So I'm not sure I understand Class Deck add-ons.
One of the gaming sites is offering the Monk Class deck today at basically 1/2 price ($9.99), and I'm debating as to whether this would be a decent pick-up for me or not.
I am currently new to playing Skull & Shackles (having NOT played Rise of the Runelords), and the core set doesn't have any Monks. Since this is thematically a Pirate (although obviously other classes are present) theme, I was wondering if there is any benefit for me to pick this up.
Sure, I get that there are 3 new characters, but what of the other 100+ cards? Do the monsters, boons, spells, etc...work seamlessly into S&S core set? No, I haven't even made it into Deck 1: Wormwood Mutiny...but at this price, I'm wondering if I should go ahead and pick it up.
Can anyone tell me (newbie) as to the benefits/disadvantage of picking up a class deck? Is it too early in my adventures? Are monk's a decent fit for Skull & Shackles?
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The Class Decks (not to be confused with Character Add-on Deck) contains only characters (character, role, token) and boons. There are no banes in it.
The idea is two fold:
1. Facilitate organized play.
2. Allow you to add a character to any adventure path and bring with it the cards that make that character playable.
You are basically asking about #2.
The boons in the Monk Class deck are geared towards Monks. Many of the weapons, for example, let you use Acrobatics for you combat check. As you mention, there are no monks in S&S. If you wanted to play a monk, add the Monk Class Deck boons to S&S would be a great way to make sure S&S had cards the monk would find desirable.
The characters and roles in Class Decks tend to be more general (i.e. Swashbuckling is pretty unique to S&S. There isn't any character is a class deck that cares about Swashbuckling.) That makes them suitable to all the adventure paths.
To get more extreme might help you see the advantage. Imagine you wanted to play Rise of the Runelords as Lirianne, the Gunslinger. Only, there are no firearms in Rise of the Runelords. Lirianne might have some problems. If there was a Gunslinger Class Deck (which one day there will be) you could use the boons that come in it with what is already in Rise of the Runelords to make Lirianne viable.
The cards in the class deck still have adventure deck numbers. (i.e. some weapons say B, some say 1, some say 2, etc all the way up to 6.) You simply add the cards from the class deck based on their deck number the same way you'd add cards that were in Skull and Shackles based on their deck number. When you start adventure 2, add S&S deck 2 and all the boons in the class deck that say deck 2 to the box.
Thus, you are able to play characters that didn't come in an adventure path that might not work well with that adventure path due to the boons that are part of that adventure path.
Is it a necessity? No. Does it give you more characters and the cards that make them viable? Yes. Are monks, particularity Sajan, the best characters in the game? Undoubtedly.
Thanks Hawkmoon.
From what I can ascertain, I think I'll hold off for now. If many of these cards are B, 2-6 as you suggested....they may be sitting around a bit until I can even achieve those levels.
Yes, nice price at $9.99...but looks like I can't really use 80% of it until I get further into the adventure decks/packs and level up some anyway.
Well, and you would probably only want to use it if you were playing a Monk anyway.
Note: You don't need to buy the Character add on deck to play with those monks.
They are free to download as pdfs from this site.
You won't have the monk-geared boons, but you can expand your character choices to over 40 different pathfinders now.