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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?

Pre-core scrying was one of the best spells in the game. So I wasn't surprised when its addition to CotCT placed it at level 5. But I also see it's been nerfed pretty hard; now you reload the chosen card types instead of putting them on the top OR bottom. To be honest I think this makes the spell mostly useless now; I'd rather have the level 3 spell that allows me to examine and rearrange the top three cards of a location deck.

Am I overlooking potential uses for new scrying? About the only thing I can think to use it for now is to try to fish for boons.

Thoughts?

When building your deck, you may treat 1 or more cards of 1 type of boons as boons of your favorite card type

Trying to figure out exactly how to adjudicate this power. Here's how it seems to work.

1. When first creating Mavaro, build his deck according to his card list, as no scenarios have been played and he hasn't chosen a favored card type.

2. Before drawing his starting hand, Mavaro chooses item as his favored card type.

3. After the scenario is over, Mavaro may treat one other type of boon - let's say weapon - as cards of his favored card type, in this case items. So, when rebuilding his deck, Mavaro could treat the 2 weapons he starts with as item. When he then needs to reconcile his deck against his card list, he'll have to get 2 additional weapons from his character deck box (since he's counting his two existing weapons as items and therefore is short two weapons), and remove 2 items (since he now has two extras).

4. Assuming the above is correct, what would happen if, instead of choosing item as his favored card type he chose armor, and then after the scenario slotted one of his weapons into his armor slot. Then at the start of the next scenario, he again chooses armor as his favored card type, except now he doesn't have any in his deck because when he was rebuilding his deck at the end of the previous scenario he counted a weapon as an armor. What happens then? Does he treat that weapon (or any other weapon) he counted as armor during the rebuilding phase of the previous scenario as an armor now?

Consider the following scenario: Alice the wizard has cast foresight on herself and is attending a royal ball. At the ball Bob the assassin intends to kill her and has had mind blank cast on him. She slips away for a moment and Bob seizes this opportunity to attack. Does Alice's foresight give her a warning? According to foresight and mind blank:

This spell grants you a powerful sixth sense in relation to yourself or another. Once foresight is cast, you receive instantaneous warnings of impending danger or harm to the subject of the spell. You are never surprised or flat-footed. In addition, the spell gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself and gives you a +2 insight bonus to AC and on Reflex saves. This insight bonus is lost whenever you would lose a Dexterity bonus to AC.

The subject is protected from all devices and spells that gather information about the target through divination magic (such as detect evil, locate creature, scry, and see invisible).

Foresight is a divination spell, and to provide an "instantaneous warning" of "imminent danger" it logically implies the foresight is able to discern Bob's murderous intent. But since mind blank explicitly says that it protects its subject against all spells that gather information about the subject, it seems clear that Alice would not receive a warning about Bob. Furthermore, does Alice even get the immunity to surprise and being flat-footed from Bob? The spell is less clear, but as written it suggests that these "immediate warnings" are what provides the surprise and flat-footed immunities, so if Alice doesn't get a warning, she'd still be surprised. Thoughts?

□ At the end of your exploration, draw a card.

The way this power reads he gets to draw a card after every one of his explorations. I just want to confirm that's what's intended, as opposed to drawing a card after his exploration step.

One of the PCs in my game has been periodically scried on by the BBEG and is kind of powerless to stop it because the BBEG has several locks of her hair. Obviously, mind blank and non-detection are options, but the player is rightly concerned her character's hair might be used for other nefarious purposes and wanted to research of there was a way to protect herself. She knows a very powerful wizard who would likely know of such a spell and would be willing to share it with her (for a price).

So, here's my spell idea: The spell would destroy any body parts/effects that are not attached to the caster. The spell would have unlimited range and work across planes. Necromancy seems to be the most appropriate school, but I don't know what level such a spell would be. The effect itself isn't overly strong, but the fact I want it to work over an unlimited distance would make me think it would be around 5th level or so.

What do you guys think?

During my Monday game we had a rules disagreement: Many locations (and other cards) will, as a part of their closing condition, tell you to summon and acquire a card in order to close the location. We had always played the those instructions straightforwardly; summon a random card of the correct time, make whatever checks necessary to acquire it, and if you succeed the location is closed and the card goes into your hand.

One of the organizers stated that if you succeed at your check to acquire the card it goes back into the box because of this section of the rules:

After evading a summoned card or resolving the encounter with it, never put it anywhere other than back in the box unless the card that caused you to summon it instructs you otherwise.

I've always interpreted the fact you're told to acquire the [summoned] card as the card [causing me to summon the the card] instructing me to do something other than put [the summoned card] back in the box. Who's right?

The villain, Ulunat, says:

If Ulunat would be defeated, and Festering Ulunat is not closed, instead shuffle Ulunat into a random occupied location other than Festering Ulunat.

The location Festering Ulunat states it's always closed, so as written Ulunat's above power does nothing. Is Ulunat's power supposed to mean when Festering Ulunat is not permanently closed?

My friend is going to be mad at me (he's playing Zvarbel in our RotR campaign) if this gets his Zvarbel nerfed (especially since we're going out of our way not to abuse this), and I'm surprised this hasn't been reported yet (to my knowledge), but here it is:

 When you fail a check, you may draw a barrier from the box or draw a random card from your discard pile ( or draw both).

Setup is quite simple:

1. Start the turn with Scrying (or Augury, or any other spell that's both arcane and divine that can be cast outside of an encounter. Scrying is probably the best though) and an empty discard pile.
2. Cast Scrying and then fail the check to recharge. Guaranteed if Zvarbel chooses to attempt the recharge check using the divine skill.
3. Having failed the check to recharge, Scrying is now in Zvarbel's discard pile.
4. Since Zvarbel failed a check, she activates the above power to draw a random card from her discard pile. Since Scrying is the only card there, Scrying goes back to her hand.
5. Rinse and repeat to your heart's content. If you put a second power feat into the ability, you can, if you'd like, get all the barriers from the box into your hand!

To be honest I kind of feel like a jackass for figuring this out; I don't go out of my way to try to find ways to break the game. If it were up to me I'd probably nerf the power so it only works during an encounter - similar to how Radillo was nerfed - since that's a simple fix and it's still plenty powerful.

Zvarbel has a power that states:

You may banish a barrier from your hand ( to recharge a random weapon or spell from your discard pile or)

So do you choose spell or weapon and recharge a random card of that type, or do you simply group them together and recharge a random one?

So, here's the situation: A barbarian with beast totem pounces on a caster with frightful aspect, which states:

You become a larger, awful version of yourself. You grow to size Large, and take on features that horrify your enemies. You gain the following abilities: a +6 size bonus to Strength, a +4 size bonus to Constitution, a +6 natural armor bonus, DR 10/magic, and spell resistance equal to 10 + half your caster level. You also emit an aura that emanates 30 feet from you. Enemy creatures within the aura are shaken. Each time a creature shaken by this aura hits you with a melee attack, that creature becomes frightened for 1d4 rounds, though at the end of that duration it is no longer affected by this aura. The aura’s effect is a fear and mind-affecting effect.

So after the barbarian makes his first melee attack on the caster, he becomes frightened. The frightened condition states:

A frightened creature flees from the source of its fear as best it can. If unable to flee, it may fight. A frightened creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. A frightened creature can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, the creature must use such means if they are the only way to escape.

Frightened is like shaken, except that the creature must flee if possible. Panicked is a more extreme state of fear.

So does the barbarian get to make the rest of his attacks? He can't flee because he's already moved this round, but otherwise nothing else is preventing him from fleeing (say for the purpose of this scenario, there's nothing between him and the exit behind him.)

For the last several sessions the PCs have been assisting the Duchess in assembling an army to defend the duchy from an invading orcish army from the north. The most recent session involved final preparations and the two armies meeting on the battlefield with the battle to take place the next session. The PCs are going to attempt to take out the leadership of the orcish army, since they're the strongest group/unit on the Duchess's side.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to facilitate the PCs being able to fight the half-orc warlord leading the orcish army (Tsadok) and his retinue during the battle. I'd like to be able to convey a sense of actually being in the middle of a large-scale battle between armies without actually doing a bunch of dice rolling for stuff that's just going to be in the background, though I like the idea of the PCs having to deal with stray arrows being shot their way. I also like the idea of being able to pit them against an entire unit of troops in case they decide to be PCs and do something unexpected.

I have the numbers and types of forces for each army figured out, as well as stat sheets for important NPCs involved in the battle, but beyond that am a blank slate. I'm also trying to figure out logically how the battle will unfold given the forces each side possesses.

Any ideas are appreciated.

When you play Shapechange for increased stats, the bonus you get replaces your character's existing bonus, right? So if my character has 3 skill feats in strength and I play Shapechange I roll a d12+2 and not a d12+5, correct?

If you take 4 damage before you act from the Elemental Construct (I think it's called the elemental construct; it's the deck 4 monster that does 1 fire, cold, acid, and electricity damage before you act. It looks like a spider) do you lose 4 cards from locations?

When Erasmus puts a marker on one of his Spirit Relatives, does the Spirit Relatives skill and bonus replace Erasmus's skills and bonuses?

For example, putting a maker on Veldira gives Erasmus the following skills:

Wisdom
Divine: Wisdom
Perception: Wisdom

Since Erasmus already has Perception: Wisdom +3, does he lose the +3 part since the marker replaces Perception: Wisdom +3 with Perception: Wisdom?

Also, does he lose the use of any skill feats he may have put in Wisdom as well?

The Scenario rules for 4-5E state the Five-Pointed Sun location cannot be temporarily closed. The Five-Pointed Sun location states that it can never be permanently closed. So how do you stop the villain from continuously escaping back to the Five-Pointed Sun? Does the rule for temporarily closing a location a villain is at when you defeat a villain overrule the scenario rule?

Situation: NPC has regular invisibility, readies an action to counterspell. PC attempts to cast invisibility purge, and the NPC successfully counters the PC's spell. Does the NPC lose their invisibility?

Because let's be honest: Unless your character has plans for playing with undead, channeling negative energy is very sub-optimal. So is there any feat out that would let an evil cleric of a neutral deity channel positive energy?

I have a cleric who worships Pulura, but would like to get the Healing domain to combine with the Stargazer The Mother Sidereal Arcana for healing shenanigans. Is there a feat or some other way to get that domain for the character?

Can I use the second power of either spells after I've already displayed them for their initial power? That is, suppose I display Sphere of fire and use the fire power to roll my Arcane skill +1d6 on a combat check. On a combat check later in the turn, can I then discard it to roll Arcane skill + 2d6?

Via the Spirit Talker feat I have a witch that can use it to gain the Arcane Enlightenment shaman hex and effectively get 4 wizard/sorcerer spells on her list. Since the biggest weakness of the witch spell list IMO is the lack of defensive spells I was looking for spells that fit the bill. Time Stop, Mirror Images, and Displacement seem to be obvious choices, and Shield could also be a choice. The witch in question can cast 9th level spells, so the entire wiz/sor spell list is up for consideration.

Ideas? Paizo stuff only, no 3rd party.

Aside from patron spells, are there any ways for a witch to get spells from the wizard/sorcerer spell list? Items, feats, class options? The biggest weakness of the witch spell list IMO is the lack of defensive spells, so being able to get spells like mirror images, displacement, stone skin, and others would be useful.

I'm trying to determine the CR of a trap that casts the spell sirocco. Here are the guidelines for determining the CR of a spell that does damage:

Average Damage: If a trap (mechanical or magical) does hit point damage, calculate the average damage for a successful hit and round that value to the nearest multiple of 10. If the trap is designed to hit more than one target, multiply this value by 2. If the trap is designed to deal damage over a number of rounds, multiply this value by the number of rounds the trap will be active (or the average number of rounds, if the duration is variable). Use this value to adjust the Challenge Rating of the trap, as indicated on Table: CR Modifiers for Mechanical Traps.

Table: CR Modifiers for Magic Traps

Feature CR Modifier
Highest-level spell effect + Spell level
Damaging spell effect +1 per 10 points of average damage

So, if I'm reading this correctly, here's how I calculate the CR for my sirocco trap: A CL 11 sirocco inflicts an average of (4d6+11) = 25 damage. Because sirocco is an area affect spell that damages multiple people, I multiply this value by 2. Because a CL 11 sirocco will last for 11 rounds, I multiply my total by 11. So 25 x 2 x 11 = 550. Using the CR Modifiers for Magic Traps my trap's CR is +1 per 10 points of damage, so 550/10 = +55 CR. The base CR of a magic trap that casts a spell is 1 plus the highest spell level or the average damage formula, whichever is higher. So the final CR of my sirocco trap is CR56.

This is obviously a ridiculous result. What mistake am I making?

I had a non-standard encounter in my game and I'm trying to figure out what an appropriate amount of XP to award is. The encounter consisted of 7 orcs who were level 6 slayers and a level 20 human monk. The 6 PCs are level 14.

The human monk had infiltrated the orcs and acted as their squad leader. When the PCs encountered the group he had information for them but couldn't break his cover. So he fought the PCs until they killed the rest of the orcs, then stopped and revealed himself to them. Aside from making his attacks non-lethal, he went all-out against them.

So the PCs get 1600*7=11,200xp from the orcs and some amount for surviving against the monk. What would be a fair amount of additional xp to award for the encounter?

In my campaign it's possible the PCs may go up against some unfriendly armies. I'd like to use the troop template but don't understand how to use it. I've read some threads on how to use the template but still don't get it. I think I'm supposed to start with what I want the CR of each individual troop unit to be, but I don't understand what to do from there. Can someone hold my hand through this process? Here's what I'd like to start out with:

x3 CR 10 melee-type troops
x3 CR 10 ranged-type troops

The troops would be composed of human soldiers with each soldier being a level 3 or so warrior.

Any help is much appreciated!

5-2, Opening the Sekrepheres, states in the scenario power that if the top card of the blessings discard pile has an elemental trait, all checks have that trait. If I encounter a bane that's immune to the trait, what happens? Do I ignore the scenario power because I'm being told to do something normally disallowed? Or am I prohibited from even attempting a check because all my checks would have the element the bane is immune to?

My friend's Channa Ti picked up Ausetitha and was thinking that her ability would work on Channa's checks to recharge her spells since spells are her favored card type. I wasn't so sure because Ausetitha's text says, "when you play a card of your character's favored card type on a check", and I wasn't sure that the check to recharge the spell still counted a playing the spell.

Scenario 2-3A (and several others) has the following reward (or similar):

Each character chooses weapon, spell, or item and adds a card of that type from the game box to the cards acquired during this scenario. Adventure Card Guild characters may choose a bonus deck upgrade.

If you choose to keep the weapon/spell/item you drew from your deck box does it count against one of your upgrades or not?

In the most recent sessions of my homebrew game, the PCs learned of some clandestine meetings between the major campaign villain they had been searching for for some time and the servant of villainous noble. They set up an ambush and confronted the major villain and servant, eventually forcing her to retreat. Though they didn't kill or capture her they disrupted the exchange that was to take place and apprehended the servant, which led to the villainous noble being apprehended as well. Searching his estate they found more evidence of the noble's dealings with the major villain (who is a demon), further sealing his fate and effectively bringing a close to that chapter of the campaign. Their next moves are to continue searching for the demon and stop her for good.

Now, the demon is effectively the BBEG for the campaign and the interrupted meeting is at least the second time they've directly thwarted her schemes. Not to mention the other assassination attempts she's arranged against them they also stopped. Needless to say, she's very, very, displeased right now.

The framework I've laid out for the campaign is for the PCs to discover more of her scheming and and put a stop to those schemes in succession, dispatching a major minion/ally of hers while inching closer and closer to the center of her web. And in game terms, gain levels so by the time they get to her they're strong enough to confront her in a final battle. Typical stuff.

Here's where story and game considerations start to diverge. I use tropes but not cliches in designing my stories/campaigns, and verisimilitude is very important. The BBEG is not an idiot and not going to sit back anymore like some passive villain. She is officially done screwing around with the PCs; putting a stop to them will become her #1 priority. She's going to gather up her strongest allies as soon as possible and confront the PCs to kill them - because that's what an intelligent adversary would do. This is almost certain to result in a TPK.

Normally I wouldn't do that despite it being a completely logical course of action for the villain to take, because of the frank unfairness of it. However, the mitigating circumstances is that the PCs, through their many heroic actions and services over the course of the campaign, made powerful and influential allies. So even if they are TPK'd their allies will eventually figure it out and have the PCs resurrected. So that makes me more willing to go ahead with the BBEG's plan. It's what the villain would logically do, and the the resurrections afterward would show the PCs that the thanks they've received from the people they've helped wasn't just empty platitudes.

Of course, despite the logic of everything, it still may feel railroad-y and just make the players upset. Fun is still the #1 priority of the game, and my players have shown a lot of trust in me. But it would still be a major event that would very like be out of their control.

Here's the setup: The PCs are preparing to ambush an individual they expect to teleport into the killzone sometime within a 15 minute window. They are concealing themselves and will attack as soon as the target appears. They have no other information regarding the teleporting individual's whereabouts or other actions.

My interpretation: When the target teleports into the killzone, the target will have the opportunity to make a perception check to spot the concealed PCs. If the target is successful both parties will roll initiative and combat will begin as normal. If the target fails its perception check, the target will be surprised and the PCs will get a surprise round.

Is my interpretation correct by the rules?

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+

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 sorcerer deck review:

Weapons:

Weapons are generally afterthoughts for arcane casters (magi and bloodragers aside), even moreso for sorcerers as three of the four in the sorcerer class deck have a basic blast power. The only real use a sorcerer has for a weapon is something to use when fighting golems or other monsters that are immune to the attack trait. That said, all of the weapons in the deck – with one exception – are ranged dexterity weapons, which is complementary with the skills the sorcerers possess. The exception is the main-gauche +1, but it has the ability to recharge to prevent two combat damage, so I like its inclusion in the deck. For what you would expect, the weapon selection is fine. Grade C+

Spells:

The spell selection is quite serviceable, with a decent selection of attack, support, and utility spells. Some notables are black spot as a basic spell and life leech in AD5 for self-healing as an attack spell. There are enough utility and support spells spread out over the ADs if you’re playing Seoni, Qualzar, or Valendron and want to use their blast power as their primary attack power and use your spell card slots for utility and support. I do feel the attack spells are a smidgen weak; Lightning bolt in place of unearthly aim would’ve been a much better choice. As it stands there’s only poison blast in AD4 and sign of wrath in AD6 for top tier attack spells, and then wall of fire, swipe, and frost ray. AD2 has the weakest selection of spells with all three choices being somewhat weak, but every other AD has good choices. Grade: C+

Armor:

Like weapons, armor’s pretty much an afterthought for sorcerers. The blackcloth armor in AD2 is potentially useful for its reveal ability, but only Qualzar has perception so the reveal ability of the robe of vision is only very marginally useful. A reflecting buckler or reflecting shield would’ve been preferable to the robe of energy resistance. Nothing worth spending a card feat for, in any case. Grade: C-

Items:

The item selection in the sorcerer deck is pretty weak, frankly. The AD0-2 items are all mostly useless or mediocre, with no amulet of life, thieves/masterwork tools, ruby of charisma, or staff of minor healing. It’s not until AD3 that you’re presented with decent choices in the headband of alluring charisma and mist horn. But after that it’s back to mediocre items aside from the ring of energy resistance. Grade: D

Allies:

The ally selection is pretty decent. There’s the all-important surgeon in AD0, as well as an incanter, apprentice, and pyromanic mage to help with arcane checks. There’s a cat in AD3 for recharge assistance, and the very useful clockwork owl in AD6. Only AD4 has mediocre allies to choose from. You’re probably going to end up with 4-5 allies by the time you get to AD6 (especially since the deck’s items are so lacking), and there are enough solid choices to fill your deck. Grade: B-

Blessings:

The blessing selection for the sorcerer deck is fine. You get three blessings of Pharasma, and I like that for each AD except for AD6 you have two blessing choices – and I’ll give a pass for AD6 since they’re both the wonderful blessing of Nethys. There’s also a blessing of Achaekek in AD 5, which is nice. The only weaknesses is the two blessing of Erastils in AD 1, and the fact that there are three blessings of Sivanah and no blessings of Milani. A nice bonus for Seoni players is the fact that she starts with five blessings but there are only four blessings of the gods in the deck, so she can start with a blessing of Pharasma. Grade: B-

Summary:

I think the Sorcerer deck may be the most average of the decks overall, with none of the card categories having especially strong selections. The items are very weak, but since items are of tertiary importance to sorcerers the poor selection won’t drag your sorcerer down – likely you’ll end up commonly using items to fuel your blast power if you’re playing one of the three that has the ability. Spells are the most important cards for sorcerers and the deck’s selection is good enough – if uninspired – while selections for the next most important cards, allies and blessings, are 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.
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 rogue deck review:

Weapons:

The characters in the rogue deck are split 50/50 between ranged and melee characters like the ranger deck, but the weapon selection is done much better. With six basic weapons each character will be able to start with a full complement of weapons matching their combat skill, with the exception of Lesath who has to start with a ranged weapon. It’s not that bad though, since all the rogues use dexterity for their combat stat so Lesath will still get to roll a d10, which isn’t a huge hindrance. Unfortunately there are only seven finesse weapons – compared to fourteen ranged – which limits Lesath and Wu Shen. On the other hand the selection of ranged weapons is very good, with many good choices that don’t require weapon proficiency as both Merisiel and Olenjack require a power feat to gain proficiency. The overall selection of ranged weapons is good up and down the lineup, with solid choices at most AD levels. If only they would’ve included one or two fewer ranged weapons in favor of finesse weapons. Grade B-

Spells:

There are only six spells in the deck, which is understandable considering rogues aren’t spellcasters (though Lesath can get the divine skill if he spends a couple of power feats once he gets his role card). The selection is very nice and what the ranger deck should’ve done, with useful utility spells making up the majority of the selection. Of particular note is the invoke spell (at AD5, no less), which by itself almost makes it worth Lesath spending the two power feats to get the divine skill. I always like it when they put cure in a deck as a basic AD0; it makes spending a card feat on a spell worthwhile for any character – banishing it is no different than burying an ally like Father Zanthis for a heal. Grade: A-

Armor:

Ophidian armor is the star here, even though you have to wait until AD6 until you can get it. The bolstering armor in AD5 is nice too. Everything else is serviceable enough. Grade: C+

Items:

The rogue deck has a large selection of items, and there are nice choices at every AD level. There’s the amulet of life, thieves’ tools, and sage’s journal to start with, with the emerald of dexterity and masterwork tools also available in AD0. There are four poison items spread across AD’s 1, 2, 3, and 5 for Olenjack and Wu Shen, but even if you have no interest in poisons there’s still the spyglass, belt of incredible dexterity, and boots of teleportation available in those ADs. AD 4 has the magic spyglass, and AD6 has both the belt of physical might and ring of energy resistance. The only weakness is the lack of a staff of minor healing and the marginally useful non-poison items in AD2. Grade: A-

Allies:

I find the selection of allies available a disappointing. There are four archers, which is nice for Merisiel and Olenjack, but nearly useless for the other two. (The black arrow ranger can be used for dexterity checks, not just ranged combat checks.) The biggest omission is a surgeon, whose absence is very noticeable considering there’s no staff of minor healing in the deck. There’s an old salt in AD0 which is nice, and the aforementioned black arrow ranger is an excellent ally for any of the rogues. Grade: D+

Blessings:

The blessing selection is alright. There are three blessings of Erastil, which is great, but AD’s 2-5 each only have one blessing type per AD, which is a bit boring. Curiously, you can get a blessing of Milani in AD0 but the other two are in AD4. A bit more variety would’ve been nice. Grade: C

Summary:

Overall the rogue class deck is one of the better of the original seven class decks, with a decent selection of weapons supported by an excellent selection of items. The spell selection – meager as it is – is nice as well. The only real flaws are the lack of finesse weapons and mediocre ally selections, but all in all the rogue deck is one of the better of the original seven decks.

Overall Grade: B-

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 ranger deck review:

Weapons:

Ugh. Despite the fact that the ranger deck has the most weapons of any deck the selection is still a disaster. Every ranger will be forced to start with at least one weapon that doesn’t match their combat skill, which is an extra hindrance at the start of a character’s career when they’re already at their weakest. Furthermore, despite two of the rangers being melee and the other two ranged, the weapon types are unbalanced 18-8 toward melee. This means Harsk will be unable to get his 5th ranged weapon until he gets an AD2 upgrade. Even Wrathack won’t be able to have all 2-handed weapons until AD3.

This could’ve been mitigated somewhat by having some strong weapon choices early, but AD1 and AD2 are mostly lackluster weapons like the dogslicer and greatclub +1. With three different weapon types wanted by the various rangers, weapons no one desires such as the dogslicer and disrupting rapier +1 should’ve been left out in favor of more useful choices. Grade: F

Spells:

The spell selection is almost as poor as the weapon selection. Three of the eight spells are attack spells, and since only Arabundi is likely to put boost his divine skill enough to make using them a worthwhile choice. Beast skin is a dud and endurance is marginal, though forest walk is alright since it’s useful to the two rangers who can have the divine skill. The lone bright spot is divine blaze, a tier 1 attack spell, available in AD3. Grade: D

Armor:

The shining star of the armor selection is the excellent ophidian armor being available in AD4, which is a must grab for Harsk and Arabundi. There’s also the reflecting buckler in AD5. Aside from the terrible stanching buckler, the armor selection is fine. Grade: B

Items:

The item selection is nice, especially the low AD ones. Amulet of life, spyglass, emerald of dexterity, masterwork tools, and archer’s bracers are all very useful. There’s a belt at AD for any ranger you play. The AD4 & 5 items are duds, but the excellent belt of physical might is waiting at AD6. There’s a staff of minor healing for good measure. Grade: B+

Allies:

The selection of allies is perfectly serviceable, with plenty of animals for Agna. No particularly outstanding allies, though the mountaineer being available at AD5 is nice. The spread of combat assisting allies is very well done, with two for melee, two for ranged, and two for any combat check. Grade: B

Blessings:

The blessing selection is fine, if a bit uninspired. Two each of blessing of Erastil and Gorum, with blessings of Achaekek available in AD4. The non-combat blessings offer a nice variety, though having to wait until AD5 until Sivanah becomes available is a bit disappointing. Grade: C+

Summary:

The ranger deck is the worst of the class decks in my opinion, primarily due to the very bad weapon selection. There were going to be challenges trying to come up with a good weapon selection for both ranged and melee characters, but with twenty-six weapons in the deck it’s kind of unforgivable that Harsk can’t get his 5th ranged weapon until AD2. This is also compounded by having the two melee rangers have specific weapon preferences, which was a mistake in my opinion. It would’ve been much better had it been designed like the fighter deck with fewer basic weapons; if the ranger deck had only two basic weapons – a ranged and melee weapon – and enough AD0 weapons so that each character would be able to fill the rest of their deck with weapons matching their weapon skill, it would’ve been a fair compromise. Each character would still have to start with the wrong type of weapon but that would’ve been balanced by their other two or three weapons being stronger non-basic ones. As it stands you’re in for a potentially frustrating start to your character’s career.

Overall Grade: D

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.

Note about Flenta - Even though I'm not doing any character evaluations I feel the need to discuss Flenta. It seems that her pseudo-spellcasting drove many of the design decisions of this deck, which is a tad annoying since the cards that support her [pseudo-spellcasting] are pretty much useless to the other three fighters in the deck, as we'll see in the card discussions.

Here's my fighter deck review:

Weapons:

The weapon selection in the fighter deck is very well done. Flenta and Valeros are weapon agnostic, while Tontelizi and Vika want polearms and bludgeoning weapons respectively. There are enough weapons of each type for Vika and Tontelizi to have all of their weapons be their preferred type throughout their career (with the exception of if you put three card feats into weapons for Tontelizi, but I think that’s unlikely). Furthermore, despite the fact that all of the fighters in the deck start with four or five weapons, there are only three weapons with the basic trait in the deck. This enables weapon customization right from the start, allowing Vika to start with three bludgeoning weapons and Tontelizi with a pair of polearms – not to mention Flenta being able to choose between the greatsword or spiked chain +1 and Valeros being able to have them both.

There are good weapons to choose from at every AD level, so your fighter will be able to have steady upgrades. The only nitpick I have is that there were some better weapons available such as the flaming falcate +3, and an extra polearm for Tontelizi. Grade: A-

Spells:

Now we arrive at the part of the deck that only Flenta cares about, since none of the other fighters start with spells and only Vika can even spend a card feat to get [a single] spell. Since Flenta must banish a spell after casting it, the spell selection for her is pretty poor. Instead of a lot of deck B basic spells there are two for each deck 0-5 and one deck 6 spell. So Flenta is forced to start with strength and call weapon for every scenario, plus either speed or obscure. It would’ve been much better to have a spells such as cure, detect magic, an attack spell, and other various spells so she could customize her deck between scenarios, which would’ve also been thematically appropriate. Instead, when I look at the spell selection I wonder if we’ll ever be allowed to play Crowe with the fighter deck, since the available spells would be pretty great for him. Grade: D

Armor:

The selection of armor is pretty lackluster. None of the really nice armors such as reflecting buckler, invulnerable breastplate, or adamantine plate armor. Lesser bolstering armor and fortified breastplate are ok, but nothing to write home about. Grade: C-

Items:

The available items are pretty decent. Topaz of strength, staff of minor healing, and belt of giant strength are handy, and high level there’s the magic spyglass and sihedron ring. There’s a necklace of fireballs and wand of treasure finding for unknown reasons – continuing the theme of catering to arcane casters, I guess – but there are enough other good items that fighters can freely spend their card feats for more item slots. Grade: B-

Allies:

Why does this deck contain a cat?? This particular card has to be the most misplaced card of any card in any class deck, considering there’s no way for any fighter to recharge a spell. Merren Unwin as the deck 6 ally is also a puzzler, as none of the fighters use ranged attacks. That aside, the only ally of note is the evangelist. All in all the selection of allies is lacking. Grade: D+

Blessings:

Continuing with the theme of spellcaster support, the fighter deck has three blessings of Pharasma in it for unknown reasons. It has two blessings of Gorum, which is fine, and a decent mix other other blessings, including a blessing of Achaekek in deck 3. The useless blessings of Pharasma aren’t a huge hindrance since each of the fighters only start with three blessings and max out at four (five for Tontelizi), so each fighter can take both Gorums and whatever other two blessings they like and be alright. Still, the inclusion of the Pharasma’s is simply silly. Grade: C-

Summary:

With thirteen spells, some non-thematic items and allies, and three blessings of Pharasma, the fighter class deck is easily the most strangely constructed of the class desks. I would almost guess that the deck’s contents were determined before the characters were finalized and Flenta – and maybe another fighter – was intended to have a stronger spellcasting focus. Regardless, despite the many strange card inclusions, overall the deck functions adequately because of how well the weapons were selected.

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.

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+

The scenario uses the 5-Pointed Sun location, which never permanently closes. In order to win the scenario you need to close all locations. The scenario rules allow you to attempt to close a location if you find 1 barrier after performing the mandatory end of turn examination. So is the intention of the scenario is that you use the scenario rules special close condition to close the 5-Pointed Sun after all the other locations are closed?

I bought a copy of the Adventurer's Handbook from my FLGS and when I got it home I discovered that it's missing pages 65-96. I checked to see if the pages numbers were just in error but the book appears to have been printed with the missing pages; page 64 is the introduction to the Eagle Knights and the next page, page 97, is a section with Hellknight gear. I can probably return it to my FLGS but I thought I'd make a post here to see if there's to let Paizo know.

So last night the players were in a city (Lita) where a strange fog moved in. The city is on a large lake so fog isn't uncommon, but the citizens were remarking that the fog was thicker than normal and was getting thicker as the day progressed. One of the players even joked OOC that a huge monster was probably going to attack the city.

The players had business in another city (Leustean) in the same country (this is a homebrew game) so teleported to Leustean to spend the evening and next day attending to their business. Once they were done there they teleported to a third city (Enescu) to do some stuff there and learned that Lita had in fact been attacked by a giant monster that evening. So they teleported to Lita and saw the monster had destroyed about 15% of the city - mostly around the wharf - before it was driven back into the lake. Unfortunately it was driven back due to the sacrifice of an ally. They were unable to recover their ally's body, so right now are looking at requiring a True Resurrection to revive her.

So, the players have been considering going after this monster. Therein lies the concern, as the monster is an advanced mythic tarn linnorm, CR 23. The party of six PCs are all level 13 (and NOT mythic; mythic creatures in my game are all extremely rare and this would be the first one they fight. The players aren't even aware that I'm even using the mythic rules in my game). And just to add to the possible degree of difficultly, the PCs are considering attacking it while it's underwater, since they think it's in the lake somewhere.

The linnorm is actually a local legend so they were able to do a little research and have been informed by a scholar that the creature is likely a tarn linnorm, and that tarn linnorms are among the strongest linnorms, and this one in particular, called Sarpelecului, is according to legend the spawn of one of the four ancient beast gods of this world.

I thought that would be enough in-game hints to dissuade the PCs from going after the thing, but they're still considering it. So I'm trying to think of more ways to give them hints as to just how strong this thing is without being ham-fisted about about it. Ideas?

I noticed that the reward for completing adventure 3-3 isn't your role card, as it has been for every other adventure path. Has this been standardized in organized play so you always get your role card after adventure 3 so it's no longer listed on the adventure sheet? Or has something been changed for season 3? I noticed there's no mention of getting your role card in adventures 3-4 or 3-5 either, so I'm guessing you still get it at the end of adventure 3-3, right?

I've got an NPC level 11 alchemist (vivisectionist) villain for my campaign that specializes in poison. I've already given him the appropriate discoveries (concentrate poison, sticky poison, [maybe] poison conversion), but haven't selected all his feats or magic items. Are there any feats or magic items that can improve the effectiveness of poison? All Paizo please as I'm not really using 3rd party stuff.

I have need for an NPC who's primary focus is one-on-one duels. He's a martial, full BAB level 13 human. Due to his focus on dueling, I imagine him to actually focus on a combat maneuver, like disarm. Or another interesting tactic, just something other than merely maximum damage output. What class/archetype would be most optimal? Ideally I'd like the character to be a Samurai or Cavalier, simply because of the challenge idea is very thematic, but I'm open to other ideas. Or is lore warden fighter simply heads and shoulders above anything else if I want to do combat maneuvers?

1. What would be the check to know of the existence of an obscure political organization?

2. What would be the check to know the plot of a novel?

3. What would be the check to perform complex mathematical functions?

I know there's an item enchantment but I can't recall if there's a spell that does the same thing.

The PCs have been invited to a royal wedding as honored guests. The reason the PCs are honored guests is because earlier in the campaign they recovered the lost crown that can only be worn by the true king, which greatly aided the prince's efforts to depose the false king and claim the throne. The quest to retrieve the crown was undertaken at the behest of the woman who is to become queen. The wedding is between her and the king.

Of course, not all is well within the realm. For starters, many of the king's supporters disagreed with his choice of queen and tried in vain to persuade him to choose someone else. Some of them even discussed a possible assassination of his betrothed, but abandoned that plan when they couldn't get the PCs on board. They'll all be at the wedding.

The one encounter possibility that I've got planned for is the fact that the queen-to-be has invited her step-son and his family to attend the wedding. This is ripe for scandal since she appears to be a woman in her mid-to-late twenties while her stepson is in his mid-sixties. There were already rumors that she wasn't all that she appeared and this has the potential to inflame them. (I've already established her true nature though, and regardless of what happens at the wedding it won't be revealed.)

There are other prominent individuals in the realm who are dissatisfied with the new king but they aren't invited. Certainly isn't outside the realm of possibility they'll try to have an agent(s) infiltrate the wedding.

Those are the ideas I have so far, so any inspiration would be appreciated. Individual PC encounters would be welcome as well, since there's going to be a lot going on and they'll eventually go mingling on their own.

Like it says in the title, the game will be starting on Tuesday. 25 point buy with PFS legal material. I've decided to play a human invoker winter witch who will be taking a single level of crossblooded draconic/orc sorcerer so I can really pump up the damage of my cold spells. My stats are as follows:

Str 10
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 18+2
Wis 10
Cha 11

The other stat array I considered was this:

Str 7
Dex 14
Con 16
Int 17+2
Wis 10
Cha 11

I decided on the former for two reasons. 1) Having a 7 str makes me nervous. 2) Since I won't have a hex at 1st level, having 3 spells per day instead of 2 will make a difference.

As far as feats, I've got a general idea of what I want through level 15. I'm planning on going the spell perfection (cone of cold) route so that's 4 feats. At first level I took toughness and improved initiative to help with survivability. I'll be taking extra hex at 3rd or 5th level since my archetypes cost me 5 of my hexes. Since crafting will be allowed I'll be taking a crafting feat but haven't decided which one; there's a wizard in the party and we're still discussing which ones we'll be taking.

That leaves 1 feat left over. I'm thinking either spell focus: evocation or elemental focus: cold, but haven't made a firm decision.

My traits are magical knack and a campaign trait that gives me +2 on concentration checks.

As far as hexes I'm less certain. My level 2 hex and the hex I take with additional hex will be 2 of flight, healing hex, and evil eye. I'm leaning toward evil eye at 2 and flight with the feat. My level 6 hex will very likely be the winter witch hex, though I may end up taking it later. I haven't thought about my levels 12 and 14 hexes.

I don't know anything about Jade Regent though, so if there's something pertinent to that adventure path that I should consider for my guild I'd love to know.

What Pazio feats are there that enhance Vital Strike? There's Improved and Greater Vital Strike, of course, but then you have feats like Devastating Strike as well. Are there other non-mythic feats that enhance vital strike? I thought there have been one or two new ones, but I can't think of them. Am I mistaken?

If you use your standard action to cast communal resist energy, and you have multiple allies in range with one move action, can you touch multiple allies with that move action?