Looking for help in getting the next decks together. AKA: New Player Help

[Marc Waters]

So my team and I have defeated Ripnugget and Stickfoot, and we are looking forward to the next outing. Problem is that we are all new players, and we are not sure how to tailor our decks.

Seelah took +1 Wisdom and ended the game with:

7x Blessing of the Gods, 2x Half-Plate, 1x Standard Bearer, 2x Cure, 1x Sage, 1x Warhammer, 1x Mace, 1x Quarterstaff, 1x Thieves' Tools, 1x Longbow, 1x Short Sword +1, 1x Longsword, 1x Amulet of Mighty Fists, 1x Wooden Shield

Merisiel took +1 Strength and ended the game with:

1x Burglar, 2x Thieves' Tools, 1x Icy Longspear, 1x Dagger, 2x Blessing of the Gods, 1x Crowbar, 1x Guard, 1x Dart, 1x Potion of Vision, 1x Potion of Glibness

Seoni took +1 Strength and ended the game with:

1x Force Missile, 1x Guard, 5x Blessing of the Gods, 1x Burglar, 1x Invisibility, 1x Potion of Fortitude, 1x Guide, 1x Toad, 1x Troubadour, 1x Arcane Armor, 1x Bracers of Protection

Kyra took +1 Strength and ended the game with:

6x Blessing of the Gods, 1x Guard, 1x Holy Water, 1x Mace, 1x Wooden Shield, 1x Guidance, 1x Blessing of Desna, 1x Mending

Can anyone help me get these decks to something somewhat playable moving into week 2? Thanks!

[csouth154]

Each character's deck has a limit on how many of each type of card it can have. Some things obviously belong in one deck as opposed to another. Seelah and Kyra want good melee weapons, while Seoni wants arcane spells, for instance. Common sense and deck limits will go a long way towards building your decks.

My advice would be to let each scenario's experience guide you. Don't worry too much about "the perfect deck". The difficulties you encounter will let you know what you lack or have too much of. All that being said, my one piece of deck-building advice would be to avoid cards that only help with non-combat checks requiring the special skills like stealth, knowledge, etc.; the ones not everyone has, in other words. Note that I said avoid the non-combat ones. If they don't specify either way, then they can help with combat and non-combat checks.

[Castarr4]

There are two parts to your problem. The first is easy. What you have listed is the list of each character's deck at the end of a session. There is a bit more work to do at the end of a session though. Each player has to bring their deck back down to their card maximums. For Seelah, for instance, that means she has to get rid of all items because her item card count is "-" instead of a number. Then she ends up with three weapons, one spell, three armory, two allies, and six blessings. This assumes you don't have any card feats yet.

So you take out the cards that don't fit based on what cards you want or don't want to keep. The ones you don't want you can give to the other characters in case they might want them, but in the end everyone will end up with a fifteen card deck again. Unwanted cards go back in the box.

The second part is harder... It's advice on what you should do with the cards you acquired. I think the icy long spear should go to Seelah, since she is the only one who is proficient with weapons in your group.

I think your characters would get more mileage out of different skill feats. Seelah is fine with wisdom(strength is good too), but I would give Merisiel dexterity, Kyra wisdom, and Seoni charisma. Make them better at the things they do the most, sort of thing.

Drop the crowbar unless Kyra wants it. Drop the amulet of mighty fists unless Merisiel really wants it. If you picked up any non-basic cards, you should usually keep them instead of basic cards. Seoni doesn't need the toad due to auto recharging, so I'd give it to seelah who has trouble recharging her Cure.

Technically, Seelah's starting deck got errata, and she should start with chain mails instead of half plate... But don't worry about that, since neither is REALLY good.

All this advice is opinion. Feel free to take or ignore it.

I hope that helps!

[kysmartman]

Okay, I'm not sure what you are asking. The only time you can tweak your decks is immediately after finishing a scenario using only the cards you picked up during the scenario, any rewards for the scenario, and IF and only IF you are now short cards of a particular type, through banishing during the scenario or gaining a card feat, can you pull, in your case, a Basic card. So, there isn't anything that can be done now to tweak other than shuffling some cards around between the characters.

Oh, okay, there are a bunch of extra cards mixed in. Btw, all new players really should play through the extra Perils of the Lost Coast scenarios so you have 3 extra chances to get better cards with the skill feat as a bonus.

Seelah--6x BotG, 2x Chain Mail (from box as you're two short on Armor overall) and 1x Wooden Shield, 1x Cure, 1x Burglar, 1x Troubadour, Longsword+1, Short Sword+1, and Warhammer

Meri--Dagger, Dart, Wooden Shield, 4x BotG, Sage, Guard, Potion of Vision, Potion of Glibness, 1x Thieves' Tools, Amulet of Mighty Fists, Crowbar, Holy Water

Seoni--Force Missle, Invisibility, Arcane Armor, 5x BotG, 1x Thieves' Tools, Bracers of Protection, Potion of Fortitude, Toad, 2x Guard, Guide

Kyra--Icy Longspear+1, Mace, 2x Half-Plate, Cure, Guidance, Thieves' Tools, Burglar, 6x BotG

Are you using Armor correctly? You only banish it if you aren't proficient with that type (light or heavy), which you really should be in your first scenario. If you are, you only Bury it meaning you get it back for the next scenario. Kind of odd you'd be down 2 armor after one scenario. And this goes to show just how awful those pre-built characters are. Dart???

[Hawkmoon269]

kysmartman has a good suggested deck for you there. I just want to say that rebuilding your decks and having to choose what cards you keep can actually be quite fun. It sounds like it was your first time, so you were really unsure, but choosing a card to keep and then experimenting with it in the next scenario or two can be a lots of fun.

I'd also really recommend you guys play Perils of the Lost Coast. It will result in a skill feat for you.

[Marc Waters]

I guess to address the issues of confusion, I will explain. We are playing through the adventure path and we just beat the first scenario of the first deck. The decks that we aquired above are what we ended that scenario with. However, all of us are new and we are unsure of how to modify these decks moving forward into the second scenario.

We used the recommended decks to start, and we came very close to losing (2x Explosive Runes and several strong monsters). We want to have decks that are better suited and are all around better, but we are unsure how to make those from a composition standpoint.

But, it seems that kysmartman came up with some good ones. Advisable to use those?

[csouth154]

Was this the first scenario you played, ever? Because there is an indroductory adventure called Perils of the Lost Coast that you should do first that uses only the B/C cards.

[csouth154]

Also, here is a link to the updated rules

[ryric]

Let me see if I can help. At the end of each scenario, you sort of "reset" your decks back down to a base amount of cards. For starting characters you will reset to 15 cards. The back of your character indicates what proportions you keep - 2 weapons, 3 spells, that sort of thing. There are no other rules for what cards you keep - it's no longer like starting the game where you could only have certain cards, you now get to build from anything you managed to find during the scenario. Replacing bad cards with good ones you find is a major way your deck gets better over time.

What my girlfriend and I do is sort our decks by card type, creating 6 piles. Then we trim cards from each pile until they meet the listed numbers on our character cards. The "rejects" go in a center pile that eitehr of us can pull from if we want. Lastly, if we (as a group) are short any cards, we go fishing in the box.

If you need to go to the box for cards, you can only choose Basic cards up until adventure 3.

Also, looking at your deck lists, remember:

-discarded and buried cards are still in your deck at the end of the scenario, and can be used when rebuilding.

I hope this helps somewhat. The advice above about going through Perils of the Lost Coast first is good - those scenarios are designed to be easier than the Burnt Offerings ones.