RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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My solo playthrough of the Season of the Shackles is almost done, and the last scenario looms ahead. I'm concerned - I'd like to not get all the way to the end and die. I've got two major concerns:
1. The timer. Having played Into the Eye in RotR solo, changing from a blessing timer to a bury timer really is harsh on the solo player. I go from having lots of time, and needing blessings and allies to make checks, to having much less time and still needing to make those checks. So I need a way to turbo through as many cards as I can in a turn without sacrificing my ability to make checks against them.
2. The boss. Combat 42. That's a tough number to reach by yourself.
I'm currently at the end of 0-5, playing Meliski(brawler). I have a hand size of 7, gonna bump it to 8 during 0-6. I can spend two blessings on combat checks, and recharge them. I have no blessings that add 2 dice to spell or melee checks - there are no Gorums or Pharasmas in the bard deck. There are Achekek and Lamashtu, but they are AD5-6 blessings so I'm very unlikely to be able to get them. I have no mid-turn draw power. so at best I'll be rocking a 7 card hand after my mandatory bury.
I think my plan, such as it is, is to get the fortune teller if I can to help with exploring. Use allies for extra explores, burn acquired cards for the mandatory bury every turn. I heal when beating up monsters so hopefully my deck won't wither too much as I try to power through the location deck.
For the combat check, I have Lightning Bolt - spells seem to beat melee for this due to having the d10 for blessings rather than a d8. If I can get the poison spell that is +2d12, I will, because the villain has no immunities. Assuming lightning bolt, Quickened Ray, and 3 blessings with Pirate's Favor, I think I can get a combat check of 4d10+5d6+4, average 43.5 - should(>50%) make it and I do have a 2 die reroll. Not great odds but it's the best I can come up with. Rather than try and repeat that for check 2, I'm thinking attempt the divine check. At best I'll have 2 cards left in my hand, but if I assume 2 pirates on the scenario card, I can get 4d10+4, average 26, with a blessing. But that only leaves me one card to spend on rerolling for both checks...it's possible to win but not looking favorable.
I'd appreciate any critique or suggestions. I know this strategy is very character specific, but I think trying to solo this last scenario might require this level of planning. If anyone else wants to bring up other characters and plans, I'll help with that.
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First, I applaud you. I don't think I would have tried to run the season solo. I know I wouldn't try running Season 1 solo.
I'm interested in your outcome.
My one party is near the end. I should be able to finish the season right before GenCon. But there are multiple dangers with 0-6F. First, obviously is the bury a card at the start of your turn. Not really any way of recharging cards prior to your turn since you're solo. That's going to hurt a lot.
5 monsters, 5 barriers, 1 of each boon plus Karkanoi (or Karaoke as my daughter read the first time she saw it) AND the Avatar. Don't dismiss Karkanoi with a 32 combat and damage after if you don't use a spell. Plus he's a crab so you gotta roll twice. It's a bad place to be even if there is just one of them. So multiple explores is a must. Some sort of Augury would be great. Making sure you had a healthy number of Henchmen from 0-6D is also good. The fact that you have to have burned through the location deck in order to encounter the Avatar is also a big pain. Evading is not a good idea.
I really don't know what to tell you. But good luck!
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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It seems like the "cheap" way to do it would be simply to play with some "dummy" companions, using the AD 4+ pregen iconics as if they were new players. Then I could drive those guys like the rentals they are, using them to burn though the deck and eat a bunch of the damage and buries, since adding characters only adds one card instead of 10.
But that seems like cheating to me. My major concern is that the scenario is do or die-I have to have my plan going in, because a retry is 27 scenarios away. No waiting out the timer and trying again.
Honestly, so far season 0 hasn't been super tough solo - except for the very first scenario. Solo Ghosts of the Deep is probably one of the hardest scenarios in all of PACG.
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I know you probably don't want to hear this but a run-through might be a way to do it. Although it might be considered cheating as well. I almost suggested one more pre-gen as cannon fodder. I think this scenario might be more advisable as 3-4 player. The more players, the more multi-explores you'd get. This is definitely a burn-through-the-deck quickly session.
Try with two pre-gens and see what happens. I'd hate to see you get smoked for a bum strategy. Also, try to play out 0-6D so you can get some Henchmen on your sheet.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Oh yeah, I'm going to play 0-6 in order. Maybe I should do the extra characters bit on my first play, just to get a reportable win so I can have my Enora and Ring unlocks, and then try a "true" solo play for possible bragging rights. If I manage to score a 5 or 6 blessing things get a lot easier as I can stock some Achekek(s). Even one of those bumps my average combat roll up to 49, which is a much nicer comfort zone.
Btw, I will say that Brawler Meliski is freakin' fantastic for solo play. Multiple recharged blessings on combat checks, spells, an unarmed attack, rerolls - he's very solid. It's like Sajan and Jirelle had a spellcasting baby.
Despite your warning I'll probably try a solo run of Season 1 as well - I'm fond of challenge. May wait for the paladin or druid decks to come out first though. Despite the reward I'm not thinking solo Enora would be the way to go...healing is so very important when alone, at least with my playstyle.
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Oh, never meant you to think you should play them out of order but just saying that since the Henchmen defeated in 0-6D can be used for (0-6F) damage reduction, adding a die and/or explores, you should try to max out those. And that when you get to 0-6F, you might want to try adding a pre-gen or just trying the scenario with a couple of pre-gens just to get an idea of the impact of the location with all the conditions attached to Lost in the Storm, 10 banes, 6 boons, Karkanoi and the Avatar.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I guess we'll see on 6D - it actually reminds me a lot of the final scenario in the S&S AP. My deck has a lot of recovery with Major Cure and healing after beating a monster, and I hope to pick up the Sihedron ring for damage mitigation.
At least with 0-6D if things go south I can wait out the timer and retry. I think I'll need two pirates for 6F so I'll have to be careful to get them.
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Looking back, the part about 6F that can be even worse than the henchmen and villain are the five barriers. It's very possible to hit one nasty barrier that stays on top of the location deck, preventing you from progressing further while still forcing you to bury cards.
That almost happened in my 4-player group. I was Valeros and hit Albatross Soup, which remains on top and when you fail to defeat, makes you bury more cards. We had no one with a Wisdom higher than a d6, so we had to throw everything we had at helping me beat it. I did, with 3 blessings, but if I hadn't, we probably would've died.
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That's why I still have a Basic Burglar in my deck, and two BoAbadar...generally 3d6+1d10 with reroll 2 dice works for most barriers.
I look at AD4-6 allies in the Bard box and wonder why I would trade away my basic Burglar and Dilettante for these "upgrades."
In fairness, the Bard deck Basic allies are amazing. I really like the Wayfairer (explore, with +2d6 to your checks) as an AD4 ally, but yeah with B allies like that, who needs upgrades? (I mean, you'll want a B upgrade to get the Old Salt, but other than that...)
Hm...
(The Wanderer is actually in the Cleric Class deck.)
Pyromaniac Mage and Fortune Teller are amazing and they are in 5.
Storm in 0-6F (which we hit) can be nasty.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I think Fortune Teller is a 6, but yeah, I intend to pick her up if I can. I've looked at Pyromaniac mage, and he's good, but I haven't needed help with combat checks much, and Dilettante helps with all noncombat checks, including barriers, ships, location powers, and so forth.
Storm in 0-6F (which we hit) can be nasty.
Can't you just wreck your ship and be done with it? There's no blessings deck to lose blessings from.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Actually, wait... I'm pretty sure this is unintentional, but if something forces a discard from the blessings deck in one of these scenarios without one, doesn't that technically end the scenario in a loss? If so one could abort this scenario just by using a ship ability to flip a blessing for a bonus. *I'm pretty sure this is not an intended feature and would probably be fixed in a FAQ*
And elcoderdude, many ships have negative "when commanding" text when wrecked that you'd want to avoid. My plan is to pick either a ship with the biggest structural DR (3?) I can find, or one that has no real effect when wrecked, since there won't be blessings to power any beneficial abilities.
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I'd have to say that if you try to activate a ship's power that uses a blessing deck discard as it's payment, you would not be able to use the power for this scenario. It goes back to not being able to do something impossible. ("If a card instructs you to do something impossible, like draw a card from an empty deck, ignore that instruction.")
However, a wrecked ship does require discarding from the blessings deck as punishment. So I think that might be a way to end the scenario prematurely. (In this case, it's the rules about wrecked ships and not a card.)
Depending on what ship you are using, a wrecked ship can also impart further negative consequences. Just read the "When Commanding This Ship" text on the wrecked aide of each ship. Some are real bad if you continue to let it get destroyed.
We chose a ship for 0-6F that didn't have a real downside when wrecked in that scenario: Goblin Wielding. We also choose the ship because we could all fix it (strength check) and because it has a heal-one-card ability which doesn't require a blessings deck to power.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Well, I'm through 0-6D. It wasn't so bad, but I only got one pirate "henchman" to stick. Since only two are possible I guess 50% isn't bad, but it means I won't have two for throwing at checks in 6F. The actual villain of 6D kept ending up in the location I was exploring, and he's not really that tough if you have a high Diplo/arcane check - and I'm playing a bard. In fact I would have had 0 henchmen but a Scrying spell let me move one in front of the villain in my last location where he had top-decked again.
I did score an item 6 as plunder, so the Sihedron Ring is mine. Haven't gotten any allies above 4 yet, or blessings.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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...and now I'm done. 0-6E was super easy with just one location, and I lucked out on plunder and scored an Ally 6, giving me the fortune teller. (I assumed we still got plunder even though there was no official "ship" for the scenario)
My first play of 0-6F was with a helpful Seoni and Valeros joining me...and it ended hilariously. So the location for 6F has one item in it, and it was Potion of the Ocean - banish to autosuccess one check against an aquatic bane. *Checks to see if villain is Aquatic* - yep. With three characters worth of resources making one 42 check was super easy.
So I replayed a true solo adventure, just Meliski versus the storm. Got the Storm barrier in fact, and ignored it as being inconsequential - all that my wrecked ship did was remove swashbuckling from my checks. I was able to power through the location deck with 9 buried cards, and that included wasting two turns at the end to get my hand just right. Was able to basically put together a very solid hand(pretty much the one described in my initial post), and beat the villain with about 5 cards left in my deck. Being able to burn blessings/allies for explores, and then immediately heal those cards if I beat a monster, while recharging blessings spent on combat, made tearing through the deck a breeze. Ended up with 3d10+2d12+2d6+4(poison blast, 2 blessings, quickened ray) for the combat 42 check, then finished it off with 3d10+11(blessing, old salt, discarded pirate) divine. The 2d12 rolled a 1 and a 2 initially so used my reroll and they came back a 10 and a 12. Exciting finish and used up my whole hand.
So anyways, solo 0-6F was tough but doable. Hand size was crucial just to have enough cards to actually play when encountering the villain - I'm not sure how possible this would be with, say, a fighter with a five card hand size.
Congratulations! You need an achievement or something for this.
Even the worst fighter has a 6 max hand size IIRC, but that's not what I'd be worried about - it's the fact that the fighter has very few ways to recycle blessings.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I got lucky a couple of times...an early Scrying sent the villain to the bottom without wasting an explore. I guessed correctly with the Fortune teller more often than not, just by counting cards and playing the odds.
Anyone can use the Impossible Bottle for a d4+1 heal once. I think if a fighter were to try this they'd have to rely on recharging weapons for their discard ability against most monsters, and judiciously use the IB to recover once they got about 4 in discard or so. It would be super dicey.
But really Meliski's recharge to reroll ability saved my bacon on multiple occasions. Being able to pull a near miss into a win is fantastic...and being able to recharge one card that you really want to keep right before a unavoidable hand wipe also has its merits.
So... the consensus seems to be that you can't just concede since there isn't a Blessings deck 'timer'. We just tried it with two and if we can't concede or quit we will both die. I would not have tried it with two if I knew that were an option. ;) (Really wanting to finish to use Enora in Righteous & missed the regular group's session.)
I'm sorry to say this is a win or die scenario, just like the final scenario in Rise of the Runelords.
I know it is poor consolation, but Enora is a difficult character to play in the Season of the Righteous. She has a healing ability, but her Arcane bonus is only +1 and she has no damage-mitigation. The monster Carrion Golem (of which there are 2-3 copies) can easily kill her in a single encounter.
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I'm sorry to say this is a win or die scenario, just like the final scenario in Rise of the Runelords.
I know it is poor consolation, but Enora is a difficult character to play in the Season of the Righteous. She has a healing ability, but her Arcane bonus is only +1 and she has no damage-mitigation. The monster Carrion Golem (of which there are 2-3 copies) can easily kill her in a single encounter.
I have two people that finished SotS and are both playing Enora and love her. But we do have Kyra in both parties and need heals ever so often. Scry/Augury are important.
PezKat, sorry but it is one where you prep the best you can, villains from 0-6D are nice to have but not essential. We've beaten the scenario with Harsk and Kyra; Vika, Kyra and Jirelle; Tontellizi, Kyra and Harsk. But once you're in the scenario, don't look back. There is no conceding.
Thanks both. Our issue was that we didn't know that ahead of time or we wouldn't have tried it w/just 2. I will try either Radillo or Darago as our party already has divine spellcasters. The character I really want is Lini but the Druid deck has been pushed back a month & I've already taken a 2-month break from playing w/my group (plus someone w/the Paladin deck is starting his new char. this week so I wanted to start then too).
Smaller hand size would've helped a bit but probably not enough. Fortunately the only barrier we didn't defeat was the one that prevents moving. ;) Congrats to ryric for succeeding solo!