They are good for giving dice to other characters, such as Valeros and are EXCEPTIONAL when everyone has to face a henchman or villain at the same time.
Even still, you can display it with, lets say Seoni. If she explores an additional time and faces another monster, she is then free to use a spell in her hand (or her character power) PLUS the extra dice from Incendiary Cloud, which is pretty brutal.
And the same character can play Incendiary Cloud and an attack spell like Frost Ray during the same encounter. The rules limit you to 1 card of each type per step of the encounter. Incendiary Cloud is played during "When you encounter" while Frost Ray is played during "Attempt the check". Those are two separate steps of the encounter, so you can play both spells in the same encounter.
The main use though is for when you explore multiple times in a turn. Play 8 locations with those two characters and you'll appreciate them a lot more.
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I dont need to rush.. I have plenty of time with only 2 characters and 30 turns.
If I use my blessings to explore, It will be bad because I'm losing HP, and I can't heal very well.
If what Hawkmoon said is true, then this cards have a new life for me. It's a great bonus when using it with Seoni and another damage spell.
Hawkmoon was right, you can trust him, I can count on one hand the number of times he's declared something without a qualifier and been wrong - and he probably posts more than anyone else. I'd say he's the best rules person for PACG who doesn't work for Paizo.
If you play with only two (or one) characters and standard number of locations, then clouds won't do you much, it's true. That's why I mentioned playing with 8 locations - even two player games are pressed for time with 8 locations. Makes the game more frantic and challenging. Not that you should necessarily do that all the time. But it's worth trying.
As yet another example of why you might want to play such a card, suppose you encounter a villain with multiple checks. Playing a cloud spell there let's you gain the extra dice for each of those checks, regardless of which character is facing the check. Those spells can be as powerful as some weapons individually, but EVERY character gets to use them for every check on that turn AND can use weapons/spells as normal for those checks.
The only real downsides to them are 1) Some of them deal damage to characters at the end of the turn and 2) your spell caster can't use them like a regular attack spell. That is, if Ezren encounters a monster and ONLY has a cloud spell, he doesn't get to roll his arcane die, but rather has to roll his STR die + the bonuses from the cloud spell. As long as you're not overloading your arcane casters with those spells (or if those casters have reliable weapons) they are really handy.
If you play with only two (or one) characters and standard number of locations, then clouds won't do you much, it's true. That's why I mentioned playing with 8 locations - even two player games are pressed for time with 8 locations. Makes the game more frantic and challenging. Not that you should necessarily do that all the time. But it's worth trying.
I'd say that even in solo games they're good to have in your deck, so long as you don't go overboard with them. They can help with multiple checks, for example. If you have more than one character, their value just goes up. They can also be useful on characters like Merisiel, who can have spells but don't get the spellcasting skills like Arcane/Divine, etc. Sure, you'd have to banish the spell, but at the end of the scenario, depending on your progress, you might be able to just add it back to your deck.
The support characters really love these spells. When I'm playing Lem in RotR, I believe Incindiary Cloud* is my favorite card in the game (let's forget resto for a bit). Whether he's using them or just recieving them, they make his combat checks reliable instead of lame and they're simply a great support spell for him to run.
Overall, all considered (including my playstyle), I think Incindiary Cloud is my favorite Arcane spell after Haste (Haste is just too useful).
*Too much undead in RotR for poor Poison cloud. The ones in later AP's damage characters and should be used sparingly or in combos (Ring of Protection, Power Feats that reduce elemental damage, etc). Incindiary has neither of these downsides, and can help with the several combats that require fire, too.
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The support characters really love these spells. When I'm playing Lem in RotR, I believe Incindiary Cloud* is my favorite card in the game (let's forget resto for a bit). Whether he's using them or just recieving them, they make his combat checks reliable instead of lame and they're simply a great support spell for him to run.
Overall, all considered (including my playstyle), I think Incindiary Cloud is my favorite Arcane spell after Haste (Haste is just too useful).
*Too much undead in RotR for poor Poison cloud. The ones in later AP's damage characters and should be used sparingly or in combos (Ring of Protection, Power Feats that reduce elemental damage, etc). Incindiary has neither of these downsides, and can help with the several combats that require fire, too.
Good point.
With Lem this spell sounds really good.I wanna try it.
Thanks guys, this card went from "useless" to "an must"
Incendiary was my Seoni mainstay for most of RoRL. We didn't really get the ones that hurt everyone until the very end of AP6, but I did really like playing Blizzard with a Ring of Protection in hand. So much fun to look innocently across the table at Lem and go "1 frost damage? did I do that? tehehehe~"
Incendiary was my Seoni mainstay for most of RoRL. We didn't really get the ones that hurt everyone until the very end of AP6, but I did really like playing Blizzard with a Ring of Protection in hand. So much fun to look innocently across the table at Lem and go "1 frost damage? did I do that? tehehehe~"
That's the last time he sings you to sleep.