So forget all this Balazar confusion and heated discussion about Imrijka and Andowyn.
What's up with Shardra? Compared to most of the other WotR cast she seems quite a bit underpowered, even as it's understood that she is a support character through and through.
We are a group of 6 and this is early days still, but she doesn't have a reliable way to get spells back in her hand and she doesn't have weapon proficiencies, and may never even get it depending on her role.
How are people running her? Not exploring with her is not really feasible in a group of 6, but she almost always needs blessing supports for combat and barriers.
The reroll power is ok I guess, but it does keep her from having spells in hand (unlike Jirelle who could just do it if the check was swashbuckling) and we havent had a lot of opportunities to scout using her knowledge powers.
Any tips?
We have a group of 4: Imrijka, Adowyn, Seoni and Shardra. We make sure that Shardra gets all the Cures and Buffs she can get and keep her close to Seoni. This way, if Seoni ever comes across a threat, she makes sure it's dead. Shardra in her town makes sure Seoni stays alive. It's a pretty well balanced system which greatly works out for us.
By having 3-5 spells in Shardra's hand, she can make sure that if the first two attempts fail for a Check to Defeat a Bane for Seoni, that the third time WILL work.
We have a group of 4: Imrijka, Adowyn, Seoni and Shardra. We make sure that Shardra gets all the Cures and Buffs she can get and keep her close to Seoni. This way, if Seoni ever comes across a threat, she makes sure it's dead. Shardra in her town makes sure Seoni stays alive. It's a pretty well balanced system which greatly works out for us.
By having 3-5 spells in Shardra's hand, she can make sure that if the first two attempts fail for a Check to Defeat a Bane for Seoni, that the third time WILL work.
I haven't played in a 6 person group, but from what I can tell, everybody needs to pull their own weight and probably needs to explore at least twice per turn. So a full support character who doesn't explore a lot seems a hindrance for OP, whose in a 6 man group. So your strategy might not work for him/6-char groups.
It seems important, for a 6-man group, that everyone is self-sufficient; and specializing is more of a luxury than a recommendation as you increase the player count.
You do have to go pretty heavy offense early with Shardra's spells, since like you said, she doesn't have a lot of power against monsters early. I'd recommend focusing here in low-monster locations (which there are, thankfully, a fair number in WotR). If you have another character with great exploration power, like Imrijka, you can afford to have another character focused more on support. As long as you start with at least 1 attack spell in hand, you should be able to explore at least once, often twice. Due to her reroll power, Shardra cycles very well, and you will often see recharges spells several times (especially if she cures herself, which shuffles them in).
By having 3-5 spells in Shardra's hand, she can make sure that if the first two attempts fail for a Check to Defeat a Bane for Seoni, that the third time WILL work.
Fairly sure that 'that character takes the new result' means you can't do it more than once on a check, I'm afraid
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I’ll stand up for Shardra. She is a slow starter, but I will talk about how I have managed to get her running successfully.
Card Upgrades: Yes, she is a character who relies on spells for combat and too fuel her best power, and only starts with 5 spell slots. Her first three card feats should go to spells to help mitigate this problem.
Read a book: Get her a Demon Hunter’s Handbook ASAP! Once you do that, go get her another one! I can’t emphasizes enough how important this card is for Shardra. Not only does it boost your combat skill against a wide range of opponents, it also allows you to utilize your best skill, which then works to trigger your scouting power. Using Shardra well requires you to find ways to regularly make knowledge checks, and the Handbook is the best way I have found to do that.
Spell Selection: I started with a sanctuary, a cure, and three attack spells, and by the end of AP2, I have a sanctuary, two cures and five attack spells. In a large group, Shadra shouldn’t be taking buffs, and probably should only take the cure spells that the other divine casters aren’t picking. She needs to be able to win combats, and this is her only way to do it.
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play: They don’t come until AP2, but I love me some Gossamer Shrouds. Shardra will never be your best combatant, and getting evasion out of your armor slot is wonderful.
The cards must flow: Shardra isn’t necessarily a deck cycling machine, and its very easy to end up with all of your spells at the bottom of your deck. Look for ways to keep shuffling your deck to make those spells potential draws.
Embrace your role: The changes above help make shardra competent on her own, but that isn’t her forte. If you want to play shardra well you need to be examining cards (i.e. making knowledge checks) and providing rerolls (or just the confidence of knowing you have rerolls available). Wrath has numerous cards that force the whole team to succeed in order to win. No one helps their team more with those situations than shardra. Knowing you have the reroll available changes everything about how you approach tough challenges, and lets you conserve cards.
Let’s say you face an important roll (a checks to defeat henchman, close location, or beat villain). You have an 80% chance of success, and failing that roll is going to cost you 6 explores. If Shadra isn’t there, I am finding some bonus to throw to help improve my odds; the benefits of success are too high and the cost of failure to severe. If Shadra’s there, and has a spell, I save that card for something else. Having the reroll gives me a 96% chance of success. Keep in mind that 80% of the time, Shardra doesn’t do anything active, she doesn’t need to trigger the power, but her presence saved me a card. These numbers get even more significant when everyone in your party needs to make a check to defeat a bane. The math of beating those banes in a 6 player game is horrific. Shadra completely reverse that.
Pick your Friends: Maximizing Shadra’s powers means keeping your party grouped together. Look to pair her with at least some other characters who benefit having a large stack of players. It takes some time for them to get all of their upgrades, but a core of Shardra, Alain and Enora offers amazing synergy.
Exploration Fallacy: The challenge of a six player game is not generating extra explorations. If every player generates one successful exploration a turn, you have plenty of time. The hurdle is making sure that you win vital checks Shardra excels making those checks
By having 3-5 spells in Shardra's hand, she can make sure that if the first two attempts fail for a Check to Defeat a Bane for Seoni, that the third time WILL work.Fairly sure that 'that character takes the new result' means you can't do it more than once on a check, I'm afraid
Yes that is right, Shardra can only reroll once, so the above example is incorrect.
And thanks Joshua, these are exactly the types of strategies we were looking for!
And thanks Joshua, these are exactly the types of strategies we were looking for!
If you find other/better ways to get her making more knowledge rolls, please let me know! I have a feeling that they are out there, but I just haven't stumbled on them yet.
Chief Technical Officer
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By having 3-5 spells in Shardra's hand, she can make sure that if the first two attempts fail for a Check to Defeat a Bane for Seoni, that the third time WILL work.Fairly sure that 'that character takes the new result' means you can't do it more than once on a check, I'm afraid
You're correct that she can't do it more than once per check, but the reason is *not* the phrase "that character takes the new result."
In fact, we specifically changed the reroll template from "take the second result" to "take the new result" so that you specifically *can* play multiple reroll effects on the same roll. However, the key to what I just said is "multiple reroll effects," not "the same reroll effect multiple times," which was codified in this FAQ entry, and *that* is the reason that she can't do it more than once per check.
I’ll stand up for Shardra. She is a slow starter, but I will talk about how I have managed to get her running successfully.
Card Upgrades: Yes, she is a character who relies on spells for combat and too fuel her best power, and only starts with 5 spell slots. Her first three card feats should go to spells to help mitigate this problem.
Read a book: Get her a Demon Hunter’s Handbook ASAP! Once you do that, go get her another one! I can’t emphasizes enough how important this card is for Shardra. Not only does it boost your combat skill against a wide range of opponents, it also allows you to utilize your best skill, which then works to trigger your scouting power. Using Shardra well requires you to find ways to regularly make knowledge checks, and the Handbook is the best way I have found to do that.
Spell Selection: I started with a sanctuary, a cure, and three attack spells, and by the end of AP2, I have a sanctuary, two cures and five attack spells. In a large group, Shadra shouldn’t be taking buffs, and probably should only take the cure spells that the other divine casters aren’t picking. She needs to be able to win combats, and this is her only way to do it.
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play: They don’t come until AP2, but I love me some Gossamer Shrouds. Shardra will never be your best combatant, and getting evasion out of your armor slot is wonderful.
The cards must flow: Shardra isn’t necessarily a deck cycling machine, and its very easy to end up with all of your spells at the bottom of your deck. Look for ways to keep shuffling your deck to make those spells potential draws.
Embrace your role: The changes above help make shardra competent on her own, but that isn’t her forte. If you want to play shardra well you need to be examining cards (i.e. making knowledge checks) and providing rerolls (or just the confidence of knowing you have rerolls available). Wrath has numerous cards that force the whole team to succeed in order...
This is excellent, thank you for posting this! I am playing Shardra in my home game for WotR, and this is exactly what I have been looking for in order to make the most out of her abilities as a support character.
Now to hope I can get a demon hunters handbook or two...
I really like the Mastiff Ally (C deck) and Mist Horn (1) for Shardra. The mastiff, being similar to Imp from S&S lets her refill her hand if she's played many of her spells/blessings off turn. The Mist Horn at a monster heavy location (or predicted henchman/villain fight) prevents a LOT of the pre/post-combat damage which can really exhaust your resources.
Have her play the horn at a location on her turn, it lasts until the start of her next turn and an entire pass around the table sighs with relief if Arboreal blight/fiendish tree, pitborn scoundrel, mongrel monster, etc come up while you are all at that location. It's saved us from a few hand wipes.
So, having just read this thread, I now have some ideas as to how to play Shadra. I had already indentified that Shadra really wants to be co-located with someone, so I've tried to do that, but it usually hasn't been successful or helpful, but I have some better ideas now.
Anyway, my question - who should I buddy up with for Shadra? We have a 5 person team. Other than Shadra, it includes
Balazar
Kyra
Seelah
EkkieMy initial thought had been to buddy with Seelah, but that never seemed to produce anything of use. I've tried Kyra, and had a little better luck.
Any strong suggestions
Shardra/Seelah+ whoever's turn it is stack of buffing power. Play it like a large RotR party with Lem & Valeros---you want people to jump into their location whenever you can, to maximize the buffing potential. Reroll buffs like Shardra's have good longevity here, since you only have to pay the card when they fail the initial roll (vs. a bard who has to recharge before the roll to help at all).
You'll have to put up with extra pain from 'everyone at this location' effects, but that's the price stacking-buff parties pay for their synergy the rest of the time :).
Also, if you're teaming up at a location anyway, this is a good time to use a dual-marshal setup (Seelah + Balazar here, probably) and do a lot of charge-passing back and forth.