In the spirit of sharing and strategizing, I’d like to create a series of threads, one for each character. The idea would be to explain how you play that particular character and why. What cards do you feel you NEED to stock in your deck or try extra hard to acquire because they are central to your strategy of how you will play this character? What skill, power and card feats did you choose and why? If they are helpful enough, maybe Paizo will even sticky them. But that is up to them.
To be clear, this isn't about the belief that there is only one way to play a character. Because there is only one way to play a character: the way that makes it fun for YOU to play. This is more about sharing ideas that maybe someone else hasn't thought about before.
I decided to try this because there are more than a few forums asking for advice about a certain character. And I've personally (and other have as well I think) discovered I wasn't actually following the rules when I see things others have posted.
And I also thought about the fact that I've not felt interested in playing Seelah. But then I thought, maybe that is just because I don’t realize how to play her. So maybe there are others out there too that might discover through this that a character as experienced is not the same as the character as theory and realize they might like to try a new character they would have assumed they’d hate playing.
And it can also provide feedback to the design team. They’ll see the things we are doing with their characters. Maybe they’ll be benevolent and add more things to help the way we play. Or maybe they’ll be malevolent and add things to hinder the way we play. But either way they’ll have feedback.
When posting, please be so kind as to follow these guidelines:
- Specify the size of the group you play the character (or this version of the character) in and what other characters are in your group. That can effect your decision making for your character. You might want Seoni to carry Speed if she's with Sajan and Mersiel, but she might be better off with Glibness if its just her and Lem.
- Limit your posts to things that are central to your strategy. For example, Holy Candle is a great card and probably every group wants to have someone have it. But unless there is a reason your character has to have it for your strategy, please don’t mention it. In other words, “My version of Merisiel has Holy Candle because I cycle my cards pretty well,” might help thinking about whose deck to put Holy Candle in, but it isn't helpful about your strategy for playing Merisiel. But saying, “I give Sajan items like Holy Candle because he can get their full value of use and then bury them, which helps him cycle his blessings around faster,” is a part of your strategy for Sajan and something others might want to consider trying.
- For now, let’s limit it to discussing just what is on the standard class of each character and save the role cards for when Deck 4 gets released. But if you choose a card or a feat because you are working towards a certain role card, feel free to state that. If this is popular, we can make threads for the role cards later.
If this is not something anyone else would like, then I apologize for wasting your time reading the preceding paragraphs. You can hold out hope that it will be so unpopular that it will soon fall way down the list of threads, never to be seen again.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. In the next few minutes I’ll start a thread for each character with a similar name to this one. If you want to share please do so in a spirit of cooperation and kindness.
I've found playing Seoni tough, though I've really like it. While her auto-recharge on spells is great, the small number of them means they'll quickly be on the bottom of her deck with 9 cards between her hand and them. That means she'll be using her power to fight and that means she'll be getting squishier and squishier, which makes me nervous. So I definitely put her first card feat as spell.
I took Charisma for first skill, intelligence for her second and the item check for her power feat. I'm stocking Wand of Force Missile as an item right now since it makes me feel more comfortable to have 1 more attack.
I'm using 2 of her 4 spells on attack spells currently. I wish I could have more non-attack, but it just makes me too nervous.
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Seoni's one of my favourites. She leads out my party of 6 characters so gets the guaranteed extra turn from the holy candle.
Here's how I play her:
1) Card feats were Spell, Spell, Blessing. Next one will be another blessing. Have discovered that too many spells dilutes her ability to exlpore quickly so maybe should have gone Spell, Blessing, Spell instead.
2) Powers were +1 blast and recharge arcane item. +2 blast would have been equally valid. I was too scared to give her 7 cards before, but probably will next time I get a power feat.
3) Skill feats: CHA, CON, INT in that order.
4) Spells: Attack spell, Glibness, Augury, Strength/Speed, Second Attack spell (in that order). Don't forget to cast Glibness before your first explore!
5) Items: Holy Candle, Masterwork, Sihedron
6) Allies: Father Zantus, Shalelu (the archer, have I spelled that right), two others that give her extra explores.
Seoni is going to cycle her deck. Really fast. And need some healing, probably more than once. Lem often hands off the staff of minor healing to her for this purpose.
Seoni can blow up almost anything - she's a better fighter than Val in many ways, even when using her power instead of a spell card. BoPharasma is very handy too - BoP played by any character + Seoni discards any card = 3d12 + 1d6 + 4 = KA-BOOM!
The Sihedron is your get out of jail free card, but I haven't used it since I took it. Nice to have it there, though!
Seoni can explore really fast (often 3-5 times per turn if you don't find too many monsters that burn up cards), so you want her to be able to acquire whatever she finds. When she finds blessings or allies they give her even more explores... A good hand with Augury gives her a fighting chance of closing almost any location in one turn.
If you can pick up spells early in the scenario do so - gives her a lot more hit points and lots of options, even if you don't plan on keeping any of them.
Don't forget that other characters can give her stuff, but it's tricky to do so since she's often standing in a closed location (since she explores so fast)!
Note: I play Seoni in a 6 character group. Strategies for smaller/solo play will require completely different builds.
I hadn't considered casting glibness before exploration so that I can use a different spell for the check on what I encounter. Excellent strategy. I play her with Kyra for the healing. In fact she was the sole reason I added Kyra to my group of 6.
3-5 explores wouldn't mean losing 2-4 cards/turn ?
Yes, but you plan to heal them back in with Lem. In a 6-character game speed is really important.
I think 1 or 2 Haste would help here a LOT. I don't see why she needs Glibness in her deck. Isn't her Charisma is good enough already ?
Just found haste yesterday. But given it to Lem instead since I like Seoni's current balance. Glibness is handy for Seoni since it buffs her for the whole turn and can also help other characters (e.g. if Harsk needs to pass a Diplomacy test). Maybe it will be swapped out in future, perhaps for haste, but you know what they say... more haste, less speed!
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Seoni's one of my favourites. She leads out my party of 6 characters so gets the guaranteed extra turn from the holy candle.
Here's how I play her:
1) Card feats were Spell, Spell, Blessing. Next one will be another blessing. Have discovered that too many spells dilutes her ability to exlpore quickly so maybe should have gone Spell, Blessing, Spell instead.
2) Powers were +1 blast and recharge arcane item. +2 blast would have been equally valid. I was too scared to give her 7 cards before, but probably will next time I get a power feat.
3) Skill feats: CHA, CON, INT in that order.
4) Spells: Attack spell, Glibness, Augury, Strength/Speed, Second Attack spell (in that order). Don't forget to cast Glibness before your first explore!
5) Items: Holy Candle, Masterwork, Sihedron
6) Allies: Father Zantus, Shalelu (the archer, have I spelled that right), two others that give her extra explores.
Seoni is going to cycle her deck. Really fast. And need some healing, probably more than once. Lem often hands off the staff of minor healing to her for this purpose.
Seoni can blow up almost anything - she's a better fighter than Val in many ways, even when using her power instead of a spell card. BoPharasma is very handy too - BoP played by any character + Seoni discards any card = 3d12 + 1d6 + 4 = KA-BOOM!
The Sihedron is your get out of jail free card, but I haven't used it since I took it. Nice to have it there, though!
Seoni can explore really fast (often 3-5 times per turn if you don't find too many monsters that burn up cards), so you want her to be able to acquire whatever she finds. When she finds blessings or allies they give her even more explores... A good hand with Augury gives her a fighting chance of closing almost any location in one turn.
If you can pick up spells early in the scenario do so - gives her a lot more hit points and lots of options, even if you don't plan on keeping any of them.
Don't forget that other characters can give her stuff, but it's tricky to do so...
My ex-roommate mains Seoni in our campaign (4-5 characters usually). It's true, she has lots of burst damage but she has to hurt herself a lot when doing so, as opposed to the fighters (Valeros/Amiri/Seelah) who have less peak damage but sustain it better. She is often our go-to when we want the villain defeated. This is a lot less good in 2-3 player campaigns, as we found out when I helped him get back up to our level (he's out of town now and doesn't get to play often). She's still good, but often has to hold back to prevent herself from dying too easily.
Staff of Minor healing went to Seoni of course (the coordination required to get Lem's staff to Seoni is too much except for soloers I find). However my ex-roommate plays Seoni as a pure battlemage and she has all attack spells. Swipe might be a good utility spell for her (see the preview) if she doesn't want to give up spell slots.
+1 blast and recharge are great feats for her. I think the other two options are good (+2 blast, +1 hand size).
She's getting CHA, CHA, and probably CHA. I questioned the validity of all 3 points going to CHA, but it's not my character. :)
Okay, well, Seoni just some new toys in Hook Mountain Massacre. For the first power feat you get in part 3, I would really recommend taking the auto-recharge for arcane items. Why? Wands!
Wand of Scorching Ray actually isn't that bad. It actually bypasses magic immune enemies (it has the attack trait, but it doesn't count as playing a spell). There's also the amazing Wand of Ennervation. Free recharge to lower a monster's difficulty by 1d4+4! Damn! And it's loot, so you don't have to worry about never picking it up, unlike the elusive lightning bolt :(
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Oh, I suppose I should probably go over what her current setup looks like. I play in a 2 or 3 player group (with one character per player). Currently beat all of part 2 and the first scenario of part 3.
Card feats: Both went to spells. Considering an ally or blessing for the next one.
Skill feats: 2 in charisma, 1 in dexterity (next going to dex or int)
Power feats: Blast power x2 (next one probably being recharge for items)
Weapons: N/A
Spells: Scorching Ray x2, Frost Ray, Detect Magic, Haste
Armor: Nope
Items: Staff of Minor Healing, Wand of Scorching Ray, Masterwork Tools
Allies: Shalelu, Poog, Sage, Troubadour
Blessings: Calistria, Pharasma x2, Abadar, Lamashtu
Basically, her job is just blow up everything. Since my friend usually plays Kyra, I boosted up her dexterity a little, and put in a blessing of Calistria and Abadar to help deal with traps. I also recently got the Masterwork Tools, which have been a huge help.
Wand of Ennervation was awesome. It wasn't a spell, could be used from other locations and combines with cards that specify a maximum challenge.
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Seoni is the big stick in my group. There are three of us that have survived through the first two adventure decks, and we have just started the third. I play Kyra, and the other two play Seoni and Lini. Seoni has snatched up the majority of the Blessings of Pharasma, and as many big damage spells as we've been able to scrounge up for her. Seoni has Father Zanthus and Poog to act as healing, while her other allies primarily act as extra explores and Ilosari Gandethus to help check out what lies ahead. She primarily only explores 1-2 times per turn, only burning blessings if the situation gets dire. She is the bg damage dealer of our party, dealing with villains and any other similar roadblock we might encounter. She is our own poorly dressed orbital strike, and has encountered and utterly destroyed the Sandpoint Devil, dealing it over 80 damage over the two combat checks. Most of her skill feats have gone into CHA, and her card feats either both went into spells, or one into spells and the other into allies.
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I use Seoni and Valeros, For seoni I go through a lot of cards to explore but I have Father Zanthus and Poog of Zarengel for healing and helping others (Poog), she carries 4 spells right now all attack spells, also got a wand of force missile and thieves tools. A mixture of blessings to get her through different situations.
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I'm starting to wonder if there's a correlation between people who think the game is too easy and Seoni. After 2 skill feats and 2 power feats she rolls a d12+d6+6 for combat anytime she wants just for discarding a card by using her innate power. If you have a Harsk who's spent 2 feats in his helper ability, that's d12+d6+d4+8! for what I consider to be a fairly low cost and not dependent on having certain cards out. Now admittedly there isn't much else she can do except kill stuff and make charisma rolls but still... Wow.
I'm starting to wonder if there's a correlation between people who think the game is too easy and Seoni. After 2 skill feats and 2 power feats she rolls a d12+d6+6 for combat anytime she wants just for discarding a card by using her innate power. If you have a Harsk who's spent 2 feats in his helper ability, that's d12+d6+d4+8! for what I consider to be a fairly low cost and not dependent on having certain cards out. Now admittedly there isn't much else she can do except kill stuff and make charisma rolls but still... Wow.
Well, she's got enough items, blessings, and allies to help out the rest of the group as well. My Seoni has an emphasis on scouting, with a magic spyglass, Shalelu, and Scrying. She can also give a nice boost to other players' checks with Incendiary Cloud, Wand of Ennervation, and Poog. And with her current power, whenever she plays a blessing of Pharasma, she gives someone a d12 instead of their normal die. So I feel like she can be useful at more things than blowing up her encounters :)
Can't wait to see what the Wand of Treasure Finding does.
I'm starting to wonder if there's a correlation between people who think the game is too easy and Seoni. After 2 skill feats and 2 power feats she rolls a d12+d6+6 for combat anytime she wants just for discarding a card by using her innate power. If you have a Harsk who's spent 2 feats in his helper ability, that's d12+d6+d4+8! for what I consider to be a fairly low cost and not dependent on having certain cards out. Now admittedly there isn't much else she can do except kill stuff and make charisma rolls but still... Wow.Well, she's got enough items, blessings, and allies to help out the rest of the group as well. My Seoni has an emphasis on scouting, with a magic spyglass, Shalelu, and Scrying. She can also give a nice boost to other players' checks with Incendiary Cloud, Wand of Ennervation, and Poog. And with her current power, whenever she plays a blessing of Pharasma, she gives someone a d12 instead of their normal die. So I feel like she can be useful at more things than blowing up her encounters :)
Can't wait to see what the Wand of Treasure Finding does.
You guys are blowing my mind. You find ways to run the characters a lot differently that I would try to take them.
Does my idea sound right?
Yes. That would work. You don't get to automatically recharge the card you discard for her attack spell power, even if it is a spell card that you discard. But her power means she always has a good combat check as long as she has any card.
And if you put some skill feats into charisma and some power feats into that power she can quickly get really high rolls with that power.
Lets say you max out both Charisma and that power. Then her power is effectively 1d12 + 1d6 + 10. That is pretty good.
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Just finished with Stone Giants and my Seoni never once fought a monster with anything but her power throughout the entire adventure. She has 2 Staffs of Minor Healing and Father Zantos at this point, so the discard isn't much of a cost anymore.
My team also has both Harsk and Lem, so she's pretty much always rolling at least 1d12+d6+d4+11 (including one of those bonuses). That's plenty to kill most regular monsters. Versus one of the new ~20 difficulty monsters or a Villain/henchman, throw in a blessing or two and she's still fine.
Also she has the Wand of Enervation (I rolled a 4 and made one of the Villains a trivial roll with it), a Charmed Red Dragon, a +1 Charisma item and more bonuses that I'm probably forgetting. Overall, she's ridiculous. She even killed the final Villain that makes you take -1 off each die when you have the fire trait, without breaking a sweat.
Brainwave, that has as much to do with Harsk as Seoni. He turns anyone in your team into a combat monster.
He's certainly got a good ability but I wouldn't go that far - my Harsk only gives 1d4+2 to the roll that I described... most of it is Seoni.