Nightbelly Boa in Quest mode

[Blave]

This is not technically a bug as the card does what it says, but I suggest removing the Nighbelly Boa from the pool of possible henchmen in quest mode.

 

A six character party with 8 locations has a ridiculous hard time completing a scenario with 7 Boas as the only henchmen. In fact, I immediately forfait if I run into them.

[Rhygar]

Now, that could be really a challenge not that I'll ever try to grind a party of 6 on legendary in quest mode.

 

I believe it's not automatic that once you see a boa, you get all 7 of them. In my game, I'd seen a mix of a few boa with other henchman .

[Brainwave]

I've gotten a full set of boa henchmen on 6 man. It was indeed much more difficult that, say the Goblin Raiders that I've gotten since then at a higher level, not to mention other tougher henchmen that at least still allow you to close locations after defeating them.

 

So while I agree with you, I don't really think they're too concerned with balance when it comes to things like this. I mean pretty much everyone seems to agree that the Night Approaches wildcard power is much more difficult than most of the other wildcards (even people who don't agree with me about other balance issues seem to go this far for the most part) and yet the dev response there is basically that it's okay because it's meant to be hard. Maybe that's different since the boa can be encountered on normal but I mean I'm seeing deck 2 villains for the most part and then at level 27 or 28 I just got... Black Fang on normal as well. So the idea doesn't really seem to be balancing things of the same level against each other.

[Blave]

While the Boa does make the scenario much much more difficult (even nearly impossible for 6 man parties if you're unlucky), it's not so much of a blancing concern. It simply lacks the most basic function of all (?) other henchmen. It destroys some basic principles of the game ("beat a henchman, close a location") which is confusing for newcomers, to say the least. I was actually going to report this as a bug before I took a second (and third, and fourth) look at the card and realised it doesn't say anthing about closing a location.

 

Maybe they could make a special quest-version of the Boa with the closing-ability. I've seen a special "closing-included" henchmen version of the Cultist so it shouldn't be a problem to add another Boa.

[Brainwave]

Sometimes I think people just argue with me for the sake of arguing.

 

In your own words the boa - lacks the most basic function of all other henchmen, destroys some basic principles of the game and a 6 player party has a ridiculous hard time completing a scenario with 7 boas, so much so that you forfeit out.

 

And yet it's not a balance issue? It makes me wonder what would qualify as a balance issue.. a henchman that immediately uninstalls Pathfinder from your device when you encounter it? lol

[Rhygar]

My 2 cents

 

It's not a bug but I'm guessing the intention of the designer for having this card is precisely to make a game with this card in it tougher to complete.

 

The designers may or may not have tested sufficiently whether a host of all 7 boas in a six man team makes it virtually impossible to complete , with the villain hiding in the last card of a location to boot. It does not detract from the fact the card present a different, entirely playable, and challenging experience in a 4 man team for me for me surely, and likely much more so in smaller parties. I don't think removing the card or altering it is necessary just because in an extreme scenario it's makes it nigh impossible to win.

 

I'd thought about testing it with six man team myself, but I think I may have to try many times indeed to even chance upon a combo of 7 boas in a legendary game in quest mode . The game wasn't built around a perma death mode to play and if I had the nice luck to run into such a fatalistic combo in a scenario , I'd just chalk it up as a loss in much the same way as a series of bad dice roll for checks in a game render the game a fail. It happens. It's ok , for me , to chalk up a loss ,especially if it's a difficult mode I'm choosing to play in.

[Blave]

"Not a balance issue" a was poor wording. Of course it is. And I don't mind some henchman being much harder to deal with than other ones. But a henchman who lacks the one line of text that turns a normal Monster into a henchman is simply confusing, especially for new players who have never played the card game before (like me).

 

@Rhygar: The Boa isn't that rare. The Problem for testing is more the fact that you need a high level Party (level 20+ or something) for it to even have a Chance to show up.

[Rhygar]

Blave, my point of saying difficulty testing that scenario with 7 boas was more to illustrate the low probability game spawning all 7 boas and hence diffucult to have that situation to begin with. I'd had boas mixed in with other henchman for 4 man runs in quest mode many times as well as the ones where all were boas. Boas by themselves aren't common any more so than a kreeg or hag, I just happen to think odds all 7 will be boas has to be lower because they can be generated with other henchman .

 

I may still try that scenario , but it's besides the point other than doing it for personal satisfaction. I'm just not so sure the design of that card will be changed anytime soon just because it makes a specific extreme scenario unplayable whereas the other party configuration may progress through the game well enough with it

 

Maybe a code to limit more than 5 spawning together could be a workaround.