Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Frostgrave => Topic started by: joe5mc on November 14, 2017, 12:04:33 PM
-
This is where you can hit me up with your burning Ghost Archipelago rules questions, and I will answer as best and as quickly as I can!
-
Thanks for this thread Joe. First I'd like to congratulate you on another great game! We've only played four games, but enjoyed it thoroughly.
My questions are mostly about some of the spells. I play with a windwarden and my opponent has a beast warden. The first question was asked by somebody on the fb page a while ago too. I'm sorry I cannot remember the names of all the spells yet.
1. Can you have two separate animals under control in your warband at the same time, one with Control Animal and one with Summon Animal?
2. Is the spell windwalk similar to leap in the sense that you can move figures out of the spell where you get caught by vines? I cant remember the spell name for that, but it is a spell belonging to the vine warden and is similar to bones of the earth and its horrible!
3. There is a spell that creates a pit where a figure can fall into it by failing a will roll. Can you climb/be transported out of that somehow?
4. The small boats can turn freely when moving. Does this mean you can spin the boat to your advantage and thereby stealing some inches for passengers in the aft when jumping ashore for instance?
-
Thanks Crit, I'm glad you like it!
1. Yes. The two spells work independent of one another. One brings an animal from off the table, the other requires the animal to already be on teh table.
2. Yes
3. There is nothing that holds the figure in the pit, they can climb out, or be transported out as normal.
4. Yes - although you should be pivoting the boat on its central point, so you can spin it around so the front is now the back, you shouldn't spin it on its front point, so that the back is now 2" further along than the front was.
-
Had another game yesterday, used a lot of deep water for the board and small boats. Great fun!
New questions came up:
1. Creatures with ranged weapons- what is their range exactly? 10"?
2. Placement of creatures- RAW says for the one option that they must be placed at least 6" away and out of LOS. Does that mean we can place them in the open if they are at least 10"+ away as creatures only have 10" LOS?
3. Throwing dagger- this can only be used by a heritor or a warden?
4. Again with the snare spell:)- There is no limitation to where it can be cast? in water etc.
-
Hi Critsmash , we read through the book , and it doesnt say anywhere that creature LOS is 10" .
I always thought this was a little wierd, as in nature animals probably have better eyesight than humans.
But I'd like to hear what Joe has to say.
Roger
-
1. Animals with ranged weapons have the same range limitations as warband members, so 24" in most cases.
10" isn't the range of animals line of sight, it is the range at which they feel threatened and will attack.
2. No, that's not an option. Just the two options given.
3. For the moment. There might be a soldier who can use it in the future.
4. No limitation. Plenty of plants in water, or under paving stones, etc.
-
Hi! Thanks for the service of answering questions directly on this forum. I have one about the Warden spell, Beast Cry. It says:
At the end of every turn, the Warden should roll a die. On a 10+, roll for a random encounter..."
My question: Do you cast it once and then it goes on for the rest of the game? Do you choose the spell and never have to roll for it -- instead being an "always on" effect? Or do you pay every time, and even if successful it has no effect on the subsequent roll of 9 or less?
Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
(http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww213/mikedemana/Miscellaneous/LPL_bades_zpsl7op2jaz.jpg)
-
You cast it once, and roll every turn thereafter, unless the spell is cancelled somehow.
-
Thanks! Makes perfect sense.
Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
(http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww213/mikedemana/Miscellaneous/LPL_bades_zpsl7op2jaz.jpg)
-
Hey Joe, I have two related questions:
1) in the creature fase a creature uses it's first action to fight and loses the fight. The player pushes the creature back one inch. Does the creature use it's second action to move back into combat?
2) in the crew fase a crewmember uses it's first action to fight a creature or other player's crew, wins and pushes the enemy model back. If he then moves past the creature/opponenten can he force combat?
-
Yes, to both questions.
-
About the swimming rules: if you activate in water you'd have to take a swimming roll. What if you end up in water in mid- activation? Example: a figure jumps into deep water from land and has movement left on the first activation. Can he finish his move in deep water or does he immediately have to take the roll?
-
Hi Joe, With the vine warden spell 'Brambles' can they be dispelled also?
Great game ,by the way, Im really looking forward to the supplements :)
Roger
-
Critmash - you can finish the move. So, if you can get through Deep Water quick enough, you are fine.
Roger - not quite sure what you mean by 'dispelled'? if you are asking if the Warden can just cancel the spell at any time, then no, it is a permanent feature.
-
Hi Joe,
I hosted my usual nemesis through his first game last weekend and we had a great time.
Several questions came up based on the scenario. We were playing the Drichean Cages and the following came up:
1) I was playing a Beast Warden. Does this mission totally negate the Beast Cry spell as only Drichean Warriors are added by a random encounter? It seems like this mission is potentially hard on a beast warden due to a lack of random beasts.
2) If the Beast Cry is still a usable spell, does that mean it generates a Drichean warrior if it succeeds on the end of turn random encounter roll? Does this spell’s placement rule override the scenario’s Drichean placement rule?
3) Is the prisoner freed when the cage is unlocked or when a crewman picks him up as a treasure token?
-
Hey Evilsham,
Hope you managed to have a fun game despite the questions.
The Beast Cry spell is completely separate from 'normal' random encounter rolls. Play the spell exactly as written. All 'normal' random encounter rolls follow the specific scenario rules.
The cage is opened, immediately after a successful Fight Roll is made (so this is who gets the xps if that's what you are asking).
-
Thanks for the quick reply.
The cage is opened, immediately after a successful Fight Roll is made (so this is who gets the xps if that's what you are asking).
I was trying to ask more about handling the Dricheans. The scenario says that once the prisoner is freed, they will move towards the prisoner rather than a random move. Is the prisoner freed once the cage is opened or when a crewman "picks up" the prisoner to start escorting him off the board?
-
Ah, got you. The prisoner is freed as soon as the cage is opened.
-
Not sure if we are playing the small boat rules correctly:
1. Can small boats be activated in the soldier phase?
2. If a soldier is in the boat and the heritor is not, but still within 3", can the boat be activated by the soldier in the heritor phase?
-
1) Yes - if there is no one in the boat who activates sooner than that in the turn.
2) Yes - whenever the first figure in the boat activates, that's when the boat moves.
-
Joe,
A couple questions about the Vine Warden spell Plant Walk:
1. A figure is standing in an area of vegetation, can Plant Walk be used to move the terrain with the figure moving along with it? Or is this not allowed since the terrain piece may not be moved onto or through another figure?
2. Can you move a terrain feature containing a treasure? And will the treasure move along with the terrain?
Thanks much.
Knabe
-
Hey Knabe,
I like your thinking.
1) No, unfortunately this would count as moving over a figure.
2) Sure, nothing against that. The treasure goes with it.
-
1. Lightning Strike I presume there is reason it is not shooting attack (because there will be no cover against it and it avoid shooting into combar rule). However what happen if person targeted by Lightning Strike enters into the building, cave or dive into the water?
2. Blood Suckers are not hindered by movement penalty in deep water, however do they still suffer -2 Fight penalty there.
3. No two weapons fighting bonus for heritor or warden right?
4. Ladder can be used to cross any difficult terrain or as a bridge over troubled water, so the model can move over it without penalty?
5. Beast Cry will call any creature from the encounter table? Even undead? if it will be animal by chance, can I control or command it later on?
-
1. It's purely a rules thing. Whever you go - the Lightning will find you.
2. Blood suckers? Do you mean creatures with flying. An oversight - flyers shouldn't suffer a Fight penalty for being in water.
3. No. The two weapon bonus doesn't exist in GA.
4. No. It sticks to the side of a terrain piece, not lays across. Your version probably would have made for a better spell.
5. Yes. And Yes.
-
Question about the Vine Warden spell Warp Weapon.
It says the effects are permanent. Does this mean for the game or the whole campaign?
In other words, if a Vine Warden destroys an archer's bow, is he left with nothing but a dagger for the rest of the campaign?
Or is there assumed to be some sort of "free" weapons locker on the main ship?
-
All mundane weapons can be replaced for free after a game. So, as far as most soldiers are concerned it is only for the game. However, since it can effect superior and magic weapon as well, these are not freely replaced and the effects carry over from game to game.
-
Thanks for the clarification, Joe!
-
question probably seems a bit dim, but how should people play the 'pit' and 'pool' spells in terms of the affected figure/s ... ?
is it just a delay (but how 'deep' is the pit for example) with movement needed to escape or is there a magical restraining effect etc?
-
The pit is 2" deep, as stated in the spell. It can be climbed out of the same as any terrain. The pool essentially will force figures to make a swimming roll to escape
-
oops - re: pit spell description. apologies.
but thanks for the clarifications Joe.
-
Tonight we had a very watery / boaty type of game and a few issues came up.
- When the heritor activates with a boat full of crew, say 5 others, do only 3 help out for movement or can the heritor get everyone in the boat to help with movement?
- Does the boat crew get the additional half move as well?
- Does this movement take up all their actions?
- If you jump off a rock into water do you still take falling damage?
- If you jump off a rock into water as the last part of your movement when do you do the will roll for swimming, if it is at this stage there is no loss of activation.
-
1. Boat movement is abstracted. It only matters the number of people in the boat at the time it moves. It doesn't matter whose activation caused the move. So, in your example the boat could move 6".
2/3. Boat movement is completely independent of what any actions taken by figures inside the boat. So, the boat could move in the Heritor phase. In the crew phase the boat won't move, but all figure inside it that activate in that phase can take two actions.
4. I don't know. I would probably roll a die. Evens the figure is fine, odds he hits a rock and takes fallin damage.
5. You only make Swimming Rolls when you activate while in Deep Water. So you essentially get the first move into Deep Water for free. I see this rule could be better written.
-
So you can swim through short sections of deep water without a roll at all, it just counts as rough ground and 1/2 movement?
Also it would be good if we got +5 XP for killing any member of war-bands of someone called "Tim" ;D
-
Yup.
I'll take the anit-Tim experience under advisement.
-
??? when invisible...does the use of a heritor power make you visible?
maybe I missed it...surrounded by snakemen an such...
-
;) moved thru terrain... stayed invis...still ended up thumped.
-
Played Scenario 3 the other night. A couple of questions arose.
1) Are there any rules for walking up stairs? We ended up playing an inch per step level.
2) Are there any benefits gained from being higher then someone when you attack them on stairs?
3) Is it an action to hand a treasure token from one figure to another? Sure I've read this somewhere???
4) At what point does the Screamer Monkey attack?
5) Can I use Wraithwalk when carrying a treasure token?
-
Thanks for the quick reply.
I was trying to ask more about handling the Dricheans. The scenario says that once the prisoner is freed, they will move towards the prisoner rather than a random move. Is the prisoner freed once the cage is opened or when a crewman "picks up" the prisoner to start escorting him off the board?
Regarding the Drichean guards, I read it that do not react to you walking up to the prisoner to free him. Is that correct? When we played scenario 2, we didn't have access to a cage and used a Standing Stone with a figure chained to it. As a result our Drichean guards were about 3 - 4 inches apart which created a gap for any would be rescuers to move through. The lack of reaction seemed to be a bit odd. Of course, once the prisoner was freed he was then swamped by the 4 guards!!!
-
Hey guys, Sorry about the slow response. I have been away and then ill, but back now.
LiamFrostfang - Can you clarify. How did your Heritor become invisible? In general, I would say no, use of a Heritor Ability would not cause you to become visible, but I need to know the specifics.
nozza_uk
1) No. Most people, i think, treat them as normal ground requiring no additional movement, but best to clarify with your opponent the rules for your specific terrain before the game.
2) No.
3) Treasure cannot be 'passed', but it can be dropped by the figure carrying it (requiring an action) and picked up by another character next to it (requiring another action).
4) Screamer Monkeys follow the normal rules for creature with regards to movement and fighting.
5) Yes
The Dricheans in the Drichean cages follow standard rules for uncontrolled creatures, except if they would be called upon to make a 'random move'. They will still move and attack anyone who comes withing line of sight.
-
4) Screamer Monkeys follow the normal rules for creature with regards to movement and fighting.
Good, that's how we played it.
The Dricheans in the Drichean cages follow standard rules for uncontrolled creatures, except if they would be called upon to make a 'random move'. They will still move and attack anyone who comes withing line of sight.
Oh well, got an excuse (if I needed one) to replay Scenario 2 ;)
-
8) cool. thanks joe.
my son tried his hand at writing a solo scenario for me...
the supposed remains of his necromancer were trapped in an iceberg melting in the waters of GA...
upon opening the casket...no body...just an amulet of invisibility 1x game.
so...
we ruled it as long as it wasnt any attack or picking up items heritor stayed invisible.
snakemen are cool brother...yet ouch.
anyways...thanks again for making a great worl to play in!!!!
-
Joe,
How does Envenom work when cast on an Archer - Next bow attack, or next bow attack that causes damage?
Inquiring Beast Warden wants to know.
Thanks,
Don
-
Just the next attack I'm afraid. One arrow, fire it, and it's gone.
-
Hi Joe,
We recently played our first game of Ghost Archipelago and have a couple of questions:
1/ If a warden is carrying a treasure token does it affect his spellcasting ability?
2/ On page 64 it says 'a Heritor can only learn one new Heritor Ability for every five levels he gains'. Does this mean one new ability at level 5, a second at level 10 etc. or one new ability at some point in levels 1 to 5, a second at some point in levels 6 to 10 etc.?
Thanks,
Kevin
-
1) No. It has no effect on spellcasting.
2) A Heritor chooses what advance to take every time they gain a level. This can be a new Heritor Ability, so long as their total number of NEW Heritor abilities isn't greater than their current level divided by 5.
-
Thanks Joe
-
Question about the Beast Warden spell Beast Strength:
Can this be cast on any target figure, or just members of your own crew? The description of the spell doesn't seem to restrict its casting, it just mentions "target figure". So could it be cast on another Heritor's crew (useful in multiplayer games or a random monster fighting an opponent?
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Knabe
-
A few questions that came up in our last game ...
How does the eritherean work??? It will not force combat until wounded. So you can you just run past it (within 1") while it is uninjured and it will then not attack you. Does it then follow normal random encounter actions otherwise i.e. it moves and attacks?
Can you have more than 4 specialists total if one or more stay on the ship? i.e. no more than 4 at any one time in the shore party, but the ability to swap out a specialist.
Cheers,
Kev
-
Knabe - yes, you can.
Randwulf - Erithereans work exactly like you describe. Four specialists total, unless some special rule allows otherwise.
-
please delete!
-
This specialist seems rather expensive. The equivalent in Frostgrave starts each game with a healing potion. I can't see where the herbalist starts with a healing potion. Walking up and giving a team member a potion which then costs the user an action next activation seems to make the herbalist an expensive porter.
The herbalist isn't even as good as the Frostgrave mule because he can only carry one item of equipment.
Has anyone used a herbalist in their games and if so how do you ensure he delivers the value you need
-
I have a question: do you get to roll a defence die when you are the target of lightning strike? (or other similar attacks: for instance from traps (scenario seven from lost colossus)
-
You roll a defence dice whenever you are attacked. Spells which make a shooting attack can be dodged by winning the roll off.
If the trap makes a fight attack then you roll a defence dice.
-
This specialist seems rather expensive. The equivalent in Frostgrave starts each game with a healing potion. I can't see where the herbalist starts with a healing potion. Walking up and giving a team member a potion which then costs the user an action next activation seems to make the herbalist an expensive porter.
The herbalist isn't even as good as the Frostgrave mule because he can only carry one item of equipment.
Has anyone used a herbalist in their games and if so how do you ensure he delivers the value you need
The herbalist is pointless until you've built up a stockpile of useful herb/potions, after which he becomes a somewhat handy utility piece. So later in the game, not a starter buy. A great deal of his effectiveness depends on being able to buy what you want when you want, so if you use the optional Marketplace rule he's nearly useless and I'd never take him.
You could load him with cheap Smoke Glass potions and make LOS blocks as needed. If you're having issues with a sniper crew stomping you flat every game you could even blow the money on multiple "Smoker" herbalists and clot half the table with blinding smoke. LOS is also very significant for controlling who random monsters attack.
His hand-off trick is quite awful in general (terrible action economy) but there are spots where it might be okay. Handing the +2 move/-2 will herb to someone (heritor, most likely, or maybe a move 5 melee specialist) and then having them take a single move action doesn't actually cost them any distance, and it leaves slot space for combat items. In general that appears to be the idea - hand out buffs to fighters so they can use their slot for a weapon or armor or somesuch. If you don't have such items, then the herbalist is pointless, just carry the buff herb yourself.
He's one of only three crew with a +3 will so better than most at those tests (eg Blood Totems) assuming your boss and caster are too busy to tend to the job themselves. And hey, he's way better than average at closing in on a Monarch your heritor is trying to kill and a +2 support is a +2 support. Admittedly rather have a barbarian or hunter for the same job, but sometimes you take what you can get.
Also move 6, has no combat penalty while hauling treasure, and might as well flee the table once his items are used up, so there's that too. By the time you've spent three potions your regular crew are probably all dead or fled, so one more warm body is a help.
And perhaps most importantly, you have to have him to take a Recovery Room upgrade. Whether that's really a reason to take him depends on how often you find yourself replacing specialists due to injuries. At a basic cost of 700 for the upgrade and the herbalist, you'd have to save quite a few 100 cost specialists to make it worthwhile - but if you're handing expensive items to those combat specialists, the math gets much better since you don't want to lose gear to a death. Again this is late-game utility, when you've got quite a bit of money floating around - so maybe losing expensive gear with dead crew is less relevant as well? Tough to say. Upgrades in general look like luxury money sinks to me, and some of their values are really questionable. Swift Sails saves you a lousy 25 gold per journey, so it takes 5 trips before you come out ahead at all. Herb Chest is (bizarrely) an active discouragement to taking herbalists, since you want to be selling almost all potions/herbs to make back your money - and it takes 20 herbs to get to break even. Just kind of lousy.
Criticizing him for not being as good as an alchemist is really a knock on the alchemist. Having a crew that generates an item that costs as much as their hiring fee every single game is capital B Broken, not just a good buy.
Finally, unlike most crew he's going to steadily get better over time. Every time the game adds a new herb/potion he grows a new trick to use. If enough people find he's too weak to bother with, we'll probably see more and better item synergies with him, and/or ship upgrades that help him out further. So far we haven't seen many crew-specific upgrades, but it'll probably happen eventually.
-
5. You only make Swimming Rolls when you activate while in Deep Water. So you essentially get the first move into Deep Water for free. I see this rule could be better written.
Rather late to the party here, but the instant fix to this is to rephrase it to "When you START your activation in Deep Water, you must make a Swimming roll."
-
You roll a defence dice whenever you are attacked. Spells which make a shooting attack can be dodged by winning the roll off.
Although note that the storm warden Lightning Strike spell is explicitly NOT a shooting attack (which was answerd on this thread earlier). You still roll fight against its +6 to determine the result, but it doesn't suffer from difficulties hitting targets in cover nor does it randomize who it hits in a melee. Also wouldn't benefit from zapping a Large target, interestingly enough. Apparently being very tall does not actually make Monarchs more likely to be struck in a thunderstorm. :) Same goes for the water warden Wrath of the Waves spell. AFAIK earth warden's Projectile is the only actual shooting attack spell in GA.
-
I am looking at what I should give my beast warden when she gets enough levels. I like the idea of Beast Cry. The Rules state "at the end of every turn... a random encounter..." If you cast the spell in the first turn you cast the spell it sounds like you then make the roll until the end of the game.
Does multiple casting of the spell have any effect? If you kept casting it would you make multiple rolls for wandering monsters? For other spells like beast strength it specifically states that multiple castings have no effect so it seems like multiple castings would generate multiple wandering monster rolls.
-
I am looking at what I should give my beast warden when she gets enough levels. I like the idea of Beast Cry. The Rules state "at the end of every turn... a random encounter..." If you cast the spell in the first turn you cast the spell it sounds like you then make the roll until the end of the game.
Does multiple casting of the spell have any effect? If you kept casting it would you make multiple rolls for wandering monsters? For other spells like beast strength it specifically states that multiple castings have no effect so it seems like multiple castings would generate multiple wandering monster rolls.
He answered the first question on this thread already - cast once, roll once per turn for the rest of the game, can end it at will if you decide things are getting out of hand or you just want to cast the spell again for the XP. The second question's a little more unclear, but I don't think the intent is to allow more than one roll per warden per turn, largely because the table would be drowning in random critters in short order if you could stack the spell and spam it steadily. Remember that it doesn't get you an actual beast that you can manipulate all that often either - things are going to work out badly if the Call keeps pulling in angry natives, undead, demons, etc.
-
One roll at turn is enough. Multiple castings have no effect.
-
Do plants move in creature phase, just like any other standard creature? Judging from scarbark's description there is nothing to prevent them from moving, they have move stat, in one scenario they appear as random encounter, so probably the answer is yes, am I right?
-
Yup, if they have a move stat, they move just like any other creature.
-
Can a Dust Devil interact with treasure or is it an animal?
one of the players in our group is using it to grab treasure and run it back to their group dropping it at the feet of a soldier who then activates and runs it back some more.
You move the warden to within 6" of the treasure, cast dust devil, it appears within 6" of the warden then activates and picks up the treasure and then moves it back with its move action.
That seems a bit good and pretty soon every warden in our group will be doing that.
-
8) cool idea fo sho...I like it. as if the dust blew the treasure there. awesome.
-
The dust devil, created by the spell, is an uncontrolled creature... so no, it can't pick up treasure, and if it is running back to your group, it's only doing that to attack it!
-
:? that blows.
-
Thanks for the clarification Joe
-
We started our adventures in the archipelago right at the release of 2ed Frostgrave. We are having great fun so far and are already reading the new rules for our return to Felstad.
The following question came up in our last game.
The spell Snare reads as follows:
Each time the target is activated, it must make a Fight Roll with a Target Number of 15 (creatures with the ‘Large’ trait receive +4 to this roll). If the target fails, it may take only one action during its next activation, which cannot be movement. Once a target has made its Fight Roll, it has escaped the vines and is no longer ensnared.
We are not native speakers and started discussing if "once a target has MADE its fight roll" means that the target has to be successful to escape or wether it is enough to try it once? The second interpretation would drastically reduce the power of this otherwise very powerful spell. And it would make the first sentence of the spell description obsolete.
-
tbh, I'm not sure- hopefully Joe will weigh in soon.
-
The spell Snare reads as follows:
Each time the target is activated, it must make a Fight Roll with a Target Number of 15 (creatures with the ‘Large’ trait receive +4 to this roll). If the target fails, it may take only one action during its next activation, which cannot be movement. Once a target has made its Fight Roll, it has escaped the vines and is no longer ensnared.
We are not native speakers and started discussing if "once a target has MADE its fight roll" means that the target has to be successful to escape or wether it is enough to try it once? The second interpretation would drastically reduce the power of this otherwise very powerful spell. And it would make the first sentence of the spell description obsolete.
I would take it that the target remains snared until it successfully makes the fight roll. It could remain snared until the end of the game.
-
You must succeed on a roll in order to escape. From that point on the spell is cancelled.
-
Thanks Joe! :-*
Since then another SNARE question came up :D :
can Snare prevent a model from forcing combat? From being pushed out of combat? From being pushed by a spell?
My opinion is, that it locks up the model, so it cannot move by any means (except maybe teleportation?). But rules as written Snare only comes into play during the activation of the afflicted model.
-
The snare is just stretchy enough to allow a model to force combat.
-
Thanks again. So rules as written it is! :D