Wrath of the Righteous is my GF and my favorite Adventure Path. PACG is our favorite card game. And so, with these two elements coming together, we had to try to make our party from that Adventure as PACG cards. There are 6 total, so I'm going to get started on them. Please let me know what you think! I encourage all feedback.
(Note: the Blessings listed here are our homebrew world's gods. We generally translate the Golarion Deities over to our own when we play the card game. However, since we don't know what blessings are in Wrath, we couldn't determine those at this point, so we've left them with their original names)
Garyl:
Garyl is the resident Smart guy in an otherwise brawn-focused (read: dumb) team. He was ornery and generally unlikeable, but always went out of his way to help -- as long as no one knew he was helping. He was given power by Corallon, the god of Magic, but ended up forming a close relationship - much as he disliked it - with the God of Death and Civilization, White Ratteh. These relationships formed the basis of much of his role powers.
Garyl:
Male Tiefling Magus
Strength: d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Melee: Strength+3
Dexterity: d6 []+1
Constitution: d6 []+1 []+2 []+3
Intelligence: d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Arcane: Intelligence+3
-Knowledge: Intelligence+2
Wisdom: d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma: d4 []+1
Favored Card Type: Weapon or Spell:
Weapon: 4 []5 []6
Spell: 4 []5 []6 []7
Armor: 1 []2 []3
Item: 2 []3
Ally: 1
Blessing: 3 []4 []5
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) and that card’s traits to the check.
Bury a card and discard another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
Shard of Corellon:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) and that card’s traits to the check.
Bury a card and discard another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
[] When you would fail a non-combat Intelligence check, you may recharge a Blessing ([] or any card) to reroll that check ([] and add 1d12 to the check).
[] If a character at your location would take non-combat damage from a monster, you may discard a spell to prevent all non-combat damage dealt by that monster.
[] When you succeed at your check to recharge a Spell, you may shuffle it into your deck.
[] When you play a Blessing of Corallon, you may add d12 instead of the normal die to the check.
Fiendflayer:
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d6 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) and that card’s traits to the check. ([] If the check is against a bane with the Outsider ([] or Undead) trait, add an additional 1d8).
Bury a card and discard another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
[] When a character fails a check to acquire a boon, you may bury a Spell ([] or any card) to allow them to reroll that check ([] and add 1d6 to the check).
[] You may discard a Blessing of White Ratteh to allow another character to defeat a barrier. ([] You may attempt a Knowledge 12 check to recharge the Blessing instead of discarding it).
Ok, this one is a bit complex, so I think I need to unpick it slightly.
For the combat check, you use card 1, reveal card 2, and recharge card 3 (where 1 & 2 are a weapon and a spell [or a spell and a weapon] – and 3 can be anything. Do you add the traits of card 2 or 3 to the check? 2 would make more sense, but the wording is a little unclear.
Comparing with Seltyiel (the only existing Magus), this guy is stronger on his key stats (d10s instead of 8s) but the powers seem weaker. Bury AND discard to get a spell back seems like quite a weak return – would just burying a card be too powerful?
The D6 boost for recharging only goes +1, +2, +3, which again is weaker than Seltyiel’s 2d6, 3d6.
Obviously, you don’t want him to just be the same, but I feel like there’s scope to up the power here a little.
The power is you get the traits of both revealed cards. The recharge is just the cost to activate it. I'll try to clean the wording. The reason I'm only adding smaller plusses is that the effect is stronger, since you can just leave the triggering cards in your hand forever, and not worry about cycling them back. That being said, small plusses like that may be too small. What do you think of stacking d4's? Too much?
For the Bury power, I deliberately started in a weaker place, since that power feels like it can be broken if I'm not careful. Bury to return a card is the power of the Toad, an Adventure 2 ally that was pretty good in its own right. I might upgrade to Bury and recharge. The big advantage of using 2 cards is you have a continually shrinking hand, and thus there's always going to be an upper limit, which I feel is a good safeguard.
I agree the power could stand to go up a bit, but I'm worried there's a very fine line here between underpowered and overpowered, so I'm treading carefully.
Here is the new Garyl. The major changes were a slight buff to his spell renewal ability, and altering his spell combat to have better scaling, while still using lower numbers since it's easier to perform than the baseline Magus power. Let me know how it looks!
Garyl:
Male Tiefling Magus
Strength: d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Melee: Strength+3
Dexterity: d6 []+1
Constitution: d6 []+1 []+2 []+3
Intelligence: d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Arcane: Intelligence+3
-Knowledge: Intelligence+2
Wisdom: d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma: d4 []+1
Favored Card Type: Weapon or Spell:
Weapon: 4 []5 []6
Spell: 4 []5 []6 []7
Armor: 1 []2 []3
Item: 2 []3
Ally: 1
Blessing: 3 []4 []5
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d4 ([]2d4) ([]3d4) and the revealed card’s traits to the check.
Bury a card and recharge another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
Shard of Corellon:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d4 ([]2d4) ([]3d4) ([]4d4) and the revealed card’s traits to the check.
Bury a card and recharge another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
[] When you would fail a non-combat Intelligence check, you may recharge a Blessing ([] or any card) to reroll that check ([] and add 1d12 to the check).
[] If a character at your location would take non-combat damage from a monster, you may discard a spell to prevent all non-combat damage dealt by that monster this turn.
[] When you succeed at your check to recharge a Spell, you may shuffle it into your deck.
[] When you play a Blessing of Corallon, you may add d12 instead of the normal die to the check.
Fiendflayer:
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d4 ([]2d4) ([]3d4) ([]4d4) and the revealed card’s traits to the check. ([] If the check is against a bane with the Outsider ([] or Undead) trait, add an additional 1d8).
Bury a card and recharge another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
[] When a character fails a check to acquire a boon, you may bury a Spell ([] or any card) to allow them to reroll that check ([] and add 1d6 to the check).
[] You may discard a Blessing of White Ratteh to allow another character to defeat a barrier. ([] You may attempt a Knowledge 12 check to recharge the Blessing instead of discarding it).
It's interesting that you questioned giving six skill points to Skyix, but not giving eight to Garyl, albeit across just three skills. Plus three to both combat d10s is pretty strong.
But I notice you lowered the die of the spell/weapon combo in comparison to Seltyiel. Probably this would keep Garyl from being overpowered in the early scenarios.
It's interesting that you questioned giving six skill points to Skyix, but not giving eight to Garyl, albeit across just three skills. Plus three to both combat d10s is pretty strong.
But I notice you lowered the die of the spell/weapon combo in comparison to Seltyiel. Probably this would keep Garyl from being overpowered in the early scenarios.
The reason for the difference is their respective classes. Fighters seem to only get about 5 skill points, whereas the only Magus we had used 8 skill points. However, that's a good point, given that all of the skills he have are using larger dice. I may need to reign it in, now that I think about it. Another difference is that it's harder to see exactly where to drop his skill points to make it reasonable. I'll have to meditate on it.
I'm making another update with a few rather small changes. The main thing I wanted to do was highlight a few abilities of each character that I felt needed special attention. If you could review the bolded abilities in particular and give your thoughts, I'd really appreciate it!
Garyl:
Male Tiefling Magus
Strength: d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Melee: Strength+3
Dexterity: d6 []+1
Constitution: d6 []+1 []+2 []+3
Intelligence: d10 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Arcane: Intelligence+3
-Knowledge: Intelligence+2
Wisdom: d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma: d4 []+1
Favored Card Type: Weapon or Spell:
Weapon: 4 []5 []6
Spell: 4 []5 []6 []7
Armor: 1 []2 []3
Item: 2 []3
Ally: 1
Blessing: 3 []4 []5
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d4 ([]2d4) ([]3d4) and the revealed card’s traits to the check.
Bury a card and recharge another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
Shard of Corellon:
Hand Size: 6 []7 []8
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d4 ([]2d4) ([]3d4) ([]4d4) and the revealed card’s traits to the check.
Bury a card and recharge another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
[] When you would fail a non-combat Intelligence check, you may recharge a Blessing ([] or any card) to reroll that check ([] and add 1d12 to the check).
[] If a character at your location would take non-combat damage from a monster, you may discard a spell to prevent all non-combat damage dealt by that monster this turn.
[] When you succeed at your check to recharge a Spell, you may shuffle it into your deck.
[] When you play a Blessing of Corallon, you may add d12 instead of the normal die to the check.
Fiendflayer:
Hand Size: 6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor [] Heavy Armor Weapons
Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d4 ([]2d4) ([]3d4) ([]4d4) and the revealed card’s traits to the check. ([] If the check is against a bane with the Outsider ([] or Undead) trait, add an additional 1d8).
Bury a card and recharge another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.
[] When a character fails a check to acquire a boon, you may bury a Spell ([] or any card) to allow them to reroll that check ([] and add 1d6 to the check).
[] You may discard a Blessing of White Ratteh to allow another character to defeat a barrier. ([] You may attempt a Knowledge 12 check to recharge the Blessing instead of discarding it).
Two items that I'd like special notation on are his 'counterspell' ability, and the 'White Ratteh blessing'. For the counterspell, it is intended to allow him to prevent a magic user from damaging the party with spells. I felt just preventing one instance of damage wasn't good enough, so I went with a broad damage prevention ability. I'm worried that it might limit certain opponents too much, though, and wanted your thoughts.
The second ability is that Blessings of White Ratteh (usually defined as blessings of Abadar) can be used to defeat barriers. This is because the Abadar base power makes it likely that even someone bad at a particular barrier has a decent chance at beating it, and this just changes it to a guarantee. The recharge option is an added bonus similar to auto-recharge powers on several characters. What do you guys think?
Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with the WotR-lore or your homebrew deities.
That being said, I promised you to give my feedback and so here we go:
Another character that is not my playstyle. Ah well, I do think that he is more fun to play than Seltyiel. But that's mostly because he seems more balanced and the theme is rich in this one with the Roles giving both a different vibe to the character.
I do have some questions:
On Fiendflayer, the last two powers. Are these for ANY location or just at YOUR location?
Also: Garyl can get bonusses to Outsiders and Undead, but only if he uses his Weapon + Spell-ability. Why not make a new power that he has an extra d8 for these traits? I've seen it in my group that Seltyiel doesn't have a Weapon or Spell in his hand, so he is forced to use just one.
What I would do:
"[] Add 1d8 to your check to defeat a bane with the Outsider ([] or Undead) trait."
Maybe even add Abberations to it?
Thanks again!
Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with the WotR-lore or your homebrew deities.
That being said, I promised you to give my feedback and so here we go:
Another character that is not my playstyle. Ah well, I do think that he is more fun to play than Seltyiel. But that's mostly because he seems more balanced and the theme is rich in this one with the Roles giving both a different vibe to the character.
I'll be honest, this character isn't really my playstyle either, so I had a lot of trouble with him. I tried to make a variant of the Magus power that I could see using more than once in a blue moon, and allow him to branch out a bit more into the more fun spells.
On Fiendflayer, the last two powers. Are these for ANY location or just at YOUR location?
Currently, it's any location. That's another point that I've gone back & forth on. The basic idea with the White Ratteh power (It's actually blessing of Abadar, or at least that is the intent), is that the blessing normally makes barriers a success, since adding 2 dice makes such a big difference, and this power just removes the luck while giving you a chance to recharge. Since blessings can be played at any location, it was natural to allow this power to as well. As to the reroll power, I don't know if it's right to go with any location, but burying is a high cost, and it by no means guarantees success, so I erred on the stronger side. Not sure if I'm right.
Also: Garyl can get bonusses to Outsiders and Undead, but only if he uses his Weapon + Spell-ability. Why not make a new power that he has an extra d8 for these traits? I've seen it in my group that Seltyiel doesn't have a Weapon or Spell in his hand, so he is forced to use just one.
What I would do:
"[] Add 1d8 to your check to defeat a bane with the Outsider ([] or Undead) trait."
Maybe even add Abberations to it?
In the first draft, it actually was a seperate ability. There were two reasons I changed it. First, I already had a character in Djaya who had the favored enemy ability, and I wanted to avoid duplicating it, especially since neither character actually was a class with a favored enemy. Second, I thought it would make it more Magus-y if it was attached to the magus signature power. I'm hoping with the current design that he uses the ability fairly frequently, so it may not be as big a nerf as it looks. Maybe if I kept it as part of the power, but upped it to d10 or d12? Not sure if it's too good at that point, but that may be a better power level.
Abberations might be worth adding, but I'm not sure I want to sacrifice any of his power feats for it.
Currently, it's any location. That's another point that I've gone back & forth on. The basic idea with the White Ratteh power (It's actually blessing of Abadar, or at least that is the intent), is that the blessing normally makes barriers a success, since adding 2 dice makes such a big difference, and this power just removes the luck while giving you a chance to recharge. Since blessings can be played at any location, it was natural to allow this power to as well. As to the reroll power, I don't know if it's right to go with any location, but burying is a high cost, and it by no means guarantees success, so I erred on the stronger side. Not sure if I'm right.
You’re probably right on this part. Even though it’s a bit on the stronger side. You won’t get it until the later part of the game, where Barriers (atleast in S&S) are pretty common. So being able to succeed once or twice per scenario isn’t really broken. Especially since the Blessing will be played. Also: This character has a maximum of 5 Blessings (minimum of 3), meaning that he won’t be able to use it as much as he wants. So you’re probably right.
In the first draft, it actually was a seperate ability. There were two reasons I changed it. First, I already had a character in Djaya who had the favored enemy ability, and I wanted to avoid duplicating it, especially since neither character actually was a class with a favored enemy. Second, I thought it would make it more Magus-y if it was attached to the magus signature power. I'm hoping with the current design that he uses the ability fairly frequently, so it may not be as big a nerf as it looks. Maybe if I kept it as part of the power, but upped it to d10 or d12? Not sure if it's too good at that point, but that may be a better power level.
Abberations might be worth adding, but I'm not sure I want to sacrifice any of his power feats for it.
I don’t see anything bad with having two characters with the same favored enemy, to be honest. If I recall this was the case with Seelah and Kyra too in RotR, so why not in your own set?
I still don’t know if it’s a good call to keep it like this. I mean: You already need to play 3 cards to make this happen. I just don’t see Garyl using this ability every combat. Also: If you DO have a favored enemy, it would be in every combat, not just when you use a signature ability, right?I wouldn’t up the Power Level. What I would probably do, was this:
“Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one on your combat check, you may reveal the other and recharge another card from your hand to add 1d4 ([]2d4) ([]3d4) ([]4d4) and the revealed card’s traits to the check.
[] Add 1d8 (or []1d12) to checks against banes with the Outsider or Undead trait.”
I mean, his name is Fiendflayer, so it should be obvious for him to a favored enemy, if you want my opinion in themes.
Now that I have some time, I reviewed the whole character this time:
The ability “Bury a card and recharge another card to return a spell from your discard pile to your hand.” seems a little too much of a “task” to perform. Perhaps this:
“Bury a card to return a spell from your discard pile to the top of your deck.”
So, you still pay 1 card for another 1. But now without recharging a SECOND card you already may want to play that turn.
On Shard of Corellon:
“[] If a character at your location would take non-combat damage from a monster, you may discard a spell to prevent all non-combat damage dealt by that monster this turn.”
This seem kind of strong. Since you probably will have approximately 2-3 spells in a hand a turn. So imagine you’re at the final scenario of at a boss fight and you’re huddled up with 2-3 characters. Once could start a fight and it looks like one of those Dragons: “Every character gets 1d4+1 X damage. If they succeed at Y check, they get 2 X damage.”. So then your Magus goes he like: “Hey guys, since it’s not my turn, I’ll just discard 3 spells to negate all his Thunderbolts (or Ice Breath or whatever.).” And then the dragon doesn’t seem so Dragon-y anymore. If you were to keep this power, I’d suggest to give it a limit of One time per Turn. Maybe:
“[] If a character at your location would take non-combat damage from a monster, you may [u]display[/u] a spell to prevent all non-combat damage dealt [u]to that character[/u]this turn. [u]You may only display one spell to use this power per character’s turn. Discard the displayed spell at the end of a character’s turn.”
Lots of wording, you could probably make it shorter in some way.
Again: Not getting a good theme-vibe, but that's probably since I don't know your homebrew deities and these are really based on those.
We've put together the characters. Thanks again to everyone for your help with these!
Attached below is a google doc with all of the cards if you want to try them out. We'll be updating them as we play, as inevitably stuff will change once we actually play. Let me know what you guys think!
Also, if you like the Art, it is commissioned from a friend of mine at Maewyn's Menagerie so if you like it, you can get art from her, too!