Declining Rewards in PSACG


Pathfinder Adventure Card Society


Is it possible to successfully complete a PSACG scenario for the first time, then decline to take the associated reward? For example, if a player has maxed out their character's card feat ability to add weapon cards to their deck and does not wish to decrease their chances of drawing a weapon card by adding another non-weapon card to their deck, can they choose to decline a card feat reward? Note that this is not a question as to whether or not it is a good idea to decline a card feat, just whether or not it is possibile to do so.

Grand Lodge

BlindBadger wrote:
Is it possible to successfully complete a PSACG scenario for the first time, then decline to take the associated reward? For example, if a player has maxed out their character's card feat ability to add weapon cards to their deck and does not wish to decrease their chances of drawing a weapon card by adding another non-weapon card to their deck, can they choose to decline a card feat reward? Note that this is not a question as to whether or not it is a good idea to decline a card feat, just whether or not it is possibile to do so.

Absolutely! You can choose to decline any scenario reward. However, remember that while card feats do increase your deck size, it also means your hit points increase. As you progress in the Adventure Path, the idea of pulling just pure weapons (or spells) diminishes such that you will want to use a blessing, item and/or ally to bump up your combat. The cards work together. That Belt of Strength might be very useful with the weapon you're using. Don't discount the other card types.

Also, once you are out of replay range of that scenario, you can't go back to get that reward. (You're not allowed to get the reward again when you replay, but I don't see why you can't get the reward if you replay the scenario having declined it previously.)


Thank you for the answer to my question. I did not expect to get a response on the merits of declining a reward, but since I did, I would like to ask a few follow up questions:

-Are there ever times in the game that you would purposefully decline to roll on a boon because you would not want to acquire it? If so, you are most likely weighing the importance of getting an extra hit point over diluting your card pool. This same decision making process should be engaged when deciding whether or not to take a card feat. Note that card pool composition matters more when you have a character that recycles their discard pile into their deck as part of normal play or has a card cycling mechanic that cares about card types (such as wizards with spells).

-Do you think that there are a few cards in each card type for a given character deck that are significantly stronger than the other choices in the character deck for any given character level, or do you think the cards are roughly the same in effectiveness?

-If you do believe that a few cards in each card type category in your card pool shine above the others, why would you want to take card feats to expand your deck in order to accomodate "weaker" cards in that category? Your deck should theoretically contain the best cards that you currently have access to. Increasing the number of cards in your deck forces you to put cards in your deck that you previously decided were not among best choices available to you.

It is understandable to want to add cards to your deck if:
-you want to increase the chances of drawing a certain card type
-you desire to add to the number of cards of a specific card type in order to shore up a specific weakness in your character's deck
-you think that adding cards to your deck is advisable due to the hitpoint mechanic (this factor becomes more important if large amounts or frequent occurences of unavoidable damage and/or forced card burying/banishing is prevalent in the game)
Otherwise, it appears to me that adding cards to your deck actually hurts its efficacy.

I should add that there is another reason to add cards to your deck, whether or not it is the best decision mechanically: if adding a new card slot to your deck makes you enjoy the play experience more, that should be done; optimising fun is the most important type of optimisation of all.

Silver Crusade 2/5

-Are there ever times in the game that you would purposefully decline to roll on a boon because you would not want to acquire it? If so, you are most likely weighing the importance of getting an extra hit point over diluting your card pool. This same decision making process should be engaged when deciding whether or not to take a card feat. Note that card pool composition matters more when you have a character that recycles their discard pile into their deck as part of normal play or has a card cycling mechanic that cares about card types (such as wizards with spells).

I don't think so. You can always just discard the boon, or better yet, on a subsequent round, pass it off to another player. Especially if it is a current adventure deck boon.

-Do you think that there are a few cards in each card type for a given character deck that are significantly stronger than the other choices in the character deck for any given character level, or do you think the cards are roughly the same in effectiveness?

There are clear winners, but it is also very dependant on build. Example, unless that mace is a whole whopping +4 above your sword, the sword is still better for Kyra.

-If you do believe that a few cards in each card type category in your card pool shine above the others, why would you want to take card feats to expand your deck in order to accomodate "weaker" cards in that category? Your deck should theoretically contain the best cards that you currently have access to. Increasing the number of cards in your deck forces you to put cards in your deck that you previously decided were not among best choices available to you.

That is really dependant on build. Weaker allies for the ally rogue for example are worthy of a card feat IMO, just so you have a better chance of getting a lot of allies in your hand to use his ability or really stack up his ability. Spell and blessings are always good choices for Kyra, because those will have the divine trait, allowing her to spontaneously heal. Again, weapon choices as well, only if you have access to more swords for Kyra. A moderate sword will beat most good weapons of other types.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5

It is up to however you want to build your deck. There are many reasons that can change by deck and play style.

I don't really see any questions that you aren't already answering yourself.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
BlindBadger wrote:

Thank you for the answer to my question. I did not expect to get a response on the merits of declining a reward, but since I did, I would like to ask a few follow up questions:

-Are there ever times in the game that you would purposefully decline to roll on a boon because you would not want to acquire it? If so, you are most likely weighing the importance of getting an extra hit point over diluting your card pool. This same decision making process should be engaged when deciding whether or not to take a card feat. Note that card pool composition matters more when you have a character that recycles their discard pile into their deck as part of normal play or has a card cycling mechanic that cares about card types (such as wizards with spells).

Our ACG group frequently declines getting boons if nobody wants a card of that type + deck number and the boon itself is nearly useless in the current scenario. Having a useless boon in your hand simply means you likely discard it at end of turn when resetting, so you don't really have that HP, and it means a Cure spell is less likely to get back the cards you care about since you have useless cards clogging up your discard pile.

That said, I think it is always a good idea to pick up a card feat. That card you pick up can always be upgraded to something better later and there will probably always be a useful card still in your class deck to upgrade to or pick up an additional copy of (blessings come to mind as a good fallback if you literally can't find anything else you are looking for -- even a Blessing of the Gods gives you extra dice and explores).

And to refute something said above, I'm pretty sure that by RAW once you decline a reward you cannot get it again at a later point, so if you turn down that card feat you'll never be able to get it again. I don't have the rules in front of me at the moment but I am nearly certain that is how it is worded.

Quote:
-Do you think that there are a few cards in each card type for a given character deck that are significantly stronger than the other choices in the character deck for any given character level, or do you think the cards are roughly the same in effectiveness?

Yes. The class decks each contain 4 characters and certain cards in them are geared towards a particular character. Thus, those cards are the better choices for that character. Outside of that, there are also certain core cards that outshine the other choices, such as Surgeon in the Cleric class deck. I don't think I will ever swap out that card for a different ally despite it being a low level card.

Quote:

-If you do believe that a few cards in each card type category in your card pool shine above the others, why would you want to take card feats to expand your deck in order to accomodate "weaker" cards in that category? Your deck should theoretically contain the best cards that you currently have access to. Increasing the number of cards in your deck forces you to put cards in your deck that you previously decided were not among best choices available to you.

It is understandable to want to add cards to your deck if:
-you want to increase the chances of drawing a certain card type
-you desire to add to the number of cards of a specific card type in order to shore up a specific weakness in your character's deck
-you think that adding cards to your deck is advisable due to the hitpoint mechanic (this factor becomes more important if large amounts or frequent occurences of unavoidable damage and/or forced card burying/banishing is prevalent in the game)
Otherwise, it appears to me that adding cards to...

Weaker cards are still decent choices if they work well for your character. As a bash-face class I may pick up another item to get Sage's Journal even though I already have Belt of Giant Strength because I can play both on the same check and you never know when that extra d4 is crucial to winning vs losing or dying. Also, in S&S at least there is a lot of unavoidable damage in higher deck numbers, so you will be churning through cards that way. And if you aren't picking up card feats then I hope you didn't want to up your hand size by all that much... Big hand size = more options, but you need cards in your deck to support that or else one single bad encounter could literally kill you (spyglass octopus comes to mind, as does goblin keelhaulin').

2/5 *

What skizzerz said.

There's no reason to turn down a card feat, for each character there is always one card type you'd rather have than another. If that's not the case, having more blessings or allies is always a good choice.

In OP, there are only about 2-4 upgrades for my character per adventure. If I gain more (or the wrong type), I'd refuse them because those "upgrades" don't work with my character. For example, why would I want a ranged weapon with my melee character?

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