Playing for just a week, need some basics answered

[sleonardo]

New to pathfinder but not new to DnD, rpgs in general.  Have been into gaming since the 90s.  Some questions...

 

1.  In story mode, why cant I see the level of my characters?  I only see their skills, powers, card lists, etc.  The reason why I am asking is because it seems like my progress to acquire skills, powers and additional card lists in the Story mode progresses a lot faster than my characters in Quest mode.  In quest mode, I have some characters at around level 9 and they barely had one skill point added (no powers or cards list addition yet).  Yet in story mode, I've got a lot of progress done including unlocking roles (finished The Hook Mountain Massacre).

 

2.  Also, why can't I move my characters from story mode to quest mode?  and start from there?  I understand we should not able to move quest characters into story mode. 

 

3.  In quest mode, it seems like the items card drops are all in the same category unlike in Story mode, new scenarios open up cards of new sets?  How do I play quests in a precise manner where I get drops from specific sets?   I don't understand quest mode other than the 3 settings of difficulty.  What else can I tweak to get more precise on the drops?

 

Thank you.

 

[Bajie]

In story mode, feats and skills are tied to a scenario's completion. Quest mode its level dependent. Basically you can see the scenario completed by each character on the character info under completion which if in storymode lists encounter scenario while in quest mode it list level progression.

 

Storymode progress faster than quest mode. AD3 completion you'd be comparatibly LVL 31.

 

In questmode, you need to unlike AD# cards as you level up..i think AD1 cards unlocks at level 10.

[ArchSenex]

Keep in mind that story mode is the classic mode, from the physical game. Quest mode is new for the app, and is intended to be an open ended experience. The level concept was made up for quest mode, originally there were no levels, just unlocks.

 

Also, as a warning, ad# isn't always the same in quest. Some cards were ruled too weak or powerful and moved to other levels. As you level, better cards should appear, but quest mode is intended to be very slow.

[HPL_fan]

I've been playing PA for a while now (on my second 30 days of daily gold already ) and only recently started playing quest mode now that I have finished all of the available story mode adventures.  I am finding the two definitely do play and feel a bit different.  Quest mode reminds me much more of my AD&D days - taking a character in and out of discreet scenarios where you didn't know what to expect, and leveling them up to get better stats.  Story mode is much more structured - and from my experience much harder.  The two share characters and the card vault, but the game mechanics are a bit different and they completely separate experiences.  That's why you can't move characters between quests and stories.  In story mode you can start a new party, which could include instances of an experienced character, but you can't have the same character (i.e. instance of a character class) in more than one party.  You can't grind through quest mode to make story mode easier, which I was originally expecting.  You can grind through the same or previous story scenarios though.  Not as much variation in story mode grinding, but then you can play new instances of the same character 'classes' in quest mode if you love the party and just want random adventures.  The two sets of characters would likely grow different over time, though, given that they'd be fighting different banes and finding different boons.  Banes in story mode are set by the adventure and scenario, as are boons (to a large degree).  In quest mode you don't have that tie to a story - your 'party' even only exists for the one scenario I think.  Because of that cards are tied to character level instead of adventure/scenario.

 

Back in my 1st ed. AD&D days (showing my age here) you could buy/create adventure modules and play them with a DM and a group of players.  In the back of the DM's guide there was also a small system for playing solo.  Same basic rules but very different experiences.  Think of PA story mode like a module/campaign and quest mode like a solo game.

[sleonardo]

All of your comments help a lot.  I will be more patient with the progress on Quest mode.  I wonder if there is a limit of levels?  30?

[Hannibal_PJV]

One AD is almost the same as 10 levels.

There are 6AD in story mode, so there will be level 6x im quest mode at least most propably level 70 in the upper limit, but that is just a ques based on that they don't offer extra content beyond AD6.

[Kgk4569]

With the way they have been scaling levels should top out around 100.

[HPL_fan]

All of your comments help a lot.  I will be more patient with the progress on Quest mode.  I wonder if there is a limit of levels?  30?

 

I believe AD3 raised the quest character level cap to 40.  I'm no where near that yet, but that's what I remember seeing in the forums.

[jtrowell]

Yes, as already posted, it seems that they use 10 level per adventure, so I except that in the end we will get something like that :

 

1-9 : tier 0 (base deck only)

10-19 : tier 1 (AD1 added)

20-29 : tier 2

30-39 : tier 3

40-49 : tier 4 (AD4, probable next patch)

50-59 : tier 5

60-69 : tier 6

 

With maybe a level 70 to round up the levels, or maybe even a whole additionnal tier

[ArchSenex]

They've already discussed a desire for the app to be a chance to go above ad6 in general. Quest mode is a good way to do so. I wouldn't be surprised if they go higher.

[Nathan Davis]

The other posters have done a good job of answering your questions it seems.

 

To address #1, we are planning to improve the way we display and allow you to interact with your characters and parties. This will likely come out ahead of multiplayer. Our current interface has more in common with a Save/Load screen than a party management screen which is the result of starting out with strict party saves in development and evolving to a more flexible system of party management. It all works right now, but is admittedly a little cumbersome.