Collapsed Ceiling and Augury

[hornsfan01]

This is actually working correctly for the most part but a little misleading.

 

Ezren encounters Collapsed Ceiling. He fails the check to defeat it.

Collapsed Ceiling says, "If undefeated, leave this barrier faceup on its location deck; while it's there, characters at this location may not move, and encounter it as the first exploration of each of their turns." So at the end of the failed check, Collapsed Ceiling is faceup on the top of the location deck.

Before his turn ends, though, Ezrel casts Augury which lets him guess a card type, check the top three cards of the location deck, and if any of them are the guessed type, put those cards in any order on the top or the bottom of the location deck.

 

No problem, I thought. I'll just guess Barrier and send Collpased Ceiling to the bottom.

So I do just that and send the Collapsed Ceiling to the bottom.

The next time Ezren's turn rolls around, lo and behold, the Collapsed Ceiling is again faceup on top of the location deck. Well, the game must not have HEARD me correctly because I clearly chose BOTTOM last time. But no problem, I think again. I've got a SECOND Augury spell. I play it again and again send Collapsed Ceiling to the bottom before exploring. Well, after the spell runs, once AGAIN Collapsed Ceiling is faceup and on top of the location deck.

 

CLEARLY broken, I think. But not so fast...

 

According to this:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qqsx?Collapse-the-Ceiling-then-Augury-your-way

the game is actually working correctly with regards to the Collapsed Ceiling. According to the developer's ruling, you CANNOT augur a faceup card on top of the location deck to the bottom. So my problem is not with the fact that the Collapsed Ceiling stayed on top...it's with the fact that while playing the Augury spell, the game acted like I was sending the barrier to the bottom of the deck. I would have appreciated some kind of feedback that the game was going to enforce this somewhat obscure ruling BEFORE completing the Augury spell. Perhaps making the Collapsed Ceiling unselectable or making it visually bounce back to the top of the deck before completing the Augury spell, or a text message stating that this card cannot be moved, or something. I don't think you could simply undo the Augury because you've gained information about what cards are in the deck by that point, but perhaps making a faceup card unselectable during Augury might work. Since it wasn't clear what was happening, I wasted two Augury spells before having to search online to figure it out.

[Longshot11]

 Perhaps making the Collapsed Ceiling unselectable or making it visually bounce back to the top of the deck before completing the Augury spell, or a text message stating that this card cannot be moved, or something. I don't think you could simply undo the Augury because you've gained information about what cards are in the deck by that point, but perhaps making a faceup card unselectable during Augury might work. Since it wasn't clear what was happening, I wasted two Augury spells before having to search online to figure it out.

Yup, relying on new players knowing an obscure ruling on the Paizo forums doesn't seem optimal.

Your idea for the Ceiling 'bouncng back' when player presses 'close' (similar to a Blessing Seelah discards for her Inspired Grace power) seems good. Just leaving it 'unselectable' however will be just as confusing for newbies will make them report it as another 'bug'.

 

What I was thinking - Obsidian obviously made some changes to cards wording for clarity (for example, most cards that say "draw a random card (from the box)" now say "draw a NEW card", and also some items specifically state that they work on YOUR encounters only) . So it wouldn't be of harm if they manage to put on the Ceiling some extra text to the tune of "This card can't be moved from the top of the deck"