Looks like you're a big fan or Merisiel but note that her powers are reduced in a big party. Might be better to swap her for Seoni or Lem in the 6p? Seoni's good at blowing things up, Lem's good at helping others.
Also, be sure to have plenty of Cure spells if you're playing 5/6p. You don't want somebody to have to sit around doing nothing because their deck's empty (I find Seoni in particular can suffer from this if not managed well).
Harsk is a great choice, you might find he starts each turn with only one or two cards in his hand, though ;) Oh, and give him as many crossbows as you can instead of shortbows (which are weaker).
All good points.
I put Merisiel in the third slot because I figured Lini + Val would be at one location, while she soloed another. But, might be wise to swap her out of the larger groups.
I'm going to show Pathfinder to my friends this weekend for the first time. I've been playing a bunch solo and with my girlfriend, but haven't tried anything more than 2 players.
I'm looking for advice on party composition so that I can have decks and locations ready to go when everyone shows up.
I still intend to let people pick their character, and if someone wants to try something that isn't in my party list, that's cool too.
But, I want to try and showcase the more useful/fun to play characters while maintaining good balance.
There are a couple catches:
Party must include Lini (and she's using the Amulet of Mighty fists, or whatever it's called)
Party size will be somewhere between 3 and 6 people, and I want to prepare for all eventualities
If Valeros reveals a Shortsword (for example) and also uses the secondary ability of a dagger (or starknife), does he discard the dagger or recharge it?:
For reference, the text says, "When playing another weapon, you may discard this card to add 1d4 to the combat check."
Looking at the rules strictly, I'd say no. He is not PLAYING the dagger; he is playing the OTHER weapon, and then the dagger can trigger.
But, from an intent point of view, in this situation Valeros is using the dagger the same way anyone else would. It doesn't really take advantage of his power at all.
When you cast cure, can you look at the cards being shuffled into your deck?:
I don't mean to look at my deck, but it really changes game play a lot if you know what cards were cured. My thinking is, you can look at your discard pile (can you???) so you could probably reason out which cards were added back into your deck if need be.
Can you use weapons against barriers that require melee checks?:
Something like the Large Chest card has Dex/Disable 9 or Strength/Melee 10. Can I play a Warhammer to help with the Melee check?
My literal interpretation of the rules would be... no. Because it's a melee check, but not a combat check.
But, again, if you look at the INTENT... you're using your melee skill to smash open the chest. Would seem silly to smash a chest open with your bare hands with a Warhammer strapped to your hip.
When you cast a blessing, which die do you add to the check?:
"Discard this card to add 1 die to a check." So far, I've been playing this as "Add the largest die you're already using to a check."
So, if I'm Valeros engaging in a combat check with a Longsword, and I play Blessing of the Gods, I roll d10 (for my Melee Skill) + d8 (for revealing a Longsword) + d10 (for the Blessing)
But, the card isn't really specific. Could it be ANY sized die? Any sized die THAT YOU'RE ALREADY ROLLING? Can I pick a d12? Would I ever want to choose a smaller die? CAN I even choose?
Is there any way to boost the number of cards restored by cure?:
I don't think it's a check, so my guess is you can't play a blessing to make it 2d4+1. Is there any other card to help bolster that number?
I kind of already asked this, but what exactly does Shuffle into your deck mean exactly?:
Cure says "Shuffle 1d4+1 random cards from his discard pile into is deck." So, I roll 1d4+1, take that many cards at random from my discard pile, put them on top of my deck, then shuffle my deck, correct?
You can always houserule and play differently if you like, but it's useful to know what you're "meant" to do! And you're not meant to be able to go 'back to the box' unless you are short of cards.
Absolutely. Not arguing that. But I don't agree that it feels more like an RPG.
I think the Pathfinder/RPG skin/framework, while interesting, sometimes colours my perception of what I should and shouldn't be able to do.
If someone had made this exact game, but it was about, I dunno, police in the Prohibition era, or Indiana Jones-like treasure hunters, I wouldn't bat my eye if they said, "by the way, once a card is gone, it's gone forever." But, toss an RPG skin on it, and tell me that once my Wizard fails to prepare a spell, its gone from memory forever, and I get all up in arms!
As for trading from the box, we are out adventuring - there is no shop/box on hand to trade with... Make do both what you've got.
But that's kind of my point. It DOESN'T really feel like an RPG, because when I choose not to prepare Sleep as a Wizard, it doesn't mean that it's gone from my memory forever. The next "day" on our adventure, when I prepare my spells, I can always choose from any spell I've known...
As a quick note on Amiri's movement power and on levitate. Another use that we came across is to avoid unpleasant start of turn effects on locations. The Mountain Peak forces you to make a check at the start of the turn or bury a card. Another location (Guard Tower iirc) forces you to fight a bandit at the start of each turn. I use Amiri to explore those locations since she can move there, explore, then move somewhere else at the end of her turn. Levitate can do the same, albeit only once each time you cast it.
This is what I'm talking about. Makes a lot of sense, but just something we hadn't encountered yet.
I think we'll implement that house-rule. I also don't think it's really fair to shoehorn new players with the starter deck, and then not give them a way out. I know they could build their own deck from scratch, but if you've never played before, you have no idea why a card may or may not be good.
Sort of related, but can you modify your deck with basic cards at the beginning of ANY scenario/adventure/any time you're not ACTUALLY playing, or just when you create a new character?
ADDENDUM: Levitate might be a good example. Doesn't seem useful right now because we've only been playing with 2 people, but we want to get a bigger game going using these characters. Can I swap Levitate in and out freely?
Does this exist? Something like Gatherer for MtG would be really cool. I spend a lot of time at work thinking about this game... would be cool to be able to construct virtual decks/level paths.
It's something I might even consider putting together myself. Would it violate Paizo copyright to do something like that?
People complain that there really isn't a way to alter a roll after it has been done...other than the Luck Stone. Well in essence Armor cards allow you to do that for Combat checks. You failed the combat check...fine, discard your armor and nothing bad happens.
This is eye opening, actually. I had been wishing for a way to buff the roll after the fact, and this is pretty much it. Never thought of it in this way either.
First, you obviously missed the FAQ that says the 14 DC to recharge Detect Magic is a typo. That should be 4. Recharging that thing over and over is part of what makes it so useful.
Aww nuts. I thought it was strange that it was easy to acquire, but hard to recharge. I had dreamed up some janky little combo where Lem would fail his recharge on Detect, but then swap it back into his hand using his power to circumvent the high recharge check.
Hey all. Pretty new to the game, but I've played a few solo scenarios, and a two player scenario, and I'm starting to get a handle on the strategy.
I've been writing down questions as they come up. Most are easily answered by checking the manual, but I have a bunch that I haven't found answers to, OR they're higher-level strategy type questions. I tried to searcht he forum to see if they've been answered already, but there are just so many threads.
Here goes nothing!
Why would you want to include worse versions of cards in a starter deck?:
Take Amiri's recommended starter, for example. I think it has a Quarterstaff, Shortsword, and a Longsword in it by default. I can understand why cards like quarterstaff exist in the GAME (lower DC, no proficiency required), but as far as I can tell it's just objectively WORSE than Longsword for her. So, is there any reason you'd want to include these cards in your starter deck? The only reasons I can think of are the attack type/trait (Shortsword = piercing, Longsword = slashing) or MAYBE wanting to give away an "easy to use" card to an ally (like Quarterstaff to Lini)
Why are some equal power cards not basic?:
As far as I can tell, Acid Arrow and Force Missile are EXACTLY the same, barring the Force/Acid trait difference. They add the same damage, same DC check to recharge, so why is Acid Arrow not basic type? Are we to infer that the acid trait is more valuable than the force trait?
Which brings me to another question:
Can you bank discovered, non-basic cards?:
I'm not super familiar with all the monster types, so bear with me for my crummy analogy (I'm going to make some stuff up). Say you're Seoni, who starts with only 3 spell slots in her deck. For some reason, you've got them all filled with Force Missile. Throughout your adventures, you come across a bunch of non-basic spells. For the sake of simplicity, let's say they're all Acid Arrow. Acid Arrow is a pretty decent functional replacement for Force Missile.
So, you're playing along, Acid Arrowing all the bad dudes. When suddenly, you start a scenario with a lot of... oh, I don't know... Amorphous Blob henchmen. And Amorphous Blobs are immune to the Acid trait. No big deal. You can easily swap some Force Missiles back in because they're basic. But what happens to your Acid Arrows? Because they're non-basic, once they're out of your deck, are they banished back to the box?
I'd make the D&D analogy of KNOWING a spell vs. having the spell PREPARED. Once you learn a spell, you never UN-learn it. Sure, you might not have it prepared when you really need it, and that could suck, but at least it's always there as an option the next time you prepare spells.
The same argument could be said for items or weapons: if you own a +1 Mace, and you find a +2 Mace, you can leave the +1 Mace at home... you can't use it on your current adventure, but should you somehow LOSE your +2 Mace, you've got a backup. It's like POSESSING vs EQUIPPING an item.
What happens to non-basic cards you’ve acquired when they’re not in your deck?
Why should I care about movement spells/powers?:
Again, I’m still pretty new to the game, but why should I care about movement spells? Like, tactically, how can I make use of a spell like Levitate? My girlfriend and I were playing as Amiri and Lem. She has a power that lets her move at the end of her turn, and Lem’s recommended starter included Levitate. We never used Amiri’s power, and once I had Levitate in my hand, I ended up discarding it to get another spell back using Lem’s power. I’m sure there’s a situation that we haven’t come across yet, but can someone explain why I should care about movement enhancing abilities?
Why is there no recharge section on Charm Person?:
As far as I’ve seen, every spell in the Base Set can be recharged. The highest DC is 14, I think, on Detect Magic. But, Charm Person doesn’t have a recharge check. In fact, it doesn’t even have a Recharge section on the card. Even items that can’t be recharged usually say “Recharge: None”. So what’s the deal with this card? Misprint, or is it just that powerful?
What does the Elite trait do?:
Many (most?) non-basic cards have the Elite trait. Just wondering what it’s for. Haven’t come across anything that references it yet.
Is there any way to boost your check AFTER the roll?:
I’m pretty sure you can’t discard another blessing, or have another player activate a power to boost your result after you’ve already rolled/failed a check. I think Luckstone can do it? Are there any other ways?
When you fail a check against a bane, do you shuffle that location deck?:
Pretty sure the rules said yes, but I think they said something like “shuffle INTO the deck”. Just wanted to double check on this.
Similarly, when a villain escapes, do you shuffle ALL location decks?:
Again, my guess is yes. You have to somehow randomize the location of the Villain/Blessing in the deck. But, if you had someone at another location Spyglassing/Augurying etc., you’re going to mess with their results. That would be annoying :(
I don't have the cards in front of me, but I was watching a demo (crit happens??) and the dude tried to use the Paladin's armor to reduce damage from Blackfang's pre-encounter power...
And then, he added an annotation saying that the encounter damage was NOT combat damage, so he shouldn't have been able to use his armor to reduce it... or something.
