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)
Ember:
Ember is the fun-loving rogue of the team. Unlike the traditional rogue, she is entirely focused on combat, and does not value material possessions in the slightest (well, other than ice cream sundaes). Her fighting style is dual-wield daggers, which should hopefully be obvious from her powers. She also prefers to combat by flanking with her allies, and doesn't rely on stealth for combat. One role focuses on taking that fighting focus to the max, while the other is a bit more balanced, as her godly sponsor had hoped she would become.
Ember:
Female Tiefling Rogue
Strength: d12 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Melee: Strength+2
Dexterity: d8 []+1 []+2 []+3
-Disable: Dexterity+2
-Stealth: Dexterity+1
-Acrobatics: Dexterity+1
Constitution: d6 []+1 []+2
Intelligence: d4 []+1
Wisdom: d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma: d6 []+1 []+2
-Diplomacy: Charisma+2
Favored Card Type: Two Weapons
Weapon: 5 []6 []7 []8
Spell: 0 []1
Armor: 1 []2
Item: 2 []3
Ally: 2 []3 []4
Blessing: 3 []4 []5
Hand Size: 5
Proficiencies: Light Armor []Weapons
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 to the check).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
Shard of Amaterasu:
Hand Size: 5 []6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor []Weapons
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 to the check). ([]You may instead display the card. For each Weapon with the knife trait displayed this way, reduce combat damage dealt to you by 2. Recharge the card at the start of your turn).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
[] Recharge a card to add 1d6 to your checks to acquire boons.
[] When you acquire a Weapon, Armor, or Item, you may immediately give it to another character at your location ([] or at any location).
[] When you play a Blessing of Amaterasu, add d12 instead of the normal die.
Sacred Knife:
Hand Size: 5 []6
Proficiencies: Light Armor []Weapons
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill ([]+2) for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 ([]5) ([]8) to the check).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) ([]+4) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
[] At the start of your turn, if you have no weapon in hand, you must draw a card.
[] When you play a Blessing of Jaren or Kord, you may add d12 instead of the normal die.
Some interesting ideas here – never seen a strength-based rogue before.
Clearly going to be very capable of handling herself in combat, with or without a knife - I wonder how well she’ll scale, given that there’s only so far that knives can go (Dagger, Dagger+1, venomous dagger?)
– I also wonder whether the need to put points into strength will leave her short on normal dexterity for dealing with barriers? Favoured card type of “two weapons” is interesting too – could lead to a lot of shuffling!
Yeah, Ember was very much strength-based in game, but also very dual-wield dagger-focused, so we had to work to make those two factors play well together. The fact that every one of her abilities only affects her own combat, as well as the risk of not having that many daggers, alleviates a lot of concern I have. In many ways, she's the inverse of Trillix, in that she can really only do combat, whereas he can do anything but combat.
I really like the two weapons idea conceptually, since it really sells her fighting style, and hopefully encourages dual-wielding a lot. The shuffle point is a good one, though. Doing the math, though, using the official mulligan rules, she will have to have two weapons in at least one hand before she has to reshuffle unless she has taken 6 or 7 card feats and none of them were weapons. And even then it's very difficult. I also noticed that I screwed up her card count, she only has 13 now. I may up her weapons to 6, at which point it would be impossible to not have a legal hand in the first shuffle.
Update to Ember: I added the rest of her cards, so she actually starts with 15 (Not sure how that happened). This also gave her a 6th starting weapon, which should remove mulligan issues.
Ember:
Female Tiefling Rogue
Strength: d12 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Melee: Strength+2
Dexterity: d8 []+1 []+2 []+3
-Disable: Dexterity+2
-Stealth: Dexterity+1
-Acrobatics: Dexterity+1
Constitution: d6 []+1 []+2
Intelligence: d4 []+1
Wisdom: d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma: d6 []+1 []+2
-Diplomacy: Charisma+2
Favored Card Type: Two Weapons
Weapon: 6 []7 []8
Spell: 0 []1
Armor: 1 []2
Item: 2 []3 []4
Ally: 3 []4 []5
Blessing: 3 []4 []5
Hand Size: 5
Proficiencies: Light Armor []Weapons
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 to the check).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
Shard of Amaterasu:
Hand Size: 5 []6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor []Weapons
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 to the check). ([]You may instead display the card. For each Weapon with the knife trait displayed this way, reduce combat damage dealt to you by 2. Recharge the card at the start of your turn).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
[] Recharge a card to add 1d6 to your check to acquire a boon.
[] When you acquire a Weapon, Armor, or Item, you may immediately give it to another character at your location ([] or at any location).
[] When you play a Blessing of Amaterasu, add d12 instead of the normal die.
Sacred Knife:
Hand Size: 5 []6
Proficiencies: Light Armor []Weapons
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill ([]+2) for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 ([]5) ([]8) to the check).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) ([]+4) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
[] At the start of your turn, if you have no weapon in hand, you must draw a card.
[] When you play a Blessing of Jaren or Kord, you may add d12 instead of the normal die.
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!
Ember:
Female Tiefling Rogue
Strength: d12 []+1 []+2 []+3 []+4
-Melee: Strength+2
Dexterity: d8 []+1 []+2 []+3
-Disable: Dexterity+2
-Stealth: Dexterity+1
-Acrobatics: Dexterity+1
Constitution: d6 []+1 []+2
Intelligence: d4 []+1
Wisdom: d6 []+1 []+2
Charisma: d6 []+1 []+2
-Diplomacy: Charisma+2
Favored Card Type: Two Weapons
Weapon: 6 []7 []8
Spell: 0 []1
Armor: 1 []2
Item: 2 []3 []4
Ally: 3 []4 []5
Blessing: 3 []4 []5
Hand Size: 5 []6
Proficiencies: Light Armor
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 to the check).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
Shard of Amaterasu:
Hand Size: 5 []6 []7
Proficiencies: Light Armor
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 to the check). ([]You may instead display the card. For each Weapon with the knife trait displayed this way, reduce combat damage dealt to you by 2. Recharge the card at the start of your turn).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
[] Recharge a card to add 1d6 to your check to acquire a boon ([] or any non-combat check).
[] When you acquire a Weapon, Armor, or Item, you may immediately give it to another character at your location ([] or at any location).
[] When you play a Blessing of Amaterasu, add d12 instead of the normal die.
Sacred Knife:
Hand Size: 5 []6
Proficiencies: Light Armor
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait for your combat check, you gain Ranged equal to your Melee skill ([]+2) for the check.
When you play a Weapon with the Knife trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. ([] If you do, add 2 ([]5) ([]8) to the check).
If there is another character at your location, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 to your combat check, or 1d8 ([]+1) ([]+2) ([]+3) ([]+4) if the check has the Knife trait. Discard it to add an additional 1d4, or 1d8 if the check has the Knife trait.
[] At the start of your turn, if you have no weapon in hand, you must draw a card ([] or 2 cards).
[] When you play a Blessing of Jaren or Kord, you may add d12 instead of the normal die.
Ember I'm pretty comfortable with. The big potential flag is the complexity of her dual-wield defense. Can you let me know if you think it's easy enough to parse?
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:
I. Love. This. For real. I might even try this one. Man, she looks like fun. Such a shame she only likes the sundaes, because I do love me some items.
Anyway, on to the good part (or the bad?):
She has 5 skills..? I thought that she doesn't rely on Stealth? So why does she have this? I think you might be better of removing this.
Also: She only have 14 skill-feat boxes, you're missing one. I suggest Dex or Cha (since she has the extra skills there).
I do like her abilities. But I think you could do something better with the Dual-Wielding, but I'm not giving you the ideas, because I want to work out this concept as well. (^^')
My basic-idea right now is that Ember is like Valeros, but with Knifes, which isn't bad, but it's just out there and that's not bad!
Shard-role:
I think the bold ability is neat. It gives a character who is normally squishy some defense in the form of "Parrying an attack". It's good. Keep it like this.
But the "Recharge a card to add 1d6 to acquire a boon"-power seems weird. So, okay, she can steal (or something), but I think a different approach might be better. Like:
"[] You may use your Diplomacy skill on your checks to acquire a boon." Or let her recharge a card to use her Diplomacy, perhaps.
Sacred Knife-role:
This. Is. Awesome.
Can I use it? Oh, please!
This is perfect. I just feel like the power-spike from 2-5-8 is too high, maybe nerf it a bit. Sorry if you disagree :/
Also: Something that I found in your characters: Almost every role has a power which utilizes a Deity or a Blessing. Is this pure theme-wise or do you just Love these kinds of powers?
Thanks again for the feedback!
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:
I. Love. This. For real. I might even try this one. Man, she looks like fun. Such a shame she only likes the sundaes, because I do love me some items.
I'm hoping she'll be fun, and I'm glad you like her. She was really fun in the RPG, so if that carries over, all the better.
Anyway, on to the good part (or the bad?):
She has 5 skills..? I thought that she doesn't rely on Stealth? So why does she have this? I think you might be better of removing this.
Also: She only have 14 skill-feat boxes, you're missing one. I suggest Dex or Cha (since she has the extra skills there).
The maximum number of skills able to be listed on a card is 5, and the maximum skill point allocation is 9 (as seen on Hark, and recommended in character guides). That being said, you have a great point, and especially with her having 3 powers on her base card, I may want to kill a secondary skill to make sure I can handle the spacing. Stealth is a weird issue because she wasn't a stealthy character by nature, but she put so many points into stealth that she was remarkably good when she tried. Still, that may be the best option to trim.
I do like her abilities. But I think you could do something better with the Dual-Wielding, but I'm not giving you the ideas, because I want to work out this concept as well. (^^')
My basic-idea right now is that Ember is like Valeros, but with Knifes, which isn't bad, but it's just out there and that's not bad!
Yeah, she really should play like a fighter most of the time, but then just turn around and pick a lock on occasion to break things up. I like that her theme is so in-your face, since that's just who she was.
I agree that the dual-wield is not a perfect implementation. If a knife ever comes out that can be discarded on a 'for your combat check' effect (currently all knives recharge if they do that), then the ability is going to suffer. But, I think it's doing its job well.Shard-role:
I think the bold ability is neat. It gives a character who is normally squishy some defense in the form of "Parrying an attack". It's good. Keep it like this.
But the "Recharge a card to add 1d6 to acquire a boon"-power seems weird. So, okay, she can steal (or something), but I think a different approach might be better. Like:
"[] You may use your Diplomacy skill on your checks to acquire a boon." Or let her recharge a card to use her Diplomacy, perhaps.
Glad you like it. I'm also glad it's grokkable, as that was my biggest concern.
I have gone on record before as disliking abilities that allow you to just 'use another skill' on wide array checks, such as 'to acquire a boon.' Maybe I need to get over myself, though, as I haven't heard any stories about those powers breaking the game, or leading to repetitive gameplay (my big concern). A comparable ability is the S&S Merisiel Smuggler role, which gives a flat 1d4 bonus to all non-combat checks. As to the flavor, it's pretty abstract, but is something of an amalgamation of being a representative of the mother goddess encouraging others to help you, having a very broad and versatile skill set (also represented by Ammy), and just plain luck.Sacred Knife-role:
This. Is. Awesome.
Can I use it? Oh, please!
This is perfect. I just feel like the power-spike from 2-5-8 is too high, maybe nerf it a bit. Sorry if you disagree :/
The power spike was deliberately high, because I really, REALLY want to encourage dual-wielding. That being said, it probably was a bit aggressive for a first pass, and 4/6 or 4/7 probably makes more sense. She's going to cycle her deck well, so I think I was underestimating how much she'd be able to use it.
As to if you can use it, please do! I'd love to hear how it works for you!Also: Something that I found in your characters: Almost every role has a power which utilizes a Deity or a Blessing. Is this pure theme-wise or do you just Love these kinds of powers?
In this case, it's a little of both. My GF and I (especially her) loved these powers when we first saw them, and were disappointed with the cards that didn't have them. Because of that, there's usually at least one role with it as an option on any of our homebrews. That being said, the gods are very active in our world, and in the case of these heroes, a shard of their essence was lodged in each of them, which was what unlocked their mythic potential (that's why all of the characters have a role that is "Shard of X". Because of that, we determined that Blessing powers would probably be even more important for flavor reasons.
The maximum number of skills able to be listed on a card is 5, and the maximum skill point allocation is 9 (as seen on Hark, and recommended in character guides). That being said, you have a great point, and especially with her having 3 powers on her base card, I may want to kill a secondary skill to make sure I can handle the spacing. Stealth is a weird issue because she wasn't a stealthy character by nature, but she put so many points into stealth that she was remarkably good when she tried. Still, that may be the best option to trim.
Oh. I didn’t know. Still 5 and 9 seem a bit heavy if you ask me. But hey, man, if that’s what guides are telling you. Then I’m not one to judge.
But, to get to another point here: Why this one have Diplomacy. I believe I made a point about this in your second character. But Diplomacy feels, again, redundant in that case. If you really think she should be stealthy (as I actually do think), I’d just remove Diplomacy. Especially since it’s just a d6.Yeah, she really should play like a fighter most of the time, but then just turn around and pick a lock on occasion to break things up. I like that her theme is so in-your face, since that's just who she was.
I agree that the dual-wield is not a perfect implementation. If a knife ever comes out that can be discarded on a 'for your combat check' effect (currently all knives recharge if they do that), then the ability is going to suffer. But, I think it's doing its job well.
You’re totally right about the Recharge part. I forget about it. Yeah man, keep it like this.
Glad you like it. I'm also glad it's grokkable, as that was my biggest concern.
I have gone on record before as disliking abilities that allow you to just 'use another skill' on wide array checks, such as 'to acquire a boon.' Maybe I need to get over myself, though, as I haven't heard any stories about those powers breaking the game, or leading to repetitive gameplay (my big concern). A comparable ability is the S&S Merisiel Smuggler role, which gives a flat 1d4 bonus to all non-combat checks. As to the flavor, it's pretty abstract, but is something of an amalgamation of being a representative of the mother goddess encouraging others to help you, having a very broad and versatile skill set (also represented by Ammy), and just plain luck.
I’m going to come back at the Parry-ability. Maybe you should recharge the cards at the end of the turn, instead of start? If you let people recharge at the start of the turn, then you’ll have1-3 cards (maybe) displayed before you in other peoples turn. That’d be unnecessary, since you still get to refill your hand to your limit, since they are displayed, thus played, thus not in hand.
I agree on you on Merisiel’s d4, it looks weird. But it’s kind of different of using a skill to acquire something. I know you are against it. I read it somewhere that you were against a Knowledge check to acquire everything. So I propose this change:
“[] Recharge a card to add 1d6 to your check to acquire a boon ([] or use your Charisma die + 1d6 to acquire an item).”
The power spike was deliberately high, because I really, REALLY want to encourage dual-wielding. That being said, it probably was a bit aggressive for a first pass, and 4/6 or 4/7 probably makes more sense. She's going to cycle her deck well, so I think I was underestimating how much she'd be able to use it.
As to if you can use it, please do! I'd love to hear how it works for you!
I might actually try it. Depending on how my GF is in to your characters. Maybe I could get her in to playing some Adventures with just your characters. If we playtest your characters, you would surely get different feedback than from yourself and your GF. Hm. I make a good point.
I know that Seoni also has this power boost of 2-5-8 on her Dragon Initiate, but I disliked that too. So that’s probably why I think that Seoni needs a nerf.Also, now that I have more time I decided to review Ember thoroughly:
I think her Melee die is just a little bit too much. Right now the only characters who are using a d12 for Melee are Amiri, for obvious reasons, and Oloch, because he is a Warpriest. Valeros uses a d10 in both sets. Hell, even all the Fighters (and Clerics) from the Character Add-Ons use a d10 maximum. So maybe turn both Dex and Str to a D10. Or keep Dex on d8 and change Cha to a d10, since she obviously wants that Charisma.
Also: Still she has 14 boxes for skill feats, not the usual 15. (4+3+2+1+2+2 = 14)
You’re giving her a possible spell, but she doesn’t have any way to gain Arcane or Divine skill, making her banish every spell she would encounter. I suggest either removing the possible spell or give her the option to acquire Arcane/Divine in either role cards.
Why isn’t she proficient with Weapons? If I recall correct, there are some weapons with Knife traits in adventure deck 5-6 which require proficiency with weapons, right?
Lastly: At Sacred Knife:
“[] At the start of your turn, if you have no weapon in hand, you must draw a card ([] or 2 cards). “
Why must? I’d suggest changing it to may. Let’s say your deck is empty because of a hard beating and you would have Cure in your hand (for some reason), and you also have 6 cards none of which are a weapon. Well, you can’t heal first, because you MUST draw a card, making you dead. Obligatory powers are a pain, man.
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!