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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+
I'm enjoying these reviews.
For anyone who doesn't know: Zarlova is the only true attack caster in the deck (the others are martials who can also use spells). Zarlova puts any Divine Attack spell on top of her deck when she recharges it, which is why just 3 Attack spells is enough. (Facing multi-check monsters can be tough, as for any caster; but a guy I played with used Zarlova through the entire Season of the Righteous without issue.)
Thanks for the reviews, I like them as well.
Regarding the spells:
Why do you introduce the tiers and then never mention them in your review?
Also, is Zarlovas Theurge role actually supported at all in the spell selection, or are all spells exclusively divine? Looking at the spell list, she seems much better without her class deck by loading up all kinds of unique arcane spells.
@elcoderdude - Good point about Zarlova's top-decking power; I forgot about that. I guess that's why you shouldn't write a review while you're playing Pathfinder RPG and your party is being beseiged by cultists, lol. I still think the lack of attack spells in decks 1-4 is a weakness though, as it means Zarlova will be going into adventure 5 with weak combat unless she went theurge and spent power feats increasing her checks with attack spells. Putting two cures in the deck instead of three and using the slot for a deck 2 or 3 aqueous orb would've been much better.
@Dobbelschwert - I added my little spell tier chart after I had already posted the review and noticed I made comments about "tier [x]" in my spell review section but never actually explained what I meant.
And you are correct that there are no arcane spells in the deck; everything is divine. I personally think the issue is more that her theurge role is pretty weak than the lack of arcane spells in the deck. The only types of spell that are in the realm of arcane only [at the time the deck was released] are the attack support spells such as blizzard and incendiary cloud. Everything else is either arcane and divine or has a divine equivalent.
Also, is Zarlovas Theurge role actually supported at all in the spell selection, or are all spells exclusively divine? Looking at the spell list, she seems much better without her class deck by loading up all kinds of unique arcane spells.
Space is pretty tight in a class deck, particularly the early ones which support four characters.
Including spells only 1 of the 4 characters could effectively use would have caused more of an outcry than leaving the Venomous Crossbow out of the Ranger deck or including the almost completely pointless Cat ally in the Fighter deck.
(Also, Zarlova doesn't top-deck Arcane spells.)
I see it now; you wrote about tier 4 spells in the review, but I automatically read that as AD4 spells, so I wasn't sure where the tiers would come in (I only remembered that you used them for the bard deck). My bad.
Regarding the Theurge; historically, you are mostly right, even though a single Haste spell would improve that role already considerably. Past RotR, I don't think this role is weak; attack spells are mostly both Divine / Arcane, but there are a lot of interesting Arcane only spells both in WotR and MM. Even in RotR, she gets access to several int-based loot that she can utilize thanks to the role. With the additional skill and power feats in WotR, I'm sure she can wreck monsters left and right with divine attacks spells and arcane support, even though she can only use the mythic path for one of them.
@Elcoderdue: For the price of a power feat, Zarlova can learn to top-deck Arcane spells, so that's not an issue. This is mostly to keep Attack spells around anyway, and those are mostly both divine and arcane in later sets. If you'd play her in the RotR box and got your hands on a Haste spell, you could easily have 2-3 explores every turn without expending ressources.
I also don't see the need for an outcry. Past the initial 7 class decks, most decks contain cards that are really only useful for a specific character. The distinction between 'is inferior but can be used' and 'can't be used at all' seems superfluously to me.
By the way, in case Keith drops by, since he wanted feedback:
I consider Tarlin a better paladin than both non-iconics in the paladin class deck; Raz feels like she should belong to a cavalier deck, and I would actually let Tarlin and Koren swap their respective class decks and classes, both due to their skill distributions and powers.
I'm still reading, though I'm largely avoiding commenting.
The advantage of just 3 characters in a class deck is it makes more sense to have cards 2 characters would never want.
Completely forgot about Zarlova's power feat -- and I'm betting my friend took it. Season of the Righteous seems a long time ago.
Zarlova does topdeck Arcane spells with the feat, but they still have to have the Attack trait.
I'm still reading, though I'm largely avoiding commenting.
FYI, that's because Lone Shark's policy is to never comment on reviews of our games.
Zarlova does topdeck Arcane spells with the feat, but they still have to have the Attack trait.
You're right about that, so much for the haste synergy. Still, haste would be nice for her, being a recharge for an exploration later on and all that.