This is an idea for a contest : winner definitively should be the next guest to do a blog entry on the PACG blog.
Contest question : how do you win the Death of the Storm King scenario with Adowyn, Alain, Balazar, Crowe, Kyra and Shardra in less than 10 hours considering 2 hours par game (meaning you get 5 tries so cannot rely on too many lucky rolls)?
It's OK if it's hard, it's suppose to be, but not impossible (i. e. if less than 20% success, this is not a valid answer).
Of course since we are looking for a generic strategy, you cannot rely on specific loot or on any AD6 boon.
Let me help you : trick is you get 5 armies that need acrobatics 23 to defeat (and nobody has that skill, so you need that out of d4s and cannot rely on everyone always having a blessing ready) plus any character needs to be able to defeat The Suture+big K without dying with whatever is left of her mythic charges.
BTW, since losing against an army kills all the location boons, strategies that are based on harvesting boon unless you get a specific one are not acceptable.
Suggestion : you cannot afford to lose a single army encounter, else you will never have enough mythic charges to win.
As an exception, the PACG design/test team is allowed to participate in that contest because we really would like to know how they nailed it.
Seriously, I hate having to split the group to pass that scenario - seems like cheating and will spoil our party fun - and I'm pretty sure Mike did test that one intensively. So there must be a way. We just can't seem to find it. So my big thanks to whomever will find it.
Since it seems like this is for your own party, can you please give a breakdown of each character (role card, mythic path, feats, deck list)? Also, are any of the relevant cohorts removed from the game due to having been banished?
Hi skizzerz. Will do that in the next hours. We have all available cohorts, rest of info will follow.
OK if you really want to know, we are 8 characters playing the game (I know, we only planned on 6 or 7 but the succubus came...). This said, that doesn't really impact the capabilities of each one. Also Adowyn, Arueshalae and, and to a lesser extend Crowe are a little below where they could be on boons because of deaths (6 players game remember) or missing some games (still, we are speaking 6 players game).
Anyway, here it comes. The contest is based on the 6 following characters :
Adowyn Pack Leader
Demonbane Light Crossbow +1
Flaming Spear +1
Hand Crossbow X2
Heavy Crossbow
Agility
Enchanted Fang
Celestial Armor
Banner of Valor
Archer's Bracers
Fortune’s Arrow
Caravan Guard
Riding Horse
Riftwarden
Vulture
Wolf
Blessing of Ascension X3
Blessing of Deskari
Blessing of Shax
Leryn (Adowyn)
Mythic Trickster
Alain Glory Hound
Blackaxe
Disrupting Warhammer
Infinite Rod
Vorpal Blade
Demon Armor
Immolation Cloak
Barding of Pleated Light
Blancher
Blessing of Nocticula
Chalice of Ozem
Soulshear
Wardstone Fragment
Belt of Charging
Celestial Unicorn
Chuffy Lickwound
Interrogator
Lann
Blessing of Abadar
Blessing of Ascension X2
Blessing of Shax
Donahan (Alain)
Sword of Iomedae
Balazar Eidolonmancer
Cape of Wasps
Charm Monster
Ghost Wolf
Glibness
Mirror Image
Rune of Jandelay
Bastion of the Inheritor
Black Robe
Councilor's Ring
Talisman of True Faith
Blood Periapt
Mendevian Crusader X2
Merchant Lord X2
Redeemer Blacksmith
Wolverine
Blessing of Ascension X3
Blessing of the Starsong
Blessing of Xoveron
Padrig (Balazar)
Mythic Marshal
Crowe Spellrager
Cold Iron Mace +1 X2
Javelin of Lightning
Sawtooth Sabre +2
Veteran's Longspear (Alain)
Good Omen
Hellmouth Lash
Ice Strike
Life Drain
Helm of the Serpent King
Spiny Shield
Blessing of Nocticula
Dawnfower’s Kiss
Fiendsplitter
Chaos Stone
Silver Raven Figurine
Pit Gladiator X2
Blessing of Deskari X2
Blessing of Torag X2
Mythic Marshal
Kyra Everlight's Grace
Spellbreaker
Cure X2
Fireblade
Frigid Blast
Pillar of Life X2
Viper Strike
Stole of the Inheritor
Mist Horn
Demon Hunter
Jesker Helton
Teamster
Wolverine
Blessing of Abraxas X2
Blessing of Ascension X2
Blessing of Pulura
Blessing of Sarenrae X2
Blessing of Shelyn
Mythic Hierophant
Shardra Geltl Spirit Guide
Unholy Aspergillum +3
Cure X2
Death’s Touch
Dismissal
Divine Blaze
Ice Strike
Life Drain
Armor of the Pious
Corroded Helm
Blessing of Nocticula
Councilor's Ring
Transmogrify
Ring of Refection
Fortune-Teller
Scribe
Blessing of Abraxas
Blessing of Ascension
Blessing of Iomedae X3
Blessing of Nethys
Kolo (Shardra Geltl)
Mythic Hierophant
For information, our 2 other characters :
Arueshalae Redeemed
Corrosive Dagger +1
Force Shortbow +1 X2
Skirmishing Spear
Expeditious Chain Mail
Blessing of Nocticula
Spherewalker Staff
Starbow
Swallowtail Bracers
Manual of War
Apprentice
Demon Hunter
Kamilo Dann
Mongrel Archer
Blessing of Abadar
Blessing of Ascension X2
Blessing of Baphomet X2
Blessing of Deskari
Blessing of Shax
Arueshalae's Gift (Arueshalae)
Mythic Trickster
Enora Occularium Scholar
Brilliance
Fiery Glare X3
Fireblade
Force Missile
Lightning Touch
Scorching Ray
Steal Soul
Codex
Demon Hunter’s Handbook
Manual of War
Tome of Mental Prowess
Druid of the Leaf
Druid of the Storm
Quadnys Orlun
Raconteur
Blessing of Abraxas X2
Blessing of Iomedae
Blessing of the Starsong
Mythic Archmage
(tl;dr: Using Blessing of Deskari/Nocticula with heavy scouting. Or cheat it with Hierophant and killing a character intentionally. Or break the game with Sword of Iomedae infinite loops.)
I don't have AD6 yet, but based on what you've said, I can make some suggestions. I'm assuming that the armies are barriers like in AD2. If that's incorrect, then proceed to the work-around options at the end.
A few options, depending on which mythic paths you have/what your deck composition is. Some of these require a few Blessings of Ascension in the party for regaining mythic charges after using path powers.
* Presumably your Shardra isn't a visionary, or else she could just use Knowledge for the check. Also, I guess the army doesn't have the demon or undead trait, or else Kyra could use her power to use divine for the check.
*Depending on role (and possibly how many abyssal locations are in the scenario), Adowyn could have up to a d4+2, or +2d4, to her check. Balazar should be able to use a monster for another d4. That starts you with a baseline of up to 3d4+2 / 4d4. I'll assume you have Balazar's monster feat, and at least one of Adowyn's feats, to start at 3d4.
*However you do this, you'll want to be more-or-less scouting everything before you hit it for this scenario, as you need to be prepared for the armies. This probably mostly means Adowyn. Hand her additional card from other characters as necessary to keep this going. You *need* Shardra to be backing up Adowyn for the check, and for everyone to have blessings on hand for the armies. If you have a mythic archmage in the party, have them use their 5-charge power to help with this, and use blessings of ascension/etc. to recover. If you have lend mythic path, lend the archmage power to someone else to share the burden. If you have mythic marshal, have them feed the archmage charges as needed.
(I know you said not to assume everyone has a blessing on hand; with 100% scouting, I think it's fair---and necessary for success!---to revise that.)
*So, baseline with no tricks but 6 blessings each time (and a relevant d4 feat from adowyn, and a balazar monster) is 9d4. That's 50% of being 23+, so 75% success rate with Shardra.
*Steal Soul is a spell you could have by now (even rebuilding). Whoever's deck it's in, find it, give it to Adowyn, and have her cast it. That's another d4. That either ups your base odds to 75% (fail only 1/16 with a reroll), or means you can have one character missing a blessing.
*Better blessings: Blessing of Abadar is good, and there should be some in your party. Hoard them for these checks. Each time you have one of these, that's an additional d4 (and as above, getting to 10d4 with a reroll is quite safe).
With scouting, you can control what turn you encounter armies on = you can sometimes wait for a corrupt blessing on top of the blessing discard pile/can make this your first exploration. Make sure Adowyn has a Nocticula/Deskari blessing (pass them off from whoever has them in their deck), for an extra *d4+6* over a regular blessing. Have people play blessings of Baphomet on the check, for another path to 2-dice besides Abadar. With one one Abadar, one Nocticula, and no other blessings, you're up to 8d4+6---with a Shardra reroll, that's over 98% success. And hey, if you're willing to banish the Nocticula (like for the last army or two), you don't even have to scout in advance, just make sure Adowyn has one in hand before you blind-explore.
More exploit-y methods:
Mythic Hierophant: Suicide a character. Defeat the armies with 5 living characters and forget about acrobatics. Resurrect the deceased afterwards.
OR (probably not possible for your group at the moment)
Sword of Iomedae on Kyra with a proper deck (8 blessings of ascension, all possible slots filled with cards you display/bury/banish or which give mythic charges. e.g.:
8 BOA
Mastiff, Beltis Loumis, Celestial Unicorn x2
Pillar of Life x2, Steal Soul, Restore Mythic Power Lend Mythic Path
Chalice, Banner
Weapon
Armor)
Bury/give away the armor (and the weapon, if you don't have handsize 7). Display/bury all the other cards that don't give mythic charges on your first 3-4 turns.
Then:
1. Play all your blessings of ascension/restore mythic power for mythic charges (5-7 on a fresh hand).
2. Spend 5 to reshuffle your discards and reset your hand. You will always draw at least 5 cards that restore mythic charges.
Repeat 1-2 an arbitrary number of times. Now you have +infinite to Str/Wis/Cha, and can power any charge-using powers at-will.
3. Play Lend Mythic Power to grab an archmage in the group to scout everything / Marshal to give other people 5 of your mythic charges on each encounter/etc.
4. Explore an arbitrary number of times, clearing out most non-army cards trivially. If you have room to fit a move-and-explore mount into Kyra's remaining cards (5 charge restorers + Lend Mythic Path + Mount), you can clear out all non-army cards.
5. With those encounters & Mythic Marshal power repeatedly borrowed, everyone else should be back to full++ on mythic charges, for all the non-acrobatics checks.
6. Heal other characters with Sword of Iomedae as needed, so they have blessings on hand for the acrobatics check. If their hands get clogged with cards that don't help, have them pitch their entire hand to redraw on their turn until that's fixed. You can restart the infinite power at any time, regardless of whose turn it is.
Seeing your actual party:
Brute-force scouting is annoyingly much harder w/o the archmage, but may still be doable. Adding Enora to the party eliminates the problem entirely if she has the 'use-knowledge-for-all-barriers' feat tree, as she can both bypass acrobatics with that, and regardless she can scout a couple locations to supplement (fed charges from the marshals).
For you current party: scout scout scout, and make sure Adowyn has blessings of deskari on hand for the armies. Hope for enough corrupt blessings in the blessing deck to enable that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Am I missing something? Can't you just use Kyra to on the acrobatics check? The army has both the demon and undead trait, so she can roll her divine check and steam roll the 23.
Alain - Combat
Crowe - Combat
Balazar - Arcane
Shardra - Knowledge
Andowyn - Divine
Kyra - Acrobatcis
Am I missing something? Can't you just use Kyra to on the acrobatics check? The army has both the demon and undead trait, so she can roll her divine check and steam roll the 23.
Alain - Combat
Crowe - Combat
Balazar - Arcane
Shardra - Knowledge
Andowyn - Divine
Kyra - Acrobatcis
Yes, I just double-checked and Kyra's power says "for your check to defeat" not "combat check to defeat".
Er, I guess the extreme measures aren't necessary for your party, then. Consider them open advice to parties that actually are stuck with making a 23 check with d4s! If anyone actually beats this scenario by having someone 'play dead' so the armies leave them alone, with plans to resurrect later, please let me know ;).
Good catch on Kyra. Now I have to go an explain that to my dear wife who plays her that she just totally forgot to read her card. Feels like using diplomacy on a demon....
I'm still working my way through AD5, so I haven't really poured of the AD6 cards. Did they really put an army barrier that requires an acrobatics check in a set where none of the characters have the acrobatics skill?
Did they really put an army barrier that requires an acrobatics check in a set where none of the characters have the acrobatics skill?
A few of the characters still have ways to deal with the Acro check, as pointed above. However, if you lack the proper decency to have chosen those chars, or to not play with 6 characters... well, what were you thinking, really?
Yeah, seems I'm sticking by my Quarterstaff of Vaulting way into AD6.