Now that Paizo subscribers have started to receive Fortress of the Stone Giants, I'd like to share the below account of our attempt at scenario 2: Jorgenfist. While there is probably nothing amazing given away in this recounting, it might contain details you don't want to know before you play it, so fair warning: SPOILER ALERT.
I play this group with my wife. She's Merisiel and Amiri, I'm Ezren and Sajan. It was maybe the most exciting scenario we've ever done.
Sajan was already in a foul mode, having watched the Amulet of Fiery Fists be banished before his eyes during Attack on Sandpoint.
Looking at the locations, it looked to be pretty challenging. I felt that Amiri was suited for 4 of the locations (and she loves the Mountain Peak), Mersiel (who has the Crown of Charisma) could take the Prison or Courtyard, Sajan would be ok in the courtyard, and Ezren was going to have to just do the best he could somewhere.
But things started out amazingly. Sajan managed to close the courtyard on his first turn. Ezren encountered the villain early at the Guard Tower, evaded him with Enfeeble and left him on the top of the location deck. With 1 location closed and full knowledge of where the villain was, we decided to do some looting. We decided not to attempt to close the Prison so Merisiel could get some boons.
But then Ezren and Sajan both ended up at the Treacherous Cave, assuming Amiri could just come over and take care of closing it. Ezren encountered the henchman, had cycled Enfeeble at this point and evaded him and left him for Amiri. Amiri came over, defeated the henchman, than failed the Survial check. We cleared the next few cards and for her next 3 turns Amiri failed the Survival check (with Sajan and Ezren doing the same).
Sajan finally abandoned them when he got his Amulet of Fortitude. On the fourth time round, Ezren finally got a 7 on his Wisdom check and closed the long empty location. Sajan had cleared most of the Mountain Peak and Amiri came over and finished it off. With Merisiel having long closed the Prison, we decided to set up for the final showdown. Amiri went to to the Giant Lair and managed to encounter a henchman. She got it closed down, while Ezren and Sajan burned turns setting up.
Then we struck at the villain. It was full out. Merisiel was alone, she discarded her Venomous Dagger, discarded a Theives' Tools, revealed her Sage's Journal, revealed her Snakeskin Tunic. Ezren used the Wand of Wand of Enervation, Sajan tossed in a Blessing of Erastil and Jakardros Sovark, Amiri throws in another blessing. All that and with the Giant Lair closed the difficult was decreased by 2. Total overkill on the roll. Then, for the first time in the scenario, something that hadn't happened on the 6 or 7 monsters with the Giant trait happened. Merisiel rolled a 1 on the d6. The villain is shuffled back into the location deck. We nearly woke up our kids when we screamed.
We've got 4 turns left and 8 cards in the location deck. Merisiel is now weaponless. Sajan and Ezren each take two explorations on their turns. No villain. 4 cards left in the location deck. Amiri is low on cards, but with Merisiel having no weapon in hand, we want Amiri to encounter the villain if she can. Fortunately, she's got 2 allies. She takes 3 explorations and finds the villain. She buries, Ezren's got nothing to help. Sajan gives a blessing and Merisiel gives a blessing. Thankfully she succeeds. But she has only 2 cards in hand and 1 card in her deck. If the d6 strikes again, she is dead and Merisiel isn't equipped to defeat the villain on what would be the game's final turn. With trembling we roll the d6.....5!
It was awesome.
Those d6 effects can be nasty when you're close to time... Sounds like a lot of fun though!
How are the villains in part 4? Mine is still in the mail. :)
The villains are a bit harder, but what has made the game harder more than the villains are more "Before the encounter" and "After the encounter" effects. The Harpy was shown in an early preview of the game. There is a henchman version as well. Everyone basically kept ending up back at the same location. Maybe those with better wisdom would be able to deal with it, but it was a pain for me. Especially since that one had the temple in it I think.
And the locations seem chosen to work with those kinds of effects and also to simply be tough combos. The courtyard location has you potentially taking damage before every combat check. That was in scenario with Treacherous Caves and Mountain Peak for 4 characters.
So the difficulty looks like it is more about other things than just higher combat checks on the villains. Its the things locations and "before" and "after" effects can do to you.
Each character can play one card of each type during any step of "Encountering A Card" which include attempting the check. So Sajan and Amiri can both play a blessing. Everyone can play 1 blessing.
Each player may play no more than 1 card of each type during each step; for example, no one player may play more than 1 blessing while attempting a check, though multiple players could each play 1 blessing during that check. Each player may activate any power no more than once during each step. Players may not play any cards or activate any powers between these steps.
Attempting a check requires several actions that are explained below. Remember that each player may not play more than 1 card of each type or activate any 1 power more than once during each check.
Each player may play only one of each type of
boon on a single check.
While encountering a card, each player may play no more than 1 card of each type during each step.
That is something that seems to trip lots of people up, so you aren't alone.
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I failed this scenario the first time I played it, because of awful luck and rolls. I found the villain on the last turn. Only rolled one over the check, and then 1'd the D6. Still though, the Monk villain, I think in S4, was by far the most annoying one. Bury your discard pile if you fail to defeat him? Screw. That.
I failed this scenario the first time I played it, because of awful luck and rolls. I found the villain on the last turn. Only rolled one over the check, and then 1'd the D6. Still though, the Monk villain, I think in S4, was by far the most annoying one. Bury your discard pile if you fail to defeat him? Screw. That.
Well, then don't fail the combat check :P
He's only got 1 check to defeat, so I actually found him to be pretty manageable.
Yea usually he would be... but I did my numbers wrong and thought he was in a different deck and that this one was completely boons. So, I was OK exploring with no cards lol.
Ouch. But the fact that those kind of things happen are also what makes this game great. It stinks when it happens, but it also gives it a challenge.
I swear the scenario with the harpy henchmen was brutal for the four I mentioned above. None of them have great Wisdom. So we'd burn a blessing so that the encountering character could at least play a weapon or spell. Sajan didn't have an issue, since he was usually just playing blessings. But I loved it.
You know who will be valued with those Harpies? Valeros and Lem. If it isn't their turn, you want them to fail the wisdom check so that they can come to your location and use their powers. I have Valeros in a 3 character solo group, he should be getting to that scenario this week hopefully. I'm looking forward to him failing a few rolls. Of course Merisiel and Harsk will hate it.
I love how those kind of things work so differently for different characters.
Ouch. But the fact that those kind of things happen are also what makes this game great. It stinks when it happens, but it also gives it a challenge.
I swear the scenario with the harpy henchmen was brutal for the four I mentioned above. None of them have great Wisdom. So we'd burn a blessing so that the encountering character could at least play a weapon or spell. Sajan didn't have an issue, since he was usually just playing blessings. But I loved it.
You know who will be valued with those Harpies? Valeros and Lem. If it isn't their turn, you want them to fail the wisdom check so that they can come to your location and use their powers. I have Valeros in a 3 character solo group, he should be getting to that scenario this week hopefully. I'm looking forward to him failing a few rolls. Of course Merisiel and Harsk will hate it.
I love how those kind of things work so differently for different characters.
Having Lem is ridiculously useful in that scenario. Normally requiring a wisdom 8 check is horrible for characters like Valeros, but when Lem comes along and you're rolling an extra d4+3, suddenly it's not so awful.
Ah yes. And since you decide the order of things, this works:
Valeros encounters a Harpy while Lem is at another location.
Lem attempts the wisdom check first, fails, and moves to Valeros' location.
Valeros attempts the wisdom check. Lem is now at his location and can recharge a card to add to Valeros' wisdom check.
What a helpful little bard that Lem guy is.
I'm about to run that scenario with my solo Merisiel game - I'm absolutely more worried about making that Wisdom 6 roll than any of the combat checks or anything else really.
Although I would also comment that the con/fort 12 roll for the difficulty increase on the villain seems really high. I guess Harsk could have a shot at it but really any other character seems unlikely to have any chance unless multiple blessings are spent. And to me if the secondary rolls are that high then it discourages me from even bothering to put points in side stats like Constitution. If I've got a d6+1 (or even +2), even with a blessing, a 12 is really unlikely.
Valeros and Sajan have decent fortitude, and Amiri can bury to add to her constitution. Plus you could get lucky and pick up a potion of fortitude or amulet of fortitude. But it still isn't easy.
And don't forget, Merisiel can still use her power if she fails the wisdom check. That might be a good case to go with the discard version instead of just the recharge.
This was a great scenario.
Wow that was a close one.
I had 2 turns left and had chased the Villain to the final location - there were also two cards left in the location deck, the Villain and one of the Harpy henchmen.
Turn 1 I drew the Harpy - considered evading for the 50/50 chance of pulling the Villain on the last turn but decided to try to fight it so that if I succeeded I could definitely encounter the Villain. Used the last blessing in my hand to try to make the Wisdom check, still failed. Also failed the combat, but I had picked up a Magic Leather that I was able to bury to negate the damage.
Shuffled him back in, discarded all my excess cards that weren't applicable to combat in the hopes of getting more blessings for the last turn.
I think my final hand was - Deathbane, Venomous Dagger, Snakeskin, Belt of Dex, some random item and a blessing.
Great hand for the undead boss - not so great for the Harpy.
Drew the Harpy again...
Since I couldn't possibly make the Wisdom roll without using the blessing and I needed the blessing to encounter the Villain, I figured it was over.
In retrospect I should have tried the combat roll with no weapons using her d8+2d6+3 on the Harpy (I think I'd just gotten the idea in my head that it wasn't really doable because I'd already failed 2 rolls like that). I think you need a 16 there since Harpies get a bonus so not amazing odds but it could have happened. Oh well.
Yes, that rule reminds me of the early Villain who resets his fight on a 1-2 on a d6. I really don't enjoy those kinds of rolls.
AP4 has been a wakeup call. First card turned over was a Shining Child. 20 difficulty and it's not even a henchman? Damn! And neither of us started the scenario with any weapons in hand. "No big," says Merisiel, "I'll just evade. And I have to cycle my hand, so I'll spend a blessing to go again." And turn over a Troll! Not easy, and we need the fire trait to kill it. What the hell, man!
The next turn has little to do with a jump in difficulty and more just plain bad luck, but Kyra encountering the villain on her first turn, with no weapons in hand, meant we shaved 5 blessings off of the already-low 25 blessing deck. Ultimately we lost the scenario (but, as always, with play 2 characters, 6 locations, so we're making it harder on ourselves).
The difficulty spike has taken some getting used to, but is cool. Also really enjoyed the "all giants are 2 easier to defeat once you close this location" card. I'd like to see more of that sort of synergy in the game. The packs also seem to be getting more thematic as we go along. AP1 was so enemy diverse that goblin-buffing cards didn't really pull their weight, often you would be grabbing skeletons or werewolves anyway. Maybe it's just luck of the draw, but with seemingly the whole of AP4 being about giants those synergies get a lot more play. I would've even considered picking up that Giantsbane Dagger, had it not flooded out with the trash in a prematurely closed location.