The spell is indeed useless when there is no harrow suit for the adventure.
Chief Technical Officer
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The spell Major Harrowing is also only useful in adventures that have a harrow suit (but it's level 5, so you wouldn't get to it in Dragon's Demand).
Hakon's Herald of the Harrow role and Varian's Acadamae Graduate role have some power feats that are only useful when the adventure has a harrow suit (but Dragon's Demand won't get you to a high enough level that you'd have to take them).
A simple way to keep these useful is to draw a random Harrow blessing from the vault at the start of the adventure (or whenever you acquire the spell) and define it as the harrow suit for the purposes of these spells only.
A simple way to keep these useful is to draw a random Harrow blessing from the vault at the start of the adventure (or whenever you acquire the spell) and define it as the harrow suit for the purposes of these spells only.
There is no issue in this game that you cannot solve with a simple house rule.
Not sure Major Harrowing is that useful with large groups?
We are playing adventure 6 in CotCT with 6 players. So that is 6 harrow Crown Blessings plus one player already has a Crown Blessing, so that is 7 already accounted for. Only 2 are left in the Vault that may appear in locations or in the Hourglass.
The first power on Major Harrowing:
"On local checks that have a trait matching the adventure's harrow suit, add 3; if the hour has a suit trait matching the adventure's harrow suit, add 2d4 instead."
So in our case there would only ever be 2 possible chances of having a local check that has a trait matching the adventure's harrow suit which would be we were trying to acquire it (if those 2 cards even made it into the locations at setup, or maybe if an effect said to acquire a blessing from the vault etc.)
Is this right?
Not sure Major Harrowing is that useful with large groups?
We are playing adventure 6 in CotCT with 6 players. So that is 6 harrow Crown Blessings plus one player already has a Crown Blessing, so that is 7 already accounted for. Only 2 are left in the Vault that may appear in locations or in the Hourglass.
The first power on Major Harrowing:
"On local checks that have a trait matching the adventure's harrow suit, add 3; if the hour has a suit trait matching the adventure's harrow suit, add 2d4 instead."So in our case there would only ever be 2 possible chances of having a local check that has a trait matching the adventure's harrow suit which would be we were trying to acquire it (if those 2 cards even made it into the locations at setup, or maybe if an effect said to acquire a blessing from the vault etc.)
Is this right?
I think you're misunderstanding the power, so I'll try to rephrase it.
On local checks that have a trait matching the adventure's harrow suit, add 3; if the hour has a suit trait matching the adventure's harrow suit, add 2d4 instead.
Lets just look at the first half...
On local checks that have a trait matching the adventure's harrow suit, add 3.
In Curse of the Crimson Throne, every adventure has a Harrow Suit, and Page 3 of the CotCT rulebook demonstrates the trait (skill) that matches each Harrow Suit. Adventure 6 has the Harrow Suit of Crowns, which Page 3 lists that is matched to Charisma.
So whilst Major Harrowing is displayed, it adds 3 to all local Charisma checks, since page 11 of the Core Rulebook explains that all checks in which you're using your Charisma (or any skill based on Charisma) would add the Charisma trait to the check. Additionally, this would also include most checks even if you replaced the skill you were using; for example if you had a power that said "You may use Melee for your Charisma check against an ally", then you would add both the Melee, the skill Melee is based on, and the Charisma traits to your check.
If you use Charisma heavily, such as a Sorcerer, then I would think this is quite a solid buff; especially in large parties where you need to explore more times a turn and are more free to spend most of your hand in a turn, so throwaway cards that effectively freely buff some of your checks without constantly filling your hand are extra good.
If the hour has a suit trait matching the adventure's harrow suit, add 2d4 instead.
In a large party, as you point out, the likelihood of the hour being one of the remaining Crowns blessings is low, so I wouldn't assume this would occur. Honestly, even in a small party it's unlikely unless you have a character or boon that greatly adjusts the hourglass order.
I don't think this seriously impacts the value of the spell, however.
In Curse of the Crimson Throne, every adventure has a Harrow Suit, and Page 3 of the CotCT rulebook demonstrates the trait (skill) that matches each Harrow Suit. Adventure 6 has the Harrow Suit of Crowns, which Page 3 lists that is matched to Charisma.
Ahhh.......After reading your post and the card again, it makes sense now :)
I was reading it as match the harrow suit (like what you do in the second part), so hammer, crowns etc. But it is as you say, match the trait that is associated with that suit.Some elements of this game can be confusing sometimes especially when your brain gets stuck on a point and it takes a fresh outside look to clear it up.
Thank you for help :)
You're welcome!
I personally kind of feel it could be stated more clearly in the storybook, perhaps with a card example. I do imagine, though, that any players with a background in the Pathfinder RPG are more familiar with the Skill/Harrow Suit link.