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Didn't see a thread for this, so putting this out there to say we, uh... did pretty well! After a fairly routine scenario (though not being able to close locations when we encountered a curse was a pain!) we corned the Kraken and our two person party, with the help of Exalted we acquired after the previous scenario, played 3x Blessings of Pharasma on it at once for a total of 10d12 on Amaryllis's Poison Blast. My wife was still counting her result as I was packing up the cards, I think it was somewhere in the >80 range.
It's always best to make sure the kraken stays dead. Well done!
I don't remember much about this scenario, even though we played it last week.
Oh right, now that I reread the scenario, I understand.
We put Radillo at the Spring and made her take all the Haunts. We tried to avoid the curses as much as possible since they're scary scary scary. Torture Pit was also scary scary scary so we only spent 1 turn in there, the turn we cornered and defeated the villain. But other than that it was pretty standard fare.
I finally got a Weapon 5 which I put towards the super damaging weapon, Vicious Double-Axe +1. I could have taken the Adamantine Weapon, and I'll probably do it the next time I get a Weapon 5.
We're thoroughly stuck on this one.
We've played it 4 times and only got close once. (We beat it first time, then realised we had shrine to Besmara instead of Norgober)
This party (Tontelizi, Melindra, Arabundi, Kyra) tend to struggle with combat, and this is too much of a monster-fest. Adventure 5 and Kyra is still lugging around longs words, looking with longing at weapons in the AP itself, or in the Ranger or Fighter decks.
If the class decks actually facilitated reasonable deck building, then the challenge of the unusual skills for the barriers, and even the mega constitution-check for the kraken would be a nice change, as it is we sink so many blessings into surviving ordinary monsters that we can't handle the big bad.
Combine that with no ways to reduce structural damage, and no craft check, so once the ship wrecks it stays wrecked.
You have the Impossible Bottle at this point. That reduces structural damage by 4.
If you say that you're not good with monsters, and you're not good with ship checks (which is why structural damage is a problem for you), what exactly are you good at?
Can you show me your builds so I can get an idea of why you're struggling?
I remember the combats being scary at the start of 0-4, but now we're kind of used to them, I don't feel scared.
You also can choose a ship which reduces structural damage.
I'm in deck 6, and the Seaweed Siren scares me. That thing can kill you, easily, especially if you have an ally-heavy deck. But in deck 5 we had no issues.
Seaweed Siren is the thing with 3 Wisdom checks right?
Yeah, we noped that one all the way. Evade.
You have the Impossible Bottle at this point. That reduces structural damage by 4.
Good point - we'd not played this party for a few weeks, and had forgotten the Impossible Bottle, we'll sub that one back in.
what exactly are you good at?
a question we ask ourselves regularly.
Tontelizi:
Str +2, Wis +1, Cha+1,
Weapon +1, Ally +1, Blessing +2
Leg-Breaker:
Hand-size 5
d4+1 to other character's combat
+1 dice when recharging polearm
recharge ally when defeating monster
discard ally for +1 die vs Monster or barrier.
Ranseur, Lucerne Hammer, Shock Glaive +1, Trident+2, Flaming Ranseur +3, Longsword +2
Fortified Breastplate, Magic Full Plate, Elven Breastplate [subs out for Bucaneer's Breastplate]
Tankard [from iconic heroes] Staff of Minor Healing
Quartermaster, Soldier, Rogue Ape
Abadar, Cayden Cailean, 2x Gorum, gods [subs for Pirates Favour]
If he can get the right polearm in hand, he's not too bad early on, but gradually he stagnates, as all his allies and polearms are on the bottom of his deck- it's particularly a pain in this scenario as he needs to keep an ally in hand to close the location of many Sharks.
Melindra
Dex +2, Int+2
Armour +1, Ally +1, Blessing +2
Shadowcaster:
Hand-size 6
5+ double adventure to evade
When another encounters a bane, recharge a spell to move
+4 to recharge/acquire spells
Light Crossbow, Force Sling +3
Frost Ray, Dehydrating Touch, Icy Prison, Displacement, Scrying
Blackcloth Armour
Spyglass, Sapphire of Intelligence, Mist Horn, Token of Remembrance
Cat, Incanter, Clockwork Librarian.
Abadar, Achaekek, Gozreh, Sivanah
Obviously, she's good at acquiring and recharging spells, but otherwise, doesn't do a lot - strength and constitution-based barriers are an absolute nightmare, and despite having had to waste a feat upgrading the evade power, the check is still way too high to even attempt.
Arabundi
Dex+1, Con +1, Wis +2
Spell +2, Ally +1, Blessing+1
Nature Adept:
reveal spell to reduce damage by 2
+4 to acquire/recharge divine spell
+2 with attack trait
put recharged spell on top of deck
Deathbane Light Crossbow +1, Frost Longbow +1, Returning Throwing Axe +1, Light Crossbow [subs for Vindictive Harpoon]
Cure, Endurance, Divine Blaze, Holy Light
Orphidian Armour
Archer's Bracers, Masterwork tools [ subs for Besmara's Tricorne]
Archer, Mountaineer, Monkey
Abadar, Achaekek, Milani, 2x Erastil
Even with so much effort poured in to recharging spells, he still struggles to get cards like divine blaze back regularly, so is generally relying on some pretty uninspiring weapons for combat. His damage reduction never seems to be the relevant type, and his combat support power isn't powerful enough to make up for his shortcomings.
Kyra
Str +2, Wis +2,
Weapon +2, Spell +1, Blessing +1
Fireflower:
Proficient with Weapons
+4 with swords
Recharge to explore after defeating monster with sword
shuffle Sarenrae into deck
Flaming Scimitar +1, Spellsword +2, 2x Longsword [1 subs out for Brine's Sting]
Wisdom, Major Cure, Find Traps, Raise Dead
Animated shield, Deathbane Shield
Spyglass
Evangelist
3x Sarenrae, Cayden Cailean, Norgober, Sivanah, Gorum.
Once she gets a sword in hand, Kyra is our most reliable fighter (+10 with Brine's sting) but the selection of swords is pretty disappointing [2 longswords at level 5, and the level 6 one isn't that amazing unless you're discarding it] unfortunately, anything not off of wisdom or strength is a major problem (although Sarenraes help her muddle through with constitution)
I haven't looked closely into this, but at +4 it seems to me your characters are missing a skill feat. Did you take the extra feat which I think was at the beginning of adventure 4?
I play Arabundi. I put +3 into Dex. When he has his armor and the bracers in hand (which is often, since he's cycling his deck), he's +11 on his combat rolls (with a +1 weapon). This beats a number of monsters by just rolling 2 d8s, and even more if you add a single die via blessing.
I did take the Mage Hunter role and gave up on recharging spells, in favor for reducing any damage by 2 by revealing a weapon. That's come in handy on many occasions (and makes the Shrine of Norgorber a breeze).
Ah, ok - I'd read that as we got the skill feat for a single check, then it went away again - is it ongoing?
Let's assume you won't build shenanigans Arabundi.
I feel for you because the Ranger class deck is pretty bad with Ranged weapons.
Try subbing a Farglass for something else in your deck (even the Spyglasses) - Farglass is pretty much strictly better than a Spyglass.
If you have the promo Mistmourn, use that as your ship and nope all the things that you can't handle.
I dislike spreading out skill feats over 3 stats, I pretty much stick to 2 because I expect others in my party to be able to handle whatever third I have.
Kyra's fighting should be okay. My Melee check was around that much and I had no issues. Wisdom allows her to bust ships and work with a lot of barriers so I don't think Kyra's the problem.
Arabundi... Nature Adept Arabundi wants to be support, but his spell selection doesn't really allow him to be support for others. The scout power feat is pretty awesome; you should take it.
For the "stagnant" problem I think Tontelizi can grab a Helpful Haversack, which basically allows him to cycle through the cards he doesn't want. Other than that, Kyra's healing power allows him to shuffle his deck.
Sadly, I think the Shadowcaster role is worse than the Mage Spy role; Mage Spy has a role similar to Alahazra's so you know what's good before you actually go there; you're really light on scouting, which creates the mismatches you talk about where you have a character ill-suited to the checks you face.
Have you tried bunching up people at a location? Does that help with the fighting?
I feel for you because the Ranger class deck is pretty bad with Ranged weapons.
Seconded.
My best weapon, out of the entire class deck, is the deck 1 Returning Throwing Axe (recharge for Ranged skill + d8 + d6 + 1). Unless you count the deck 1 S&S loot Vindictive Harpoon (bury for Ranged + 3d6 + 1 plus d8 if bane is Aquatic).
Meanwhile, the rogue is over here with a Venomous Crossbow.
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We finally beat this last night - the extra skill feat helped, as did the Impossible Bottle.
Tontelizi ran into the Kraken final turn without a weapon - fortunately, Valeros' Tankard + a blessing of Sarenrae were enough to pass the constitution check, and with a few Blessings, including a Gorum, he managed to squeak through the combat check.
Try subbing a Farglass for something else in your deck (even the Spyglasses) - Farglass is pretty much strictly better than a Spyglass.
I had been doing this previously, then never having a pirate in hand, so had got out of the habit. Have swapped it back in now, although little effect this time round.
If you have the promo Mistmourn, use that as your ship and nope all the things that you can't handle.
We've gone back and forth between the Mistmourn for Evading, and the Wormwood to add D12 against the Barriers that are the wrong check-type for the character encountering it. This time round, we got lucky with who ran in to which barrier.
Have you tried bunching up people at a location? Does that help with the fighting?
We generally try to avoid bunching - It's hideous at the sharkskin reef, especially for Melindra and Arabundi. This time we had Tontelizi and Kyra together quite a bit- when he's with her, and she's got Brine's sting, she doesn't need to roll to defeat a shark.
Thanks everyone for all the tips.