|
I have been combing the threads for this answer:
Do I take the basic cards out of the game permanently at higher levels?
I see many replies about Banishing cards but that only adds them back to their respective decks in the box to be drawn again in the future. When I start the Fortress of the Stone Giants I am worried about drawing a lot of basic cards and not seeing the more advanced cards.
Is this some rule I just imagined seeing somewhere?
I have been combing the threads for this answer:
Do I take the basic cards out of the game permanently at higher levels?
I see many replies about Banishing cards but that only adds them back to their respective decks in the box to be drawn again in the future. When I start the Fortress of the Stone Giants I am worried about drawing a lot of basic cards and not seeing the more advanced cards.
Is this some rule I just imagined seeing somewhere?
It is on the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path card, not in the rulebook.
After you begin The Hook Mountain Massacre, whenever you banish a bane with the Basic trait, remove it from the game; whenever you you banish a boon with the Basic trait, you may remove it from the game. After you begin Sins of the Saviors, do the same for cards with the Elite trait.
Note that you only apply this in situations where you are banishing a card. And there are particular rules about that. There is a worksheet in here to track what you've removed that also has the rules about when things are banished and when they aren't.
Good luck on your adventure.
I've a question along similar lines, and I've read about 6 different threads all saying different things.
I am at Hook Mountain, messing around with a solo game. I am organizing a new game soon with friends starting at Perils... I've read that you're supposed to revert the set back to Burnt Offerings level when starting new characters, but is this really necessary?
I'm just curious, based on people who have tried both leaving the level 2+ ranked cards in and reverting them to the proper starting level, if it really hurts the game. I'd really like to not bother with organizing cards.
I definitely think some of the banes would be too hard for characters with no skill feats and only basic cards. Plus, if you managed to play a bunch a blessings and acquire a great deck 3 boon, then you'd be too powerful.
You should definitely deconstruct your characters when you build the other party so that you don't keep any boons from being obtainable by the other party. For a discussion about an alternative to resetting the box see this thread.
I'm playing five separate groups out of the same box. Resetting the cards and keeping track of everything is not as tedious as you might think. The character sheets that Paizo provide online (for free) are a really useful tool to help you do that. Its definitely worth playing the game 'properly' or as intended.
Just to throw out there, I'm playing one group of 4 by resetting the box and another group of 4 under the alternative rules. I haven't noticed much actual difference in terms of "actually encountered cards". But, my wife finds the alternative method a bit annoying since it slows things down. Of course, she's not the one resetting the box when we switch groups.
The alternative method also somewhat breaks the "spell" of the game for new players I think. Its not much fun to say, "Yeah, I know, that Lightning Bolt spell does look awesome for your Ezren. But we shouldn't be seeing that in Perils of the Lost Coast. So let me just replace that with...Guidance. Well, that is much less exciting for Ezren."
So, if you want people to like the game, you have a better shot by resetting the box. Once they do like it, you can consider switching to the alternate method. Or you could do a "hybrid method" where you didn't "remove cards" from the game, but you did go through and sort out cards from adventures that were too high for the current party.
Just some info to consider.
Not just for new players. Instead of shaking out the 5 and 6 cards for our AP4 party, we just redraw 5s and 6s until we get something appropriate and play from there. So it's a bummer when you see a Sign of Wrath and then go "oh wait, no..." Same when you're seeing shields and armor whose cards you'd never even seen before, just to put them back in the box and be like "Oh, well, that ultimate shield of reduce-all-damage-by-2 was actually a... chain mail."
We're late enough in the game that we're not gonna fix it now, but if we go back for another round from the start we're going to sort out the cards.