Let's compare.
Lem's is 1d4 (□+1) (□+2)
If he takes both skill feats, he'll have a min of 3, max of 6, average of 4.5. That will be the best he can do before a role card.
Feiya's is When any character at your location attempts a check to acquire a spell or defeat a monster (□ or barrier), you may recharge a card to reduce the difficulty of that check by 1 (□ 2) plus the adventure deck number of the recharged card, if any.
If she takes the feat to make it two, and uses an adventure 3 card, she'll have a min of 5, max of 5, average of 5.
If they max out on their best role for this power, Lem gets to min of 4, max of 7, average of 5.5. Feiya gets to (with a deck 6 card) min of 9, max of 9, average of 9.
So, Feiya's is fueled more by the card you recharge. In the Base Set, Lem will be better. But over time Feiya will start to catch up and eventually pass him.
Even in AP1, Feyia can add +3 to a check. I will take the reliable static +3 over Lem's 1d4+1 in most circumstances. Lem is, of course, more versatile, but Feyia's power is plenty good, even in the early game, and I think it will end up being better than Lem's power in the late game.
Feiya reduces the difficulty of a check, rather than adding to the roll.
However, the wording seems to preclude using it with evasion spells, auto-successes items against barriers, Caltrops, Summon Monster, Yap, etc.
BTW, why would someone sell Yap on eBay? http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-1x-Yap-the-Pixie-The- Hook-Mountain-Massacre-/310857653107
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BTW, why would someone sell Yap on eBay? http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-1x-Yap-the-Pixie-The- Hook-Mountain-Massacre-/310857653107
The person is selling the entire set in pieces, it seems (see the following): >>Linky Here<<
Most likely, it's an attempt to sell the cards to people who have lost/damaged/stolen/misprinted cards because the seller decided they didn't wish to keep the game, and so are trying to profit from their expenditure.
While it's a valid tactic and plenty of people do it, they do seem to be trying to be make a living off of it, because they have a considerable amount of other games' items for sale individually that came in sets and aren't random (Netrunner cards, LotR cards, etc).
So, there you go, that's why ^^
Returning to the whole "Adventure number + X" mechanic- there are several cards in S&S that seem to do this - Old Salt, Black Spot - I think it'll be interesting to see how the power-level of these feels compared with other spells and allies we see in the coming adventures.
Feiya reduces the difficulty of a check, rather than adding to the roll.
However, the wording seems to preclude using it with evasion spells, auto-successes items against barriers, Caltrops, Summon Monster, Yap, etc.
BTW, why would someone sell Yap on eBay? http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-1x-Yap-the-Pixie-The- Hook-Mountain-Massacre-/310857653107
I might be missing something, but I'm not sure how it precludes use with auto-success items (obviously it's too late for the evade stuff). Is there something I'm missing
Also, as others have somewhat alluded to, the ability to know the exact number added to the check before-hand can be very useful, and often times is more valuable than the possibility of a higher maximum.
I might be missing something, but I'm not sure how it precludes use with auto-success items (obviously it's too late for the evade stuff). Is there something I'm missing
I think it is debatable. The power can be used "when attempting a check". Do Caltrops or Thieves Tools count as "attempting" a check? I would say they actually do, but without digging through the cards to find examples of usage for the word "attempt" I am not 100% sure.
Well, the auto-success things say "highest difficulty to defeat is X or lower". So I guess the question is whether the highest difficulty means "before anything lowers it" or "the highest difficulty before you play this card".
I might be missing something, but I'm not sure how it precludes use with auto-success items (obviously it's too late for the evade stuff). Is there something I'm missingI think it is debatable. The power can be used "when attempting a check". Do Caltrops or Thieves Tools count as "attempting" a check? I would say they actually do, but without digging through the cards to find examples of usage for the word "attempt" I am not 100% sure.
I definitely think you are still attempting the check. Crown of Charisma and some others even say "to succeed at your X check."
Caltrops and Thieves Tools don't, but Vic said before that what they do say is basically shorthand for that.
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Well, the auto-success things say "highest difficulty to defeat is X or lower". So I guess the question is whether the highest difficulty means "before anything lowers it" or "the highest difficulty before you play this card".
It does say that it reduces the difficulty. So I'd say that, in the same way you count Veteran difficulty bumps when determining highest difficulty, you would do the same here.
Thanks, Hawkmoon, for expanding the set of things for which this ability can be used. It seems like evasion spells, Yap and Summon Monster are still out.
Now in AD2, we're finding Freiya's recharge already intensely powerful. With the right card, that's -4 to any check to defeat any monster or barrier. That plus a Black Spot (which, like Incendiary Cloud, I believe is okay to play as part of a check to defeat a monster where you also use an Attack spell?) Is -7, plus whatever natural bonuses you're rocking. That means a recharge and a Black Spot and Freiya's arcane is already a -12. Hi villain, your check to defeat is now a 5.
Of course, this is restricted in different ways by how varied the villains defeat conditions are. So we have to make sure we have Blessings and card powers to defeat the ship the villain summons, or his Fort check to prevent burying 1d4 cards, or both! With the scenario where the villain summoned a ship that forced you to discard a card when you beat it, sometimes we'd encounter him in a situation where the card we had to discard was the last card in our hand, a weapon or spell we were going to use to defeat the villain. Well, off he goes!
So, yeah, we've found Freiya's power amazingly good and useful, but not all-purpose useful, so it doesn't feel like that's solely winning the game for us (and Lem's 1d4+1 power helps, having them both in the party guarantees a lot of auto-clears barriers with single-digit checks). It's also cool to make choices based on the Adventure Deck number of the card. "Well, this ally isn't strictly an upgrade, but it IS AD2..."
Yeah. Black Spot is played during the check. Incendiary Cloud is played "when encountered", that is why you can play it and still play a spell during the check.
Consider me corrected. :D But I'll take the one or two times Freiya used Black Spot when she shouldn't have as repayment for the dozen or so times Lem didn't play Incendiary Cloud when he could've.
Hmm...I wonder what kind of wands we'll see in S&S. Feiya using her power and Black Spot to really lower the difficulty in a later adventure and then playing a wand for her combat check might be a sound strategy.
The want in AD2 also feels like the "right" way to do wands. Freiya didn't take the one we found, she has way better items to keep around, but it seems like it'd actually be useful.
Even just buffing Lem's check, with Black Spot and a recharge Freiya was lowering Lem's combats by 7, plus Lem's d4+1, plus Dexterity, melee, and +1 weapon bonuses we're talking like -11 before the check even starts. Pretty powerful for just the second deck.
Promo cards don't have an adventure deck number so for Feiya's power they count as 0.
Also, in response to this:
It's also cool to make choices based on the Adventure Deck number of the card. "Well, this ally isn't strictly an upgrade, but it IS AD2..."
I've found this makes blessings particularly interesting when playing with class decks mixed in. Because they include repeats of the blessings at various AD levels, you end up swapping blessings around to give Feiya the best numbers. If she's got an AD1 Lamashtu and someone else picks up an AD3 Lamashtu… swap!