Ghost Archipelago Rules Thread

[KevinE]

Thanks Joe

[Knabe]

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

[randwulf]

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

[joe5mc]

Knabe - yes, you can.

Randwulf - Erithereans work exactly like you describe.  Four specialists total, unless some special rule allows otherwise.

[markdienekes]

please delete!

[John Tailby]

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

[commander bernhardt]

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)

[John Tailby]

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.

[Hobby Services]

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.

[Hobby Services]

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."

[Hobby Services]

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.

[John Tailby]

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.

[Hobby Services]

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.

[joe5mc]

One roll at turn is enough. Multiple castings have no effect.

[kuba]

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?