Please explain to me some of how this game works...

[Jynks]

Hi there.,.. I recently in a sale picked up Pathfinder Adventures on Steam along with some extar heroes on a 2nd quest about goblins. Anyway.., I own 3 of the physical sets so understand the tabletop game, but I am having trouble understanding some of the "new stuff". I'm about 1/2 way through the 1st campaign in the virtual verison.

 

Q1 : In the store there is a chest system.. what exactly is this? If I buy a chest it adds more cards to my pool and they turn up in the quests... is that correct? Are these permanent?

 

Q2 : There is a section in the store called "enchantments"... what are these thing? For example "Mountain Pattern" is currently at 80% off for 200 coins.. but what dose this mean. If I buy it .. it is permanently added to my game? I actually paid for it and it did turn up.. but the option to buy it is still in the store.. dose this mean I can buy multiple copies for my pool.. or are they temporary and will end up going away.

 

Q3 : Then there is "Runes" and "Chams"... what are these and how do you use them. They seem to have "charges" so I guess they are temporary?

 

Q4: Is there anything else coins are used for? Should I just sink my coins into chests as they are the only permanent things?

 

Q5: Can you increase the size of your "vault" ?

 

Anyway.. if I could get some guidance in the "computer game" kinda stuff that they have added to Pathfinder ACG that would be cool.

 

Thanks!

Edited July 30, 2018 by Jynks

[Ethics Gradient]

Hey!  Welcome!  Let me do my best to answer a few of the questions.

 

Q1 : In the store there is a chest system.. what exactly is this?

While are few are Obsidian originals, most of the treasure cards come from Skull and Shackles, Wrath, or character decks.  They were implemented to add a little flair to the game, and give the players some extra incentives to help out with replayability (get gold, find cool loot, repeat).  

Each additional copy of a treasure card you find is like having another physical card in the game box.  While treasure card math isn't entirely straightforward, it is generally true that that more of them you possess, the greater likelihood the game will deal them into a location deck.  There is a quota involved, so if you are playing with treasure cards on (you can choose to disable them in Settings), the regular Rise of the Runelords cards generally won't be flooded-out by boosters.  

When you open a pack of treasure cards, aside from them being added to your account, a courtesy copy is deposited in the "Unclaimed" section of your stash if you want to immediately put it to use.  This was done to address a common complaint of "hey, i just opened a gazillion chests, where are all those cards I found??"  The treasure cards and stash system can easily be abused to gear-up low-level parties with end-game cards, but however much you choose to "cheat the system" is up to you.

 

Q2 : There is a section in the store called "enchantments"... what are these thing? 

Enhancement cards are single treasure cards you simply buy to add to your collection.  They follow the same rules as above, but you are just buying a single card instead of a random pack of whatever.  And like the above, you're also getting that free "courtesy copy" each time you purchase one.

Q3 : Then there is "Runes" and "Chams"... what are these 

Runes and charms are consumable items Obsidian added to the game.  They are entirely unnecessary to complete the game, but can really help out if you get stuck on a scenario.  Runes are activated from the overworld map and do some beneficial thing for a certain period of time.  Charms are used in-scenario by clicking the backpack icon.  Mechanically, Charms are very similar to a side deck of banish after use cards that all party members have at their disposal.

 

Q4: Is there anything else coins are used for?

Not really, no.  You used to be able to buy scenarios or characters with coins, but the in-game economy got a big realignment a year or so ago.  Generally speaking, gold buys treasure chests and consumables, but content requires cash.

 

Q5: Can you increase the size of your "vault" ?

No.  The stash is limited to 10 cards, shared across all your parties.  It presently cannot be increased.  There is no limit on the number of cards in your collection (the game box), or the number of cards in the unclaimed section of the stash.

Cards in your stash can be sold off after each scenario.  Doing so does not permanently remove them from your collection (nothing will), you're just selling them back to the "box" for a few extra gold.

 

As far as other changes, scroll down to the bottom of this post for a list of edits  that Obsidian made to cards.  Some cards didn't translate well to the digital format, but all of the modifications were made with Paizo's blessing.  Unlike tabletop, permadeath is off by default, but it can be reenabled if you really want to.  The only other major change that comes to mind is the difficulty system and random modifiers.  Playing a scenario on Heroic or Legendary adds one or two random modifiers to bump up the challenge.

 

Good luck, and feel free to ask if you have any other questions!

Edited July 31, 2018 by Ethics Gradient

[Hannibal_PJV]

Ethics Gradient did Empty the bank, but I add one detail. The legendary difficulty Also add limited movement, so that only some locations Are Connected to each others.

The ui can Also take some time to get familiar. How to chose another character to take checks in multi check banes (viole icon) ot how to play blessings to another character checks. But clicking different things should work. But ask more info when meeting other intriques.

[Jynks]

So chest cards and individual cards purchased in the enhancements section are permanently added to your card pool (the game box)?

[Ethics Gradient]

So chest cards and individual cards purchased in the enhancements section are permanently added to your card pool (the game box)?

 

Yup.  Your overall card pool is can be viewed from the "Collection" button on the main menu.  Your collection can only be added to.  At the moment, nothing will remove or permanently destroy cards from your account.  Any card your party does not currently possess is in "the box" and might turn up in a scenario sometime.

 

Whenever you start a scenario, the game uses your collection to build a card pool for play (adjusts for Adventure Deck number, adds Treasure Cads if enabled), and that set is then used to deal out the location decks.

[Jynks]

thanks for your help guys.. I appreciate it.

[Jenceslav]

Some minor remarks from a well-meaining nit-picker Although EthicsGradient wrote a perfect summary, there are some simplifications there

1) Most Uncommon cards in the chests come from Class Decks (or even other Adventure Paths), 90%+ of "rare" (blue), "epic" (pink) and "legendary" (gold) cards are completely new. Some adventures have also "hidden" cards, mainly the Valeros adventure - that come from e.g. Skull & Shackles. Quartermaster and Master-at-Arms come to mind.

2) Both Heroic and Legendary difficulty also intensify the scenario rules so they become more severe. E.g. goblins are more difficult by 1d4, 1d6 and 2d4 in Normal, Heroic and Legendary versions of Assault of Thistletop, if I remember correctly. Plus 1-2 wildcards (based on these scenario rules) + movement restrictions in Legendary. Quite a challenge added.

3) Cards in the Collection are added by opening chests and should not go away at all. But... the game has an auto-truncating procedure that prunes away identical cards in excess of some number. At the moment, my Collection is literally littered (pun not intended) by Orbs of <Something>, a lot of them having exactly 30 instances. So unless your cards exceed this maximum, you are fine and are "adding cards to the box".

4) A big change from tabletop game - you may not choose NOT to attempt to acquire a boon. You always have to test it, even though you don't want that boon. I once lost a Wand of Enervation in the Vault of Greed - Ezren with Intelligence +4 and Arcane skill encountered some item with Intelligence or Arcane 6 check. Unsurprisingly, he succeeded and Wand of Enervation, banished you are!

[Jynks]

If a character is killed on a quest that gives everyone a + stat point.. they do not get the point.. do you need to replay the same quest for them to get that point... or will they get the point when you beat the next quest in line.

 

Also, what do you do if you have nothing in the stash to fill a card slot? Recently I was out of blessings as I had a bunch of locations that banish cards.. I had no blessings stored in my stash... I couldn't advance. Any ideas what to do?

[Ethics Gradient]

> If a character is killed on a quest that gives everyone a + stat point.. they do not get the point.. do you need to replay the same quest for them to get that point...

Yes, they need to replay the scenario.  The game tracks when a character has received rewards, so the next time they replay a scenario they didn't survive, they will get the missing stat point/card/whatever.

 

The tabletop rules aren't entirely clear about how to resolve missing rewards (dead characters don't have problems), but the interpretation is in line with the guidance that a party is free to replay any scenario they have already completed, but individual characters may not receive scenario rewards more than once.

 

> Also, what do you do if you have nothing in the stash to fill a card slot?

Double-check all your options first.  If the game is convinced that you can adequately repair a deck, it is because it sees an applicable card in: another character's hand, the stash, or in unclaimed cards.  It does feel a little buggy that the game may occasionally force you to pull an unclaimed card, but it does consider them to be available resources, whether you want to use them or not.  

 

If after that, you absolutely do not have any cards to fix a deck, the arrow in the top right should light up and allow you to advance from the post-game screen.  It will then bring you to a different window where you will be able to rummage through all the cards in the box per tabletop rules.

 

There used to be some legitimate bugs getting through deck repair, but I think the issue was largely fixed a couple major patches ago.

[Jynks]

Thanks again...

 

Side note.... lolz

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/955213082854631092/00932096073BE7D804A0017654E6E9055D4FF4B1/

[Jynks]

Is there a way to tell what quest I have missed?

 

I'm in a strange situation.. all my heroes have specialized.. apart from 1... but I can not work out why.. I have run the quest a few times without her dying.. but she still is not leveling up... Any ideas?

 

The quest that levels it up is "Into the Mountains"... but it is a "scenario" reward.. not a quest reward.. so I am thinking I have had hewr die on one of the quests, as you need a win on every quest to gain the reward.

 

So is there a way to see what quests a character has not completed?

[Jenceslav]

Is there a way to tell what quest I have missed?

 

I'm in a strange situation.. all my heroes have specialized.. apart from 1... but I can not work out why.. I have run the quest a few times without her dying.. but she still is not leveling up... Any ideas?

 

The quest that levels it up is "Into the Mountains"... but it is a "scenario" reward.. not a quest reward.. so I am thinking I have had hewr die on one of the quests, as you need a win on every quest to gain the reward.

 

So is there a way to see what quests a character has not completed?

 

If you open the character management screen, there are Powers, Cards and Completion tabs - if you go into the Completion tab and select the particular Adventure (Hook Mountain Massacre, perhaps? ), then the finished scenarios (of this hero) will be marked by a small skull with a check mark.

 

Note that sometimes the Completion tab can be bugged (for a long time, Goblins scenarios names were showing instead of the correct ones in one adventure). Moreover, there is also one major change in the adventure completion - in AD6, the 1st adventure gives you a scenario reward plus the adventure path reward. In essence, you are temporarily 1 card feat in advance with respect to the tabletop game.

 

And last remark - looking at Into the Mountains, its scenario reward provides Loot. As in the tabletop version, you cannot receive the same reward twice. So if you already have these loot cards, you will not receive them again - in this party. If you desperately need them, you can start another party, bring in someone who finished up to Into the Mountains and play the scenario in that party to receive loot.

 

Edit: some changes after checking the game

Edited August 13, 2018 by Jenceslav

[Jynks]

If you desperately need them, you can start another party, bring in someone who finished up to Into the Mountains and play the scenario in that party to receive loot.

So is it possible to start the entire scenario again with different characters but use some old characters with everything unlocked already?

 

 

 

[Ethics Gradient]

 

If you desperately need them, you can start another party, bring in someone who finished up to Into the Mountains and play the scenario in that party to receive loot.

So is it possible to start the entire scenario again with different characters but use some old characters with everything unlocked already?

Yes.  The game keeps track of scenario completion per character and per party.  By shifting characters around, it's sometimes possible to take advantage of situation, especially if you're looking to regain a lost loot card.

 

At any time you're allowed to move characters in and out of new or existing parties, and generally speaking, how that affects the party save falls into one of three different use cases.

 

New Party, All New Characters:

No scenarios are makes as completed.  

No rewards are marked as received.

 

New Party, Some Experienced Characters:

All scenarios up to the highest completion of the most experienced character are marked as completed on Normal difficulty.

All party rewards (i.e. Loot) up to the highest completion of the most experienced character are marked as received by the party.

All character rewards (Feats, Roles, etc..) still get rewarded to any character that hasn't received them.

 

Existing Party, Any Additional New or Experienced Characters:

In addition to previously completed scenarios, any new completions added by the most experienced character are marked as completed on Normal difficulty.

Party rewards (i.e. Loot) remain the same as before new characters were added.

All character rewards (Feats, Roles, etc..) still get rewarded to any character that hasn't received them.

 

The third case is the most exploitable, because if you start a new game with new characters, then later  add-in some end-game ringers, you'll have access to all those levels, but the party save will not have been marked for receiving any Loot Cards.

 

As with a handful of other things in digital Pathfinder, there are certainly some ways to "cheat" if you want to.  Then again, much of it is more-or-less legal per tabletop rules.  There really isn't a lot of strict guidance on how to manage pick-up play, and figuring out the best way to handle rewards for merged/split/re-formed parties is the kind of things you would discuss as a group.