How do you play Alahazra?

[Hillz]

I'll give a little background and then ask a couple questions.

I started a campaign with some friends and I decided that I would play the Oracle as a support and let the others (Alchemist, Fighter, Magus & Rogue) have all the "glory". I grabbed the spells Fire blade and Confusion for combat and Strength, Cure & Black spot to support the others with.

I also very much like her first and second powers for supporting "You may recharge a card that has the Divine trait to examine the top card of any location deck (□ or the blessings deck or any character deck" & "At the end of your turn, you may discard a card that has the Divine trait to add a card that has the Divine trait from your discard pile to your hand"

I use these powers as often as possible for scouting and retrieving useful spells, which often leaves my hand empty by the time my turn comes around causing me to have to skip my turn all together.

So here are my questions...

1) Are these good spells to start with for an Oracle support? What other spells should I be looking for as we adventure further?

2) Am I even playing her correctly? If not, when should I be scouting?

3) Since the rest of my group is apt at dealing with barriers and monsters I would like to remain the groups main support. Does anyone have any other advice?

[Malcolm_Reynolds]

1) Are these good spells to start with for an Oracle support? What other spells should I be looking for as we adventure further?

2) Am I even playing her correctly? If not, when should I be scouting?

3) Since the rest of my group is apt at dealing with barriers and monsters I would like to remain the groups main support. Does anyone have any other advice?

1) If you are wanting to play support, those look like fine starting spells (though of course opinions may vary). Strength can also boost you in a pinch. Black Spot, however, is pretty weak at the beginning of the game; you might try Magic Weapon instead (1d4 vs. 1, plus Magic for those pesky incorporeals). I like Aid and Find Traps as early upgrades, then Control Water and Control Weather as you get farther along.

2) I think the only way to play a character wrong is to play without any regard to his strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. Alhazara seems like a strong support character and if that's what you're looking for, so much the better.

3) With my Alhazara I like to just explore once and then recharge as many Divine cards as I have left to scout as much as possible before resetting my hand. Scouting whenever you think you're close to a Villain or Henchman, or for a character close to death is also helpful.

Most importantly, have fun playing your character!

[jones314]

I am also playing Alahazra, but not as pure support.

1) agree that Black Spot is weak to start. Find Traps or another Cure would be better.S & S has more Divine Attack spells than Rotr so you can look to upgrade those.

2) ideally you have one Attack spell in your hand at all times so you can explore confidently and deal with the out-of-turn combats. If you don't draw a combat spell to start, you will probably need to play conservatively on your turn. So maybe a third combat spell? Anything with the Divine trait is fuel for her so even if you drew three Attack spells, you can use two in support. If you have any Divine cards before you reset, probably use them all scouting. This helps everyone and gets your cycle rate crazy high.

3) cards to look for: Surgeon, token of Remembrance (has Divine), Snow Leopard, really anything that lets you recharge cards for a useful effect.

As you can tell, I think Alahazra is a lotta fun almost anyway you play her, partly because you can get involved in everybody's turn.

[Hillz]

Thanks very much for the advice. It was quite helpful.

[Captainmycaptain]

We usually have Alahazra start and use all her scouting powers, then depending on what is reavealed and what is left in her hand, she can usually do something (encounter a boon etc).

Then at the end of her turn her hand will reset and I try not to blow them all on scouting until more scouting is needed/desired etc. depending on what the party/scenario needs/current player needs are so that I still have some semblance of a hand by the time the turn comes back to me. Then have turn and blow any extras on scouting and reset hand, rinse and repeat.

If you have emptied your hand of cards (or mostly of cards) there is no real downside to having a free swing at something as you take no (or little) damage.

I generally run with only 1 (or at most 2) attack spells as I generally don't bother attacking anyway and you can get it back from your discard pile once used. One of the ones that can last the whole round on display is great.

Other than that, lots of utility spells, find traps, cure, buoyancy (was coupled with dolphins early on), aid . . .

[isaic16]

In the game I use Alahazra in, she has actually ended up as a much less supporting character. This is due to the fact that her high blessing count and large hand size means she can do more explores on her turn than anyone in the party except possibly Ranzak (Merisiel, Lem, Damiel, and Valeros are the others). She will still use support powers, but with all of the supporting effects in this group, there is just less need to be prepared for what to face, so she only ends up scouting when someone isn't sure if they can handle something.

[Platypus]

Alahazra absolutely is a support character, but it's not because she has scouting; it's because she has divine spells which can be Cure. Take all the Cure spells you can! Your whole party can use blessings more aggressively if they know you'll be healing the blessings back into their deck. Don't forget to Cure yourself frequently, because that will reshuffle your deck and get all the good stuff you recharged back into circulation.

I only use Alahazra's scouting power if she's about to end her turn and she still has divine cards in her hand. (Or if there's a deck where it's particularly important what card is on top.)

My Alahazra runs with all three Cure spells (I don't use the expansion pack because I feel the extra Cure spells make the game too easy). She has a few attack spells (can't adventure without an attack ready) and also runs a few Find Traps because they're awesome.

[Platypus]

PS. Black Spot is great later on, but I leave it for the arcane casters because Alahazra has so many other great choices. Strength is pretty terrible -- if you want to buff the other characters, use a blessing on them and then Cure it back into your deck.

[mlvanbie]

Token of Remembrance has the Divine trait :)

Her divine attack is good, but lots of checks should go to other characters. Do the scouting on your turn so that mostly you are playing Blessings on other character's turns and can figure out where it safe to explore on your turn. You should be able to constantly cycle through your cards.

In RotRL I found Find Traps worth having through deck 6. It is probably more useful in S&S.

[Captainmycaptain]

Platypus wrote:

My Alahazra runs with all three Cure spells (I don't use the expansion pack because I feel the extra Cure spells make the game too easy). She has a few attack spells (can't adventure without an attack ready) and also runs a few Find Traps because they're awesome.

Interesting. I only need one cure spell because we have a bard and Damiel too with heals. Also Alahazra can cycle through her deck so fast that you will have cure in hand by turn 3 at the latest, then can cast, discard to discard pile and recover using hero power at the end of the turn, so one seems plenty.