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I asked him what we could do to change this issue. His answer was to have me stop playing the healer. This is kinda bad. I want to play kyra, but I want him to keep playing because hes going to quit if it doesn't challenge him, I offered him a new char like seoni or harsk. But he refuses to play any of them.
I certainly don't see playing Kyra as a way of making the game easier; if anything, I think it's the other way around! Kyra is one of the worst characters in the game in my opinion (I know several of you disagree with me). Her healing power is expensive, costing both an explore AND making you discard a card. Her anti-undead ability is situational and is less likely than not to help you with a fight. She only gets three spells with which to make use of her awesome divine stat, and even then she's the hearler, so people want her to heal; since cure is strictly better than her ability, it's at least tempting to put cures in those limited slots. Her weapon stat is a mere d6+2 which is very poor indeed, and even if you want to build her for that, she only gets two (maybe three, it's been awhile) weapons and they're not her favorite card type.
Oh, and she has armors. Always a minus, in my book.
Even if you can argue enough of that to say that she's not in the dregs of the barrel, she's certainly not at the top and playing without her will not make your game easier.
Playing with no characters at all using any cures might, but that's another matter.
Kyra is a lot better in fewer man groups.
Ultimately each player plays less in a large (4 player +) group. Playing less means you need to heal less.
In 2 and 3 player games she tends to break the game. I can go through the whole game without worry of dying. I can also use her ability often and STILL have enough space to explore most locations fully.
My Ezren/Kyra duo is broken. They never have a challenge.
I see this situation all the time without Kyra. It's not too difficult to design a party that never has a challenge. I just think that, while you can be that powerful with Kyra, you can be more powerful yet without her.
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We solved the issue by having our merishel player (person who claims the game is too easy) to switch to amiri. He pretty much poured all upgrades into dexterity and his alone at a location ability. Then got a deathbane crossbow. He will be playing amiri. Half of me was thinking of houseruling all crossbows and bows to require ranged. I chose not to.
Our new party is:
Amiri
Sajan
Lini
Half of the issue comes from the fact he shuffles his hand back into his deck if he doesn't get weapons, another one is that if he gets a bad roll, he will say it didn't count because it hit the box or a deck. However, I always will let this slide because hes the ONLY person who likes to play. Our druid player just started. Due to the sheer unfairness of having basics at AP3 we chose when resetting ourselves to take up to tier three. So I built there decks around the best cards I could give them. This must be another half of the issue.
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another one is that if he gets a bad roll, he will say it didn't count because it hit the box or a deck. However, I always will let this slide because hes the ONLY person who likes to play. Our druid player just started. Due to the sheer unfairness of having basics at AP3 we chose when resetting ourselves to take up to tier three. So I built there decks around the best cards I could give them. This must be another half of the issue.
Well, for the first bit. You said your friend doesn't want to play if the game isn't challenging and will quit, but then say your friend is the only one that likes to play and prefers cheating to do it. Isn't that kind of working against itself? Maybe stop 'letting it slide' so your friend can actually be challenged?
Secondly, when you begin AP 3, new characters can choose any card from the base game, the character add-on deck, and AP 1; they're not limited to just Basic-trait cards.
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I have to agree with the others here, it sounds like he is cheating to make it easy, and you're allowing him to do so. Short of a tilt to falling off the table, a roll is a roll. Hitting something isn't going to make a difference. Maybe if it didn't hit the box it would keep rolling, and roll high. But that didn't happen, it did hit the box, and he rolled low. Sucks for him, that's how dice work.
If he ever complains about it being too easy, say three simple words too him -- "ThemN stop cheating."
Every time I roll, the dice hit the table. Should I reroll? ;-)
But in seriousness, I'll back up the others. Play the game following the rules. If you find it too hard or too difficult at that point, then considering adding some house rules to adjust the game to keep it fun. But to tell us you're using house rules/cheating to make the game easier, then complaining that it's too easy, theres nothing we can really say or do to help.
I think this topic is a little funny, now. It started out a legitimate complaint with a lot of good suggestions, but boiled down to an issue of making the game easier.
However, to stay on the topic of the post, i do think that the game is quite easy in the beginning of the game. I think that it should be this way, because it eases you into the game and teaches you how to play without punishing you for it. I do think that the game gets tougher as you get into higher adventures, though. My group has never really had an issue with anything in the base adventure, or Burnt Offerings, but because of low rolls and poor planning, we have had troubles with almost running out of cards in the blessings deck and almost having a character die in further adventures.
I, personally like the difficulty ramp of the game right now, but I have yet to play with a group of 6 very far, so I do not fully understand how that will work out. In groups of 2, 3, and 5 the difficulty feels appropriate.
I am a little surprised to hear people struggling with the first few scenarios. What exactly is giving you troubles? Are you running out of turns (blessings) or are you actually having characters be killed?
Also, as Mystic said, it could be a rules issue, where you are playing something incorrectly, and that is causing the games to be harder. I think that most of the issues that I have seen with people thinking that the game was too hard or too easy have come from little rules misreadings. I know that my group has misread and misplayed a few cards.
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It's nearly impossible to go through a scenario and do absolutely everything absolutely perfectly. I almost always realize something I forgot - usually not on more than one turn...something like forgetting to roll a Wisdom check at the Mountain Peak, or rolling 1d4 to add to a Goblin's difficulty during that AD1 scenario that requires it, or forgetting that I have a card in-hand that would be perfect to add to a roll.
It's nearly impossible to go through a scenario and do absolutely everything absolutely perfectly. I almost always realize something I forgot - usually not on more than one turn...something like forgetting to roll a Wisdom check at the Mountain Peak, or rolling 1d4 to add to a Goblin's difficulty during that AD1 scenario that requires it, or forgetting that I have a card in-hand that would be perfect to add to a roll.
I would agree. I think that you almost realize more, the first time you play a scenario, because you are paying a lot of attention to the details. I find that the second and third times that I run a scenario or location, I miss things, because I think I know what the card does, and don't take the time to be careful. With my 5 person group, I am paying a lot more attention, because I have a lot of newer players and try to make sure they don't make mistakes, and it has helped me to catch myself.
If you give the scenario rule and your current location's rule a glance at the beginning of EVERY turn, that solves most problems with forgetting things. Get in the habit. :)
I try to be in that habit, but sometimes, I just get excited for my turn and all of the stuff that I am going to do that I forget. Most of the time, I am on the ball, though.
I certainly don't see playing Kyra as a way of making the game easier; if anything, I think it's the other way around! Kyra is one of the worst characters in the game in my opinion (I know several of you disagree with me). Her healing power is expensive, costing both an explore AND making you discard a card. Her anti-undead ability is situational and is less likely than not to help you with a fight. She only gets three spells with which to make use of her awesome divine stat, and even then she's the hearler, so people want her to heal; since cure is strictly better than her ability, it's at least tempting to put cures in those limited slots. Her weapon stat is a mere d6+2 which is very poor indeed, and even if you want to build her for that, she only gets two (maybe three, it's been awhile) weapons and they're not her favorite card type.
Oh, and she has armors. Always a minus, in my book.
Even if you can argue enough of that to say that she's not in the dregs of the barrel, she's certainly not at the top and playing without her will not make your game easier.
Playing with no characters at all using any cures might, but that's another matter.
Honest, but true evaluation. My buddy complains about her power at times.
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I've never thought the game was too easy. But on the other hand, if you lost characters often, and failed every other scenario, the game would lose much of it's fun and probably wouldn't have as many non-gamers actually playing it! I alone have converted 4 non-gamers into really enjoying this game!
Anyway, here's my thoughts on difficulty. I have three groups ranging from 3 players to 6, and anywhere from the Perils base adventure to AP2 so far. I think the game is harder with more people. It might be because you get less turns, or you have the same number of cards to help assist 5 other players rather than just yourself and one or two others. Most likely, it's both.
Local Heroes was a snap for my group of 3. Yet the group of 6 failed because they ran out of time (including the use of a Holy Candle!) The second attempt, we made it with one turn to spare, and we purposely focused on closing locations quickly instead of maximizing loot.
Dying doesn't happen that often. The two times it did were primarily due to misunderstandings of the rule. My brother-in-law burned through his deck recklessly under the assumption that a Cure spell could bring him back. The other instance, my friend burned the last of his cards in a hail mary attempt to defeat the villain, and failed, hence having to reset his hand and dying.
I would have to say that most of the posts about the game being too easy seem to boil down to rules not being followed due to misunderstanding or house rules. Yes, we all miss a rule now and then. It's a complex game and even after becoming fairly proficient with the rules, I still failed to remember to roll a d6 each time someone picked up a Haunt. We don't play at a table in a quiet room like we're taking our SATs, we're socializing and having fun and discussing strategy and rules and trying to teach the newcomers how to play (and which die is the d8. No... that's a d10!)
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The first time, it was just plain not knowing what we were doing, as we hadn't read the rules and were just trying to muddle through it. The second time, we pulled the villain/henchmen out of the box but forgot to shuffle them into the locations until we realized out mistake. Then we ran out of blessings trying to find them. The third time we played, we were almost there. I used an Augury to look for monsters and found the villain. Not realizing the villain had the "Monster" trait, I thought I had to shuffle him back in. Blessings ran out before we found him again. Then, after the game, we realized we weren't using the scenario rule that lets you draw after a villain/henchman makes you recharge a card.
Clearly all cases of not using the rules correctly in ways that made the game harder instead of easier. There were a couple other issues like thinking we could use thieves' tools for other characters' barriers, and thinking we could use Wisdom when the check called only for Perception, but those weren't able to make up for shooting ourselves in the foot.
The first time, it was just plain not knowing what we were doing, as we hadn't read the rules and were just trying to muddle through it. The second time, we pulled the villain/henchmen out of the box but forgot to shuffle them into the locations until we realized out mistake. Then we ran out of blessings trying to find them. The third time we played, we were almost there. I used an Augury to look for monsters and found the villain. Not realizing the villain had the "Monster" trait, I thought I had to shuffle him back in. Blessings ran out before we found him again. Then, after the game, we realized we weren't using the scenario rule that lets you draw after a villain/henchman makes you recharge a card.
Clearly all cases of not using the rules correctly in ways that made the game harder instead of easier. There were a couple other issues like thinking we could use thieves' tools for other characters' barriers, and thinking we could use Wisdom when the check called only for Perception, but those weren't able to make up for shooting ourselves in the foot.
Interesting. So, were you using your blessings to help out your rolls, instead of exploring in these cases? Also, how many people are you playing with? If you have a really large group, like 6 people, then you should be exploring as many times as possible, because you can run out of turns. However, if you are in a smaller group, then using a blessing or two to help out with rolls is just fine.
Maybe I am bring a lot of personal experience into this, but I have not had a problem with the blessings deck, unless we have failed to defeat the villain on one or more attempts. Another big thing, is that my group can be reckless, so they will continue exploring, even if it is risky, or they will discard what they deem to be useless cards when they reset their hands. So, we usually have multiple turns, 8-15, when we complete a scenario. We also do not card to explore the entire location in most cases, because loot will come from beating games, or from early explores.
Are you trying to close down the location whenever you have the ability to do so?
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Interesting. So, were you using your blessings to help out your rolls, instead of exploring in these cases? Also, how many people are you playing with? If you have a really large group, like 6 people, then you should be exploring as many times as possible, because you can run out of turns. However, if you are in a smaller group, then using a blessing or two to help out with rolls is just fine.
Yep, we've been playing with 6 and we've been wasting blessings on rolls. Not even important rolls, mind you, but rolls to pick up basic boons. As I said, we're all new to the game. Hopefully we can focus more on the important things when we play this week. We had never really done the math to realize we only got 5 turns each, so we've been playing conservatively and not "pushing our luck" exploring. Now that we realize how quickly the blessing timer runs out, we will put a priority on exploring.
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Interesting. So, were you using your blessings to help out your rolls, instead of exploring in these cases? Also, how many people are you playing with? If you have a really large group, like 6 people, then you should be exploring as many times as possible, because you can run out of turns. However, if you are in a smaller group, then using a blessing or two to help out with rolls is just fine.Yep, we've been playing with 6 and we've been wasting blessings on rolls. Not even important rolls, mind you, but rolls to pick up basic boons. As I said, we're all new to the game. Hopefully we can focus more on the important things when we play this week. We had never really done the math to realize we only got 5 turns each, so we've been playing conservatively and not "pushing our luck" exploring. Now that we realize how quickly the blessing timer runs out, we will put a priority on exploring.
This makes a lot more sense, now. Yeah, in a larger group there are times that you just need to forget about the possible boons that you can pick up with health and just focus on the ones that you are confident that you can get. Basic gear can last you for 6-7 scenarios if you play to your character's strengths. With 5 turns, you just need to start digging through the decks to close them out as quickly as possible. If you get lucky and close down a few locations quickly, then you can use those extra turns to find better gear. Also, with larger groups, scouting becomes much more valuable, so spyglasses, Shalelu, Ilsoari, Eagle and Harsk are very good. Also, the ability to evade encounters is helpful, because it allows you to keep exploring when you might not be able to defeat a monster. Some things to keep in mind.