Another fun day at Bel Air Games was had this past Saturday. We moved closer to the completion of Season of the Righteous (some of us moved further than others). It was a relatively quiet day at the store, at least until our raucous cheers echoed across the gaming tables and through the racks of merchandise.
Things are definitely getting to the point where choosing which upgrade to take is difficult because you don't want to give anything up. Radillo is still feeling awesome. Though it was a bit of a downer to start a scenario (1-6B) with two Auguries and one Scrying and not find a henchman or villain. And that repeated itself even after I kept pulling those cards from the bottom of my deck. Eliandra's Seelah did some major villain killing, one of which required a re-roll to go from total disaster to total success. This was also the time where we got to the point where skill feat choices were just silly. For example, Radillo now has d6 +1 for Strength. She has punched a monster to two to death, so maybe that will be useful some day.
Our table finished off 1-6B and has hopes of finishing the adventure path next time. I'll let the other table speak for themselves, but I think they had a good time since none of them died during these scenarios.
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I attempted, less creatively this time, to duplicate my cupcake success, but they failed their fort save against the extreme heat.
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Yeah, re-rolls were definitely being utilized on Saturday. But we'll have to decide what we want to do next whether to jump at Season of the Goblin or Season of the Mummy after our next session (or two). Or even Season of the Runelords.
And having a nice day to drive makes it all the better. I'm hoping to see most of the crew up at Save Against Fear in the Harrisburg, PA area in October. (It's a worthy cause!)
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1-6B WAS brutal, and 1-6A was no cakewalk with all those dex/arco checks. I ended up having to punch the final boss of 1-6B to death with some carefully chosen pre-played boons that may have been better off staying in my hand so I had a chance of redrawing a weapon. But who can resist the urge to play Chuffy Lickwound for his power. We've got 3 scenarios left in Wrath at our table, not counting the one against Pazuzu.
Estimate of January may be off for the HawkCon where we start a new season. Might be more like March.
Second encouraging everyone coming to Save Against Fear! It's a super fun con!
I suppose I can finally post in here (actually been somewhat busy at work? So I don't have much time for here? what?)!
Team Shorties (I think that's what we're called) dramatically failed 1-5C again and decided to forfeit before Brielle buried her entire deck (none of them were by choice, she just kept running into things that made her bury cards). After I set up the scenario correctly (I may have messed up the first time because I didn't read the scenario setup...), we blasted through it!
Raz and Lem like to start together, but then Raz will often run off to another location so she can run back over to Lem in case of emergency. An emergency in this case is Lem running into a monster. Of any sort. :-D
Raz will eventually get her Pegasus. 5 Allies are quite difficult to acquire, as they all want some nasty stuff. For example, Mr. Alderpash hit us all for 2d4+something fire damage because Brielle didn't have a spell to banish. Imagine that, the BARBARIAN didn't have a spell to banish!
Eventually I'll remember I have +4 to my check that has the polearm trait. Eventually.
We finished Adventure 5 and there was much rejoicing.
We were Team Shorties or something last month, because we realized (after almost a year) that we were two halflings, a gnome, and Randy (who has been a human at least three times?). Because Randy was a goblin this month, we were officially Team Shorties. That's not the real name but I'm super sleepy and can't remember. :)
Team One definitely made an appearance as there were SO MANY failed rolls in EVERY scenario. Raz goes "I need a 3 on 2d10!" Two 1s. ;_;
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We are Team Shorties; we are all small. It's hard to know what is the exact cause of our failures that have put us behind the other group. Probably a combo of...
- At this point, Lem can't take on any combat checks at all. There are no good ranged weapons in that Bard deck, and the attack spells are pretty useless - all poison and electricity.
- His healing capability doesn't seem to quite make up for that. There are too many times when Raz and Brielle have a lot of cards in their discard piles.
- With three, we're still missing some break-out stats for closing checks and whatnot. E.g., nobody has better than a d8 Dex. Wisdom isn't great either, and that's kind of a key stat in Wrath. We can punch things, but...
- Upgrades are hard to come by at this point. It's hard to believe that, at the end of Adventure 5, I still have a Blessing of the Gods in my deck - I think. I may have just gotten rid of the last one, but that's only replaced it with a 1 or a 2 deck blessing. Higher-level blessings are nearly impossible to get. Getting a B blessing when playing out of the box isn't so bad, but when you're playing out of a class deck, that's terrible - there's nothing good in B. They've spaced those blessings out over six adventure deck numbers, but getting an AD5 or AD6 blessing, even when playing out of the box, is incredibly rare, except as a reward. This just feels broken.
- Bad luck. There's a lot of that in Wrath. Feels like we're slogging through a swamp of rancid butter that has a lot of bugs in it.
Bad luck definitely happens, and the bard deck is quite a bit less prepared for demon hunting than most. :(
That said, you should find some of your upgrade woes disappearing soon. AD6 is tailored to get you AD5+ boons for rewards, including for a blessing. AD4's blessing swaps are also something to consider, potentially?
That and perhaps negotiating some of the loot swaps, so you get more Dawnbow, Firebow, etc loving for the Ranged end. I actually think Swipe is pretty awesome, even if you need to combo it with one of the other spells (Transmogrify, Black Spot, the clouds, etc) to get those ridiculous combat checks.
Either way, good luck!
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Transmogrify is OK, but it only reduces the check...it still leaves Lem with his D4 strength, unless he plays a weapon. Swipe is what...a 1d6 + Arcane? It's untyped, IIRC, but a single 1d6 doesn't really cut it against regular combat checks that are 25-30. Lightning Bolt's Arcane + 3d6 is more like it, but then you have to expend a mythic charge (Lem's a mythic archmage) to overcome the electricity resistance.
The bows all use Strength, which for Lem is a non-starter - the crossbows are much better. Deathbane Light Crossbow is about as good as it gets until AD6, I think. He also gets no weapons proficiency.
I'm just a bit unenthusiastic about this deck. Definitely not choosing one of the original seven when we start the next set.
Swipe is Arcane+1d8+3 effectively. So not up to Lightning Bolt's 3d6, no, but also not requiring the mythic charge.
And, true enough, the end is in sight and you can switch to something more recent soon enough.
Swipe is da bomb. Also helps that weedy, underground caster acquire that beefy weapon for your melee or ranged character.
Transmogrify is great for that hybrid character like seltiyel or Crowe. In fact Raheli has recently been blitzing baddies with a combination of transmogrify and her hair
Just remember you don't add your mythic charges to your Transmogrify roll.
I did it that all through SotRighteous before skizzerz pointed it out.
I keep trying to convince Lem to take Transmogrify but he doesn't want to. I'm not gonna force him to take a spell he doesn't want! Raz would take it but she likes her Detect Demon (and she only sees it once or twice a scenario because... no deck cycling)...
I'm still confused as to why the Bard deck has so many melee weapons... they're not for Lem or Siwar, and Meliski doesn't really care about weapons; are they all for Bekah? She doesn't care about them unless they have the Finesse trait... Oops, I'm asking a "why" question. (I've been learning at work recently that I can't ask why, because there's no reason, it just is that way).
At our table, Radillo is finding Transmogrify ridiculously awesome. Since you play it "when encountered" Radillo can still play another spell on the check to defeat. And it is great for two check-to-defeat cards. And since I maxed out Radillo's Intelligence, it is 1d10 +7 + 1d6. So, at a minimum the checks are reduced by 9.
By the way, constructing a sentence with Radillo and ridiculous in it is very fun.
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I maxxed out Lem's CHA, so he should find it equally awesome...maybe I'll try it in lieu of a cure spell next time. I can't very well get rid of Scrying (which is way better than any spell we've mentioned so far), and have to keep the one or two combat spells he's got.
Come to think of it - Radillo's multiple Augury / Scrying spells could account for most of the difference between the two parties at this point...it's just the best thing in the game.
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Come to think of it - Radillo's multiple Augury / Scrying spells could account for most of the difference between the two parties at this point...it's just the best thing in the game.
So what you're saying is three cheers for the original 7 class decks? ;-)
I think we've also got Arueshalae's abilities to evade and also hang out indefinitely at the Molten Pool going for us. Seelah's got a scout too.
Though, really, you are right about Augury and Scrying. My friend is relatively new to the card game and just started Pathfinder Adventures. He told me the other day that he got an Augury but decided not to keep it because it seemed situational. I made an "Are you insane?" face. But I'm long of the opinion that scouting is second level strategy for PACG. You don't really see the appeal of it until you start doing it, and then you reach a whole other level in the game.
I feel like scouting, and especially heavy scouting, trivializes the game for the most part, which is why I try to limit the scouting potential in the parties I construct. It kind of counterbalances the difficulty in wrath just fine, but RotR seems very easy with it. Then again, we only play in parties of 3, so it might be crucial for larger parties.
It will be interesting to see where scouting fits into the risk/reward scale of examining introduced in MM.
Raz would take it but she likes her Detect Demon (and she only sees it once or twice a scenario because... no deck cycling)...
Be sure to take invoke once you have the chance in AD6 - since Raz can't recharge spells anyway, you get all the benefits with no downsides.
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Arueshalae may not always be good at stuff but some of her innate powers make her very powerful (Evade, some elemental dmg reduction and some healing). And tied to the Rogue deck, she's able to utilize some decent gear. The best is having a succubus and a paladin in the same party.
If you want heavy scouting, look no further than Harsk the Vanguard. I'll examine at the start of my turn. I'll examine at the end of my turn. I'll even move and then examine. And while Augury, Scrying and the Spyglasses are great, nothing beats a power that doesn't use resources to scout.
(And after the demo of MM, I can't wait to see CD Harsk and pretty much any version of Alahazra start working their magic in the new AP!)
In any case, I don't think scouting trivializes the game, it's a strategy. We've been lulled into thinking that scouting is fine, scouting is great. I'll just take a peek here. *WHAM!* Triggers come along and make scouting just a bit different than yesterday. And I hope it's a mechanic that is carried further than Mummy's Mask.
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But I'm long of the opinion that scouting is second level strategy for PACG. You don't really see the appeal of it until you start doing it, and then you reach a whole other level in the game.
I still recall that first time Hawkmoon and I played with a third player one September in 2012, when Runelords first came out. All those spells; we had no idea which were the best ones. Holy Light looked like the greatest spell in the world. And the Deathbane Light Crossbow looked awesome, but then again, it still is. No clue that Augury was so great, at least as of yet. The game was fresh and new - sometimes I wish I could experience it like that again, the thrill of discovery. Not reading closely every card in the box, just discovering them as they show up in a location deck. I was really excited recently - my work game ran into a bane late in Runelords that I'd never actually seen before. Hope Mummy's Mask brings back that excitement of discovery.
