The Necklace is banished if you can't recharge it rendering useless unless you pick it up during that one scenario, which is darn near impossible unless you're Arcane which is the drawback to listing that card on that list. Sure, anyone could use the Amulet, but again, it is only going to be kept in either Lini or Sajan's deck long-term. That Item stack is pretty darn big even with all the Basics I've banished so relying on it popping up in that scenario isn't a worthy bet to make. Take it as a power feat though means it is 100% guaranteed to be there.
As for Lini, you're playing a non-armored character w/o one Medallion? She can recharge it pretty easily by AP3 making it a must-have imho. She's only got two because this is my 3-character party with Amiri and Harsk. My 6-character party with her in it only has the one. That's only one Item card feat btw from her start 2.
I thought the necklace was buried instead. I see your point if that's the case.
I don't armor up any of my characters, except for the occasional ring of prot for auto damage on things like Enchanters. The way I see it, if you're losing more than one combat a scenario, you're doing it wrong, and if you can't recover from losing that one combat, you're also doing it wrong. It's very easy to build most characters to be virtually indestructible at combat.
My Lini's always go for animal and spell card feats. Before I saw AP4's loot, I would never have considered an item feat for her before maxing those out.
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Sihedron Medallion I believe reduces all damage, not just combat, so it's pretty useful for some of the before encounter auto damages, or traps based off your d4 skill. There aren't many good items early on, so I usually pick one up for casters (and again, I play with rules that make combat checks tougher, so failing checks is usually quite possible.)
Sihedron Medallion I believe reduces all damage, not just combat, so it's pretty useful for some of the before encounter auto damages, or traps based off your d4 skill. There aren't many good items early on, so I usually pick one up for casters (and again, I play with rules that make combat checks tougher, so failing checks is usually quite possible.)
Most auto damage early on is 1 damage, so ally using the medallion does is let you recharge that one damage. I suppose I could see using it during the brief time until you find a ring of prot...
But if you have tough combat checks and armor is actually useful, then I can see taking it.
There are quite a few banes that do 1d4 and 1d4-1 damage, so that's why I'd usually take it over the ring. The ring also can't be recharged for more space unless you're Harsk or Merisiel.
There are quite a few banes that do 1d4 and 1d4-1 damage, so that's why I'd usually take it over the ring. The ring also can't be recharged for more space unless you're Harsk or Merisiel.
It's a situational thing, so everyone goes about it in different ways. I only want it to make sure I don't lose my animal, or something else important, so I'm quite happy to reveal it and discard it to soak up two damage. I can always cure myself.
There are quite a few banes that do 1d4 and 1d4-1 damage, so that's why I'd usually take it over the ring. The ring also can't be recharged for more space unless you're Harsk or Merisiel.It's a situational thing, so everyone goes about it in different ways. I only want it to make sure I don't lose my animal, or something else important, so I'm quite happy to reveal it and discard it to soak up two damage. I can always cure myself.
Well sure, but not every character is Lini :P
Speaking of which, I really should give her a try next...
There are quite a few banes that do 1d4 and 1d4-1 damage, so that's why I'd usually take it over the ring. The ring also can't be recharged for more space unless you're Harsk or Merisiel.It's a situational thing, so everyone goes about it in different ways. I only want it to make sure I don't lose my animal, or something else important, so I'm quite happy to reveal it and discard it to soak up two damage. I can always cure myself.Well sure, but not every character is Lini :P
Speaking of which, I really should give her a try next...
Yeah, Lini had simply been who we were talking about.
The medalion is good for Seoni, with her wildly random fireballs that can cost her big. I liked it okay with Lem. It's not bad with Ezren. I think all the other characters have armor, so...
let's see here: I noticed no one mentioned either the giant badger or the monkey. The giant badger is bury to move, but lacks the end of turn restriction of most of the "move" powers or spells, which would allow you to (in theory) close a location with a henchman then jump to another location and keep exploring.
I love the autoacquire on the monkey; even better, he explores!
I also really like the heavy pick +1, especially for Kyra. rolling 2-3 d6s and having them go to 7 has saved my bacon more than once playing her!
I really love the elven breastplate. reveal to reduce combat damage by 2, recharge if you're proficient with armor, and bury to negate all damage.
Then again, I'm definitely in the minority of people who actually don't hate armor (I'll admit that they're not blessings, but what is?)
my favorite blessings are lamashtu and irori, but I think that I like irori cause I tend to play high wis/low int characters.
my favorite items/items I think are really strong are:
staff of minor healing (a must have for characters who can't heal, a medium have for characters who can), crown of charisma (to get allies), amulet of fiery fists, necklace of fireballs (3d6+12 kills most monsters before you roll, and with a power feat seoni can auto-recharge it).
Spells: Swipe, Swipe, and more Swipe. getting an effective arcane/divine die +1d8+3 is good, but auto-acquiring a weapon, item, or armor. nice.
Detect magic is my favorite "search a location" type spell.
I also really like find traps, cure (just basic outta the gate cure), and finally I like mirror image, assuming that you have a solid explore capability.
I would like the vicious trident, but the "discard a card" to use it is a really steep price. I think that the greataxe is arguably the greatest weapon to wield against monsters that don't require magic to defeat them. str x2 +1d12 is a lot of decently high dice for a discard/recharge with valeros.
There are quite a few banes that do 1d4 and 1d4-1 damage, so that's why I'd usually take it over the ring. The ring also can't be recharged for more space unless you're Harsk or Merisiel.It's a situational thing, so everyone goes about it in different ways. I only want it to make sure I don't lose my animal, or something else important, so I'm quite happy to reveal it and discard it to soak up two damage. I can always cure myself.Well sure, but not every character is Lini :P
Speaking of which, I really should give her a try next...
Yeah, Lini had simply been who we were talking about.
The medalion is good for Seoni, with her wildly random fireballs that can cost her big. I liked it okay with Lem. It's not bad with Ezren. I think all the other characters have armor, so...
You forgot Sajan. I don't know how good it would be with Sajan, since I haven't played with him yet, but theorycraft indicates that combat isn't his weakness - since he can apply modifiers even without a weapon and he can play multiple blessings.
You forgot Sajan. I don't know how good it would be with Sajan, since I haven't played with him yet, but theorycraft indicates that combat isn't his weakness - since he can apply modifiers even without a weapon and he can play multiple blessings.There are quite a few banes that do 1d4 and 1d4-1 damage, so that's why I'd usually take it over the ring. The ring also can't be recharged for more space unless you're Harsk or Merisiel.It's a situational thing, so everyone goes about it in different ways. I only want it to make sure I don't lose my animal, or something else important, so I'm quite happy to reveal it and discard it to soak up two damage. I can always cure myself.Well sure, but not every character is Lini :P
Speaking of which, I really should give her a try next...
Yeah, Lini had simply been who we were talking about.
The medalion is good for Seoni, with her wildly random fireballs that can cost her big. I liked it okay with Lem. It's not bad with Ezren. I think all the other characters have armor, so...
Ah! Yes, you're right!
I don't think he'd like it though; he can't really recharge it.
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I have the medallion in my Zen Archer Sajan deck. The lack of recharge doesn't by any measure make the card "worthless" in his deck. He doesn't get armor, but he does get a lot of items...it's there as a "just-in-case" sort of measure.
Losing an entire hand to pre-encounter damage (and his hand size can be small without feats - I've found this is not a theoretical situation) can mean that you'll have no weapons and / or blessings for a combat check and roll a bare d10...so I view it as an important safeguard for him to have, even if it's a one-shot deal. I've found that it's unlikely that he'll come across more than one such event during a scenario...and when he does need it, it's usually to fight a henchman or villain.
Maybe I'll take the damage reduction feats and then get rid of the medallion...undecided.
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Sorry for necroing the thread, but what about now, with S&S and class deck cards?
There is one card in particular that I found super powerful: Ivory Dice. 50% chance to succeed at a check even if you're rolling a d4 against any difficulty is just mind blowing.
I love wall of fire to death.
I used Eyepatches for a very long time, I'd say they're one of if not the best basic items.
That surgeon, I forget his name, that is basically a Staff of Minor Healing but also recharges to explore is incredible.
...But these are more like some of my favorites. There is a ludicrously large amount of "best cards in the game" in S&S. Decisions aren't remotely as easy as in RotR. In RotR, depending on your character, you probably would only want maybe 5% of the boons in the whole set. In S&S I feel you could lose the top 20% of the boons and still build excellent decks. This means to me that they did a great job balancing S&S. It's rather impressive, really.
Hi Orbis,
To make a long story short, this is my top 10 :
1) Holy Candle
2 to 9) : See above
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I don't mean to nitpick, but isn't that a top 9?
I love wall of fire to death.
I used Eyepatches for a very long time, I'd say they're one of if not the best basic items.
That surgeon, I forget his name, that is basically a Staff of Minor Healing but also recharges to explore is incredible.
...But these are more like some of my favorites. There is a ludicrously large amount of "best cards in the game" in S&S. Decisions aren't remotely as easy as in RotR. In RotR, depending on your character, you probably would only want maybe 5% of the boons in the whole set. In S&S I feel you could lose the top 20% of the boons and still build excellent decks. This means to me that they did a great job balancing S&S. It's rather impressive, really.
I'm curious about your love of wall of fire, since it's restricted to your turn it just feels okay compared to the other sphere-type spells.
Actually, you're underselling the surgeon guy, since his surgeon ability is also much better than the standard surgeon ability (I don't have him in front of me, and another character got him when we picked him up, but I think he both shuffles the card back in, and might even be able to pick the card he gets back, though I'm not sure of that one).
For me, the Immortal Dreamstone is the one that really stands out in S&S. It's the Emerald codex, except you potentially get a ton of exploration and even more basics to be removed.
Also, while he's not quite in Poog's league, Mogmurch's 2d6 to any check, even with the potential penalty, is a HUGE bonus, and well worth it, especially for only a recharge.
I love wall of fire to death.
I used Eyepatches for a very long time, I'd say they're one of if not the best basic items.
That surgeon, I forget his name, that is basically a Staff of Minor Healing but also recharges to explore is incredible.
...But these are more like some of my favorites. There is a ludicrously large amount of "best cards in the game" in S&S. Decisions aren't remotely as easy as in RotR. In RotR, depending on your character, you probably would only want maybe 5% of the boons in the whole set. In S&S I feel you could lose the top 20% of the boons and still build excellent decks. This means to me that they did a great job balancing S&S. It's rather impressive, really.
I'm curious about your love of wall of fire, since it's restricted to your turn it just feels okay compared to the other sphere-type spells.
Actually, you're underselling the surgeon guy, since his surgeon ability is also much better than the standard surgeon ability (I don't have him in front of me, and another character got him when we picked him up, but I think he both shuffles the card back in, and might even be able to pick the card he gets back, though I'm not sure of that one).
For me, the Immortal Dreamstone is the one that really stands out in S&S. It's the Emerald codex, except you potentially get a ton of exploration and even more basics to be removed.
Also, while he's not quite in Poog's league, Mogmurch's 2d6 to any check, even with the potential penalty, is a HUGE bonus, and well worth it, especially for only a recharge.
I like wall of fire because it's always base+2d6 and then a recharge, unlike spheres which are base+1d6(+x) and then a few more dice if you discard instead of recharge and don't use it for the rest of the turn. The fact that spheres can be played on other turns matters very little to me - it doesn't come up all that often in my experience. And in general, I just don't feel like base+1d6 is worth anything. My current combat loadout is actually 2 geysers, one wall of fire, and one Sphere (forget which). I rarely cast the sphere. And this is on RotR Lini, who's probably the best at making combat success with Spheres.
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The surgeon lets you pick (just like staff of minor healing), but it does let you shuffle, you're correct.
Staff of Minor Healing lets you recharge a random card.
Surgeon lets you shuffle a random card.
Haneilius Fitch lets you shuffle a card you choose.
Just gotta say that Hannelius Fitch is awesome! Pick the card you want out of your discard or recharge to explore. Really good.
I was very happy to have Holy Feast included in S+S. Throughout RotR I always thought one thing the game was missing was a full-party healing spell. That being said, Blessing of Achaekek is the new favourite Blessing in our group. Unless a villain/ henchman is fought indirectly (such as Enemy Ship), this blessing gives you an edge in the most critical encounters of any scenario. The weapon Zul also became a favourite when it became apparent how many Human monsters there are in S+S. With all the emphasis on Aquatic monsters, it's easy to miss the Humans. I'd say one of the biggest, game changing cards to appear in S+S are the various "skill gem" cards. I'll usually only pick these up for characters who have a d12 for one skill but it sticks with them throughout the game. The ability to swap any non-combat roll for your best skill is hard to pass up. These are especially great for a "min-maxed" character such as Onyx of Constitution for Ranzak. Swipe returns in S+S and might have made my list of best cards except for one small problem... throughout ALL of RotR and S+S I have NEVER once encountered this card. Never even had the chance to acquire it and therefore never played it. But I totally get why it's a favourite. I'm a fan of any card with multiple uses, I'm definitely glad to see the developers applying this kind of thinking to even more cards in S+S. I especially like the idea of spells that do more than the old "throw a fireball". Even if one player in my group lives and dies by throwing fireballs... :P
Staff of Minor Healing lets you recharge a random card.
Oh yeah, so it does. That's what I get for trying to think straight right after the dentist.
Swipe is a great spell but isn't in S&S.
It is if you use Class Decks, I believe several of them include Swipe.
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I feel like Blessing of Abadar's usefulness only increased with S&S.
The necessity to beat barriers increased greatly with all the nasty things they can do to you or benefit you with. They fill most of my blessings slots.
My favorite new card is the helpful haversack though.
Deck cycler's dream item. Examine and get a choice to recharge or leave it? Grand. Discard to put it in your hand? Lifesaver.
Besmara's tricorn is a definite winner as well. It is the answer to a lot of barriers and ship encounters.
I feel like Blessing of Abadar's usefulness only increased with S&S.
The necessity to beat barriers increased greatly with all the nasty things they can do to you or benefit you with. They fill most of my blessings slots.
My favorite new card is the helpful haversack though.
Deck cycler's dream item. Examine and get a choice to recharge or leave it? Grand. Discard to put it in your hand? Lifesaver.
Besmara's tricorn is a definite winner as well. It is the answer to a lot of barriers and ship encounters.
I absolutely love Helpful Haversack as well, and will probably add it to all sets without it (using class decks), but I didn't get as much use out of it as anticipated in S&S. Unlike RotR, S&S has a wealth of awesome items, and Haversack's main point (to me) seems to be basically removing an item from your deck.
S&S has some phenomenal allies. Lady Agasta Smythee, Imp, and Mr. Fitch are excellent additions to virtually any deck. The move on Pteranadon is also handy for all those locations with a nasty start of turn effect.
My favorite spell, on the other hand, is definitely Blazing Servant.
Actually, Smythee is best used in Wizard type decks that can generate large hands IMO. 4-card hands are hard pressed to use her well.
I don't even think Smythee's all that fantastic, personally. She clogs your hand and only helps your combat checks by 2. I'm bad with names in general and haven't been able to play S&S as much as I did RotR so I forget, but I'd rather have the one that lets you recharge something else to add a d6 to someone on a ship, or that reveals to add 1 to any of your checks. I think they both let you explore too, I know the d6 one does.
Not that I've played them. I've only played Lini and she doesn't want them. I did manage to free up room for Imp, though! :D
She's pretty good for Jirelle, who has a lot of weapons and no way to cycle her hand. Using Agasta herself as a recharged card keeps her from clogging your hand, too.
She's pretty good for Jirelle, who has a lot of weapons and no way to cycle her hand. Using Agasta herself as a recharged card keeps her from clogging your hand, too.
Recharge her how?
You reveal her. And then she lets you recharge any number of cards in your hand. She is a card in your hand, so she can be recharged.
You reveal her. And then she lets you recharge any number of cards in your hand. She is a card in your hand, so she can be recharged.
I have her in Lirianne's deck for exactly that purpose.
You reveal her. And then she lets you recharge any number of cards in your hand. She is a card in your hand, so she can be recharged.
This is how we play it. Though instinct makes it feel a -little- questionable, other cards say "reveal this card and recharge ANOTHER card," so I assume Agasta would as well.
Jirelle kept her all the way to the end of the AP, which we just finished last night. The ability to recharge your entire hand and avoid damage that way helped us out a time or two, especially given those Draugr captains that show up seemingly specifically to screw her.
Also Orbis, I think the "reveal to add 1" card you're thinking of is the Evangelist, which is only in the class decks--or if it's in base S&S, we've never seen or encountered it.
You reveal her. And then she lets you recharge any number of cards in your hand. She is a card in your hand, so she can be recharged.This is how we play it. Though instinct makes it feel a -little- questionable, other cards say "reveal this card and recharge ANOTHER card," so I assume Agasta would as well.
This instinct thing precisely, I thought she said that. I haven't seen her much, as she's a loot we elected not to include in our decks when offered (As I played animal-loving Lini and Ezren was dying for explore cards, since he didn't have Haste or blessings).
Also Orbis, I think the "reveal to add 1" card you're thinking of is the Evangelist, which is only in the class decks--or if it's in base S&S, we've never seen or encountered it.
I don't think we added her to the box. I think all we added were some RotR promos (because we didn't get most of the S&S promos). Not that any of them but Poog are seeing play.
There is an S&S ally that is reveal to add 1 and you can play another ally on the check. Though I'm blanking on her name.
There is an S&S ally that is reveal to add 1 and you can play another ally on the check. Though I'm blanking on her name.
That's definitely the one I'm thinking of, the "use another ally on that check" part is crucial to her usefulness (for us at least, as the player also has Poog, Mogmurch, and the chick that adds d6 to a check on a ship all in the same deck).
I don't mean to nitpick, but isn't that a top 9?Hi Orbis,
To make a long story short, this is my top 10 :1) Holy Candle
2 to 9) : See above
Indeed... So this for an errata :
1) Holy Candle
2 to 9) : See above
10) Ranzak :-)
I don't mean to nitpick, but isn't that a top 9?Hi Orbis,
To make a long story short, this is my top 10 :1) Holy Candle
2 to 9) : See aboveIndeed... So this for an errata :
1) Holy Candle
2 to 9) : See above
10) Ranzak :-)
I wanted to get a discussion going on what everyone thought were the most powerful cards in the PACG.
Now to clarify, I'm talking about boons...
:3
I am reluctant to say that any card that comes lat in an campaign should be ranked among the best cards, but I think that Shapechange and Ring of Regeneration are so amazingly powerful that they merit consideration.
Ring of Regeneration looks so nice I regret never encountering or having it shuffled into a deck even once.
Then again, Damiel and Jirelle didn't really end up needing it much. We used Potion of Healing + Tot Flask to keep discards small for the beginning of the campaign, Holy Feast for the back half. Once Damiel got 2x Potions of Flying and 2x Potions of Heroism our need to discard blessings went drastically down anyway, and so discards were slight to begin with.
Shapeshift was a gamechanger and we were lucky enough to get one as on the first scenario of AP6. It was hugely helpful in some unexpected ways too, such as giving him a base d12+2 strength when he got caught without a weapon in hand. My only regret is that I'd given Damiel +3 Dex before we picked it up (also that I often forgot to use d12+2 when rolling his Constitution die).
I am reluctant to say that any card that comes lat in an campaign should be ranked among the best cards, but I think that Shapechange and Ring of Regeneration are so amazingly powerful that they merit consideration.
we've elected this time around not to, in general, peek at the cards beforehand, so I have no idea what these do (feel free to spoil).
Ring of Regeneration looks so nice I regret never encountering or having it shuffled into a deck even once.
Then again, Damiel and Jirelle didn't really end up needing it much. We used Potion of Healing + Tot Flask to keep discards small for the beginning of the campaign, Holy Feast for the back half. Once Damiel got 2x Potions of Flying and 2x Potions of Heroism our need to discard blessings went drastically down anyway, and so discards were slight to begin with.
My party more or less just uses Holy Feast followed by Hannelius Fitch (character surgeon) to get the Feast back (no recharge check :c ). There's only two of us, so with a backup Cure that pretty much covers us.
Without the cards in front of me, I think it's "at the beginning of your turn reveal this card to recharge a card from your discard pile " and "at the end of your turn reveal this card to recharge a card from your discard pile." So pretty nice, but it sits in your hand forever, which I know you dislike. Depends on your access to other healing, and how efficient you are with it.
Without the cards in front of me, I think it's "at the beginning of your turn reveal this card to recharge a card from your discard pile " and "at the end of your turn reveal this card to recharge a card from your discard pile." So pretty nice, but it sits in your hand forever, which I know you dislike. Depends on your access to other healing, and how efficient you are with it.
Depends on the effect and combos. Afterall, my favorite character is RotR Lini and she makes animals that sit in your hand forever awesome (while making animals that normally don't sit forever do so).
If I was playing a character with a need for healing and hand control I could see playing these. But generally, you're right, I'd prefer it to have an extra ability such as "recharge this card to recharge 2 cards from your discard pile." Or better yet, an exploration ability. I find allies* are typically the best cards to have reveal abilities.
*Because they tend to have the exploration ability, otherwise it doesn't matter (like Smythee, she could be any card type, really, just going by her powers).
We did the same Holy Feast + Fitch combo. For the most part this was so good that I could spend an entire scenario without even seeing my Potion of Healing, what with all the Tot Flask shuffling for Flying/Heroism.
I don't even think Smythee's all that fantastic, personally. She clogs your hand and only helps your combat checks by 2. I'm bad with names in general and haven't been able to play S&S as much as I did RotR so I forget, but I'd rather have the one that lets you recharge something else to add a d6 to someone on a ship, or that reveals to add 1 to any of your checks. I think they both let you explore too, I know the d6 one does.
Not that I've played them. I've only played Lini and she doesn't want them. I did manage to free up room for Imp, though! :D
She is probably the most influential card in my Jirelle deck; it's really difficult to overstate just how powerful she is. It's not only a +2 bonus; it's +2 per card. It gets the point where for most combat checks, I didn't even have to roll. Even for those really nasty enemies like Admiral Druvalia, it lets you get down to only 2 cards in your hand so the after combat ability hardly hurts you at all.
It's also a great way to cycle, even when you don't need the bonus. I don't think it's fair to say she clogs up the hand if she gets used all the time; in fact, she keeps my hand selection fantastic more than anything, due to her cycling.
I gave Seoni Father Zantus in Adventure Deck 1, and never ever regretted it. Even with Kyra as one of the other characters in the foursome of adventurers.
One card I found amazing throughout the entire RotR AP is the mighty Crowbar. Not as useful, I've found, in S&S, but the sheer number of strength checks in barriers in RotR made it a constant in both Merisial's and Valeros's possessions. Reveal for +1 Strength die? Recharge for +2 dice? (the recharge check is a 3, you're not going to fail it often with either of those, c'mon).
Mok's Club for Kyra, when she has the 'cure for killing outsider/undead' power? She doesn't have to worry about dying.
Emerald Codex: This got passed around the group a bit. It finally landed on Harsk. The spells weren't always useful, but they helped more often than not. And we breathed a breath of safety when 'raise dead' happened to pop up in there.
Has no one mentioned Disintegrate? Sure, it comes by a bit late, but it utterly negates all of the 'this monster doesn't /actually/ die' crap that pops up more and more often.
I haven't used Potion of Heroism yet, but I imagine that if you set it onto an explore-monster character, that it can get pretty amazing to watch, if the character using it has a tot flask to keep it from getting expended.