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@jacuke

Where is the mechanical difference between what you wrote and the FAQ update?

There isn't.

I didn't get that it was already in the FAQ.

Sorry if this sounds like i´m trashing your suggestion, i just want to illustrate my train of thoughts when i read your post.

No problem.

My suggestion would be to add this rule:

If damage reduces your hand to 0 cards, resolve the current encounter then reset your hand and end your turn.

I'm wondering whether the "and discard a card" after reveal isn't a mistake. In the RPG "vicious" means the weapon deals more damage (2d6) but half as much to you (1d6). Since the bonus here is apparently +2 on the check, it makes sense to discard 1 card.

But I don't understand why you'd have to de facto discard 2 cards. Maybe the text after reveal wasn't striking enough to players, so the the extra paragraph about the force damage was added at the bottom of the card, but then the discard above was left on the card as well.

I've chosen to play Ezren solitaire as a challenge. It is in fact quite challenging, especially the scenarios of the second adventure with the Golem and the Haunts. But I like that he plays very different from the other characters, mostly due to his complete lack of blessings. I even lost a few scenarios (not died yet), which is a welcome change of pace.

I took a different approach than you guys, namely choosing hand size increases instead of the bonus on recharge rolls for his power traits. Why? Because I figured more cards = more cards to play and recharge = best way to get to the good spells again. Of course I occasionally fail a recharge roll or two, but that's why I carry around my trusty Mending spell. If I for example lose my Lightning Bolt I can replace it with Detect Magic or any crap spell I picked up while adventuring like Arcane Armor. But since it doesn't make much sense to increase anything but his intelligence first, his arcane skill is formidable even without the recharge bonus.

Of course a bigger hand size means I also need a way to mitigate damage and that's why I started out with the Amulet of Life, which are now two Medallions. They can be used often as well because they block any damage, not just combat damage. As I said, it's my principle for him to only have cards he can recharge. His other two items are a Codex and Masterwork Tools. The same principle applies to his allies, where I found the Burglar very valuable, since his bonus is a straight d10 and it can be added to many checks including all barriers. I picked up a Saber-toothed Tiger; very helpful in beating the Scarecrow Golem and many villains. My other two allies are Shalelu and Father Zantus, the latter for emergency healing and otherwise to help in picking up blessings.

Yes, I have not picked spell as a card trait yet. It's not necessary because I can cycle through the deck so quickly.

Even his weapon can be recharged, which is currently a dagger +1, so 1d6+2d4+1 and an additional d4/d6 with the appropriate ally usually suffices to beat the weaker monsters. I'm hoping to pick up a Venomous Dagger +2 in adventure 3. :)

So against my initial judgement, I have to say it is fun to play Ezren the old atheist.

I decided to take Vicious Trident + 1 (shouldn't it be named Vicious Trident + 3?) for Ezren.

Makes sense, but I personally only give daggers to my Ezren, because these can be recharged like all his other cards. Although he has attack spells, too. I'm looking forward to picking up a Venomous Dagger +2. ;)

Exactly how would you accomplish the banishment of a divine spell in Lini's deck in such a simple way as you are proposing?

Maybe you mean she could give it to another character to let them cast it an banish it? But they would have to use it during a situation in which it was usable. So something like Detect Magic or Detect Traps or Detect Evil would be ok, as well as Aid, but a non-spell caster probably wouldn't want to find a way to use an attack spell since he would have to roll a 1d4 as his divine die. And this assumes you haven't acquired any new spells during the scenario.

Or should could try to acquire an arcane spell, keep it at the end of a scenario, play it and banish it in the next scenario, then hope to have not acquired any other spells during that scenario.

But if she plays the divine spell herself, she can not choose to banish it, since the card says "If you do not have the Divine skill, banish this card." and Lini has the divine skill.

Just trying to clarify what simple method of banishment you were seeing. Thanks.

Well, yes, you already covered it.

Give a spell to a player who would have to banish that spell after playing it.

Or if solitaire: Pick up an arcane spell, keep it by shuffling out the card you want to replace, then play that arcane spell in the next scenario and don't pick up any new spells (or pick up the new spell if you want to but then you have to repeat the process).

So in that sense spells are easiest to replace via banishment. Armors are bit harder. Items and allies can be replaced only if the card itself can be banished. Weapons and blessings can only be banished if a location requires it for closing.

At some point the strategy defeats itself when you want to pick up the better spells of your type.

I actually considered doing starting my solo Ezren run with a couple of Cures, but determined I'd rather not, since I don't want to be dependent on them at a later point. And now after I played him I can say, he doesn't need those anyhow. He should only carry cards that he can recharge. Any vital cards he does lose on a bad recharge roll can be replaced with Mending.

Well, Lini still have nothing better than an Inflict in our game. And it really start to get old (especially as there is only 2 Holy Light to get and there is SO MUCH Arcane Attack Spell avaliable) yesterday we played 4th scenario of AP2 and she closed a location that did contain a Holy Light... very depressing.

Lini can always add her 1d4 if she has an animal on her hand, so in that regard Inflict is better than the Basic Arcane spells; if she improves her animal power to 1d4+1 or +2, it's the same or better than a Scorching/Frost Ray.

It's actually pretty simple to banish spells and you could just replace such a banished spell with Holy Light once you're in the third adventure.

I've already fixed all my cards.

I wrote the changes on them with a permanent marker.

Under the current rules, if you use this armor for its dex bonus, you cannot also use it to mitigated any damage recieved from failing that check. Is this really what you intended. I have a suggestion for a change to the card:

"If you use this card for the dex bonus, you may also use it to reduce damage received during the same check. You may not use any other armor, except for a shield."

If you use the dex bonus in combat but still fail the check, you have in effect already reduced the damage dealt to you by one.

Sigh, where are people coming up with this stuff? If you only have 2 cards total, you have died or will die at the end of the turn because you have to draw up to your full hand size at the end of the turn. So all this stuff with Seoni and Ezren doing impossible things are just that, impossible.

Even if you have only your full hand of cards with the rest of your deck in the discard pile you can *potentially* continue adventuring as long as all the cards you play are either reveal or recharge actions. Emphasis on 'potentially' since that is a very risky strategy.

As to the discussion about Ezren: yes, manipulating location decks with his spells is exactly the way he's meant to be played.

Examining locations is the thing Ezren is really good at.

Otherwise he's not a very good character at all, particularly due to his complete lack of blessings.

He can become quite good, but it all depends on his spells and these aren't trivial to obtain.

OK, thanks. Well, that is embarrasing. :)

Yes, I am aware there a plenty of ways to counter this. (You could simply ban some of the most powerful cards from the game.)

What I'm wondering about is if this increase in character power is going to be compensated by increased difficulty of the scenarios. I.e. is it going to be necessary to have access to all the good boons from the Base Game?

I'm referring to the rule which says that after you've started the Hook Mountain Massacre adventure, you can pick up any Base Game cards, as well as those from adventures numbered at least two lower than the current one. (So when playing Hook Mountain Massacre - the third adventure - you can also pick up cards from adventure pack one.)

Now, as you may have already realised, ending up with a lower number of cards than allowed by your deck after a scenario is very simple: you only need to *give* some of your cards to another player during the game. (You only need two or more players.)

So there is nothing keeping you from picking out Ilsoari Gandethus, for example, and giving him to Merisiel, who can always just evade the Sandpoint Devil in case he is summoned.

In fact you can simply pick up all of the good boons from the box, like the Holy Candle for example.

This concerns me regarding Kyra in particular, who will at some point with her role be able to recharge Blessings of Saranrae (or place them on top of her deck) instead of discarding them. Given the method outlined above, there is really nothing stopping you from simply putting all four (or five) of these blessings into Kyra's deck.

I think we are going to house rule this, so that all "given" cards have to be returned to the original owner after the scenario. But there are still plenty of locations in the game which are closed upon banishing a card. So with Kyra in a group the goal should certainly be to banish blessings and replace them with Blessings Of Saranrae after you started the Hook Mountain Massacre.