The idea of reviewing the class decks has been bouncing around in my head for awhile since it's pretty clear that some decks are better than others. I haven't seen any discussions of specific class deck contents, so here are my thoughts.
I'm not going to evaluate or rate the characters in the class deck themselves since I think each character has their own theme and flavor. I really enjoy the fact that there are noticeable differences in the overall strength between characters and believe those differences add to the richness of the game.
Instead, the primary crux of my evaluation is how the cards in the deck support the characters in the class deck. I'll be breaking the ratings down by card type and grade the selection of cards on an A-F scale. I'll also be giving an overall rating of the deck as a whole.
One thing of note is that I use a tier system to categorize direct attack spells based on how much damage they do and if there are other mitigating factors. Here's how I group them:
Tier 1 - Spells that can add 24 or more damage, most commonly via 4d6, 3d8, or 2d12.
Tier 1.5 - I put spells in this tier if they do damage equivalent to tier 1 spells but are generally weaker due to other factors, mostly their traits. For example I consider poison blast and vengeful storm tier 1.5 spells due to the large amount of creatures immune to them.
Tier 2 - Spells that can add 18-21 damage, most commonly as +3d6.
Tier 3 - Spells that can add 12-16 damage, the most common being the +2d6 spells.
Tier 4 - This tier is comprised of the basic attack spells that either add +2d4 or +1d6.
Note about Flenta - Even though I'm not doing any character evaluations I feel the need to discuss Flenta. It seems that her pseudo-spellcasting drove many of the design decisions of this deck, which is a tad annoying since the cards that support her [pseudo-spellcasting] are pretty much useless to the other three fighters in the deck, as we'll see in the card discussions.
Here's my fighter deck review:
Weapons:
The weapon selection in the fighter deck is very well done. Flenta and Valeros are weapon agnostic, while Tontelizi and Vika want polearms and bludgeoning weapons respectively. There are enough weapons of each type for Vika and Tontelizi to have all of their weapons be their preferred type throughout their career (with the exception of if you put three card feats into weapons for Tontelizi, but I think that’s unlikely). Furthermore, despite the fact that all of the fighters in the deck start with four or five weapons, there are only three weapons with the basic trait in the deck. This enables weapon customization right from the start, allowing Vika to start with three bludgeoning weapons and Tontelizi with a pair of polearms – not to mention Flenta being able to choose between the greatsword or spiked chain +1 and Valeros being able to have them both.
There are good weapons to choose from at every AD level, so your fighter will be able to have steady upgrades. The only nitpick I have is that there were some better weapons available such as the flaming falcate +3, and an extra polearm for Tontelizi. Grade: A-
Spells:
Now we arrive at the part of the deck that only Flenta cares about, since none of the other fighters start with spells and only Vika can even spend a card feat to get [a single] spell. Since Flenta must banish a spell after casting it, the spell selection for her is pretty poor. Instead of a lot of deck B basic spells there are two for each deck 0-5 and one deck 6 spell. So Flenta is forced to start with strength and call weapon for every scenario, plus either speed or obscure. It would’ve been much better to have a spells such as cure, detect magic, an attack spell, and other various spells so she could customize her deck between scenarios, which would’ve also been thematically appropriate. Instead, when I look at the spell selection I wonder if we’ll ever be allowed to play Crowe with the fighter deck, since the available spells would be pretty great for him. Grade: D
Armor:
The selection of armor is pretty lackluster. None of the really nice armors such as reflecting buckler, invulnerable breastplate, or adamantine plate armor. Lesser bolstering armor and fortified breastplate are ok, but nothing to write home about. Grade: C-
Items:
The available items are pretty decent. Topaz of strength, staff of minor healing, and belt of giant strength are handy, and high level there’s the magic spyglass and sihedron ring. There’s a necklace of fireballs and wand of treasure finding for unknown reasons – continuing the theme of catering to arcane casters, I guess – but there are enough other good items that fighters can freely spend their card feats for more item slots. Grade: B-
Allies:
Why does this deck contain a cat?? This particular card has to be the most misplaced card of any card in any class deck, considering there’s no way for any fighter to recharge a spell. Merren Unwin as the deck 6 ally is also a puzzler, as none of the fighters use ranged attacks. That aside, the only ally of note is the evangelist. All in all the selection of allies is lacking. Grade: D+
Blessings:
Continuing with the theme of spellcaster support, the fighter deck has three blessings of Pharasma in it for unknown reasons. It has two blessings of Gorum, which is fine, and a decent mix other other blessings, including a blessing of Achaekek in deck 3. The useless blessings of Pharasma aren’t a huge hindrance since each of the fighters only start with three blessings and max out at four (five for Tontelizi), so each fighter can take both Gorums and whatever other two blessings they like and be alright. Still, the inclusion of the Pharasma’s is simply silly. Grade: C-
Summary:
With thirteen spells, some non-thematic items and allies, and three blessings of Pharasma, the fighter class deck is easily the most strangely constructed of the class desks. I would almost guess that the deck’s contents were determined before the characters were finalized and Flenta – and maybe another fighter – was intended to have a stronger spellcasting focus. Regardless, despite the many strange card inclusions, overall the deck functions adequately because of how well the weapons were selected.
Overall Grade: C
The cat ally is thematic. Flenta likes to think she's got magic powers. This is her familiar, in a sense. I think Tanis confirmed this on this forum.
The cat ally is thematic. Flenta likes to think she's got magic powers. This is her familiar, in a sense. I think Tanis confirmed this on this forum.
Yeah yeah, I remember that post. Still counts as a minus considering all the other spellcasting related cards in the deck.
Two notes:
1)
Crowe will be unlocked for the Magus deck most likely; since he wants Attack spells, he is an ill fit for the Fighter CD anyway.
2)
Flentas Arcane Pretender role wants spells with high AD#; in this role, you are not supposed to use the spells themselves but use them to fuel her powers, which will never get them banished. Afaik, you also get to replace missing cards by #AD-2 (don't know if the guide already has it or will have it soon), so starting AD3 and onward, Flenta can eventually use most non-B spell in every scenario if she wishes to do so - even in her Martial Adept role. Having a lot of B spells instead would make her considerably weaker, although it probably would've been a good idea to prune the spell selection a bit.
Flentas Arcane Pretender role wants spells with high AD#; in this role, you are not supposed to use the spells themselves but use them to fuel her powers, which will never get them banished. Afaik, you also get to replace missing cards by #AD-2 (don't know if the guide already has it or will have it soon), so starting AD3 and onward, Flenta can eventually use most non-B spell in every scenario if she wishes to do so - even in her Martial Adept role. Having a lot of B spells instead would make her considerably weaker, although it probably would've been a good idea to prune the spell selection a bit.
Good points, but it's still poor deck design. That's a hand full of spells that not only are only useful for one character, but are furthermore only really useful if that one character takes a specific role and puts power feats into certain powers of that role. It's not good to allocate limited card slots available in the deck for such a corner-case purpose.
Don't get me wrong, I think your criticism is mostly right. Small correction though: as I pointed out, Flenta can use the spells well in both roles, although differently, and Vika can also make use of the spells up to AD4 by replacing them after the scenario with #AD-2, so actually 2 characters can use them to a good degree.
While roughly 13% of cards that can only be used well by one character seems a bit excessive for 4 characters (it's much more reasonable for 3, I think), I think if they removed the 3 spells of #AD5 and #AD6, the number of spells would be reasonable (even though some other cards like the cat may not).
Thanks for these reviews. They are very helpful and informative. ...