead of generic way of throwing blessings. Of course, you can still leave in the manual that combat check is the only check in game that does not require you to have skill that corresponds with said check and leave default strength/melee. But it just cancels benefits of proposed change.

Varril's power may be used only in "determine which skill you are using" step. And he cannot play cards or use any other powers to swap.

I think both you and Brother Tyler seem to think that "combat" has some special status that no other skill has. I ask you in turn, where is that special status declared in the rulebook? It's just a skill like any other, with a few unique characteristics*.

I don't *think* that combat is a special skill because i *know* there is no such think in Pathfinder ACG such thing as combat *skill*. There is only a combat check. Don't believe me? search for a card that boost your combat skill, scan it and send me. I can assure you - there is no such card. You cannot replace combat check with divine skill because there are completely separate things and now you are just making up your own rules.

A check is a combat check if and only if it either has the combat trait or the (unreplaced) listed skill you have chosen is combat.

Not true again. A check is only a combat check when "check to defeat/check to acquire" box lists combat. They are just called combat checks, not "checks with combat trait". Is there any card with printed "combat" word on the left upper part of the card ? I doubt it.

Just like a check is an acrobatics check if and only if the check has the acrobatics trait

Not true again! Man, you really should read the rulebook carefully.

* If combat is entirely replaced by divine, then there is nothing anywhere in the rules that justifies calling the check a combat check. All reference to combat has been replaced, nowhere is there an explicit "determine whether combat or not" step described in the rules, nowhere is there a reason to associate it with the check in any way. It has already been quoted that "instead" means the original thing did not happen.

Where did you read that combat checks are replaced by non-combat divine? Can you give us exact quotation? If there is such rule that your combat check might become non-combat check? Neither Kyra's nor Varril's character powers say that.

I think, like an argument from analogy, nearly any position can be defended by an argument from theme. In your example: if there is a blessing that adds 2 dice to an Acrobatics check, why wouldn't it pertain? Couldn't the two deities collude, with both Shelyn and this blessing's deity aiding Varril?

Most certainly not! He will not pray for help to anyone other than The Eternal Rose. Varril's faith is unshakeable! Inquisitor! Burn this heretic in the name of Goddess of Love! :-P

Also, I don't think the rulebook clearly states otherwise.

I think you're right on this one. Well, I got wrong on so many rules while playing PACG over these years so I take very literally every rule I know.

Last point: there is an additional common way for a check to gain a trait. Some cards explicitly add a trait to a check (the item Amulet of Mighty Fists adds the Magic trait, for example). This isn't listed in the passage you cite, so we know that passage isn't comprehensive.

Are there any comprehensive rules for PACG? I think not. It's all mixture or different rulebooks, FAQs and message board posts. It is quite irritating.

1) You're quoting an edition of the rulebook that wasn't published until after this thread began, for one thing. (Not sure if those passages changed, though.)

I checked WoTR edition of rulebook I downloaded in May 2015, and here what it says:

Determine Which Skill You’re Using. Cards that require a check specify the skill or skills you can use to attempt the check. Each check to defeat or acquire a card lists one or more skills; you may choose any of the listed skills for your check. For example, if a check lists Dexterity, Disable, Strength, and Melee, you may use any one of those skills to attempt your check. Even if your character doesn’t have any of the skills listed for a check, you can still attempt the check, but your die is a d4.

Some cards allow you to use a particular skill for a specifc type of
check, or to use one skill instead of another. (These cards generally say things like “For your combat check, use your Strength or Melee skill,” or “Use your Strength skill instead of your Diplomacy skill.”) You may play only 1 such card or use only 1 such power to determine which skill you’re using. A few cards that can be used on checks don’t use any of your skills; they instead specify the exact dice you need to roll or the result of your die roll

I believe it's word-by-word exactly the same wording. I don't have rulebooks from previous boxes, but I don't believe there would be any significant changes.

2) More importantly: your logic means the listed skill for a check is not added to the check as a trait. When I attempt a check whose difficulty is Wisdom, it is not a Wisdom check, unless I use my Wisdom skill. This is counter-intuitive. automatically added to the check as a trait, but most of us, including (in my understanding) the game designers, have always played that it is.

Well, intuition is a very subjective thing and I believe many PACG players share your opinion. I just haven't found anywhere in the rulebook that during a check you should add any more traits than the ones you should add according to the second paragraph I quoted in my last post.

4) The most telling point against your argument, though, is Vic's post I refer to in my first post of this thread:

Vic wrote:

What I'm saying is that [WotR Kyra's] power is doing exactly the same thing that the phrase "for your combat check" does on weapons. It's not changing the type of check, but it is adding the skill you’re using for the check, and any skill referenced by that skill, as traits to the check. The text in the rulebook under "Determine Which Skill You’re Using" applies here.

So if it's a combat check, it's still a combat check—and it now also has the Divine, Wisdom, Attack, and Magic traits.

And if it's a Dexterity check, it's still a Dexterity check—and it now also has the Divine, Wisdom, Attack, and Magic traits.

I know, and I don't understand why Vic stated such ruling, when rulebook clearly states otherwise. It just added needless confusion. This ruling should be abolished. Or, rulebooks should be overwritten.

Excuse me, but I don't understand why this situation is so complicated and why we have to wait a year to get an answer that is already in the manual. Lets see...

When you attempt any check, you may discard (□ or recharge) a card to use your Divine skill instead of any listed skill

Ok, so Varril can use his power when he attempts a check. Here is "Attempting a check" chapter from MM rulebook:

Attempting a check requires several actions that are explained below. Each player may not play more than 1 card of each type or use any 1 power more than once during each check, other than powers that can be used each time something particular happens.

Determine Which Skill You’re Using.
Cards that require a check specify the skill or skills you can use to attempt the check. Each check to defeat or acquire a card lists one or more skills; you may choose any of the listed skills for your check. For example, if a check lists Dexterity, Disable, Strength, and Melee, you may use any one of those skills to attempt your check. Even if your character doesn’t have any of the skills listed for a check, you can still attempt the check, but your die is a d4.
Some cards allow you to use a particular skill for a specific type of check, or to use one skill instead of another. (These cards generally say things like “For your combat check, use your Strength or Melee skill,” or “Use your Strength skill instead of your Diplomacy skill.”)You may play only 1 such card or use only 1 such power to determine which skill you’re using.
A few cards that can be used on checks don’t use any of your skills; they instead specify the exact dice you need to roll or the result of your die roll.

So, when attempting a check Varril just uses his power in "Determine Which Skill You’re Using" step and his check is now Wisdom, Divine check instead of any listed check.So, it's not Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Knowledge, Fortitude or any other check. Furthermore, if Varril uses this power to acquire weapon with listed Strength in check to acquire I wouldn't even add strength trait to this check. I quote Rulebook once again:

The skill you’re using for the check, and any skill referenced by that skill, are added as traits to the check. For example, if your character has the skill Melee: Strength +2, and you are using your Melee skill, both the Strength and the Melee traits are added to the check. When you’re playing a card to determine the skill you’re using, that card’s traits are also added to the check; for example, revealing the weapon Heavy Pick for your combat check adds the Pick, Melee, Piercing, and Basic traits to the check. (This isn’t the same as giving you a skill; for example, playing the spell Immolate adds the Arcane trait to your check, but it does not give you the Arcane skill.) If a power adds an additional skill or die to a check, that skill or die is not added as a trait to the check. For example, a card that adds your Strength die to your combat check does not add the Strength trait to your check.

So, there is no way we should add a trait to a check if it doesn't fulfill any of above conditions.

Animate Dead, Robe of bones, Haste, a combat spell, and a monster in hand is almost a sufficient win condition for any character with arcane or divine.

Use Animate dead, instead of discarding it, banish a monster. Draw at least two monsters from the box. Repeat until you have enough monsters, and resupply as needed.

Have enough monsters in hand to absorb the worst-case damage.

We let Zetha do such combo and we have pretty big chance to finish scenario at round 1. She can move by banishing monsters, evade encounter sshe doesn't like, use monsters as armors and she doesn't need combat spells to fight. And passes almost every non-combat check with that combo. Now that is what I call game-breaker

New cards are great incentive to buy "Ultimate" decks, but some cards are a must or no-buy, like (mass/major) cure, augury and sweep spells in Ultimate Magic. And maybe haste too. These cards are superb and useful for anybody. Of course, someone might say, i you want them, buy older class decks, but why should I buy let's say Wizard Class Deck just for one Swipe.

Magic Shields tend to be early favorites for ANYONE who can hold an armor card.

I'm playing PACG since the beginning and NOBODY uses shields, except very specific ones, like Scarab Buckler. And we are treating such armors more like items that use armor slot, than actual protective equipment. Most of the time, we even don't care if we manage to acquire magic shields, and only use we have for them are situations when somebody must banish a boon.

More canines with the Mount trait.

Felines with the Mount trait (which trait can be removed at the whims of capricious fate... Think Aprocrypha Fae mechanics).

And who is going to use them? From about 130 characters in PACG there are only 2 of them who need mounts. Maybe such mount isn't completely bad idea, but let's wait for cavalier class deck for such allies.

So, you pick your favored card at the start of scenario? But why not at the start of entire Adventure Path, when you build your starting deck? I believe there are no rules that explain that fully. And what with "cards have no memory" rule? What if you don't play entire scenario at once, but take few day breaks?

Everything else (including the continuous effect from Cloud spells) already is "IN EFFECT" and cannot be ignored, unless specifically instructed to do so. So, you would add 1d6 Poison from an already displayed Toxic Cloud against Undead, as you are not "playing/choosing to activate" its effect.

I don't agree with this one. As Keith said:

You can't use a power that would add a trait against something immune to it.

It is not "playing a card" or "activating". It is "using" a power. So, in case of Toxic Cloud you ignore entire paragraph about adding d6 and poison. The same goes with scenario power Xexyz mentioned - it is passive scenario power that also should be ignored, if necessary. It is complementary with "Ignore the impossible" rule.

The PACG cannot use names or terms that are only available under the OGL, as PACG doesn’t use the OGL. This is likely the cause of the renames you mention, and is also why it uses terms like Angelkin and Pitborn instead of Aasimar and Tiefling.

So Pitborn = Tiefling in PACG? No matter what kind of evil Outsider is related to? I thought pitborn means demonkin, because is WotR there are some monsters with pitborn and demon traits. But Ramexes' history hints he is devil-kin.

Yes, all eidolons from Summoner CD have Arcane trait.

As Longshot noted, it boosts Sorcerers with their Arcane Blast abilities. This feat also works for summoners, who use their eidolons for combat checks ( arcane + melee traits). It also helps when a character is using items like Wand of Scorching Ray and similar. So, CD Ezren is more useful than you think! Is he still useless? He is.

There is no such errata. It works as it should be. Remember she has power to add/substract 2 to/from the result. So, d4+AD#+2 is so much better than plain d4.

I found some old documentation when we passed Skull&Shackles for the second time. We started as a party of four, but Seltyiel player lost interest in playing.

Character Name: Jirelle
Role Card: Duelist
Skill Feats: Dex +4, Con +1, Wis +2
Power Feats: +2 hand size, For your check that has or is against a card that has the Finesse trait, you gain the skill Melee: Dexterity +3. If your check has the Swashbuckling trait you may reroll 1 die (or 2 dice) on your check. When you defeat a monster on your turn, and your check to defeat has the
Swashbuckling trait, you may discard (or recharge) a card to immediately explore. You may recharge an ally to recharge a random card
from your discard pile.
Card Feats: weapon +1. armor +1, item +2, ally +2
Weapons: Aegir's Kiss, Brine's Sting, Keen Rapier +3, Skyrocket Crossbow, Returning Frost Spear +2
Spells:
Armors: Ophidian Armor, Flaming Buckler Gun
Items: Besmara's Tricorne, Svingli's Eye, Ring of Regeneration, Ring of the Iron Skull
Allies: Rosie Cuswell, Audessa Reyquio, Eagle, Dwarf Kaiman, Ataxian
Blessings: Milani, Cayden Cailean, Besmara, Besmara, Pirate's Favor
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Character Name: Feyia
Role Card: Hexer
Skill Feats: Int +4, Wis+2
Power Feats: +2 hand size, When any character at your location attempts a check to acquire a spell or defeat a
monster (or barrier), you may recharge a card to reduce the difficulty of that check by 2 plus the adventure deck number of the recharged card, if any. When you succeed at a Craft check (or play a spell that has the Arcane trait), you may examine the top card of your deck; if it’s a spell (or ally), you may add it to your hand.
Card Feats: spell+4, item+1, ally+1
Weapons:
Spells: Augury, Bewilder, Tsunami, Tsunami, Scrying, Life Leech, Freezing Sphere, Animate Water, Quickened Ray, Dehydrating Touch
Armors:
Items: Hurricane Crown, Impossible Bottle, Immortal Dreamstone
Allies: Merchant, Evangelist Clockwork Owl, Old Salt
Blessings: Norgorber, Norgorber, Lamashtu, Milani
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Character Name: Damiel
Role Card: Chirurgeon
Skill Feats: Dex +4, Int +2
Power Feats: +2 hand size, Heavy Armors, Weapons, You may discard a card to add 1d6+2 and the Poison or Fire trait to any combat check at your location; if the discarded card has the Alchemical trait, add an additional 1d6. You may recharge an item that has the Alchemical trait to add 1d4 to your check.
Card Feats: spell+2, item+3, ally+1
Weapons: Venomous Heavy Crossbow +2
Spells: Cure, Holy Feast, Augury, Seamantle
Armors: Fortified Breastplate
Items: Bottled Lightning, Bottled Lightning, Potion of Healing, Potion of Healing, Potion of Heroism, Potion of Heroism, Liquid Ice, Liquid Ice, Alkali Flask
Allies: Pteranodon, Haneilius Fitch
Blessings: Abadar, Milani, Erastil, Cayden Cailean
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

So, take the new result =/=take the second result ?
Is there any backward compatibility, like Jirelle can use her power and then play parrot for second reroll?

I beg to disagree on this one. There is a clause "take the new result" which means you can use only one reroll power per check. See this thread:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rfpo?Rerolling#13

All the "Ultimate" decks will contain just one single character. That was mentioned in a previous blog post.

I somewhat missed that. I got confused by images of Tarlin in Zarlova in the post and thought there will be new versions of them. Too bad.

66) Spare parts to your ship are hard to buy.Not really expensive, but really hard to buy. So hard, you must go through entire campaign to get them.

67) Your PCs share ownership with former group member who doesn't want to sell the ship just because of petty revenge on his former colleagues.

68) Every other owner of this ship died some horrible death, and people believe it is cursed.

Our group of five meet once or twice per month. It takes us 9-10 hours to beat on average 4 scenarios, including dinner break (about 20 minutes). All are experienced players. During setup, Players do the same work every time. I read the Guide, second player reads Scenario rules and builds locations, third guy searches for henchmen and villains and fourth prepares blessing deck. We noticed that Mummy's Mask takes longer because of traders which adds about 15 minutes of additional time after scenario.

I know ninja and samurai are real iconics :-P . I was asking if there will be only one such character per Ultimate Deck. I just wish to see another versions of non-iconic PACG characters.

When we played first Runelords box set, we actually were missing more in-depth knowledge what we were doing and why. We tried to recreate the story without knowing original RPG scenarios. I remember that after defeating Skinsaw Man we thought he skinned poor Aldern and used that skin as disguise :-P . But in our defense we are not native English speakers and reading big blocks of text and translating it on the fly for players who do not know English well is quite tiresome. I think it's good how it is now. Short text on the back of the card is enough for the ones who just want to play, and printable guide for the ones who want to know the story. Eventually let Paizo themselves make such official guide and put it as free downloadable resource like character sheets.

But I got another proposition for game creators: Is it possible to make Card Guild scenarios with all the needed cards as one box? We don't have any guild plays in Poland, and I play with the same group of people so there is no need for such gaming convention style of play for us. I know we can buy scenarios and print proxies, or order cards from 3rd party, but I'm a bit lazy :-P and I want a nice box on the shelf.

And the last thing, in fact question: There will be some new iconics in Ultimate [noun] Decks. But how many? Only one per deck? Are there will be new versions of not-officially-iconics but somewhat-iconic PACG characters like Amhotep or Zarlova?

Can I buy cards from traders and then use bought cards to buy another cards? Let's say every other requirements are met, like "only one buy per character".

How many cohorts are to choose in this deck? And are they all accessible from the beginning, or have scenario numbers?

Our group added boons from Wizard, Oracle, Rogue, Ranger, Cleric and Summoner Class Decks. No deaths (thanks to Grazzle powerful healing abilities) and I don't recall we failed any scenarios.

5 players, 5 characters

Character Name: Grazzle
Role Card: Bog Medic
Skill Feats: Charisma +4
Power Feats: +1 hand size, [X] Add 2 to your check that invokes the Attack trait.
At the start of your turn, you may discard any number of cards from the top of your deck. ([X] If any of those cards have the Divine trait, you may recharge them instead.) Each other character may shuffle random cards from his discard pile into his deck; the total number of cards shuffled must not exceed ([X] 1 plus)twice the number of cards you discarded.
Card Feats: Spell +2, Ally+2
Weapons: Shocking Scimitar +2
Spells: Aqueous Orb, Elemental Mastery, Augury, Sivine Blaze, Cure, Body of Flame, Disable Mechanism, Volcanic Storm
Armors: Reed Snake Armor, Scarab Buckler
Items: Crytal Ball
Allies: Unwrapped Harmony, Cleric of Nethys, Black Kiss
Blessings: Nethys, Nethys, Milani, Maat

Character Name: Drelm
Role Card: Keymaster
Skill Feats: Strength +3, Wisdom +1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, [X] When you would discard a blessing that has the Abadar trait to add 1 or more dice to a check, you may recharge it instead([X] and add 1 additional die).
On your check against a card that has the Obstacle ([X] or Trap) trait, you may add your Divine skill.
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Spell+1, Blessing +2
Weapons: Greatclub +1, Greatclub +1, Bastard Sword +1, Ooze Falchion +1
Spells: Cure, Cure, Major Cure, Caustic Fog
Armors: Burglar's Buckler, Advocate's Armor
Items: Mask of the Forgotten Pharaoh, Sun Falcon Pectoral
Allies: Mahga Threefingers
Blessings: Abadar x6

Character Name: Ahmotep
Role Card: Eldritch Scion
Skill Feats: Strength +2, Intelligence +2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, On your check ([X] or a check by another character at your location), after the roll, you may discard ([X] or recharge) a card to add or subtract 2 from the result.
[X] On your check, after the roll, you may discard a card to remove or reroll any 1 die; take the new result.
Card Feats: Weapon +1 Spell +3
Weapons: Staff of Dark Flame, Quarterstaff of Vaulting, Twin Serpent Quarterstaff
Spells: Chain Lightning, Chain Lightning, Summon Lesser Monster, Lightning Bolt, Toxic Cloud, Ice Strike, Augury
Armors: Mystic Silk Coat
Items: Sapphire of Intelligence, Staff of Cackling Wrath, Staff of Minor Healing
Allies: Valet, Library Curator
Blessings: Maat, Pharasma, Gorum

Character Name: Simoun
Role Card: Bladewind
Skill Feats: Dexterity +2, Intelligence +2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Reduce Electricity damage dealt to you by [X]4.
[X]You may recharge a weapon that has the Knife and Ranged traits to add 1d4 plus its adventure deck number to a combat check by a character at another location.
Add your Perception skill to your check to defeat a barrier that has the ([X] Obstacle or) Trap trait.
Card Feats: Weapon +2, Item +1, Blessing +1
Weapons: Animalbane Dagger +1, Galvanic Chakram +1, Galvanic Chakram +1, Dagger of Doubling, Dagger of Doubling, Flaming Spear +1, Kopis
Spells:
Armors: Shield Cloak
Items: Smoked Glass Goggles, Muminofrah's Favor, Scarab of Mummy Defense, Staff of Minor Healing
Allies: Tetisurah, Basif Iosep, Qasin
Blessings: Erastil, Shelyn, Maat, Gozreh

Character Name: Zetha
Role Card: Gloomwalker
Skill Feats: Dexterity +2, Charisma +2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, At the start of your turn, you may draw 1 random monster ([X] or 2 random monsters) from the box.
You may banish a monster from your hand to evade your encounter or to use your Stealth skill in place of the listed skill for a non-combat check ([X] or, if you’re not in an encounter,to move).
[X] When you play Ahtez for your combat check, add 1d6
Card Feats: Spell +1, Armor +1, Item +1, Ally +1
Weapons:
Spells: Acute Senses, Locate Object, Twisted Space, Haste, Black Spot, Augury
Armors: Stalking Armor
Items: Tablet of Languages Lost, Hand of The Honest Man, Cloak of Elvenkind
Allies: Aunty, Bound Imp, Clockwork Menial, Pard, Burglar
Blessings: Nethys, Nethys, Iomedae, Sivanah

What happened with Seltyiel's thumb on Magic Arcana card?

That would totally break the game IMHO (at least in our 6p game).
Grazzle would build his deck with only divine cards. Then he could ultimately just wait for the others to all be highly wounded and spend his turn recharging his whole hand, healing up to 2*8+3=19 cards (it's 4 cards for each of the 5 others players).

But Grazzle discards cards from his deck, not from his hand.

I got other question about Arueshalae's Gift. When playing Arueshalae in other Adventure Path can I still use kiss? I mean, to use it you must have a token, but token mechanism is used only in WoTR. Can I use tokens in other APS? I know the rule "it's your game, have fun" but still I want ask about this in case of integrity with future rules.

When there is Tooth & Hookah location in scenario, when exactly I'm allowed to shuffle allies into this location?

1) When T&H is occupied and someone in other location fails to acquire ally?
2) At any time someone fails acquire up ally?
3) Only when character in T&H fails?

I believe it works like Family Tomb in WoTR but I need confirmation

Good afternoon, my good Sir,

1.My question is when do i actually take it? Is it immediate and i have to discard right away? Or do i do it at the end of my encounter?

Reveal blessing, take damage, then proceed with your encounter.

2. What do you mean? Did you encountered Ancient Skeleton henchman in your location deck, and then looked at "when closing" requirements? If so, there is "summon and encounter" phrase. Summon means you create a virtual copy of the card and unless you are SPECIFICALLY instructed otherwise, after your encounter summoned card goes right back to the box. And you only can close location when you meet requirements of "when closing" text block. Otherwise, location remains open.

3. You can use cards only one card of each type per step. But "Attempt a check" step says:

After you attempt the check, deal with any effects that were triggered by the check. If any cards played while attempting a check include their own checks, resolve the current check in this step and the new checks in subsequent steps.

So, IF you didn't play armor earlier (there are some armors that help you with passing the checks), AND you were dealt damage, then you may play armor to prevent damage.

My two questions for this is if i dont have the trait do i still get to roll a 1d4 + 2d6 for the check?

Yes, exactly.

Or do i follow the immediate text after and completely banish it because i dont have the trait?

No, you may use it once, then banish.

Ad.5. It goes the same path as point 3. You may play spells that prevent you from damage ONLY if you haven't played spell earlier in this check step.

6. Read manual carefully. "Attempt a check" consists of playing cards for the check, assembling dice, rolling the dice, all the modifiers after the roll, taking damage after failed roll, and all consequences that card(s) tell you to do after failed/successful check.

7. Yes. You roll d4 +d10 from your ally.

8. Once per step, unless stated otherwise.

This scenario gets so much easier if you got Augury spells from class decks. Also, Jirelle + Power Feat that lets you explore after defeating a monster + Ring of the Iron Skull = easy win.

Barbarians are best at large groups of players. When playing in 5-player game you only have 6 turns, so you can use bury power almost every fight. And by doing that you manage to keep blessings for other checks and explorations and with large group time runs short very quickly. When you combine it with barbarians' move powers (most of them have such power) it all helps large party in covering locations. When you start to running low on your deck, you can go to some locations with many armors and weapons to get some fuel.

But with small party barbarian bury power is a bit suicidal. Rather use only weapon discard powers to get more combat power and wait for healing.

Our party consists of Amhotep, Drelm, Grazzle (lizard oracle from CD), Zetha the summoner(me), and Mavaro. So far, we're still at B scenario.

Amhotep is our main damage dealer. All but one of her spells have attack trait and with her weapons and abilities she has more than enough ways to hurt people, both living and undead.

Drelm is a backup combatant, but with high Wisdom, Disable and bonuses is also a barrier bashing machine. And secondary healer. The only problem is he rarely do more than one exploration per turn.

Grazzle is our main healer (and the most powerful healer of all available characters, so far). Having craft and survival and loaded with divine attack spells he can handle banes quite well. He and Drelm usually go together making "green team" with Drelm healing the lizard and lizard healing everybody else.

Zetha is our spec-ops specialist. Usually I go to locations that are hardest to close - those which deal damage, forces to bury/banish a card or have some weird closing checks. Also having two scouting spells I handle with trigger cards. And with almost all of checks being a Stealth ones I build deck that almost every card give me bonuses to the check.

Oh, and the is Mavaro. He kinda hangs out. Really, I don't understand why are all excited about him. He is mediocre at everything except picking up boons - so he sits in Caravanserai entire adventure. Maybe it's the player fault - he tried to make Mavaro a barrier basher, then alchemist, and then ranged combatant - all with mixed results. Generally, he never had the right cards to display when it was the most needed.
Really, any character with 5+ item slots can be as diverse as Mavaro. The point is to pick up the right items.

Whenever you make a check, you don't add your character's traits by default. So, for example, when you make combat check with goblin character, you don't add "goblin" trait to a check, so you don't invoke "goblin" trait.

Yes, I remember that, but what about any other character? Should they examine all cards at once? Could they pick which trigger handle first? I don't think so.

On Drelm's downloadable character sheet there is a power feat:

[] When you would discard a blessing that has the Abadar ([] or Wadjet) trait to add dice to a check, you may recharge it instead.

Exactly The same power is on Vaultkeeper role.

[] When you would discard a blessing that has the Abadar ([] or Wadjet) trait to add 1 or more dice to a check ([] or to explore your location), you may recharge it instead([] and add 1 additional die).

Does it means that Drelm can recharge Abadar's blessings only when he adds more than one die? Or is it just a misprint? I don't have Mummy's Mask box yet and I can't compare it with original cards.

Maybe I'm just over analyzing things, but I'm not native English speaker and amount of rules in PACG is a bit overwhelming and I always had problems with this die/dice thing.

I believe, if you examine two or more cards, you must examine it one at a time, not all at once. And Trigger trait forces you to do something: so Finish One Thing Before You Start Something Else - finish all "when examined" part, then examine next card, and so on. And you must complete all chain of events started by examining cards, before you may play spells like Cure.

All basic banes are removed from play when banished when you start Adventure 3, but you can choose when you banish boons if you want to put to the box or remove from play. See Adventure Path card (the brown one).

Yeah, that's how we played.
There is also no "for your combat check" clause, so you can play it anytime you want as long it is "relevant". So I wonder if you might play it in "apply evasion" step.

So I played wrong that part :-P But I believe there are some character powers/ cards that let you reduce difficulty before apply evasion step. I just don't remember which ones. That black spot+web combo is still a longshot, because you need someone else to play black spot, as you can't play 2 spells by yourself. And black spot has some ambiguity in whether I can play it on someone else: "discard this card to decrease the difficulty to defeat a monster by 1 plus adventure deck number of current scenario". So it might go both ways.

To comment on this further, prior to this kind of thing, I'm not sure there was much practical difference between a card that reduced the difficulty of a check and a card that added a bonus to the check (i.e. "Discard this card to reduce the difficulty of your Combat check by 3" and "Discard this card to add 3 to your Combat check" had the same practical outcome.) Now, since you can keep the result, there is a difference between the two. And I love it. I can't wait to see how else this will matter.

The only practical difference between adding X to check and reducing difficulty by X comes when you would play a spell that lets you evade monster of difficulty no greater that Y. So, another player may play Black spot to reduce difficulty, so you might play a spell like Web, or Sleep.

As Frencois noted, if you are instructed to do two or more things at the same time, choose order. So, you may start at Abyssal Rift, move and flip up location, explore and move back using Donahan, and flip Rift back to "closed" postion. In fact, I believe Alain was designed to work that way by the game creators

These are my tips and ideas, after finishing WotR:

1) Get as wide array of secondary skills as possible. The most crucial ( from the most important): Divine/Knowledge/Arcane/Survival/Diplomacy. If able, add Ranged, Acrobatics and Fortitude. Pick as many Divine characters as possible - at least half of your party should have it. Of of 6 players in my party, four had it and it so helpful.

2) This is combat-oriented adventure path. Pick capable fighters. Most barriers just do nothing, or are helpful, or just spam monsters at you.

3) Alain seems a bit useless to me. As Iceman noted, Adowyn is probably the best character in this set, but Kyra, Seelah, Shardra are also excellent choices and your party should consider these characters first. Balazar is also great , but has some unique and difficult mechanics, so don't give it to your 9-year-old son, if you have any ;-). But there are a lot of interesting boons for Alain - powerful mounts, polearm weapons, even armors. You might consider buying Paladin Class Deck and play Raz, who is kind of paladin/cavalier combo and is much better (and cuter ) character to play.

I believe your reasoning is incorrect. Closing a location after defeating henchman is not a part of the encounter. See this and
this.

Other than that, there is still rule "Finish One Thing Before You Start Something Else" in power. So when you defeat a monster you must finish everything you are required to do plus as much as you like what you are permitted to do, before you start next thing (new encounter, closing location, ending turn.) All character powers are non-mandatory, so if Salim woundn't heal himself before his next move, the opportunity is lost, and you cannot "bank" your heals.

See Mummy's Mask rulebook p.8 "Playing cards":

If you play a card in such a way that it leaves your hand, that action can trigger only 1 power.

Thanks for clearing it out. I was afraid Righteousness is not as good as I thought it was.

Can you play Righteousness the same manner? The card states:
"Display this card to add d6 to your combat checks. When you are dealt damage, recharge any cards you would discard as damage".

So, can I play this card just for preventing from discarding cards?