Xexyz's page

The Sacristy from RotR says,

When Permanently Closed: On closing, add 1 of your buried cards to you hand.

Suppose you had to bury your role card because a mean old umbral dragon breathed on you and you were a frail wizard with a d4 constitution and failed the BYA check. Then you closed the Sacristy. Could you add your role card back to your hand? What would happen? Would it be treated like when you encounter your character token in a location deck and be displayed in front of you?

I agree with Skizzerz above. It's not much better than Object Reading, but it is better than Object Reading.

Personally I still prefer Object Reading. I'll give up the free shuffle in exchange for being able to stack the top three cards of the deck. Much easier recharge too.

My problem with that is that it's not consistent. Cure Light Wounds conjures energy from the Positive Energy Plane, but Inflict Light Wounds is apparently not conjuring energy from the Negative Energy Plane. You could just as easily swap these spells, so that Cure is Necromancy (you're draining life energy from your surroundings and putting it into a person "CARNIVALE-style"), and Inflict is Conjuration (You're conjuring energy from another plane). It would have the exact same logic that you've used (and be just as inconsistent), but have a slightly different flavour. So I know you CAN justify it (you've done a very good job of it, well done sir), but why should we be justifying something inconsistent when there's a much easier solution - to make it consistent.

As to Raise Dead ... that's literally the definition of Necromancy. If you ask a layman what Necromancy is for, they'll say:...

This exactly. In fact Inflict Light Wounds actually does explicitly say you're conjuring negative energy, so I guess that means conjuring positive energy = conjuration, and conjuring negative energy = necromancy. But then you look at Circle of Death and Undeath to Death, which are also inverses of each other in the exact same ways as cure/inflict light wounds, except Circle of Death and Undeath to Death are both necromancy spells.

Even worse than making healing conjuration is making fear effects necromancy, which is just completely nonsensical. Literally every other emotion-type spells are enchantment, which is completely logical, except fear-type spells for some reason.

all spells get banished now. But when you banish a recoverable boon for its power, you don't put it back in the vault—you put it into a recovery pile. At the end of each turn, anyone with a card in a recovery pile does whatever that "During Recovery" section says.

Ouch, that nerfs WotR Seoni's first power pretty hard. No more using the same spell on multiple combat checks. I wonder what other characters have powers that are going to be affected by this change?

What is online play?

I use both but generally prefer D20. As someone who like stacking archetypes to see what kind of interesting characters I can make I love the archetype compatibility table on D20. It's also a lot easier to use when I'm searching for something in particular. AoN on the other hand I'll use when I'm looking for things like magic items since it's got items from the softcovers and I generally don't use any 3PP. I'm thankful for both because they each have their strengths.

Easiest way to do this is to make a slayer. Full BAB, d10 hit dice, proficient in all martial weapons, 6 skill points per level and has 3 of the 4 social skills as class skills.

Because I like my campaigns to be story-driven and want my players to be invested in their characters, I'm honor-bound to make raise dead reasonably available. One of the changes I also made was to change breath of life to cure deadly wounds. The spell works exactly the same except since it's a cure spell the group cleric can spontaneously cast it and since he has the Healing domain it gets empowered as well.

To compensate somewhat, I really upped the lethality of my campaign once the PCs hit 9th level. They're 14th level now, but have had to raise dead party members eight times, required a resurrection one time, and been saved by cure deadly wounds countless times.

Seems to work for my group.

Paladin. Bigger hit die, better saves, access to heavy armor, and swift action self-healing. In addition, being a full-BAB class with an extremely strong offensive kit against evil enemies makes them generally threatening enough to warrant paying full attention to them.

Hopefully this is of some assistance. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. ^_^

Great job on the class, I really like it! Making an NPC Sanguine Angel right now that my players may encounter in their adventures...

Question: For the Angel of Death wings, is it intended that they're "always out" or are they summonable (growable?) like other class abilities (such as the wings you get from the draconic bloodline) but otherwise not present?

Another question: Hell's Vengeance Deck 2 has a redemption card, but doesn't have any cards that allow you to redeem a card - unlike Hell's Vengeance Deck 1 which has The Asmodean Disciples. Season of The Righteous only allows you to redeem loot rewards. It is intended that you never redeem cards in HVD2?

The idea of reviewing the class decks has been bouncing around in my head for a while since it's pretty clear that some decks are better than others. I haven't seen any discussions of specific class deck contents, so here are my thoughts.

I'm not going to evaluate or rate the characters in the class deck themselves since I think each character has their own theme and flavor. I really enjoy the fact that there are noticeable differences in the overall strength between characters and believe those differences add to the richness of the game.

Instead, the primary crux of my evaluation is how the cards in the deck support the characters in the class deck. I'll be breaking the ratings down by card type and grade the selection of cards on an A-F scale. I'll also be giving an overall rating of the deck as a whole.

One thing of note is that I use a tier system to categorize direct attack spells based on how much damage they do and if there are other mitigating factors. Here's how I group them:

Tier 1 - Spells that can add 24 or more damage, most commonly via 4d6, 3d8, or 2d12.
Tier 1.5 - I put spells in this tier if they do damage equivalent to tier 1 spells but are generally weaker due to other factors, mostly their traits. For example I consider poison blast and vengeful storm tier 1.5 spells due to the large amount of creatures immune to them.
Tier 2 - Spells that can add 18-21 damage, most commonly as +3d6.
Tier 3 - Spells that can add 12-16 damage, the most common being the +2d6 spells.
Tier 4 - This tier is comprised of the basic attack spells that either add +2d4 or +1d6.

Here's my wizard deck review:

Weapons:

Weapons are a little more important for wizards than sorcerers since 3 of the 4 wizards included in the deck start with a weapon – in fact Darago and Melindra start with two – so I’m going to give the selection a bit more weight than what I gave for the sorcerers. There are 9 weapons in the deck: 3 basic and one each from AD1-6. The selection, frankly, is poor. Every single wizard has a bigger dexterity die than strength die and can put equal or greater skill feats into dexterity. Yet the deck has 5 melee weapons vs. 4 ranged weapons. And aside from the Force Sling +3, those ranged weapons are very mediocre. For most of your wizard’s career weapons will be clogging your hand. The Spellsword +2 is nice, even though it’s likely only ever to be used to recharge a spell. Grade D

Spells:

More than any other class, spells are the bread and butter of wizards. And with 29 in the deck, there’s a lot to choose from. How good are your potential choices? Let’s find out.

The Good: Two auguries and a scrying gives you lots of scouting ability if you want. Blizzard, corrosive storm, and even crappy masterwork for combat support. Sphere of fire in AD1. Life Leech.

The Mediocre: Attack spells are lacking. No tier 1.5 or 2 spells, so you’ll making due with frost ray, sphere of fire, and dehydrating touch all the way until AD5 when you can pick up icy prison. The combat support spells being in AD5 and 6; swapping either blizzard or corrosive storm for an incendiary cloud in AD3 would’ve been much better. The crappy AD0 spells such as arcane armor, sleep, magic weapon, instead of better AD0 spells such as black spot.

The Bad: The biggest issue with the spells – and really, the deck as a whole – is the lack of swipe and haste. Wizards get few ways to explore given their lack of blessings, which is why haste is very important – and why its omission is such a glaring weakness. To compensate for their lack of explore ability, Ezren and Darago have a basic power that allows them to immediately explore after acquiring a card with the magic trait. Melindra can also get this power in her Mage Spy role. This is why swipe is a very important spell for wizards, since it lets them acquire weapons, armor, and items that they normally would have a very difficult time acquiring. Its absence is keenly felt.

All in all with 29 spells to choose from you’ll be able to make it work, but the selection overall leaves much to be desired. Grade: D

Armor:

Generally an afterthought for wizards, since only Darago starts with one (and he starts with two!). There are 6 in the deck, and none are going to make or break things for you. Robe of Vision is disappointing since none of the wizards have perception. A reflecting shield or reflection buckler would’ve been nice. Grade: D+

Items:

Things start out pretty mediocre with nothing in AD0 that’s especially desirable, but things get much better after that. AD1 has the spyglass and sapphire of intelligence, AD2 has the ring of protection and staff of minor healing, and AD3 has the mist horn, all very nice items to choose from. I normally don’t care for the staff of heaven and earth but other people find it very useful and it’s a good item, while AD5 gives you the headband of epic intelligence and wand of treasure finding. Finally in AD6 you’ve got the boots of teleportation and pearl of magic. I’ve personally never used the pearl of magic and tend not to keep the boots, but they’re both solid additions to a deck. Aside from AD0, there aren’t any real weaknesses here. Grade: B

Allies:

There are a pretty good selection of allies to choose from across all ADs. The allies in AD0 and 1 are serviceable though not spectacular, but things start to get good from AD2 on up. Having an incanter, apprentice, and pyromaniac mage is nice for arcane checks, while the cat in AD3 helps with recharging. The lizard is an excellent ally, and in AD5 the clockwork librarian is there to supercharge your spells. In AD6 there’s the excellent clockwork owl, which between that and the lizard means you can have the ability to auto-succeed on stealth, perception, and survival checks. The mountaineer is fantastic as always. The only real disappointment is that Darago and Melindra can only have 2 and 3 allies respectively. Grade: B

Blessings:

Wizards don’t generally get a lot of blessings, and the selection reflects that. Four Blessings of Pharasma spread out over AD0-3 is nice so you can have all Pharasmas if you want to. I also like that aside from AD3 each AD# (except AD6, which only has one blessing) has difference blessings to choose from. I am however very disappointed that there are no blessings of Calistria or Milani for Melindra since dexterity is important to her. Points for a decent variety, but minus points for leaving Melindra high and dry. Even just one dexterity blessing would’ve been nice. Grade: C-

Summary:

While the wizard deck has some good things going for it – its item and ally selection – overall it’s about as bad and disappointing as the bard deck. This is in large part due to the underwhelming spell selection; the lack of haste and swipe really cost it. The crap weapons and armor will make Darago’s life frustrating and the lack of a dexterity blessing for Melindra kind of feels like a slap in the face. Like all class decks there’s enough there to function and succeed, but you’re going to be spending a lot of your character’s career feeling a bit trolled by your deck’s contents.

Overall Grade: D+

I dislike having paladins for every alignment. That dilutes the concept of a holy warrior who's a shining beacon of virtue to fighter guy with alignment-based abilities. "I'm a paladin." "Me too!" "Same over here!" It's lame.

I find Carrion Crown very unsatisfying. The story is boring and the fights are very frustrating and un-fun.

I'm sure it's already been said in the thread but I'm fine with paladins and anti-paladins only. Having a "paladin" for every alignment feels a little too grab-bagish for me.

Zhayne wrote:

If this one hasn't been FAQd, it should be. As written, I know the recharged cards don't count for the healing, but somehow it just feels like they should.

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).
If he does that twice in a 6p game (at his 2nd and 4th turn typically), pretty much nobody can die anymore, even with average odds on fights.
Moreover, everyone can use at two additional reexplore "for free" per turn since blessings and allies will be refreshed by Grazzle. That's something like 8 additional explores at each of Grazzle turns, for a total between 30 and 40 during the game. You just can't lose by the clock anymore.

Yes, this is the essence of it. Though I disagreed with the elcoderdude's interpretation of how the recharging worked I still always thought Grazzle's healing was the most powerful character ability in the game. Even with the realization that I've been playing the ability wrong I still think this. The ability to heal multiple people at once regardless of their location for a large amount of cards is just so incredibly strong, and changes the way the entire table plays. People can more freely burn through their decks because they know they'll get healed every turn. It also facilitates card cycle so he can pretty much cycle back into a cure spell to heal himself nearly every turn if he wants.

You should decide in advance which location you want to funnel the villains to. I recommend the Hatchery because permanently closing it just makes future fights harder. I also recommend leaving the Jungle empty since permanently closing it early puts barriers in open locations. Then spread out and explore as normal. When someone encounters a villain everyone else should temporarily close their location decks so the villain can't escape to there.

Eventually, as long as you're able to temporarily close your locations, the villains will have been shunted to either the Jungle or Hatchery. At that point you should converge on the Jungle and power through it. You'll likely have to fight a villain or two, but as long as you can beat them they'll be shunted over to the Hatchery. At that point you just have to get through the Hatchery until you find the first villain. Defeat it and victory is yours!

I agree overall, even though I think the game is more fun if you have less healing. Playing Grazzle lately, the game becomes a total easy mode, since there is no risk at screwing up anymore (I seriously think the Bog Medic role should be errata'd to be less good at healing, as his healing is way more broken than the pre-errata Alain could ever hope to be - using his healing, I easily shrugged off 2-3 'Rite of Heraldry induced' handwipes per character (!) without breaking a sweat, all in a single scenario).

Grazzle's healing power - especially if you go Bog Medic - is IMO the most powerful character ability in the game. More than any other character's power it changes the way the game gets played because it allows everyone to burn through their decks with little fear of death.

The idea of reviewing the class decks has been bouncing around in my head for awhile since it's pretty clear that some decks are better than others. I haven't seen any discussions of specific class deck contents, so here are my thoughts.

I'm not going to evaluate or rate the characters in the class deck themselves since I think each character has their own theme and flavor. I really enjoy the fact that there are noticeable differences in the overall strength between characters and believe those differences add to the richness of the game.

Instead, the primary crux of my evaluation is how the cards in the deck support the characters in the class deck. I'll be breaking the ratings down by card type and grade the selection of cards on an A-F scale. I'll also be giving an overall rating of the deck as a whole.

One thing of note is that I use a tier system to categorize direct attack spells based on how much damage they do and if there are other mitigating factors. Here's how I group them:

Tier 1 - Spells that can add 24 or more damage, most commonly via 4d6, 3d8, or 2d12.
Tier 1.5 - I put spells in this tier if they do damage equivalent to tier 1 spells but are generally weaker due to other factors, mostly their traits. For example I consider poison blast and vengeful storm tier 1.5 spells due to the large amount of creatures immune to them.
Tier 2 - Spells that can add 18-21 damage, most commonly as +3d6.
Tier 3 - Spells that can add 12-16 damage, the most common being the +2d6 spells.
Tier 4 - This tier is comprised of the basic attack spells that either add +2d4 or +1d6.

Here's my cleric deck review:

Weapons:

Ugh. Kyra and Tarlin each want specific kinds of weapons - swords and 2-handers respectively - and the starting spread of weapons isn't very good. It's more problematic for Kyra since she doesn't start with weapon proficiency; instead of two longswords a dogslicer should have been included in place of one of the longswords. It's less of an issue for Tarlin since he only cares about 2-handed weapons for his healing power but a longspear would've been better than a quarterstaff. The deck 1-3 weapons are nondescript. Decks 4-6 have nice weapons in the greatclub +3, spellsword, and grayflame mace, and dancing scimitar +2, but the lack of good weapons until then is disappointing. Grade: D

Spells:

Three cure spells is too much. Considering Heggal, Tarlin, and Kyra have a healing power even two cures is pushing it. That said there are a decent selection of utility spells with find traps, augury, wisdom, and righteousness spread out through the deck levels. The biggest weakness of the selection is that Zarlova is going to be stuck with three attack spells - two of which are weak tier 4 spells - for the majority of her career. A swipe and additional tier 2-3 attack spell (aqueous orb, flaming sphere) would have really rounded things out. Grade: C

Armor:

Considering the armors available at the time the deck was released there are no glaring issues. Decks 5-6 offer the outstanding invincible breastplate and adamantine plate armor respectively. Grade: B

Items:

Only eight items and no deck 6 item, but the clerics don't get a lot of item slots. A pearl of wisdom is available in deck 0, while there's a belt of giant strength in deck 3 and headband of inspired wisdom in deck 4. Nothing to write home about, but workable enough by the time most of the clerics consider taking an item card feat. Grade: C

Allies:

Considering Tarlin and Kyra start with one ally and max at two, while Zarlova starts with two and maxes out and three, it's surprising that there are 18 allies in the deck. The deck 0 allies are nothing special but still useful, and the decks 1-2 allies include decent options such as the social climber and cook. From deck 3 on there are very nice allies including the evangelist in deck 3, the exalted in deck 5, and clockwork owl in deck 6. There are really no weaknesses in the selection. Grade: A-

Blessings:

The cleric deck has a very solid selection of blessings. There are three each of Sarenrae and Iomedae for Kyra and Tarlin and two Nethys for Zarlova. There are three Pharasma and two Gorum for general combat assistance, and a nice variety of utility blessings such to round things out. About the only thing lacking is a blessing of Achaekek and maybe another Abadar. Grade: A-

Summary:

The Cleric deck is pretty decent with the only major sore point being the weapon selection, although I personally feel it's a pretty big one. It would've been better to reduce the number of allies in the deck considering clerics don't generally get a lot of allies and instead increased the selection of weapons to reduce the pain for Kyra and Tarlin. If you can reliably use some of the loot weapons available in the adventure paths to shore up the deck's weapon selection weakness, everything else in the deck is pretty solid.

Overall Grade: C+

The idea of reviewing the class decks has been bouncing around in my head for awhile since it's pretty clear that some decks are better than others. I haven't seen any discussions of specific class deck contents, so here are my thoughts.

I'm not going to evaluate or rate the characters in the class deck themselves since I think each character has their own theme and flavor. I really enjoy the fact that there are noticeable differences in the overall strength between characters and believe those differences add to the richness of the game.

Instead, the primary crux of my evaluation is how the cards in the deck support the characters in the class deck. I'll be breaking the ratings down by card type and grade the selection of cards on an A-F scale. I'll also be giving an overall rating of the deck as a whole.

Since the bard class deck is the first listed on the deck card list PDF, I'm reviewing it first.

Weapons:

The Bard deck has a workable - if mediocre - selection of weapons, all things considered. They're decently split between finesse weapons for Bekah and ranged weapons for Lem and Siwar. The biggest weakness are the inclusion of three strength melee weapons considering none of the bards will want them. Especially frustrating is that the deck 3 & 4 weapons are strength melee weapons, which are mostly wasted. A deck 3 finesse weapon and deck 4 ranged weapon would've been much better. Grade: C-

Spells:

The Bard deck has a very nice selection and variety of spells. Two cures plus major cure and holy feast in deck 4 if you want to concentrate on healing. For offensive spells the big gem is lightning bolt in deck 2, plus you have incendiary cloud and blizzard for offensive support spells. There are multi-function spells such as swipe, life leech, and dominate, which are very useful for characters that have limited spell slots. There are also a couple of utility spells like glibness and scrying. The only thing missing is a tier 1 attack spell such as disintegrate or icy prison. Grade: B+

Armor:

Siwar can never have armor and Lem doesn't start with any, so armor isn't very important. That said, I have no complaints and am pleasantly surprised that the decks 4-6 armors are all very good. Grade: B+

Items:

This is the biggest weakness of the bard deck. There is only one item available for each of decks 4-6, and zero deck 2 or 3 items at all! Considering all of the bards in the deck start with two or three items and you're pretty much guaranteed to be stuck with crappy items for the majority of your character's career. It doesn't help that two of the nine available items are gambling items (including the horrible ivory dice), which only Meliski would want, and only if he selects the gambler role. The only thing saving this group from an F is the fact that you have the ruby of charisma, headband of alluring charisma, and sihedron ring. Grade: D-

Allies:

The bard deck has 23 allies, which is the most of all the class decks. Despite this, the selection of allies available is disappointing. The biggest issue is that you have duplicates of three different allies and those allies are themselves mediocre. Having two princelings in deck 6 is the biggest sore, since instead of a second princeling there could've been a much more useful ally such as a mountaineer or clockwork owl. Furthermore, many of the allies simply aren't very useful to the bards either: three of the four allies that can recharge to add to a combat check only work for melee (or finesse) checks, and thus are only useful to Bekah or Meliski. Seven of the 23 have non-explore powers that enhance diplomacy checks, which makes them very redundant. The only saving grace is the fact you get an old salt and fortune teller. Grade: D

Blessings:

The selection and spread of blessings is thoroughly lacking. No blessings of Pharasma despite the fact that half the bards are going to be depending on combat spells for most or all of their careers. Lamashtu and Achaekek as your decks 5 and 6 blessings is kind of underwhelming. Three blessings of Norgorber all slotted for deck 3 is also disappointing. Grade: D+

Summary:

The bard class deck is in my opinion - if not the worst - then the most disappointing. Too many of the card groups have card slots wasted on useless or redundant cards, and the lack of items is appalling. The only saving grace is the very good selection of spells, which is big since spellcasting is very important for bards.

Overall Grade: D+

So here's the basics:

Want- I love magic, mystical, dark, mysterious, sexy, and badass fighters. I want a character that is great at fighting but can also cast minor spells, enchantments, etc. I like my focus to be fighting.

Another vote for bloodrager. Excellent at fighting, can cast spells starting at 4th level, and bloodlines thematically lend themselves to dark/mysterious backstories (where does the character's power come from?).

Alright, I've read through all the responses and see some common ideas, which I'll address:

Have some stronger NPCs attack it and get killed / have local elders tell the PCs stories of how it's killed legendary champions of the past: I like this idea the best, since it's the easiest for me to incorporate. I think part of the problem is the PCs haven't done much asking about how the attack unfolded and have been led to believe it was just their ally and a bunch of scrubs who were fighting it. I hope they to more information gathering around town because then they'll learn it was their ally, the head clerics of the local faiths, some strong warriors among the town guard, and spellcasters from the local wizard's guild that fought it, and they were only able to drive it off.

Have the PCs undertake a quest for a macguffin to defeat it: I'd rather not as they've got a more important task to complete right now and don't want to distract them with another find-the-macguffin-artifact-quest.

I haven't mollycoddled the PCs either in this campaign; each of the PCs has died at least once. On the other hand despite that they're still a bit cocky and don't always take their opponents seriously. They killed a crag linnorm recently without much trouble, but that particular linnorm was only CR 14 - an appropriate (and easy because 6 v 1) EPL encounter since there are 6 PCs. I don't think they realize just how much more powerful this one is, but it's a reasonable position to take because my players are very good about not meta-gaming; the party understandably reasons that the one linnorm they killed wasn't much of a threat, so how much stronger could this one be?

As far as why Sarpelecului woke up and attacked, it's because the world is changing on a fundamental level. Since my campaign started back in 2012, I've been incorporating new material as it's been released. Most has been pretty seamless; since the new classes from the Advanced Class Guide are hybrids of existing classes it was reasonable to assume they all existed and the PCs have just had never encountered any prior to the ACG. Occult Adventures is different since it introduces an entirely new kind of magic. Since two of my PCs are followers of the God of Magic in my world, it would seem a bit odd for them to have never heard of it but presume it always existed.

So this is my solution. The world is changing on a fundamental level, and the awakening of Sarpelecului is just an omen for this change. In the not-so far away future in my game world, the occult classes are going to start appearing.

Ryric figured it out, and here's Mike's reply to prove it!

I still don't understand how to get it playing through the regular adventure path.

I don't think it's so bad killing a level 1 PC. Replacing a PC at that point isn't as disruptive to the campaign as replacing one in the middle of a story, and players are usually more upset by losing a character they've been running for a month than a couple of hours. If you're trying to establish a sense of danger ("I am an impartial GM - any combat might be your last and it is up to you to make sure you don't die"), letting a level 1 character die does that - even if you start fudging in their favor later on, it will be easier to maintain the illusion of danger if they've lost someone in the past.

On the other hand, killing off the character of a player who is new to the game might drive them away for good.

Mechanically and narratively killing a level 1 PC is less disruptive than killing a higher-level, established character, but from a meta-game standpoint it does have its own issues. The primary one being if a player really wanted to try a specific character concept they're much more likely to create a carbon-copy of the character who just died, which strains verisimilitude.

The other reason I tend to go easier on lower-level characters is because it's more fun when the challenges get more difficult as the game progresses. Once raise dead becomes available I tend to up the lethality of the encounters I toss at the PCs.

Matthew Downie wrote:

0o0o0 O 0o0o0 wrote:

It does seem punitive to PCs whose whole set of abilities revolve around them getting good DCs up.

I think that's kind of the point. Effective use of high DC SoS spells makes encounters boring.

I agree. But not nearly as boring as trying to kill a boss via hit point attrition.

I think I've noticed something, here, and in other threads. You consider competent, tactically sophisticated characters to produce boring play, because such characters deal with encounters quickly and efficiently. "Effective," I believe, is the word you used.

You therefore think that the Game Master should arbitrarily nerf the characters actions to turn them into the Keystone Kops.

I'm afraid we're simply going to have to disagree on this. I feel that arbitrarily removing character agency because otherwise your imaginary dragon's feelings might get hurt is the literal antithesis of fun.

To each their own, but Matthew Downie's conception of enjoyment matches what my groups have enjoyed over the course of my 25+ years of gaming. We're all optimizers for the most part, but we also like challenging encounters. All of the battles we still fondly reminisce over years after the fact are the tough ones we survived by the skin of our teeth; ROFLstomp fights that end in the first turn because someone failed a save are mostly forgettable. Even the ones we joke about "lol remember the time when the BBEG who tormented the party over the course of the campaign died in the 1st round because he failed his save?" are discussed with a tinge of regret.

I think the easiest solution is to simply give "boss" NPCs hero points.

Yes! Been looking for this list for a long time!

For an NPC, it depends on his goals. If he wants to oppress the countryside, cleric is the way to go. While his mooks might not be able to stand up to the PCs, they can at least work as cannon fodder, giving him time before the PCs can close in melee with him. But their major role is in the NPC vs. NPC action that's going on as the backdrop for the adventure. The PCs are invading his fortress of doomy death because he's been using undead to oppress the countryside.

This is pretty much it. The NPC I had in mind would be from the country of Reece (homebrew world), which was invaded by Abagaard, and his role in the campaign would be raising undead in order to terrorize the Abarish villages and countryside in retaliation for the invasion.

My original plan was to use the warsworn undead creature with the idea it was created by the necromancer. Unfortunately that undead creature is not on the list of undead that can be created with create greater undead, so I'll have to figure out some other GM-fiat explanation regarding how the necromancer created it.

Just got my deck in the mail today and it looks to be a really good deck. The spell selection is FANTASTIC, a lot of the new items are really interesting, and the two new blessings really make me eager for Mummy's Mask. My Monday group just finished up WotR this week and plan on going through Season of the Shackles next. I think I'm gonna try Grazzle; I think his healing power is really neat and his skills seem tailor-made for S&S.

The thing about larger groups that the designers might not have thought of is that you're more likely to get a wide range of player abilities and familiarity with the game. From my experience, and from reading others' accounts, this game has a lot of those fifth and sixth players being somewhat casual pick-up players. So they pick a character that appeals to them and because we don't want to tell them what to do too much, they sometimes make sub-optimal plays. It's exciting when we mange to eke out a win anyways but its happened a lot where we fail and then the next time we play it, with just the usual players, we hammer through for the win.

So yeah, maybe if you are playing with experienced players the large groups have a better win ratio but not in more typical play conditions. The fact that a whole lot of people can get drawn into a PACG game is an indication of how great the game is and designing scenarios and cards that kinda over-punish large groups is a bummer, imo.

I was going to say this but jones here beat me to it. My regularly scheduled game is 2-3 players, and this group consists of the people most interested in the game. Since we're the most interested and we play the most often, we're the most experienced. When our 5-6 player group gets together, the 5th & 6th persons are a couple of friends who have casual interest in the game and aren't as experienced. For our group at least, that skews the success rate of our 2-3 player games vs. our 5-6 player games.

Sure, perfect balance is probably impossible without everything being the same. That doesn't mean you stop trying to balance things period. Are you really saying that no time should be spent making sure that Alice, the person who can summon a monster with CR equal to her level every battle should be balanced with Bob, the guy who knows which end of the sword goes in the enemy (the pointy one)?

No, of course not. But I'm really tired of the way people around here talk as if perfect balance is simple and easy and the only reason we don't have it is because those dastardly writers on the development team are villainously keeping it from us because reasons.

Xexyz, is there a reason you keep ignoring my post? I've attempted to engage you in sincere discussion and I continue to receive nothing.

You mean this post:

Even the level 1 Wizard and Sorcerer that are somewhat vulnerable to murder by housecat? [It's quite strongly in the Wiz/Sorc's favor in Pathfinder unlike 3E, but they could still conceivably lose.]

Even the level 20 Warrior of Legend who stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Thor with Mjolnir and Odin with Gungnir?

In my personal opinion the best way to get the feel you're going for is to keep the world's level WAY WAY LOW.

It's what I do in my own campaigns, over 90% of adults are level 1-2, with a scant smattering of level 3-4 people.

Only reknowned heroes and scourges are in the level 5-8 range and basically NOBODY ALIVE is over level 8.

I haven't responded because I don't understand what it means. All I can get out of it is that you're telling me that I'm playing the game wrong, which doesn't really merit a response.

Which I respect.

I simply don't think that aesthetic is the correct mindset to go in with in a game where a certain level of cooperation is expected.

Being more or less powerful than the characters is a matter of NPC's not a cooperative group expected to band together and defeat these challenges.

That's interesting, because I actually feel the opposite. Because the game is cooperative instead of adversarial those writing and developing it have more freedom to promote flavor and aesthetics at the cost of perfect balance. Conversely, when I'm considering playing a game that's adversarial by design that I place a lot more importance on balance between players and believe aesthetics should properly take a secondary role.

False premises.

I'm not making an argument here, so I don't have any premises, you dig? I was expressing my opinion, which isn't up to debate. You can no more logic me into changing my aesthetic preferences than you can use logic to prove that green is a more aesthetically pleasing color than blue.

Update totals for deck 5:

Powers 1 & 2 (as I've listed them in the opening post) are still the same as before. The only card in deck 5 that has a masterable trait is the icy prison spell.

Power 3 {When you acquire a card that has a mastered trait or an ally (□ or a spell), you may draw a card} is only relevant for the icy prison above. So that brings the current total as follows:

Acid = 0 spells
Cold = 6 spells
Electricity = 2 spells
Fire = 10 spells

Again, note that of the 10 spells with the fire trait, 5 are divine only.

Power 4 {Reduce damage of a mastered type dealt to you by 2 (□ 4)} new totals:

Acid: 2/14/0/0/0 = 16 total, 7/16 sources conditional. Of that breakdown, 2 [regular] monsters are basic while 4 are elite. Of note that while 7 of the sources only inflict acid damage conditionally, 4 require difficult [for Seoni] checks to avoid the damage.

Cold: 4/0/0/1/0 = 5 total, 4/5 sources conditional. 2 of the conditional sources of cold damage come from encountering the henchman wight after failing to defeat the baleful shadows barrier. There are 2 copies of this barrier and it's elite.

Electricity: 0/3/0/0/0 = 3 total, 2/3 sources conditional. Of that breakdown, one of the monsters will only inflict electricity damage if you choose to re-roll your combat check, which the monster allows you to do.

Fire: 5/1/1/0/1 = 8 total, 8/8 sources conditional. Of that breakdown, 1 barrier is elite. Also, the location Molten Pool inflicts 1 fire damage at the start of your turn [if you're there] and changes all combat damage received into fire damage.

Power 5 new totals:

Monsters which are immune to a masterable trait:

Acid: 10/1/1 = 12 - Of that breakdown, 1 monster is elite. Of note, 7 of the 10 are also monsters that inflict acid damage.
Cold: 1/0/1 = 2
Electricity: 34/1/4 = 39 - Of that breakdown, 4 monsters are elite.
Fire: 3/0/1 = 4

(unchanged from deck 4)Monsters which are strong against a masterable trait:

Acid: 0/0/0 = 0
Cold: 3/0/0 = 3
Electricity: 4/0/0 = 4
Fire: 3/0/0 = 3

This category basically consists of the pitborn scoundrel. It's strong against cold, electricity, and fire, and there are 3 copies. It's elite.

Monsters which are weak against a masterable trait:

Acid: 0/1/0 = 1
Cold: 6/0/0 = 6
Electricity: 0/0/0 = 0
Fire: 2/1/0 = 3

Of all those monsters, 1 is basic and 2 are elite, and all three are weak against cold.

Since power #6 {Add 4 to your check that has a mastered trait} mostly interacts with many of your spells (until you get power #5), it's important to consider how many arcane spells of each masterable element there are. As of deck 5, here's the breakdown:

Acid = 2*
Cold = 10*
Electricity = 5
Fire = 10

These number include both spells that have the trait by default and spells that can add the trait as part of the spell's power.

* I made an error with my previous numbers; I had the spell hellmouth lash incorrectly adding cold instead of acid.

Last but not least, there are a few other non-weapon cards that can add a masterable trait. Through deck 5, they're as follows:

Fire - Druid of the Flame
Electricity - Druid of the Storm, Lyre of the Storm

demon armor (x2) - fire
Suurlahetas - fire
Runelord Alderpash - acid, cold, electricity, fire
evocation staff - cold, electricity, fire

- If you don't want a boon, survey the table to see if someone else wants it.

This isn't automatically assumed?

I'd probably leave the table [after the scenario] and quit playing with people who weren't team players.

Into the Eye:

Well, it’s the final scenario, do or die. Feiya has carefully considered everything she’s going to need to fight Karzoug and win. If she’s lucky she’ll find some last-second assistance, but if not she still has a chance. Feiya bravely stepped into the Runewell to meet her fate.

She immediately felt the Runewell’s energies sapping her strength, costing her her dominate spell. Not a big loss, since it probably wouldn’t have been much use anyway. She immediately opened her Codex and was grateful for the three spells it provided: Swipe, Augury, and Major Cure. She explored once and picked up a potion of healing, which may come in handy. She then scouted for monsters, using the Codex’s Augury, but didn’t find any. It didn’t have the greatest chance of success to begin with, but the chance to scout Karzoug to the bottom would’ve been an enormous advantage.

The next turn cost her the blizzard spell, but it wouldn’t have been any use against Karzoug anyway, so it was fine to give up. She found a Frost Ray and ended her turn. The next turn cost that Frost Ray, and she then encountered the Henchman. She managed to mitigate its lightning breath with her robes, but had to lose her wand of enervation and potion of healing anyway. She hexed the villain and trapped it within an icy prison, ending the threat. Now only Karzoug remained. The next turn took one of her kitties away, but she was able to get in several explores. She found a lightning bolt and detect evil, the latter of which she immediately played; the next card was a blessing. The next turn was painful as it cost her a disintegrate spell, and she failed to pick up the blessing. She now decided it was time to play the Scrying that had been in her hand since the first turn to see if she could find Karzoug, as there were only 5 cards remaining at the location. Not only was he not there, but she failed to recharge the spell. She decided it was time to use the Major Cure, and thankfully got all her cards back. The exploration for that turn netted her some armor.

On the next turn she sacrificed that armor, then nabbed a potion of energy resistance with her exploration. The potion was immediately sacrificed on the next turn (are you noticing a pattern here?), and unfortunately with her exploration Karzoug was waiting for her, which was really bad. As she couldn’t beat him due to the scenario, she emptied her hand while her medallion soaked up his fire blast. She lost the battle, but didn’t lose any cards as a result. The potion of healing was next to go, while she used her robes to pick up a weapon - which she immediately sacrificed to the Runewell on the next turn. There were only two cards left and Feiya hoped Karzoug wasn’t the next one.

Luck was not with her, and she found herself face to face with the Runelord of Greed once again. This time his fireblast smacked her for 3 damage, but her life leech returned 2 of the cards she lost. Again she was lucky with her recharges and didn’t have to discard her life leech, and Karzoug disappeared back into the Runewell. The next turn claimed her other cat and she declined to explore, abandoning some resources as she desperately looked for her Scrying spell. The turn after that her robes were gone, while Poog thankfully was able to recharge the remaining 3 cards in her discard pile. Her deck was getting very thin - she was running out of time.

The next turn she lost the lightning bolt she picked up earlier, but finally found her Scrying spell. She ensured Karzoug was the bottom card and successfully acquired the crossbow which was the other card. There was now only Karzoug left, and she was down to 6 cards in her deck. She took an extra turn to get prepared, sacrificing the crossbow to the Runewell and then her wand of enervation. She was as ready as she was going to be, and confronted Karzoug for the last time – after this battle, only one of them was going to be alive.

Karzoug opened up with his fire blast, which was harmlessly deflected by her medallion. Playing a blessing to defeat his spell resistance, she unleashed the strongest hex she could muster, reducing his strength by 9. She then played the swipe provided by the Codex, further weakening Karzoug, and with the aid of the runeforged weapons, mustered a dice pool of 2d4+1d12+1d8+7 in order to defeat a combat check of 18. The dice came up {10, 7, 3, 2} + 7 for a total of 29. Since she played an arcane spell she looked at the top card of her deck and found her life leech, which she eagerly grabbed. She played another blessing to ensure she defeated his spell resistance, then used the life leech she just grabbed to fuel her hex, reducing his difficulty to 32. She then attacked Karzoug with the indomitable sign of wrath spell, calling for Pharasma’s aid. Her dice pool was 3d12+3d8+2d4+7 to make a combat check of 32. The dice came up {9, 9, 1, 7, 5, 4, 4, 3} + 7 for a total of 49. Karzoug the Claimer, the mighty Runelord of Greed, was dead.

Feiya collapsed in exhaustion, but with a smile on her face and tears of joy as her long journey had ended in success. She took the priceless artifacts from Karzoug’s corpse and claimed them for her own, leaving the Runewell - and Xin-Shalast – in her past. There would be only a short rest for Feiya, however, for as she made her journey home she looked off into the horizon and couldn’t help but feel both a dread and a calling to the place known ominously as the Worldwound. She knew then that eventually a new adventure would begin for her…

Upgrades: Robes of Xin-Shalast, Frost Ray (due to card feat), Blessing of Pharasma (from box due to card feat)
Replacing: Arcane Robes

Card Feats: +1 spell, +1 blessing

Final Deck

Spells: Disintegrate x2, Sign of Wrath, Icy Prison, Scrying, Dominate, Swipe, Blizzard, Life Leech, Frost Ray
Items: Robes of Xin-Shalast, Emerald Codex, Wand of Enervation, Sihedron Medallion
Allies: Poog of Zarongel, Cat x2
Blessings: Blessing of Pharasma x6

Skill Feats: Con +1, Int +4, Wis +1
Power Feats: Recharge hex at +2 and works on barriers, recharge Blessings of Pharasma, look at the top card of your deck and add a spell to your hand after succeeding on a craft check or playing an arcane spell, +1 hand size
Card Feats: +4 spells, +2 items, +2 blessings

All in all the elements play out like this: Acid is the best choice for utilizing the damage prevention ability as going through deck 4 it's the most common source of masterable element damage, and unlike fire a lot of that damage is going to get through because the conditional sources are hard for Seoni to avoid without blessings or other cards. It's poor for utilizing the +4 to checks power feat as there's only 1 spell that can inflict acid damage, and is the second most common element that monsters are immune to.

Where as acid is mostly defensive, Cold is the opposite. Through deck 4 it's the least common immunity, and most common weakness, and it has the most spells (tied with fire) that have cold as an inherent or optional trait.

Fire is a balance between Acid and Cold. It's the 2nd most common source of deck 4 damage after acid, but much less threatening overall because the majority of those damage sources are easy for Seoni to avoid. Offensively there are 8 arcane spells that can have the fire trait, though it's a somewhat common immunity possessed by henchmen.

Electricity is clearly the worst of the bunch. Not only is it a rare source of damage, a whopping 37 monsters are immune to it. Which is just as well, since only 3 spells can get the electricity trait.

Overall I think the best element to master first is acid. Because you get the damage prevention power immediately upon getting your role card, acid is the best out of the gate because it's the most common source of damage. Cold is the best for offense, but that doesn't come online until after the 4th scenario in deck 4. Once you get your first power in deck 5 the biggest benefit of cold - there are 8 spells which do cold damage - is lessened because you'll be able to add your mastered element to all your checks.

I'll update this thread as decks 5 and 6 are released, as the contents may alter the balance between the elements. Likely electricity will still suck, though.

Seoni's Element Master role works a little differently than most character roles. When you gain the role, you have the option of putting your power feats into one of four elements: acid, cold, electricity, or fire. When you do so that element is considered "Mastered". All of your powers, including your non-role powers, interact with elements you have mastered. So the question becomes; which elements are best to master? I've looked at all the cards to include deck 4 in order to figure this out. If you'd just like a summary of my analysis, jump to the next post.

When you first select an element to master - assuming you use your first power feat after you get your role to master an element - you immediately gain the following benefits via your powers:

1. Before your combat check, you may discard a card to draw a card that has the Arcane (□ or Magic) or mastered trait from your discard pile.

2. You may automatically succeed at your check to recharge a spell (□ or an item) that has the Attack or mastered trait.

3. When you acquire a card that has a mastered trait or an ally (□ or a spell), you may draw a card.

4. Reduce damage of a mastered type dealt to you by 2 (□ 4).

Powers 1 & 2 are irrelevant [where mastered traits are concerned] as through deck 4 there are no arcane spells that have a masterable trait which are not also attack spells, while the only non-spell card which has a masterable trait is a loot bow from deck 4 which has the fire trait.

Power 3 is also irrelevant if you spend a power feat into the ability to have it also trigger off spells. If you did not put a power feat there, the breakdown of boons - all of which are spells - which have masterable traits (through deck 4) is as follows:

Acid = 0 spells
Cold = 5 spells
Electricity = 2 spells
Fire = 10 spells

Of note is that of the 10 spells with the fire trait, 5 are divine only.

That leaves power #4: Reduce damage of a mastered type dealt to you by 2 (□ 4). I went through every card which you may encounter in deck 4 and totaled up each masterable damage type that a card may inflict. I broke them down into the following categories: barrier/regular monster/henchman/villain/location. For barriers and regular monsters I counted each copy of such a card, while for henchmen and villains I only counted each once. Furthermore, I noted whether or not the damage was conditional, meaning you could avoid it with a successful check or die roll. Here's how it breaks down:

Acid: 2/11/0/0/0 = 13 total, 6/13 sources conditional. Of that breakdown, 2 [regular] monsters are basic while 4 are elite. Of note that while 6 of the sources only inflict acid damage conditionally, 4 require difficult [for Seoni] checks to avoid the damage.

Cold: 2/0/0/0/0 = 2 total, 2/2 sources conditional. In deck 4 the only way you will suffer cold damage is if you fail to defeat the Baleful Shadows barrier and encounter the henchman Wight. This barrier is elite.

Electricity: 0/3/1/1/0 = 5 total, 4/5 sources conditional. Of that breakdown, the villain will only inflict electricity damage if you chose to defeat it via its card text, while one of the monsters will only inflict electricity damage if you choose to re-roll your combat check, which the monster allows you to do.

Fire: 3/1/1/1/1 = 7 total, 7/7 sources conditional. Of that breakdown, 1 barrier is elite. Also, the location Molten Pool inflicts 1 fire damage at the start of your turn [if you're there] and changes all combat damage received into fire damage.

In addition to those automatically acquired powers, there are two additional powers you can gain by spending power feats:

5. □ You may add 1 mastered trait to your check.

6. □ Add 4 to your check that has a mastered trait.

Power #5 only comes into play on its own when fighting certain banes; otherwise it's much more relevant when combining it with power #6. Using the two powers together will net you +4 on every check you make, so long as the card or ability against which you're making the check is not immune to that element.

Each considered on their own, powers 5 & 6 are almost solely relevant when fighting monsters; Many attack spells will have a masterable trait, while many banes will react to a masterable trait in 3 possible ways: The bane is immune to the trait, the bane is strong against the trait (which means a check with that trait has an increased difficulty), or the bane may be weak against the trait (meaning checks with that trait get a bonus). As with damage, I broke them done between regular monsters/henchmen/villains:

Monsters which are immune to a masterable trait:

Acid: 7/0/1 = 8 - Of that breakdown, 1 monster is elite. Of note, 6 of the 7 are also monsters that inflict acid damage.
Cold: 1/1/0 = 2
Electricity: 28/8/1 = 37 - Of that breakdown, 4 monsters are elite.
Fire: 3/4/0 = 7

Monsters which are strong against a masterable trait:

Acid: 0/0/0 = 0
Cold: 3/0/0 = 3
Electricity: 4/0/0 = 4
Fire: 3/0/0 = 3

This category basically consists of the pitborn scoundrel. It's strong against cold, electricity, and fire, and there are 3 copies. It's elite.

Monsters which are weak against a masterable trait:

Acid: 0/1/0 = 1
Cold: 6/0/0 = 6
Electricity: 0/2/0 = 2
Fire: 2/1/0 = 3

Of all those monsters, 1 is basic and 2 are elite, and all three are weak against cold.

Since power #6 {Add 4 to your check that has a mastered trait} mostly interacts with many of your spells (until you get power #5), it's important to consider how many arcane spells of each masterable element there are. As of deck 4, here's the breakdown:

Acid = 1
Cold = 8
Electricity = 3
Fire = 8

These number include both spells that have the trait by default and spells that can add the trait as part of the spell's power.

Last but not least, there are a few other non-weapon cards that can add a masterable trait. Through deck 4, they're as follows:

Fire - Druid of the Flame
Electricity - Druid of the Storm, Lyre of the Storm

I like this thread. It's helped illustrate exactly why I hate certain abilities.

Well, as long as posters are kind enough to explain why their characters are dead, since trying to navigate the FAQs are like wading through a swamp in the dark.

I ban evil alignments in my games as a general rule. I do this because I generally run campaigns where the PCs are going to be doing heroic things. Evil alignments don't work because evil is generally played in one of three ways, each of which is problematic:

1) Stupid Evil - We all know why this is disruptive.

2) Diabolical Evil - A player with this kind of character would only make me wish I was running Vampire instead of Pathfinder. Also, this type of evil works best in games with heavy relationship building with a group of regular NPCs. That's something that my Pathfinder games don't really have an opportunity to establish, so it's hard to play that way anyway.

3) Subdued Evil - Not problematic in and of itself, but since my campaigns tend toward heroic deeds the character in question wouldn't stay evil for long; their actions in the campaign would inevitably push them into neutrality and toward good. To remain evil they'd have to commit some evil acts to counter the campaign-related deeds, which puts them back into category 1 or 2.

About the only time I would consider letting a player play an evil PC in one of my campaigns is if they were playing a redemption character. But then again, they wouldn't really be committing evil acts during the campaign, so them starting out as evil becomes irrelevant anyway.

Just thought I'd let everyone know how it went down:

I mostly went with Haveatya's idea: the captors agreed to an honest exchange of the prisoner for the book. They figured since they tracked him down once, it wasn't a big deal to trade him for the book - which was what was more important and why they abducted him in the first place - since they could find him at a later time and kill him then. They even healed and regenerated the digits they had removed from torturing him.

The PCs had a different idea. They mocked up a fake book to trade for their friend. It wasn't a flawless copy, but good enough for their purposes. The trade was to happen in a tavern of a large town, however the PCs scryed on their friend and then set up an ambush outside of town.

The PCs tried to pass off the fake book as real but were thwarted when the captors tested it to determine its authenticity. Their scheme blown, the PCs just killed the captors and rescued their friend. However, that set into motion a chain of events: On the captors leader's body was a note stating that the captors had agents in the town and unless were told otherwise [for the agents] to start killing townsfolk at nightfall.

So the PCs spent the night trying to find these agents and stop the slaughter. They managed to do so, but at a heavy toll: 96 townsfolk were murdered. They interrogated one of the agents they captured to learn where their temple was, and having been given some clues, the PCs traveled to the city where the temple is supposedly located to settle matters...

TBH I think it's barely worth a 2nd level spell slot.

I wouldn't even waste a 1st level spell slot on it. It lasts 1 round per 2 levels, and to make it so that it only affects ammo from one direction - so your enemies' arrows don't also gain its effects - the duration is cut in half. So a 9th level wizard casting the spell to only benefit her allies would have a duration of a whopping 2 rounds.

Awful, awful, spell.

She basically has to do this to survive, honestly. Even then it's a gamble-- do those in power know where she is and that she isn't, ah, particularly fond of them?

Haven't really thought that far into it yet. So far this is all just a hypothetical in my head; she doesn't yet exist in my game and there is no Dragon Guard - though if I continue to develop this little story I'll likely find somewhere to include it.

What I was going for originally is a morally complex character to present to my group when the time is right - someone whom the PCs will sit and debate among themselves as to what the best course of action is toward approaching the entire situation. As it stands, I'm really liking the idea of her being LE and glad that LE being her alignment seems to be the most common response. The PCs are pretty much good and neutral alignments (CG barb, LN magus, NG sorc, N inqu, NG cleric, N ranger) so her being LE but having a sympathetic backstory can serve - I'm hoping - to divide up the party nicely.

This is one thing I'm curious about. I may have missed it in the OP's posts somewhere, but does she have an "official" death-warrant on her head, yet, or merely the (presumably illegal?) assassination attempts? It was my understanding that she was thrown out but not condemned to death... except by a few acting illegally.

The way I see it in my head she was dismissed from the Dragon Guard and while she was in the midst of returning to her village is when some corrupt members of the guard tried to murder her. She killed most of the would-be assassins but didn't pursue those that fled - who in turn reported back to their superiors that she was the aggressor who killed them out of revenge. Murder of her fellow guardsmen was added to the list of offenses that was used to justify kicking her out in the first place, but they didn't pursue her after that out of a combination of knowing the truth about the incident, desire to put things behind them, and fear of her. So she was never officially charged with murder, and instead the story was concocted that she attempted to murder her fellow guardsmen and was killed in the attempt.

She's not really aware of all of that; she simply fought off her attackers and continued back toward her village.

One thing I think may be relevant is that in order to protect her village from suspicion is that she waits until after visiting guard/nobles she marks for death leave her village and carefully plans their executions to ensure their deaths are unlikely to be traced back to her village, even if it means waiting weeks for the opportunity. So even though she's driven by anger and hatred, she's not stupid.

Does she defend the village because she knows the area and inhabitants, and this means she can lash out with a modicum of safety? This could empower her to use the villagers as an excuse to lash out at nobility. In this case she'd be NE. Even if she handed out the money and valuables she gained, its really only seed money to ensure future village loyalty towards her.

Does she defend it out of loyalty to the village and simply sees herself more aware of the threat than others? If shes absolutely sure the legal system is incapable of dealing with these knights, she could even be CG.

I'm thinking she does so for two reasons. First, because she loves her village and wants to protect it from monsters so the citizens can live peaceful lives.

The second reason is pride. Selflessly protecting the village (she receives no pay or compensation for doing so) proves that she truly embodies the principles of the Dragon Guard and therefore is morally superior to those [Dragon Guard & nobles] who do not. Therefore she still considers herself a fundamentally good person and can excuse herself for getting angry and killing them occasionally for minor transgressions.

Holy crap lots of responses and lots of alignment opinions.

-She has no interest in trying to reform nobles or the Dragon Guard. She tried that when she was a member and her reward was to be charged with false crimes as a pretense for kicking her out. While she recognizes there are still some decent and honorable members of the Dragon Guard, the nobles are corrupt, one and all.

-The amount of slack she's willing to cut visiting nobles/guard is inversely proportional to how much she hates those particular individuals. Which she believes nobles to be corrupt, she's willing to allow them to remain unharmed if they act like decent, honorable individuals toward the people of her community. On the other hand, if one of the guard who conspired against her were to show his face in her community she'd kill him on sight unless he immediately upon seeing her he grovelled before her in apology and convinced her that he was repentant - and even then it might not save him.

-Some examples of "disrespect" that she would kill a noble for: Striking or otherwise harming a commoner for not prostrating before them, ripping off or intimidating a shopkeeper to get an unfair deal, general bullying, and needless to say any behavior that's even worse.

-While she's utterly ruthless toward the objects of her hatred, the vast majority of her days are spent protecting her community - since it's somewhat remote nobles/dragon guard rarely visit or pass through; maybe a few times per year.

And what a finish it was. Last possible explore turns up the Hurricane King with all his evil minions taken care of

Seltyiel is able to deal with both checks, his 3d6 for a spell on top of his Adamantine trident being up to the task ( with a little bit of help from his friends of course)

Congrats to the design team and to everyone involved. That was pure awesome

What a great win!

I've mentioned this before, but I feel that deck 6 of S&S was their best adventure deck yet, and I hope that quality continues on into WotR.

Xexyz wrote:

Crowe AND Seoni? How will I ever choose???

By picking Crowe, duh!

You're probably right. I played Seoni in RotR my first Wrath playthrough will have to be Crowe. I can't wait to see his card list and role cards!

Crowe AND Seoni? How will I ever choose???