The wife and I are playing a 4 character team of Ezren, Lini (wifes), Sajan, and Kyra (last two mine). I thought I would share a little bit about our experience with the final scenario of Adventure 4, which as you can tell by the title... we failed.
The first scenario with some lucky early closings, we managed to finish in just 11 turns. With a 4 blessing Holy Candle, it made it seem only 7 turns had passed. That was a fast game, time and card wise. But we barely gained any loot. Sajan did tame a Dragon though!
2nd scenario was slightly more difficult, but I don't recall any major failures, beat up on the henchmen and I think had closed down to 2 remaining locations when we found the villain. I do believe I got the Giant club +3 in that one for Kyra which was pretty nice.
3rd scenario which supposedly hands out spells like CANDY... (not really) Ezren actually ran into the Monk villain early, failed to beat and handwiped, and had a small discard pile buried as a result. He regrouped with the others and even found a MASS HEAL which the others blessed him up to make sure he could acquire. He then came to visit Kyra and passed off the Knowledge of the Gods. Kyra returned the favor a couple of times with Heals keeping his deck stocked. Saw and amulet of fiery fists get banished from a closed location. Kyra took the emerald codex after the win and handed her Staff of minor healing to Lini. This group is somewhat starved for item slots, only 2 spots apiece for Kyra and Lini, and Ezren is just loaded up with loot items. (Wand of enervation, sihedron medallion, he's got the snakeskin armor too cuz Kyra wears heavy armor and gets no value out of the dex bonus)
4th scenario was a doozy via the timer. Essentially having to beat 3 villains... that chewed up the clock! Never failed on a check vs. the Lamias...but just hunting them down and they were both in lower portions of a deck, the timer ran ALL THE WAY DOWN to the final turn in which we squeaked out with the win! Lini finds headband of Inspired Wisdom... now nearly all her recharges are auto-success.
And now, after a few days of not playing I setup the final scenario to play tonight... got a late start and also Daylight Savings and all.
Lini and Ezren start off in Thass Dungeon and slowly move to Thass Library. Their search for Spells slows them down especially because of the auto-end turn at library if you get a spell. Lini does find the 2nd MASS CURE!
Sajan starts at Prison while Kyra starts at Treacherous Cave. She's plenty Wise enough to move away if need be. As the wife's characters thin out the Dungeon, Sajan jumps down to help them finish off a henchmen card (the final, bottommost card) He's gone ZEN archer route and has both the Deathbane Crossbow +1, and a light Crossbow +1. Since the henchmen are undead he can dispatch them fairly easily.
Kyra eventually draws Codex and uses... gets Cure, Major Heal, and Detect Magic. Not bad... Look at my hand with another Major Heal in it... thinking NO ONE DIES this game. :) We aggressively explore and I use the Major Heals and the Detect Magic, get decent rolls on heals.
Problem is, he doesn't do quite so well closing the locations. 1 Giant is re-healed TWICE due to his inability to make the Charisma throw at the Prison. Plus hitting the darn WIZARD LOCK barrier with anyone other than Ezren is problematic. Wasted turns. The first time he had GLIBNESS cast on him, has a +1 skill boost in Charisma, so just needs to avoid NUMERO UNO to close...which of course rears its ugly head.
Over half way through the timer and only the THass Dungeon is closed. When Lini FAILS an ambush check, which we think is ok, but UH OH! IT'S MOCKMURIAN. Not at all ready, still 2 locations unoccupied. We temp close those that we can. Re-read ambush, and it says -1 on all dice for CHECKS on the encountered monster. Whelp... that INCLUDES the CON check too! So Kyra uses one of her valuable RECHARGEABLE Saranrae's to help guarantee the CON check. OK, done... wife tosses 1 card for the success instead of 1d6 for fail. First combat check... 20, She transforms STR which has +2, uses her animal 1d4+2, uses Impaler of Thorns... I think we blessed one time, so its final is (2d10+2) +(1d4+2) +(1d8+2) -5 for ambush... should be easy, right? Ok it was... I think she blew it away 30-ish. Now 2nd roll, same setup but need 24, transform, we use 1 blessing (last one, we figured we needed 1 on each check) Impaler of Thorns, etc. Final result =23! WAIT! REROLL for Impaler... whew that was close, almost forgot that. OK reroll is.... 23! AGAIN! ARG! After the transforms, bury the card at beginning, and 1 pt. damage... she is left with her CAT in hand. Ah well as least an animal... draw up, end turn. Lose 2 timer turns because of open locations and not beating him.
Finally get Prison closed, after 3rd attempt, but turns are running down. Haven't even touched Giant Cave, barely Deeper Dungeons. Nice Augury sends two monsters to bottom at Deeper Dungeons, and in exploring it we hit a blessing. Deductive reasoning kicks in and we know he's NOT here since this location normally has no blessings. We move on and around. Holy candle finally shows up... alright lets get some TURNS back! And..... 2. ah well at least we got the two turns we lost earlier back.
Kept Consecration from the last quest after we nearly ran out of time, so I'm eyeing the remaining turns and our explores keep fizzing out. Lini runs into Mockmurian, surives the CON check but then uses Holy light for one check, and then the (healed back) IMP of thorns +Poison cloud from Ezren and maybe 1 blessing. Horrible first roll and then re-roll falls short by 1 AGAIN! Sajan was unable to temp-close the Strength 10 Giant Lair with just 1 blessing, so we lost 1 timer turn again and didn't know where he was between the LAIR or the TREACHEROUS CAVE. Kyra has to stay at Deep Dungeons for temp-close but she consecrates for 3 turns. Final turn will now be Sajans.
I see Brodert QUINT in Ezren's hand and suggest wife use it just for information. She spies bottom of CAVE and THERE HE IS, she puts him as the topmost card, leaving 3 above it. Sajan goes there to thin it out, finds a SPYGLASS, and acquires. USES it, and next two cards are both boons. Hmm, ok... Ezren had just acquire MAESTER GRUMP, who lets you pull the next bane to the TOP! Which is going to be the VILLAIN! YES! WE can still WIN!
So Lini takes her turn and sets up at Giant Lair. With her animal ally 1d4+2 and STR+2 bonus she has best shot at making the Melee/Str 10 check. So now Ezren comes up to the CAVE... but sucks at CON so is going to auto-fail that. Well that's ok because the 1d6 bury cards also resets hand so might draw new spells. Already had a lightning bolt, and rolled low enough to be able to keep it, and an incendiary cloud although don't want to use it because of die penalty for fire trait. Well... she resets hand and draws very little offense, only another Incendiary cloud, but at least he only subtracts 1 per die no matter how many fire traits there are.
SO, we move to the temp-close checks. Kyra makes her Fortitude check guaranteed with a SARANRAE. Now Lini just has to roll ok... she transforms to get a d10, and tosses her animal d4... SNAKE EYES! 1+2+1+2= NOT ENOUGH the villain can escape. With only 1 turn left Sajan MIGHT just be able to explore enough to possibly find him if he runs to cave.
Ezren does his lightning bolt first, hoping to draw another attack spell. Turns on one Incendiary cloud. Plenty. Now 2nd check, adds another Incendiary cloud, but now has to fight melee. Everyone who can blesses... but it is for naught. Her slightly impressive mass of dice are just too small overall to add up to 24 very quickly, and after subtracting the fire penalty she results in a handwipe. After recharging the spells she still has enough to survive... BUT, the final turn is now stolen away by the villain as he flees.
Sajan puts his fist into the wall in frustration. "I didn't even get a final CHANCE!"
Mockmurian says "SSHHHHHHHH!!! This is a library!" as he kicks us out! Kyra shakes her head and starts chuckling as we go back to town... "We just can't take you ANYWHERE!!!"
Also, never even ran into Headless Lord or Forgefiend. Other than Ezren's final handwipe, no one really approached death. Time was just wasted in some spots and not used wisely in others. Wife was a little irritated at the length of this game due to having to work in morning, but I couldn't be happier with a failed scenario. No one died, but it proves to me this game is still no cakewalk and you will have some bad luck or bad decisions sometimes.
Hope you all enjoyed my recap... I gotta get to bed, I get one less hour of sleep tonight!
Motrax
A great read, thanks for posting. Follow this thread to find out if you are playing Ezren's power correctly:
A great read, thanks for posting. Follow this thread to find out if you are playing Ezren's power correctly:
Thanks, yeah I wondered if that might have been the case. I took it as a general "you can peek" each time you cast a spell, but I see the clarification, and it uses Ezren in the example. We'll try and make sure we operate that way in the future... it didn't end up changing the result as she didn't draw an attack spell, but now at least we know that you won't be able to draw spells in between the multiple checked monsters.
Here's a quick question though: If Ezren casts a spell at Thassalonian Dungeon (if you play arcane spell, you may draw a card) would he be able to do both the "peek and maybe draw" and the "may draw" ability? I know somewhere in rules it said if you earn multiple explores for the same action, they don't stack.... but these aren't exactly the SAME action. One is a peek/draw the other is just draw. We've been playing it as you could do both, in either order. So wife casts a spell there, peeks, if its a spell she can draw it, and then MAY draw again, resulting in 2 cards. If it's not a spell she puts back, but then MAY draw it anyway.
Think we're playing it right, but wouldn't mind any opinions or thoughts on the matter. Ezren at Thass Dungeon can be powerful!
We'll try and make sure we operate that way in the future... it didn't end up changing the result as she didn't draw an attack spell, but now at least we know that you won't be able to draw spells in between the multiple checked monsters.
Note that in the current rules (which might need fixing; the current situation requires action memory that the designers usually try to avoid), Ezren doesn't get to peek until after all the checks, so you wouldn't have been able to draw the cloud spell in time for the second check.
Here's a quick question though: If Ezren casts a spell at Thassalonian Dungeon (if you play arcane spell, you may draw a card) would he be able to do both the "peek and maybe draw" and the "may draw" ability? I know somewhere in rules it said if you earn multiple explores for the same action, they don't stack.... but these aren't exactly the SAME action. One is a peek/draw the other is just draw. We've been playing it as you could do both, in either order. So wife casts a spell there, peeks, if its a spell she can draw it, and then MAY draw again, resulting in 2 cards. If it's not a spell she puts back, but then MAY draw it anyway.
I believe that you are playing correctly. Even if they did the same thing, a power on a location card and a power on your character card would be different powers. The rules also explicitly tell you to not invent new problems for yourself :)
Given that the question of Ezren playing multiple spells during an encounter is being discussed, I wouldn't feel too bad about playing it out the way you did. Its possible that will be clarified to be more like how you played it. We'll have to just wait and see.
The question about Ezren at the Thassalonian Dungeon was answered over here. The answer is Ezren gets to do both his power and the location's power.
We'll try and make sure we operate that way in the future... it didn't end up changing the result as she didn't draw an attack spell, but now at least we know that you won't be able to draw spells in between the multiple checked monsters.Note that in the current rules (which might need fixing; the current situation requires action memory that the designers usually try to avoid), Ezren doesn't get to peek until after all the checks, so you wouldn't have been able to draw the cloud spell in time for the second check.
Oh, I didn't make it clear enough, but she had both Incendiary Clouds already in her hand. I was just making sure we followed the "one spell per step" so 1st check only got one cloud, then when we did 2nd check, allowed for 2nd cloud.
We shall try and sneak into the library again tonight. I shall of course give an update as to whether Mockmur-brarian gives us the boot again!
Motrax
Actually, I don't think a single character can activate two clouds during the same encounter, even if the encounter has two checks. The clouds all say "Place this card in front of you when a character encounters a bane." so they have to be played at the moment of the encounter, before even the Evade step in the Encountering a Card sequence. And each character can only play 1 of them in response to any single encounter. Though since they stay in affect for the turn, they can be left in play and lots of them can be active at one time.
The mechanics of such cards was talked about here and here.
Good luck tonight. I hope you smite that stone giant.
Here is the promised update from tonight's adventure.
My two characters, Sajan and Kyra, teamed up on Giant Lair, hoping to weaken further Giant encounters. My wife's, Ezren and Lini, both started at Thassalonian Dungeon.
Kyra started with just one blessing but drew the Giant Club+3, so was set for just about any combat she ran into. She smashed her way through a Goblin Warchanter (Wisdom save was easy for her) and took an extra explore with her rechargeable blessing but I think found a bow that was unnecessary.
Wife flipped her very first card: HENCHMEN FORGEFIEND! Well, she didn't intend to fight it melee anyways so didn't have to worry about his extra damage ability. She lit it up with a Lightning Bolt and then easily closed the Dungeon, 1st turn.
So now Lini doesn't need to hang around there, she moves to Treacherous Cave and uses an Augury for monsters. Hill Giant Runeslave is 3rd down, she topdecks it, blasts it with Holy Light (its undead for scenario) and then auto-succeeds the Survival check to close.
Holy crap, wife closed 2 locations with just 2 turns!
Sajan and Kyra beat down on the Giant Cave some more, acquiring a few boons along the way. Eventually find the Headless Lord with Kyra, smack him silly with a discarded Club+3 (I had drawn longsword +2 so still had a spare weapon) plus her undead bonus, he was missing more than his head when I got through with him. Drew a magic shield for the armor he gives. I double-checked the scenario card that states to "reshuffle in" the henchmen if you don't close the location. A momentary thought passes by where I could keep bashing in his phantom skull to keep drawing armors... but then I went ahead and blessed to help guarantee the closure.
A turn earlier, Lini had found the fireproof breastplate so I am going to be getting better armor at the end of scenario anyways.
Sajan starts into the Prison when Ezren gets Brodert Quint. She uses him on that location and spies the villain... leaves him as 2nd to last and now we have vital information. Spread out to other locations, couple rounds and actually perma-close them all except for prison.
Sajan and Ezren are at the prison and Sajan feels pretty good about fighting the big guy. He hasn't drawn either the Giantbane Dagger or Lightbane crossbow yet, and his magic fists only have 1 blessing available, but he's got Belt of Dex, Dex+2, Charmed dragon for 5 fire damage, and a Merc for +1d8. Kyra SWIPED a heavy crossbow for the purpose of assisting since she is proficient... and she has a fiery weapon spell from the emerald codex waiting.
I actually fail the fortitude check but then just roll a 1. His triggered hand reset actually HELPS OUT because I draw an extra blessing.
We decide to double down with the fire, 5 points from the dragon +2d4 for a fiery crossbow bolt. I use 1 blessing on his fists (1d10) and save the bigger Erastil and the Merc for the 2nd check.
After adding in the FIRE and dex bonuses, subtracting 1 from each die... I fall 2 short on the FIRST check! Curses! I toss the Merc and another card for damage, leaving the belt and Erastil for final check. Ezren takes 2 splash damage, but keeps his Wand of Ennervation for the 2nd check. 2nd check goes fine as the Ennervation MAXES and the extra 2 dice for Erastil is plenty. No more damage but still undefeated. At least every location is closed, so he's got nowhere to run and only 1 other card to shuffle.
Kyra comes on over and 50/50 that she'll see him right away... she does. She ALSO flubs her Fortitude check! but rolls a 3. Kinda bad, keeps 1 weapon, but then hand reset actually locks the WIN! I draw a GORUM, SARANRAE, and I think the BAST SWORD+1. Sajan is able to bless EACH check, I'm able to use and discard Weapon for each check... and GORUM gives 2d6 to the bigger check. Mockmurian renews our Library card and gives us his Club, and Robe of Runes.
Overall, not nearly as exciting as the previous run, but still enjoyable. The early closures made a lot of difference, I think we ended with 10-11 turns left, PLUS we had never lit the Holy candle. I did pick up ONE Restoration spell during this scenario. Have to see if I really want to keep it or not, we haven't broken our decks down yet nor chosen our Card feat reward.
Congrats!!!