I'm having a blast going through each of these scenarios with various characters. My first run-through was with Harsk and Merisiel, and while not a cake-walk, I did manage to only fail two scenarios by running out of time and only once was I close to losing Harsk and had him sit for one turn.
Now that I finished Burnt Offerings with them, I decided to try out another round with Seoni and Amiri. I've only had time to do the first scenario in Perils, but I'm wondering if I may have gotten something wrong with playing Seoni. I was using her suggested starting hand, and it seems she only has one card in that deck that is a renewable offensive attack. I know you can use her power to discard anything to make it a powerful spell, but after doing that a few times she loses health very quickly and I had to have her sit out the last six turns with one card in her draw pile while Amiri hunted down the villain and narrowly defeated him (I was down to two Blessings left in the timer).
Is this really how she plays? There doesn't seem to be any way of her to heal on her own, and I feel like I'm missing something.
I ran her through all 8 scenarios by herself. She is a bit of a trick to play, especially with no healing option. I gave her 2 attack spells and was lucky to get augury along the way. She needs the attack spells, or she will discard to much for her power and kill herself. I just about always discarded a blessing to fuel her power when needed, or a card i picked up along the way.
I also started her with the Amulet of Life, and Sage's journal. Which were pretty key. Amulet is essential, and she can attempt to recharge it. This allowed me to get rid of an Arcane armor. The Acolyte ally is really good with her too.
I found she really shined when she was down a 1 or 2 cards in her deck. She would cycle through her attack spells with the Acolyte every round.
All in all, i found her really fun to play.
Thanks for the tips. I was wondering if perhaps I should take a look and give her different cards to start out with, but I thought I would start out with the suggested list to mimic what I would probably do for a full game night with friends.
If she ends up kicking it within the next couple of scenarios I'll start over and try out your suggestions.
Yeah, after Merisiel encountered a bad end versus Nualia (after cakewalking through the entire rest of the AP and the pre-adventure... I was very surprised at how sudden her death was), I am trying out Seoni and already the three pre-adventure scenarios are nailbiters, with Seoni always down to three or less cards. Against the Pillbug she was down to zero cards in her deck and a full hand, which had me using Invisibility/recharge/Invisibility for four rounds, until she lucked into that barrier which gives you 1d4 spells.
Quite an intense character to play solo.
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Detect Magic seems like it would be a good choice for Seoni, too. Pick your battles, and recharge easily.
But really, some characters are better solo than others. I don't have the experience to really back this up yet, but Seoni really seems like she'd be the toughest character to play solo. She just seems like she'll do best in a group with a healer, where she can cut loose and just blast everything, without worrying about the cost. For that matter, even in a group without a healer, the fact that you're spreading around the fights to several characters means that even if she blasts a lot, it won't be as many fights as if you were playing her solo.
What's the deal with the Sorcerer add-on deck that has another Seoni option? I know have two more specialty class options, "tattoo mystic" and "Dragon Initiate". Is that correct that she gets plus 1, 2, "5", then "8" for her fireball is she goes the Dragon route? All the other options only go to plus 1, 2, 3, 4.
The Sorcerer Class Deck is a Class Deck. These give you more character options, including a new version of the "iconic" character of that class. Seoni' is Paizo's iconic sorcerer. They also allow you to play in organized play.
If you are using the Class Deck Version of Seoni, you need to use both the character card and role card from the class deck. You can not mix a Rise of the Runelords Seoni character with a Class Deck Seoni role card.
And yes, the Class Deck Seoni Dragon Initiate's "fireball" power scales up from 2 to 5 and 5 to 8 on the role card.
Can a character use the Snakeskin Tunic "armor" for the extra plus one dexterity. Lose the fight and reveal a different armor to reduce the damage? The argument here is that you can either A) Wear the Tunic over armor and/or B) Each phase is different. You can't use two armors on a play. The first phase is the attach. After the attack, move to another phase where damage is dealt. Can I reveal another armor that is better defense.
You can not. You can only play 1 card of each type per step of the encounter. Attempting the check is a single step. You take the damage for failing during that step. So, if you used the armor to add +1 to the check, you can't play another armor to reduce the damage if you fail, because it is still the same step.
This is from the Wrath of the Righteou rulebook, but the rule is present in all adventure paths.
Encountering a Card
When you encounter a card, you—and only you—can go through the following steps... Each player may play no more than 1 card of each type during each step.
Encountering a Card
Apply any effects that happen when you encounter a card.
Apply any evasion effects.
Apply any effects that happen before you act.
Attempt the check.
Attempt the next check, if needed.
Apply any effects that happen after you act.
Resolve the encounter.
Attempting a Check
Determine which skill you’re using.
Determine the difficulty.
Play cards and use powers that affect the check (optional).
Assemble your dice.
Attempt the roll.
Take damage if you fail a check to defeat a monster.
So, "Attempt the check" is a step. Taking damage for failing a check to defeat a monster is part of that step. And you can only play 1 armor per step.
I hope that helps.