Enjoying Tapestry's Tides so far...

[wkover]

I thought I’d share a few comments about our ongoing Season of Tapestry’s Tides experiences. We’ve played through the first four scenarios (5-1A through 5-1D), and the bottom line is that we’re enjoying the Season. But since we’re all huge PACG fans, that may not be a surprise.

This post is spoiler-free, pretty much, unless you consider the fact that Season 5 has structural damage, aquatic monsters, ships, and more structural damage to be a spoiler.

Background: Our OP group meets weekly and has 9 to 11 regulars. We break into groups of 3-4 whenever possible to keep games quick and manageable. We also try to rotate players so that the same people aren’t always playing together. We usually play one scenario per session, but sometimes a table is able to squeeze in a second scenario. Something cool: We had two brand new players - new to PACG, not just OP - join the campaign, which is great.

For Season 5, I chose to play Gronk (druid) with the Ultimate Equipment deck.

*** scenario notes ***

Scenario 5-1A: Tide of Bones

Characters at my table: Zova (shifter) w/ Hunter deck, ?? (can’t remember), Gronk

Comments: We were all wise but stupid (1d8 or better wisdom, 1d4 intelligence), which made the scenario tougher than it should have been. But we won despite our mental conflict. The earlier scenarios are always challenging anyway - particularly for my character, since Gronk has no favored card type. But that just makes him unpredictable - in a good way. And his tiny hand size (4 cards) is an effective death shield during the early Season. Zova seems weird and draw-dependent, but we all agreed that she’ll be interesting to play.

Scenario 5-1B: The Grindylow Gambit

Characters at my table: Lirianne (gunslinger), Ezren (wizard), Gronk

Comments: We liked the unusual scenario rules. This was a slow-paced teaching game with me assisting both new players. (We were the last table to finish, by far.) On turn 3, Ezren failed a comat check vs. a Grindylow that nearly wiped out his deck. Luckily, I had a Cure in hand. Lirianne was extremely aggressive with blessings and allies and nearly got herself killed. At the end, we were scraping by with only 1-3 cards per deck. Without my small hand size, I may have been dead (or in full retreat) by mid-game. Also has a neat scenario reward.

(the next 3 scenarios were all at the same meet-up)

Scenario 5-1A (repeat, catch-up session): Tide of Bones

Characters at my table: Alase (summoner), Varril (inquisitor), Gronk

Comments: Varril makes every game easier. He can close any location, obtain any boon, etc. The owner even did his research and played Varril correctly – meaning that he can’t use his Divine skill substitution on weapons. Alase had good time sending us junk (via Tonbarse) for Varril to recharge and for Gronk to bury.

Scenario 5-1C: The Devil and the Storm

Characters at my table: (same)

Comments: Without getting into specifics, the scenario rules didn’t have much of an effect because we got lucky and closed three locations in the first three turns. At game’s end, however, we were shocked to learn that two characters died at one of the other tables. (These were the first ever deaths in the OP group, of which I am a relatively new member.) One death was a brand new player (Lirianne, above), but the other wasn’t (Seoni). And the third player at the table was also experienced (Zova). I do wonder if the group remembered that structural damage is optional, and that it can be worth taking structural damage to wreck your ship and/or end the game early (if a death seems imminent). Anyway, at our table, Gronk’s Survival skill (d10+2) came into play again and again.

Scenario 5-1D: In Thieves’ Wake

Characters at my table: (same)

Comments: I started with a Turn 1 close, but things settled into a more relaxed pace afterwards. Somehow I don’t remember many details. But yay! Cool rewards!

Scenario 5-1E is scheduled for next week, then we need to determine what to do until 5-2 is released. Minimally, we’ll keep meeting until everyone is caught up – particularly the players who had characters die in 5-1C and had to start over again.

*** Gronk notes ***

Some folks might disagree, but I think Gronk is great fun. I’m playing an aggro-melee build (not many useful spells in Ultimate Equipment), and his upgrade schedule is right on track. I now have weapons proficiency, a blessing that lets me search for weapons (Kofusachi), an ally that lets me dig for weapons (Majordomo), a Sacred Candle (guaranteed blessing upgrades!), and an additional weapon feat. Though the Scorpion Whip may not have been the best weapon selection, given that there are more undead monsters than expected.

Full disclosure: Gronk received the extra ally + blessing reward from capstone scenario 4-7, which gives him an edge in one sense (more life, more explores) but is a drawback in another sense (less likely to find a spell or weapon).

By the way, the Blessing of the Quartermaster may be my favorite blessing of all time. 80% of checks are non-combat checks, and auto-recharging to add a die to nearly anything is incredible.

I’m not sure that I’d play Gronk in anything other than a Skull & Shackles campaign – since that’s where most animals and plants are found – but in that setting he’s darn dependable. And he’ll only get stronger as the campaign progresses. Starting in Tier 4, I expect him to dominate the board with the ability to heal 1d4+2 or 1d4+4 cards (selected cards, not random) on command.

[Parody]

I played Gronk in Season of the Goblins. He tried to curb their obsession with burning the trees...but wasn't very successful. :)

[wkover]

I'm not motivated enough to document our full Tapestry's Tides campaign over the next six months, but minimally I thought I'd finish writing about Adventure 1.

Scenario 5-1D: In Thieves’ Wake (repeat, catch-up game)

Characters at my table: Enora (arcanist), Skizza (gunslinger), Alase (summoner), Gronk

Comments: In 5-1, this is the only traditional scenario (cornering the villain). It was nice to be able to show the new guy (Skizza) what a "regular" scenario looks like. Note: The player who had his Lirianne die switched to Skizza. This was his first game with that character.

Scenario 5-1E: To Seal the Dead

Characters at my table: (same)

Comments: The final scenario in each adventure usually has a significant hurdle to overcome. This time, it's hoping that luck shines upon you. There are end-of-turn die rolls and deck shuffles that - if they go your way - make the scenario significantly easier. If not, well... not. We did Ok, and pulled out a close win. By the end, with his protective handsize, Gronk was the only character not in danger of dying. Everyone else had 1-3 cards in their deck. (I imagine this would be a tough scenario with 5-6 players, so I'm glad that we topped out at 4.)

The scenario reward has me scared for what is coming up next. A related spoiler:

What's coming up? I wish I knew:

So far, there's been a large emphasis on the undead. (For instance, 80%+ of monsters in 5-1E were undead.) Is that the theme of the full Season? I hope not, as my Scorpion Whip has been nearly useless so far. If this keeps up, I'll be swapping it out for Brine's Sting whenever it becomes available. And my Corrosion might actually see play as a spell.

I'm just not keen on the idea that poison- or cold-specialty characters can be crippled as early as Adventure 1 in a new season.

Anyway, we're still having fun. All three tables beat 5-1E (some tried last week and lost), so we're ready for 5-2 (releasing late October). In the meantime, we have some catch-up games to play.

And Gronk continues to be great. He upgraded to some spiritual armor (+2 combat vs. basic, elite, veteran) and has been able to snag a Blessing 1 each game with the Sacred Candle, giving us a leg up on upgrades.

Postscript: This season, compared to previous seasons, healing in our group is more scarce. This may come back to bite us. Gronk will be fine, but others may be in real danger.

[Yewstance]

I soloed (with definite difficulty) Olenjack through 5-1, requiring a couple of replays. Indeed, the common immunities to Poison were a significant pain, and I also hope that they either do not continue or, alternatively, there becomes a scenario/adventure reward that allows you to ignore undead immunities at some cost.

As of now, poison-based Zadim and poison-based Olenjack are two characters I'm particularly interested in trying out right now (hence my current PFSACG Olenjack), but methods of overruling immunities to poison are extremely rare, especially pre-Role. It kind of hurts because in a lot of cases I don't consider the benefits of a poison-specialisation to be particularly high (depending on the character) in the first place, especially since it tends to demand a portion of your hand size be dedicated to the poisons themselves. To have a season (outside of the already undead-heavy, but also weapon poison and thematic boon-heavy, Mummy's Mask) feature it heavily might be increasingly awkward.

More weaknesses of the Poisons mechanic, in my opinion, and as an aside:

(Note, I just largely go on a rant or ramble here, but it does tangentially explain my point that poisons are already a mechanic set that has been awkward from the start and hardly needs another kick in the teeth.)

Most characters with Poison-based mechanics feels incomplete to me when built around it, which is a shame because I really like the idea both flavorfully and mechanically. The latest - the Ninja, Reiko - feels the strongest in several elements, but the other three characters of note are Zadim, Olenjack and Emil. There's some other characters with light reference to it (MM Damiel and Wu Shen, for example), but none that would utilise or ever be dependant on weapon poisons in the same way that Zadim, Olenjack and Emil would be, at least with the right feats and Role choices.

Tears of Death (Boon): This boon really confuses me. It acts similar to the weapon poisons (Wyvern Poison, Embalming Fluid, Bloodroot Poison, etc) that this archetype is largely built around, with two differences. One, it can add non-Poison traits to your check. Two, it has the Alchemical trait (so does Embalming Fluid, but nevermind that). Three, it doesn't actually risk burying cards from the top of your deck, but rather hits you with poison damage and costs you your discard pile.

However, adding non-poison traits is very rarely helpful, because the card itself still has the Poison trait, and so is an illegal play against poison-immune enemies. There isn't truly a character who would be likely to use it and gains the benefit of the Alchemical trait on a card that's merely revealed, and there's no characters but Olenjack that can viably interact with it's "Poison Damage and bury your discard pile" consequence since the Zadim FAQ hit. And the Olenjack synergy has its own problem, as I'll get to. It feels like everything that makes it distinct or unusual also makes it either worse than other poisons (Wyvern Poison) or simply removes synergies without actually adding any. I think the only synergy of note I could really think of was the Cold and Acid synergy with Channa Ti or the Poison Damage synergy with Radovan - again, discounting Olenjack. We'll get to him.

To summarize; I don't see the point. It's a poison that either doesn't synergize very well with the poison-specialists, and is awful for almost anyone else.

Olenjack: Olenjack is in an awkward spot. For one thing, he has a post-role power feat that is almost triple the power level of Zadim's post-role poison-based power feats. He can turn cards buried from poisons straight into recharges and ignore poison damage dealt to him with a single power feat. He can't get around poison immunity (either with his Class Deck, and there's also almost no cards to help with that in Ultimate Add-On decks), but that's okay since he's able to evade and he's not supposed to be a versatile combatant.

However, the FAQ that applied to Zadim to prevent Tears of Death from being a full heal has not been applied to him, leading to the almost certainly unintentional combo working full well for him. Tears of Death is further available in Ultimate Equipment - a class deck that both featured poisons and Rogue-based tools - so I find it nigh-incomprehensible that Olenjack was not considered when designing Ultimate Equipment nor when FAQing that power of Zadim. But nor can I believe that he's supposed to be able to full-heal himself (and ignore Poison damage) by revealing Tears of Death immediately post-role.

Otherwise, no real complaints.

Emil: I really dislike Emil's design relative to his class deck. Besides already being pretty visibly weak compared to the other two HV2 characters, he specializes in cards that have the Poison trait, and not a single power on any of his cards benefits from simply having the poison trait on his checks. He can play a weapon poison and then choose to ignore the trait or immunities to it. He could play a weapon that inherently has the Poison trait (like Blowgun) and do the same. But he cannot play and discard/recharge a weapon that would only add Poison to the check, like Venomous Dagger and Venomous Heavy Crossbow, and get one sliver of an added benefit from any power on any of his roles or core card.

That's not inherently a problem, but it becomes one with the class deck design. Hell's Vengeance 2 features 22 weapons, with 6 weapons (27%) that can add the Poison trait to combat checks (or have that trait) and 1 weapon that inherently has the Poison trait. I don't really understand why those 5 other weapons are there, when he explicitly has no synergy with any of them (and most have no synergy with the Inquisitor or Wizard characters also in the set, except incidentally). Nor can he use a weapon poison with these cards to then get around poison immunity, since you have to choose how you're playing your weapon before using additional cards like a weapon poison. Again, he gets no benefit from adding the poison trait to his checks; the only benefit in terms of boons you get when your check has the poison trait is a single blessing (Blessing of Urgathoa) that becomes a tiny bit better.

And if the only benefit to Emil for using any of these poison weapons (which are primarily ranged weapons that are junk in the hands of the other characters of the set), then that's an even bigger failing because Emil is an expert at using the various Corrupted blessings of the set, which are all much more powerful than Blessing of Urgathoa even if he always had the Poison trait.

His role designs are similarly... bizarre. Red Mantis Assassin can discard a weapon for a poison attack (that, again, you cannot ignore immunities with his power due to the aforementioned rules), with an additional benefit with Sawtooth Sabre. Not an inherent problem, except it disallows him from using the actual item-based poisons in the deck that require the use of a weapon (which is all of them!) that is strongly encouraged by his core character power. Furthermore, he can spend another power feat so that the power gets a very small additional synergy if you discard a weapon with the Poison trait. Again, there's only 1 of those in the entire Class Deck, so you're spending an entire power feat to get to recharge instead of discard a single card that might not really ever be worth doing either for.

Just to add insult to injury? The 1 poison weapon in the set is actually a Melee weapon, and Emil is a Ranged combatant. Oh, yes, he can get the Melee skill... using his other Role card, further inhibiting any potential reason to even care that it has the trait. Ever.

Almost every single power he has that cares about the Poison trait is inhibited by the Class Deck boons or by a different power of his. You have to jump through so many hoops to gain any benefit from his powers beyond the simple, obvious weapon-poison synergy he has, and each power feat after the first is generally of very low impact to him, almost regardless of role.

Oh, and one of his roles can spend a power feat to decrease Poison damage dealt to him by 2, and then 4. Slightly synergistic with Tears of Death, but multiple other characters (Radovan, Olenjack, etc) can spend a power feat to make themselves immune to Poison, so having two feats that individually protect against a small amount of one of the less common damage types from enemies is absurdly weak.

I really just can't get over how there's a bunch of poison-themed stuff (a blessing, various weapons, a basic spell) in the class deck that don't work with the poison-themed assassin that comes with it, nor the other two characters. He's a pretty fine Corrupted boons expert who also happens to use poisons along with his weapons, but no matter how you build him there's just a wide series of awful, awful power feats and a huge bunch of boons in the character deck (mostly the poison-themed ones) which are pretty junk for everyone involved. Bizarre.

To doubly-clarify, he's not weak. He's basically Zelhara that trades spells and support for a bit more combat power with Weapon Poisons. I just don't know why each role have half of their power feats be so counter-intuitive, weak or harmful to his normal strategies, and I don't know why there's so many boons in the Class Deck that would never meaningfully work with him, even though they're visibly supposed to.

[wkover]

Yewstance wrote:

I also hope that they either do not continue or, alternatively, there becomes a scenario/adventure reward that allows you to ignore undead immunities at some cost.

Great idea. I would love to see this.

Things have gotten so bad that our Enora player (Cold specialist) is considering dumping that character and starting all over again with Darago.

It all depends on what is coming up, so we'll be examining 5-2 carefully when it is released.

[Keith Richmond]

The rest of the season is not about Undead :)

[wkover]

Good news. Thanks!

[wkover]

Also, we discovered that at least one villain in 5-2 is undead. Lesson learned! (Stupid Scorpion Whip!)

Still, the Whip has been much more useful in 5-2, as compared to 5-1. Very grateful for that.