Ok, love the concept, but as an actual party member I'm not too sure about him pulling his weight.
Also, maybe I'm reading it wrong, but does that special rule on the extra card really mean he only gets to use cast-off basics?
That rule means that to start the adventure path the other characters build their decks first, then he builds his. In other words, he doesn't have a suggested deck list, so you have to let the others choose their starting decks first. That is just how he starts. After that he can keep boons just like anyone else.
He can be an acquiring machine, and if someone else is at his location let others pull his weight for him in combat.
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Yea, when I saw a possible hand size 11, I did a triple take. That's just insane, but thematically it make sense for the scavenging character I think.
In addition to passing off names (and being able to feat himself into a 2/3 chance of exploring when acquiring a boon), his Kleptomaniac role let's him attempt to acquire any boon someone else at his location fails to get. That is fantastic, and probably my favorite power of his in a multiplayer setting.
In addition to passing off names (and being able to feat himself into a 2/3 chance of exploring when acquiring a boon), his Kleptomaniac role let's him attempt to acquire any boon someone else at his location fails to get. That is fantastic, and probably my favorite power of his in a multiplayer setting.After seeing Kleptomaniac, I remain unconvinced that he even HAS another role...
As someone else pointed out, Wrecker might be alright if you are playing him solo. The bonus to location closing checks is important when you need to make a check you are terrible at (Int, Strength, non-survival Wisdom).
Am I missing something? Has some new info been released?
Am I missing something? Has some new info been released?
Am I missing something? Has some new info been released?
Thank you! :)
Thank you! :)Am I missing something? Has some new info been released?
If you look for Ranzak - he is hiding here
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/104675/premium-ranzak-character-playmat-f ree-rpg-myfly?
Want to know more about the playmats
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/99521/introduction-of-premium-playmats-v4
If you are pleased with Ranzak, please recoommend AMIRI, my lighthouse playmat :)
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/99250/premium-amiri-character-playmat-hig h-quality-6
I've started playing him solo, and have enjoyed playing him a great deal. I just finished part 1 last night with him, and he explores ALOT. Other than the concerns that all non-healing characters have, he's fairly well built. plus, he starts with a spell, which is basically a free cure.
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That's one thing I love about him. He starts the Adve tire Path with a spell -- take a cure. His skills are at a level that you're never going to acquire any spells you don't want, so you always go back to the box at the end and take another cure (well, unless you score a spell as a plunder -- hope you can banish it!)
This. Also, note that a recent ruling has established that choosing not to attempt a check to acquire does NOT count as failing a check, but it DOES count as failing to acquire.... you're never going to acquire any spells you don't want...Do you recognize, that this is true for every character? As you are not forced to try to acquire any boon.
There are banes that when defeated cause you to acquire boons, as does closing some locations. A solo character gets really excited over defeating Mystic Inscription until it gives her two Mass Cure spells. Not only must she acquire them at that point, they can't be played.
I've started playing him solo,YER DOIN IT WRONG.
(sorry, had to...)
no worries. Snarkiness is always okay imho.
That aside, just finished part 2 and he continues to rock faces (I had almost 40 cards in my deck during 1 scenario in part 2, which is kinda redonkulous). Tonight our stalwart hero has to face the cruelty of mammy graul.
It might be a good idea to not push your playmats on paizo's own website when they sell their own. You can find Ranzak through his (now correctly updated) character sheet.Thank you! :)Am I missing something? Has some new info been released?If you look for Ranzak - he is hiding here
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/104675/premium-ranzak-character-playmat-f ree-rpg-myfly?
Want to know more about the playmats
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/99521/introduction-of-premium-playmats-v4If you are pleased with Ranzak, please recoommend AMIRI, my lighthouse playmat :)
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/99250/premium-amiri-character-playmat-hig h-quality-6
Well, i assume as Ranzak is a promo character and is not included in the starting eleven character set, there will be NO official playmat. Hahaha! :))))
Actually, there will be an Ultra Pro Ranzak mat. It will be exclusively available for purchase from Paizo.
Actually, there will be an Ultra Pro Ranzak mat. It will be exclusively available for purchase from Paizo.
Upps!
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He's a lot like Deadpool, really, from what I can see. If you choose him, other veteran players might look at you like, "...Whyyyyy?"
He's got some stuff that can sting a good bit - like discarding the top card of the Blessing deck to explore again - but also a lot of useful abilities. To me, what hurts the most is that he doesn't get a Melee or Ranged bonus, making him less than ideal as a fighter in any role, nor does he have Arcane or Divine, making him less than optimal as a spellcaster. Now, if he had a Ranged bonus, he'd be pretty saucy and quite well-rounded as an explorer, and quite tempting to pick up, especially early in the game.
So, yeah, he's obviously there to either shuttle through the location decks like a crackhead on speed, to dick with the other players, or to snatch stuff up like a, well, kleptomaniac. =)
He could be fun, but I don't think my gaming group would appreciate anyone playing such a character, because of the harm he can cause the party if his player decided to be an ass for a turn or two, and for the simple fact that you can't min-max him until he becomes a warmachine. We're pretty big on min-maxing and auto-killing stuff before the rolls. ;)
I understand, in our gaming group we calculate the dice into the static score that a character has before hand, the one thing I will say is that he (Ranzak) picks up card quiet quickly and with a fighter character to back him up he does not have the to do the fighting. But yes he does not fight the greatest.
He could be fun, but I don't think my gaming group would appreciate anyone playing such a character, because of the harm he can cause the party if his player decided to be an ass for a turn or two, and for the simple fact that you can't min-max him until he becomes a warmachine. We're pretty big on min-maxing and auto-killing stuff before the rolls. ;)
Played for defeating monsters, Ranzak isn't much to look at. Played as the boon grabbing, monster dodging, risk shifting pirate scoundrel that he is, I think he's just shy of broken. In the right hands, Ranzak is kind of the min/max players dream. Of course if you don't trust the player playing him, he can be destructive, but the same can be said of any character, really. Can you imagine Ezren as a scout who stacks the deck against you?
Ranzak is the most amazing character, even in his watered down final version. He's not a good solo character, he might not even be great in a duo, but the more time-constrained the scenario is, the more incredible Ranzak is.
The thing balancing a lot of PACG is that characters are good at some things and bad at others. Ranzak lets you snap up the things that Ranzak is good at, but when he sees something he's bad at, he lets you dump it on someone who's good at it.
The measure of a character isn't the highest combat check he can hit (unless you're solo, then maybe it is), it's how many cards he can churn through location decks per turn, and Ranzak is by far the winner most of the time. If a veteran group doesn't see the stunning power of Ranzak, maybe they need to play a few games with him.
ive got a solo game going on right now with ranzak amiri and kyra. he takes a good place as the party rouge/sniper/scout and with a good opening hand can smash 1-2 locations within the first few turns then leave amiri to clean up the bosses with kyra running healing support.
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In addition to passing off names (and being able to feat himself into a 2/3 chance of exploring when acquiring a boon), his Kleptomaniac role let's him attempt to acquire any boon someone else at his location fails to get. That is fantastic, and probably my favorite power of his in a multiplayer setting.After seeing Kleptomaniac, I remain unconvinced that he even HAS another role...
He does. Keep in mind that we haven't seen the final makeup of the card pool from Skull & Shackles yet. Since he's really more of an S&S promo character, I would imagine that some of his features would be better suited for that particular set, the way some of Runelords' characters were kind of designed for that set (e.g., Kyra having powers against the undead early on that could be upgraded to "outsider" powers in her role cards).
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His Kleptomaniac role even has a power worthless to any currently existing adventures. The ability to banish and replace a plunder card rewarded for completing a scenario. I look forward to running him as a Kleptomaniac with my gaming group --- although there is someone else I may have to duel to the death for that.
There are an awful lot of roles, including good ones, that have one borderline or completely useless power.
There's probably one obviously crap power on every character's "good" role card, just-about all of which aren't nearly as good as this dude's.
I'm definitely in the "this practically seems broken" camp. Looks fantastic. :D
Broken in deed. I was looking at his stats....and was amazed. I could easily tear up some locations with that build. I just wish I could get my hands on the card. Anyone got a free one?
Broken in deed. I was looking at his stats....and was amazed. I could easily tear up some locations with that build. I just wish I could get my hands on the card. Anyone got a free one?
You can buy him now. Though he won't ship until August.
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His Kleptomaniac role even has a power worthless to any currently existing adventures. The ability to banish and replace a plunder card rewarded for completing a scenario. I look forward to running him as a Kleptomaniac with my gaming group --- although there is someone else I may have to duel to the death for that.
Philosophically:
We often make the role cards fit this pattern: One side is of general utility, and one side is of greater specific utility to the Adventure Path it comes in. So Ranzak's Kleptomaniac card is better in Skull & Shackles than it is in Runelords, but Wrecker is as good in any path as it is in any other.
I just finished a game where Ranzak died in the 3rd scenario of the first adventure deck. I was up against a Zombie Giant (Check to defeat 13). I used a light crossbow, plus I had one blessing cast on me giving me 2d10 + 1d8 + 2 (two skill feats in dexterity). I rolled a two 1's and a 2, meaning I had to take 7 damage. My one armor was still in my deck. I lost all the cards in my hand and only had 4 left in my deck - goodnight sweet Ranzak.
I had already played my one Cure, so I only had 14 cards total to work with. Even if I were at full strength with no cards in my discard pile I still would have died - Zombie Giant makes you discard a card from your deck if he is undefeated.
I want to play with him again, but, as I think Mike put it, he is VERY squishy. Only having one armor and a hand size of 7 makes things tough. The one spell is useful to keep a Cure. I tried keeping Guards and Potions of Healing, but those are each one-time use only.
Ranzak can be challenging. I rarely explore when he is alone at a location so that I am able to evade and push the bane to some poor sucker... errr I mean someone more capable.
If you manage to get yourself into a situation where drawing up on your next turn might kill you (such as if you are damaged on an off turn, or if you play a card to help someone on their turn), don't forget that other characters at your location can give you a card at the beginning of their turn. Sometimes this may be just what you need to stay alive.
Later on, the staff of minor healing helps w/ Ranzak, as does snakeskin armor, a ring of protection, and other damage prevention cards. Also keep an eye out for cards that recharge on use, such as the returning throwing axe. Extra card feats build up the deck a bit and take off some of the pressure as well. Still, I cannot imagine trying him with the 11 card hand size.
Of course, the Cure spell is handy, but also one-time use, unless Ranzak and no one else in the party acquires any extra spells, in which case you can select it again when rebuilding your deck. This never works for me, as Ezren is in the party and always seems to acquire way more spells than a Goblin needs.
when he uses his 'pass the buck' power, does it remain his encounter (very much lower-case e)? as in, for example, would he make a check to close a location if his teammate killed a henchman? would he count as killing a summoned monster if he passed that on?
I don't think so. It becomes the other character's encounter. So the other character would get to attempt the close the location if it was a henchman. It is already possible for a character to defeat a henchman from a location and therefore get to attempt to close a location on another character's turn.
Defeat or acquire the next card in the deck. If there isn't one, you may close this location automatically.
If you were at the Swallowtail Festival and another character was at another location, and that other character encountered a villain and you went to temporarily close the Swallowtail Festival and the next card was a henchman, defeating it would temporarily close the location and also grant you the opportunity to permanently close the location by acquiring or defeating the next card after the henchman.
This seems similar enough to what is happening with Ranzak to say that the encounter belongs to the other encounter and whatever happens during or as a result of the encounter belongs to that other character and not to Ranzak.
We certainly play it that the encounter belongs to the character that Ranzak shifted it to, so anything resulting from the encounter is now also theirs to deal with. This will sometimes cause Ranzak to go against his nature and actually fight a henchman, because he is better at closing a particular location.
One tricky thing to be aware of with Ranzak is "when you encounter" effects. These happen BEFORE Ranzak can evade and shift the bane to someone else, so make sure to apply those effects to him, then evade. "Before the encounter effects", however, go to the character he shifts the bane to, as they occur after the evade. This gets semantically confusing, and I can't wait until Skull & Shackles changes "before the encounter" to "before you act".
haven't got the cards in front of me, but don't the horde barriers use a phrase like 'if all characters defeat...' their summoned monster? evidently, if a character like Merisiel evades theirs, not all characters have done that, so I guess we're applying that to Ranzak too, even if the monster he summoned does get defeated?
haven't got the cards in front of me, but don't the horde barriers use a phrase like 'if all characters defeat...' their summoned monster? evidently, if a character like Merisiel evades theirs, not all characters have done that, so I guess we're applying that to Ranzak too, even if the monster he summoned does get defeated?
Yeah. I'd agree.
Each character at an open location summons and encounters a Zombie Minion henchman. If any character does not defeat the Zombie Minion, the Zombie Horde is undefeated. If all Zombie Minions are defeated, the Zombie Horde is defeated.
If Ranzak evades and passes his to Valeros, Ranzak did not defeat the Zombie Minion henchamn. So the, is there any character that did not defeat the Zombie Minion henchman? Yes, Ranzak. So the sentence "If any character does not defeat the Zombie Minion, the Zombie Horde is undefeated" would activate and the barrier would be undefeated.
yeah, to the letter of the law, I think you're quite right. which is a shame, cos thematically I'd go the other way - a bunch of zombies came, Ranzak hid, Valeros killed twice as many...
Each character at an open location summons and encounters a Zombie Minion henchman. If any character does not defeat the Zombie Minion, the Zombie Horde is undefeated. If all Zombie Minions are defeated, the Zombie Horde is defeated.If Ranzak evades and passes his to Valeros, Ranzak did not defeat the Zombie Minion henchamn. So the, is there any character that did not defeat the Zombie Minion henchman? Yes, Ranzak. So the sentence "If any character does not defeat the Zombie Minion, the Zombie Horde is undefeated" would activate and the barrier would be undefeated.
I am less confident about this one, as the wording is contradictory if read this way. The last sentence says that the horde is defeated if all zombie minions are defeated.
If we are interpreting that "if any character does not defeat" includes people who did not fight by evading, whether Merisiel's power, Ranzak's power, spells/items that allow you to evade, etc. then we should also interpret that it means characters at a closed location that did not even have the opportunity to fight. By a strict reading, they are a character that "did not defeat a Zombie Minion".
haven't got the cards in front of me, but don't the horde barriers use a phrase like 'if all characters defeat...' their summoned monster? evidently, if a character like Merisiel evades theirs, not all characters have done that, so I guess we're applying that to Ranzak too, even if the monster he summoned does get defeated?
Just wanted to clarify here: Zombie Horde and Zombie Nest are like this. however, other hordes (skeleton horde, goblin raid, skinsaw ritual) do not have that text, and therefore could be evaded freely.