Pathfinder-29Dec2013

Been awaiting this game for a really long time now and absolutely thrilled and delighted to receive it for my birthday! Before playing it with the Fellowship on Monday, I thought I walk through a quick solo game to get a hang of the rules and mechanics.

Rules were flawlessly easy. Only had to look at the FAQ once during entire gameplay.

Started off with one of my favourite classes in RPGs - the Monk (boo, why no Dwarf Monk...but I heard there were character customization rules, hmmm)

Went with the recommended starting deck and the first scenario - Brigandoom!

What better place to start exploring, than the quaint little farmhouse..

SURPRISE ATTACK! The BOSS comes out as the first card. Needless to say, that's not a good sign.

After failing to defeat Jubrayl (even after an amulet of mighty fist and blessing combo), he soon escapes!! And I lose the Amulet to damage :(

A friendly archer came to join my cause and aided in exploring further! One thing the monk is really good at, is exploring. The blessings deck never got to less than 10 cards.

This monster soon proved to the the MOST annoying monster I have encountered. Unless I had a magic attack, he would just keep coming back! Decided to evade it this time.

Delving further into the Farmhouse yielded a powerful Amulet of Life. This was good in case I encountered the villain again during my multiple explores.

Easily dispatched a plague zombie with my fists and blessing! (Recharging blessings instead of discarding them proved to be a godsend for the Monk)

Explosive Runes lose to my acrobatic dodge! Hee-yah!

Going deeper into the woods yielded a great many treasure! (Including the GAME CHANGING light crossbow! Monks with arrows!!) Luckily I used a +2 for my acquiring. Rolled a 2. LOL)

Failed to get the Blessing of Desna. It was also then that I saw only one card remaining in the Farmhouse deck. Stupid ghost. Having no magic items means that this location will never be closed, also means that this would be the final showdown between the villain and the monk!

After having a full meal at the Farmhouse, I headed towards the woods. More monsters but hopefully the villain was hiding here too! Failure to acquire the crowbar probably won't have such a big impact. Who needs strength when you have finesse!

Aha! The Henchman bandit! Defeating him means closing the woods and hopefully drawing the villain out of hiding!

An easy victory with my dreaded crossbow! Now all that's left is to pass a Wisdom check to close the woods! Trying to roll a 6 on a d8. Ouch....

Success! And behold, just who happened to be hiding within!

Ping! Easily dispatched! Now onto the Waterfront!

The Sneak and Enchantress proved easy prey for the monk and his crossbow! Even after discarding 3 cards!

More loot from the waterfront! Picked up a cape and a snake! Not much use for either. Was going to use them as damage. Then I saw my deck! 3 CARDS LEFT! I was going to die soon, I needed to end this quick!

Easy peasy Mercenary. I could not risk using a blessing to explore further (Already used all my allies for that. On hindsight, probably wasn't that good of an idea)

Seeing as the blessing deck had more than 10 cards left, I figured I could make it if the villain showed himself in the next 5 turns.

And BEHOLD!

The next draw! With a ping of my crossbow, the waterfront was closed and Jubrayl fled to the farmhouse where he and the ghost awaited my arrival!

Hmm 3 cards. One was Jubaryl, one was the ghost, which meant one was a blessing.

Couldn't manage to get the blessing, but it was ok, as long as the next card was not the ghost!

Ah the ghost! With only one card in my deck, if I took ANY damage at all, (even one point) I would be forced to discard one card and draw my last card, thus losing the game!

Thankfully, the crossbow came through! Ping 13 to the ghost's 11!

However non-magical damage meant he would be reshuffled into the deck!

And aaah! The ghost again! I needed to survive this!

Rolled a 12! Against the ghost's 11! and shuffle back again. One hit point left...one of out 2 chances to end the game!!

DRAW!

WOOT! Jubrayl! Used the crossbow and tossed in a Blessing for good measure!! POW Jubrayl defeated! Game Over!

Phew

The last few moments were really nerve wrecking. I had ONE hit point left. The monk really really excels at blessings. The ability to reuse all the blessings really helped extend my life substantially. With a low hit point pool and little ways to mitigate damage, the monk would definitely have benefitted from some sort of healing or maybe a tank to soak the damage.

Phew....MVP Card of the day!!

Too bad he can't take it with him to the next game. The reward yielded a lowly potion :( Looks like I"m starting the next game with the same cards as this.

All in all, a very awesome game which I can't wait to play with the Fellowship tomorrow!! THANKS SS!!!