kysmartman's page

Okay, I'm trying to setup the 2nd scenario of AP6, and I just need some clarification on how the location effect works.

The "At This Location" effect says "The difficulty to defeat banes is increased by 5". Sounds straightforward, right? The problem is that is also on the flip side aka after it is closed too. Does this mean that it is supposed to apply to all the locations throughout the scenario? I mean there will never be a bane at that location once it is closed. If that is the location that triggers the Villain to show up, you don't get a chance to close location. Basically, why is it printed on the closed side of the location?

Just got my box in and sleeved everything so I wanted to share some impressions without being too spoilery about it.

Impression 1: You may need to change your pants after looking at the Banes, especially if you have a group of mage-casters. So, if you've been whining that the game is too easy, this pack is for you. It wouldn't shock me that you won't have much down time between this and S&S because losses are highly likely now.

Impression 2: All of us that have been bashing armor as useless, yeah ignore us.

Impression 3: You will get a sneak peak at how S&S will work as a few things that are very prevalent there appear for the first time here.

Impression 4: OMG the BOONS!!!! There isn't a useless one in the bunch. There are a couple of spells that are slightly iffy, but still very, very solid cards.

Impression 5: You will do a lot of cursing about all those Items that aren't Basic/Elite aka banishable. The new Items are amazing, and you will want them all.

Wow, I just wish there was a sequel that continued on with RotR because the good stuff is just sooooo good.

I'm talking about scenarios that are great with 4+ characters that just have everything awesome about them neutered when dropping down to 3 or less. We had the one in AP4 that I posted about where you had to have Fire to kill the Henchmen which became irrelevant because there was only one left when constructing the scenario. Now, in AP5, we have Thassalonian Sins.

This scenario is a beast with 5+ characters (4 is kind of iffy) because of the dual combination of the scariest non-Harpy henchmen so far AND the AP5 locations are all 12's to close meaning you're going to be chasing the Villains all over the place because temp closing is really, really hard. So, 3 or fewer characters gets rid of both of those, yippee. You only have one of the awesome henchmen (you have to pass a Wisdom 10 check or recharge all your cards and draw only one card meaning only Seoni feels good in passing that Combat 16 check), and closing locations is completely irrelevant as the Villains will do it for you, rendering the Bury your hand location moot. Pretty soon all of them will be at the one open location. I just won the game in 14 turns having to defeat the villains twice, twice, and three times, and I think the only way this scenario could be challenging is if you had only spell-casters since you can't play spells at that one location. Outside of that, there is no challenge. Really, really lousy scenario Paizo.

And now I feel bad that I didn't take the time to check for that for S&S during Beta.

Okay, this has come up due to GreyElephant's PACG series on YouTube. They just finished the Scenario that has Dorella and Hookmaw as one of the henchmen in it, and there seems to be some confusion due to Dorella's check. It is listed as Combat/Arcane 12 (or Arcane/Combat 12). There are a bunch of people on the comments stating that to defeat Dorella, you must use an Arcane Combat check (meaning play an Arcane Attack spell) to succeed at defeating Dorella.

I stated that all of those cards with multiple checks on it are Trait 1 OR Trait 2, and now I'm being told that Mike has said no, this specific card requires you to play an arcane spell to defeat him. I tried the search function on here and couldn't find anything, nor do I ever remember this coming up before but it has been months since AP3 so I may have forgotten it.

First, kudos for the new message board layout. Much easier to read now.

Okay, I copied this from Hawk's post (and he copied it from the rulebook) about another question because it matters a ton for this scenario.

"Encountering a Villain
Attempt to temporarily close open locations.
Encounter the villain.
If you defeat the villain, close the villain’s location.
Check to see whether the villain escapes."

Basically, am I reading the scenario's rule correctly when I think the game can end after 3 turns? Here's the scenario rule verbatim:

"Whenever you defeat a villain, place it next to this card; any characters at that villain's previous location may immediately move. You must defeat all 3 villains to win this scenario."

This seems to eliminate the last part of the Encountering a Villain step as the card overrides it. The scenario with 2 Villains in AP4 specifically told you not to check for the first Villain's escape which this rule doesn't tell you to do, but since a card can only have 3 states (Evaded, Defeated, and Undefeated), I have to think that once you defeat the Villain in this scenario he doesn't escape. Maybe some words got left off the scenario card?

This is good due to the horrid closing requirements (2 Wisdom 12's 1 each Survival and Perception--tip DON'T banish Eyes of the Eagle you need it in several scenarios in AP5) and a Con/Fort 12 to boot. Plus, it does make the game harder as your large parties can't avoid the most difficult Henchman in the game so far (except for Lini and Kyra though they really hate him too) in the game, Simulacra of Vraxeris (leaving that ability as a surprise), by just chasing the Villains around avoiding them. It does though mean the game could be over in 3 turns.

Also, I think I know the answer to this too, but when you start at the Gluttony location, your initial hand size isn't increased by 2, right? That seems unfair if it is because everyone would start there then move (there's no Temple-like penalty location out there).

Oh, and seriously, why does this entire AP hate Allies so freaking much? Anyone expecting to get any of the really, really, really cool Allies in this adventure can forget about it. You don't even get to banish many of the now-lesser Elite allies because you just don't get many allies at all. For 5 players, the most in any scenario is FOUR! Yes, I know there is probably very good storyline reasons for this, but man it royally stinks gameplay-wise. It is worse, really, than AP3 (or 4 I can't remember) with Spells just because you can't get Allies any other way as there is no Mystic Inscription for allies.

Okay, I want to make sure I played the Villain right.

The Scribbler (who I imagined came to Sandpoint after Batman laughed at his villain name) says "Before the encounter, each character at this location summons and encounters a random monster.". My question is what happens when multiple people are there.

A) Draw one monster everyone encounters a copy of it.
B) Draw one monster per person and each character encounters their own going in turn order.

I ask because the wording is different from The Garrison's effect. The first time I only had one person there so it didn't come up, but the last time I had 3 characters there choosing B. Considering I drew that new Demon that would have wiped someone's hand 3rd, I would have loved it to be A.

I do want to add that this is the perfect Villain to NOT do the "Burying the Henchmen/Villain into the bottom half of the deck" because he's like Mammy Graul in that you have to defeat him twice during the game. I faced him with no locations closed, failed to find my Holy Candle, and barely won the game before time ran out due to those 2 lost blessings (and considering I had to banish a blessing to close a location, it could have been 3).

Also, can someone explain the point of the scenario rule (Pass a Wisdom or Divine 8 check or reset your hand and end your turn)? What other stuff are you going to do (outside of The Garrison having cards in it) after you permanently close a location? That's the only one you have to fight to close so using a character's power (like Seoni or Ezren on recharging spells) isn't an issue.

Oh, and the Monster banishment record is now set at 17, and that was with 5 characters. Almost every single one in the scenario was Elite (including all 4 Ghouls making Exorcist Kyra sad) plus my last Zombie. Sure makes shuffling that god-awful stack of monsters easier.

Okay, it looks like we have lists for everything else so I thought I'd start this one.

Have you stared at Hawk's wonderful Banishment list (except for the Detect Evil that should be Detect Magic) and gone "How in the world have I not banished this Bane yet?" You can also list those Boons that you would want to banish and not the best Boons you'd never get rid of.

For me, it is the Shopkeeper's Daughter. As I've mentioned before, I run 5 parties, and the number of times I've had her appear in the 51 (had to repeat one due to bad luck) times? ONE!!!! And only 3 of the 5 parties has removed one Zombie Nest (are their 2?) The only Boon I can think of that is shocking is that I've only removed one Burglar from 3 parties though that may be because some are being used by the parties.

Okay, the rule is that when you are rebuilding your decks and are short a card of that type, you have to get a card from any set 2 sets prior to the current AP, which means Basics only until you hit AP3.

Obviously, this doesn't come into play until AP3, where you can get AP1 boons, but it really becomes a problem with Jorgenfist which gives you a Card Feat. The issue is that there is 1 Blessing (Giants Lair) and only 2 Allies (and none in a 1 or 2 player game as City Gate is the 3-player location) with 4 whole Allies in a 6-player game. Oh and of course ZERO spells.

The issue is that you now get to pick between the Base Set Blessing on your role card, if you have one, OR Blessing of Lamashtu aka the best Villain killer blessing in the game with almost no fuss. You can even get Blessing of Abadar if you need trap help. You can now get Ezren that one Ray spell from AP1 he has missed, or you know amazing spells like freaking Lightning Bolt or Haste!!! That is insane!

Now, the spell part isn't likely to be an issue if you aren't playing Ezren as Seoni, Lini, and Lem should have maxed out their spell slots by then (the Divine spells aren't that compelling which is a separate issue). The Allies aren't as amazing unless you've missed out on Father Zantus (B) or Brodert Quink (2) (Ezren wants to thank you massively btw).

Basically, I'm saying that the boons for this scenario just aren't balanced enough to be a Card Feat reward scenario. Yeah, you can get weapons and items, but that is it. I mean we all agree that no one is ever going to take an armor feat unless they are absolutely forced to in AP6. The one from AP2 was annoying in that it had 0 allies, but it at least had a good mix of all the other boon types, and of course, you couldn't get anything but Basics from the box.

This is probably too late to affect S&S, but there shouldn't be a card feat scenario this unbalanced in it. It really detracts from my enjoyment of AP4 (well that and the stupid Harpies but they can usually be dealt with).

At the end of Burnt Offerings, I actually ended up with both a Heavy Crossbow and the Deathbane Light Crossbow (this card loves me as I find it within the Perils of the Lost Coast scenarios) in my party of Seelah (uh yeah, d4 so no), Sajan, and Ezren. I decided WTH and gave Sajan a weapon Card Feat and switched the DLC and HC (neither require weapon proficiency btw) between Ezren and Sajan. This let me give him the 6th card Power Feat which pretty much guarantees that I'm going to draw either Mighty Fists or the DLC on turn one. Combined with 3 Blessings of Erastil, Sajan has been wreaking havoc in my game, and it will get better once I finally get rid of Alden Foxglove whom I have taken through this game since Local Heroes.

Just curious if anyone else has decided to weaponize the Monk.

Okay, I've really, really, really enjoyed this game and managed to play through Burnt Offerings 3 times with 2 groups and finished my first group's trip through Skinsaw while only making 2 mistakes all through them (for the record they were, forgetting that Amiri didn't have Heavy Armor proficiency for 4 scenarios so I was recharging the magic armors when I couldn't, and Sajan's attack is Dexterity so Erastil not Gorum for a few scenarios). Never felt that the theme was lacking either...

until I came to The Angel in the Tower scenario. If you read the scenario text, it specifically states that you are supposed to fight everyone off to chase the villain TO the Shadow Clock and defeat her there. However, the way the scenario works means you're going to CLOSE that location first (barring getting lucky finding the Henchman at another location) because the penalty for leaving that location open is just too severe.

Were there any previous errors like this that I just happened to miss? I mean it didn't really affect my enjoyment of the game, but I thought that complete roleplay disconnect slipped through development.

Maybe the scenario rule should have been "The Shadow Clock has to be the last location you permanently close." or something like that. That certainly would have made the Villain fight a heck of a lot better not knowing if you would have anything in your hand to attack her due to that location's effect.

Thanks. I am not going to give you all any more money directly.

Okay, this has been bugging me the whole time, and I haven't really seen it addressed.

The Garrison states "Take all weapons and armor from the remaining cards and put them under the location" This is a totally different phrase from the other locations that add cards to the location when closed.

1. Is that phrasing correct?

2. Am I correct in interpreting that to mean that those cards are out of the scenario entirely?

3. Was this leftover phrasing before you decided to do the whole "you shouldn't reshuffle the stacks before drawing for the beneficial barriers (chests and that spell one) or locations"? Otherwise, it really serves no purpose.

Sorry, as I said, this has been bugging me, and I lost 2 magical things because of it today that I had time to get if I had had the chance.