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Another long fail this week with 3-6D.
During setup we decided to try what worked for 3-6A: multiple Elemental Treaties, some Curse removal, damage reduction substitution Items, and so on. Sadly, the group started with none of these things. I got lucky and acquired a helmet on my first turn that saved me from the curse at the end (I still took some damage, just not the Scourge) but after that there were plenty of Scourges and other Curses to go around.
It took a couple times around the table before we found our first Henchman...who is a tough fight and doesn't let you close the location. Sigh. Not too long after we grouped up for Curing purposes, and found the Villian for the first time. Thanks to lack of cards in hand and the initial damage we weren't able to defeat her, so we lost a round of turns and gathered more Curses. :(
By the end three of us had no hands, so we could do our final explores with no concern for the consequences. ("Before You Act damage plus two Combat checks! I'll just roll 3d10 so you can grab some Scourges.") This caused us to run out of Curses of Poisoning. If you were to set that aside, I would have had 7 of them along with their good friends Curse of Fevered Dreams, Curse of Withering, Curse of the Sphinx, Curse of the Mummy, and a Symbol of Fear for good measure.
One thing we exploited is how the Curse of Fevered Dreams partially negates Curses of Poisoning: since they're all happening at the same time you can choose the order, so do all of the Poisoning first then Dream up some more cards.
The worst part was that we got exactly one AD6 card: an Armor that nobody wanted (because switching away from reveal cards is suicide). The only upgrade taken was one AD4 Blessing.
So What's Wrong, Mike?
Well, what's "wrong" is that these have been slogs. Playing for three hours, one of which is "we're going to lose but we can't just skip to the end because of the ongoing damage so we might as well look for boons" (and get basically nothing out of it) is not fun. Building up Curses while you burn through the decks to close locations isn't fun. The tower looked like it was going to be bad for our group, but it "just" took a long time and a lot of help with checks. 3-6A was our longest one yet, taking over six hours in two sessions.
Also not fun is considering having the group look at their starting hands, decide it's not worth even trying, and doing nothing but take damage for 30 turns so we can start over. (That this suggestion was even brought up is a sign, I think.)
Anywho, if anyone has advice for 3-6D other than "get luckier with your initial card draw" I'm all ears. Otherwise, well, at least I got to vent. :)
One other question: is Season 4 this bad? (I'm not sure Season 5 will be an option, given the file problems.)
It's been awhile, so I am a bit foggy about this. Is this the accurate text for the Curse of the Mummy?
When you are dealt damage that is not reduced, bury 1 card you would discard as damage.
(I *might* be wrong about the text. If so, ignore the following.) You only bury a card if the damage you suffer is not reduced at all. So: if you suffer 3 damage, but you block 1, then you bury zero cards. (Because the damage was reduced.) So: concentrate on being able to block at least 1 damage.
Otherwise, the obvious: spread out to temp-close & corner the villain. Examine much more than usual in MM, because neither henchman nor villain has a Trigger.
The scenario does assume that by AD6 you've become adept at blocking elemental damage & removing curses.
One thing more: the villain's 'remove the highest die' power only kicks in once per encounter.
If, say, you are playing the (extremely cool) Ratfolk Gunslinger Skizza, when you do this:
Play Lucky Rifle for d12+2.
Failed the check.
Toss the rifle to add a d12.
Pass the check.
Villain power kicks in, removing largest die value.
Fail the check.
Use Skizza character power to add a d8 to a failed check.
Pass the check. (Do not remove a die. The "remove die" power only fires once.)
Villain defeated.
Season 4 was fun. I only played a bit of Season 3, so I can't really compare.
The scenario does assume that by AD6 you've become adept at blocking elemental damage & removing curses.
This is an interesting comment. In an OP campaign based on Mummy's Mask, your loot pile builds up over time and you have trader options. But other than that, you're stuck with what's in your class/ultimate deck boxes.
Does every class/ultimate deck provide a reliable way to deal with elemental damage?
Having MM Loot + trading with MM cards goes a long way towards this objective (doesn't it?).
The Ultimate decks have some good options for elemental damage and, to a lesser extent, curse and/or scourge removal. Other class decks, not so much (except perhaps the very latest).
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It's been awhile, so I am a bit foggy about this. Is this the accurate text for the Curse of the Mummy? ...
No. You can see the card in the Blog for MM Adventure 6:
While displayed, when you are dealt damage and would discard cards, bury 1 of those cards instead of discarding it.
Regardless, it was one of the last Curses I got and I had no cards in my hand, so nothing to bury. (I think Damiel got stuck burying a card or two to one of these.)
Examine much more than usual in MM, because neither henchman nor villain has a Trigger.
I was examining as soon as I could get the cards in my hand...which was twice thanks to card cycling Curses and random luck. The Spell I got from the Spell Trader was Vision (my other choice was Augury, oddly enough) which I got to play once near the end. I used my own Scrying to send a Henchman to the bottom of a deck, since Siwar doesn't have much of a chance against them alone.
IIRC, the only other scouting card in our group's decks is CD Padrig's Scrying Mirror.
The scenario does assume that by AD6 you've become adept at blocking elemental damage & removing curses.
Yeah, I know; we talked about that back in the 3-6A thread (and I still disagree that the Adventure powers were any more than flavor text before Adventure 6). Unfortunately, there's only so many swaps available: 1 Treaty and 1 Remove Curse in Substitution cards (if you want to give up Spells!), a couple of Curse-removing Items (Damiel usually takes those), and the three (1-point) Damage Reduction items (Siwar usually takes those). Then you have to choose between trying (and likely failing) to get something useful from the Armor trader, trying to get something useful from the Spell trader (Siwar's usual choice; she's had decent luck at it), or getting a guaranteed low-level helper card from Sunburst. And get all that in the starting hands. :)
One thing more: the villain's 'remove the highest die' power only kicks in once per encounter.
I don't own the PDF so I can't check the exact wording on this one. I'm fairly certain, though, that the Villain has two checks (one Combat, one Combat or Divine) and I believe we were applying it on each. The other thing I remember is that the power is worded along the lines of "if the result exceeds the target, remove a die" so if you hit it exactly you don't do it.
Otherwise, yes, your Skizza with the right powers and cards to add dice is very helpful. Our group is Oloch, Damiel, Padrig...err...Balazar, and Siwar. (All CD versions.)
Does every class/ultimate deck provide a reliable way to deal with elemental damage?
It varies wildly. Damiel gets along OK and Balazar can chuck Monsters at the problem. I don't remember what Oloch's Armors do offhand. Siwar needs an Item 6, which we haven't found in our first three Scenarios (and Damiel would have first dibs). Also, going back again to the 3-6A discussion: adding an Ultimate deck to your available cards doesn't mean you get to add those cards to your deck. You have to find matching upgrades first, and it's a bit late for that in our group. (It'd be different if you had them for the entire campaign.)
Having MM Loot + trading with MM cards goes a long way towards this objective (doesn't it?).
It can, if you get the right card(s) from a Trader or a good starting draw. Look at the damage reduction Items: each does a single point, so to avoid the end-of-turn Scourge you have to roll one damage or get two of them. In this Scenario you can bury Blessings to avoid the Scourges...if you still have one you don't mind losing before resetting your hand, when you know you can't close locations via Henchmen so you need extra explores.
Another thing we talked about for a bit while cleaning up the game was splitting up the group, maybe having everyone do it solo. I think that would be suicide for Siwar (the Combat checks would be extremely difficult, likely meaning a hand wipe and multiple Scourges); Balazar and Damiel would probably be fine. Oloch is hamstrung by his small hand size. I'm not sure about Oloch + Siwar. It might work to do Balazar + whoever three times, but that'd take at least another month. Plus the whole point is us playing as a group. :(
Arg.
Thanks for the corrections. (I posted hastily while at work, and a quick Google search didn't turn up the Curse of the Mummy text for me. It's a bit of a tough term to Google, being too common.)
And nope, unfortunately, you're right on the villain. She does have two checks. I misspoke. I meant "once per check", not "once per encounter".
I've never understood how Siwar can be a viable character, to be honest. I'd never player her in a group smaller than 6. Including a Siwar in a four-character group is 'hard mode' to begin with, in my book.
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...and she's gone. I'm going to hear about this one for a while. ::sigh::
Siwar's not as bad as you might think. The problem (such as it is) is that she overlaps Lem, and Lem's signature ability is swapping Spells out of the discard pile. That's extremely flexible compared to Siwar's Skirmish/Task Barrier power. Otherwise they're on a similar footing: they're both stuck with the Bard deck, she's only one point worse at Arcane/Divine, and they're the same in Strength and Dexterity if you decide to take a Weapon.
After you get to Roles Siwar the Manipulator can buff herself and give others her troublesome Banes. This provides a decent shot at plenty of checks people would otherwise auto-fail, a bit of sideways damage reduction (by putting cards back into her deck on every check), and helps reduce the penalties of the Bard deck. You just have to accept that you are a support character, decent or better at everything except Combat, and plan accordingly.
It'd be interesting to see a Siwar built from the start with a wider variety of Allies with decent secondary powers/bonuses on their explore available. Sadly, it's too late for my Siwar as we only have a couple of Scenarios left.
Are you better off playing Lem? Probably. Still, she is playable under the Guild rules unlike some of the other characters in the first seven decks.
Also, going back again to the 3-6A discussion: adding an Ultimate deck to your available cards doesn't mean you get to add those cards to your deck. You have to find matching upgrades first, and it's a bit late for that in our group. (It'd be different if you had them for the entire campaign.)
Yep. And just because they're in your deck doesn't mean that you're guaranteed to draw them. I can't tell you how many times I desperately needed to draw Steel Ibis Lamellar or Reflecting Buckler in a MM scenario, and I never did.
Another thing we talked about for a bit while cleaning up the game was splitting up the group, maybe having everyone do it solo. I think that would be suicide for Siwar (the Combat checks would be extremely difficult, likely meaning a hand wipe and multiple Scourges); Balazar and Damiel would probably be fine. Oloch is hamstrung by his small hand size. I'm not sure about Oloch + Siwar.
It occurred to me that this might be a good opportunity to Take One for the Team and have someone play a one-off character that would help in this scenario. No idea which character would be useful, but it seems worth a shot. (You might even duplicate one or more of your more useful characters.)
Edit: Or maybe not. I dunno. You'd have to use a Tier 5 pregen, and some of the builds seem wonky. Some skill feats seem random, and certain power and card feats are iffy. But both pregen Damiel and Balazar start with the Steel Ibis Lamellar, I notice; that seems good.
On the weird front, the Tier 5 Linxia pregen is impossible because she only has one spell card feat and they've given her two. I'll report that in the pregen forum...
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So last night was our second attempt. As the group was arriving we spent a bit of time talking strategy and looked to see what our chances were to get a Reveal Armor from the Trader. (~2 of 10 or so?) I ended up taking all three damage reduction items as well as an Elemental Treaty from the substitution pile. Oloch took the Remove Curse and Damiel and Oloch took the curse removal items. (IIRC.) A couple folks went to the Armor trader, but didn't get a reveal Armor. I went to the Spell trader with Balazar and we got nothing too useful (two Attack spells and a Foresight). :(
This time around the group had a much better draw, enabling everyone to mostly avoid the Scourges early on. I started with an Elemental Treaty and a damage reduction item, which helped protect Balazar and Siwar as we worked our way through the Arena. Damiel and Oloch paired up as well, but (IIRC) Damiel had to bury a Blessing for damage reduction/Scourge avoidance. While neither location had the Villain, we were able to get the Arena closed and move on without penalties. I ended up visiting Damiel and Oloch briefly before they finished that spot, leaving four locations for our four adventurers.
When we started working through those, Siwar ran into the Pharasma Armor 6 with "Reveal to reduce damage by 3." We threw a bunch of resources at it and she actually made the roll, giving her a way to avoid the end-of-turn Scourges for the rest of the game! Sadly, she refused to keep it afterwards, saying that not only was it extremely heavy, but it would ruin her reputation to be seen in such an unflattering outfit. Sigh.
The rest of the game went relatively smoothly; we spent some Die Bumps to defeat Monsters, but otherwise we just kept powering through cards and using our Scrying-type things when we could. Siwar ran into two Vanths, annoying her friends by dumping their free Scourge power on them.
The final fight took some doing. I had some bad dice luck with the Acid Pool (even with the upgraded Blessing of Abadar!) but a reroll got us there. Then we used a bunch of resources to pass the before you act checks, but were able to hold off on spending a Blessing of the Gods because the Blessing of Maat was on top of the discard. Damiel and Oloch split the two checks, letting them overkill them both by enough (after using our last reroll) to defeat the Villain and move on!
Even better, we also got very lucky with the end-of-game draw and plenty of AD6 cards were added to the pile! Sadly we didn't have enough good cards to give everyone two great upgrades, but at least everyone got something good. In a somewhat silly moment, Siwar's second pick was a Weapon 4. While she's not great with her new Seeking Shortbow, it's a better number for trading.
Time was less than three hours, some of which was strategizing.
One (or two) Scenarios left!