An enjoyable digital adaptation of the tabletop deck building card game, released in a poorly handled state but the later Obsidian version makes it much easier to get into.

Pathfinder Adventures is a card game where 1-6 characters, with each character typically based on one of the iconic Pathfinder characters that represents a particular class, play through a series of games with cards and scenarios based on the adventure paths that have been written for the TRPG. As the digital version of the game didn't do particularly well there is only one of the adventure paths represented, The Rise of the Runelords. Even with only one of the main adventures implemented it still offers a good amount of content, the main adventure has a prologue with three different scenarios and six different parts of the main adventure each with five scenarios. Each scenario has three difficulties that can change base and random additional rules for the scenario while adding new elements on higher difficulties that aren't present on the easier settings. There are 11 base characters to represent the original 11 classes in Pathfinder as well as characters that are DLC or in the Obsidian addition that add four new unique characters. The Obsidian version of the game also gives the 11 base characters three different options for their class that can give minor ability or passive skill changes. One of those three options turns the character into a goblin version of themselves with a new passive skill, those versions being more suited to be played in another DLC Rise of the Goblins that takes the first scenario of the Rise of the Runelords adventure but has you playing it from the goblin perspective. Both adventure paths also have a separate DLC that adds five new scenarios and some new cards. Based on the characters you take into a scenario there can be different conversations before and after the game and based on which character meets the villain of the match.

Each of the game's character has a list of skills that represent the base Pathfinder characteristics of strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. How good they are at each one is based on the dice value they have assigned to it being D4, D6, D8, D10, or D12. Whenever they have to perform a test they roll that die to try to match or surpass the value needed. Some skills have subskills like melee for strength, survival for wisdom, diplomacy for charisma, a class based stat to represent spell casting ability, etc that can give them a higher chance to complete a more focused call for a skill test and as you play through the scenarios characters unlock points to spend with each skill being able to be given a +1 to up to a +4 value every time you roll for it. Characters have passive and active powers based on their class that influences how many cards can be in their hand and special ways that they can interact with certain cards. As you play through the game you can choose new abilities and eventually choose between two different types of class archetypes to promote into that unlock different skill trees. The last thing every character has is their card list that makes up what their deck can hold, each character has a different amount of weapon, spell, armor, item, ally, and blessing cards that have to go into their deck at the start of the match that also represent their life points. As characters improve you can add to the numbers of certain card types that go into your deck giving you more deck health and access to more card variety.

The game is played by creating a party of 1-6 characters, you can swap out characters between scenarios and go back to old scenarios to play them again with the same or different characters and to try them on high unlocked difficulties. A scenario will have a unique rule tied to it or interaction going on that can change depending on the difficulty, each scenario gets a number of locations that increase based on the number of characters in your party. A location is given a deck of 10 cards that can include enemies, spells (arcane and divine), weapons, armor, items, barriers and traps, and blessing, 1 villain or henchmen card that might be unique to a scenario are also randomly shuffled into each deck. The goal is to clear a location by going through a deck or defeating the villain or henchmen and then closing the location by completing a certain skill role attached to the location or performing a task attached to it. The goal of the majority of the scenarios is to find and defeat the one villain card by defeating the card while having closed all the other locations so they have nowhere to escape and move to. To make that easier, if you find a villain card each character who is still on an active location that is still open can attempt to perform the test to temporarily close their area and even if the villain escapes you can automatically close the spot they were in. Scenarios have a certain number of turns they must be completed in, every turn from a character lowers the counter by one and they have one action where they can explore the location by drawing the top card of the location deck and they are able to move to another location at the start or end of their turn. To have the time you need to explore you can discard most ally cards and blessing cards that could otherwise by used to improve your rolls to give yourself one or multiple additional explore actions. Your deck also acts as a characters life and they will die if they are unable to draw a full hand of cards at the end of their turn or when forced to draw from another action, cards might have you shuffle or recharge them when used to put them back in your deck, reveal them where you can keep that card in hand after use, discard them where they go away unless they can be brought back by skills or healing, bury them where there is much more limited ways to get the card back in the scenario, or banish them where they are removed from your deck completely unless found and acquired again. When you run into equipment, blessing, or ally cards passing a skill check associated with the card will add that card to your hand and save the card to be used by them or another character again in future games.

When you first play the game it can be both limiting and sort of odd as a Pathfinder game, typically a party based game where people are together because here you usually want one character at each location who is going to be good at interacting with certain types of cards that are shown to be in the deck and who have the skill and stats needed to shut down the location. As you get more cards and abilities though you have a much wider skill set with many of the characters where cards they might have or abilities they have can help other characters that are at other locations. You also get more reliable ways to search and interact with location decks like having spells, items, abilities, or sometimes even armor effects that can allow you to search and manipulate the decks and where cards are moved in it. Every character has their own unique skills and are fun to play as with some having huge bonuses when making use of animal ally cards, one being better at locations on their own and being able to avoid enemy encounters, one being able to use strong weapon abilities without discarding the cards, one having guaranteed reuse of any spells they cast, one having no access to blessing cards that are often used to support their or allies skill roles but instead having a large hand and spell variety and spell drawing ability, etc. The one somewhat exception being the Barbarian character Amiri (who was also probably the worst Pathfinder Kingmaker party member unless you really changed up her class build and weapon focus), she isn't bad but she does very little of use unless you play on the hardest difficulty where...

Full Review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Kennan/review/2082325/

An enjoyable digital adaptation of the tabletop deck building card game, released in a poorly handled state but the later Obsidian version makes it much easier to get into. Pathfinder Adventures is a card game where 1-6 characters, with each character typically based on one of the iconic Pathfinder characters that represents a particular class, play through a series of games with cards and scenarios based on the adventure paths that have been written for the TRPG. As the digital version of the game didn't do particularly well there is only one of the adventure paths represented, The Rise of the Runelords. Even with only one of the main adventures implemented it still offers a good amount of content, the main adventure has a prologue with three different scenarios and six different parts of the main adventure each with five scenarios. Each scenario has three difficulties that can change base and random additional rules for the scenario while adding new elements on higher difficulties that aren't present on the easier settings. There are 11 base characters to represent the original 11 classes in Pathfinder as well as characters that are DLC or in the Obsidian addition that add four new unique characters. The Obsidian version of the game also gives the 11 base characters three different options for their class that can give minor ability or passive skill changes. One of those three options turns the character into a goblin version of themselves with a new passive skill, those versions being more suited to be played in another DLC Rise of the Goblins that takes the first scenario of the Rise of the Runelords adventure but has you playing it from the goblin perspective. Both adventure paths also have a separate DLC that adds five new scenarios and some new cards. Based on the characters you take into a scenario there can be different conversations before and after the game and based on which character meets the villain of the match. Each of the game's character has a list of skills that represent the base Pathfinder characteristics of strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. How good they are at each one is based on the dice value they have assigned to it being D4, D6, D8, D10, or D12. Whenever they have to perform a test they roll that die to try to match or surpass the value needed. Some skills have subskills like melee for strength, survival for wisdom, diplomacy for charisma, a class based stat to represent spell casting ability, etc that can give them a higher chance to complete a more focused call for a skill test and as you play through the scenarios characters unlock points to spend with each skill being able to be given a +1 to up to a +4 value every time you roll for it. Characters have passive and active powers based on their class that influences how many cards can be in their hand and special ways that they can interact with certain cards. As you play through the game you can choose new abilities and eventually choose between two different types of class archetypes to promote into that unlock different skill trees. The last thing every character has is their card list that makes up what their deck can hold, each character has a different amount of weapon, spell, armor, item, ally, and blessing cards that have to go into their deck at the start of the match that also represent their life points. As characters improve you can add to the numbers of certain card types that go into your deck giving you more deck health and access to more card variety. The game is played by creating a party of 1-6 characters, you can swap out characters between scenarios and go back to old scenarios to play them again with the same or different characters and to try them on high unlocked difficulties. A scenario will have a unique rule tied to it or interaction going on that can change depending on the difficulty, each scenario gets a number of locations that increase based on the number of characters in your party. A location is given a deck of 10 cards that can include enemies, spells (arcane and divine), weapons, armor, items, barriers and traps, and blessing, 1 villain or henchmen card that might be unique to a scenario are also randomly shuffled into each deck. The goal is to clear a location by going through a deck or defeating the villain or henchmen and then closing the location by completing a certain skill role attached to the location or performing a task attached to it. The goal of the majority of the scenarios is to find and defeat the one villain card by defeating the card while having closed all the other locations so they have nowhere to escape and move to. To make that easier, if you find a villain card each character who is still on an active location that is still open can attempt to perform the test to temporarily close their area and even if the villain escapes you can automatically close the spot they were in. Scenarios have a certain number of turns they must be completed in, every turn from a character lowers the counter by one and they have one action where they can explore the location by drawing the top card of the location deck and they are able to move to another location at the start or end of their turn. To have the time you need to explore you can discard most ally cards and blessing cards that could otherwise by used to improve your rolls to give yourself one or multiple additional explore actions. Your deck also acts as a characters life and they will die if they are unable to draw a full hand of cards at the end of their turn or when forced to draw from another action, cards might have you shuffle or recharge them when used to put them back in your deck, reveal them where you can keep that card in hand after use, discard them where they go away unless they can be brought back by skills or healing, bury them where there is much more limited ways to get the card back in the scenario, or banish them where they are removed from your deck completely unless found and acquired again. When you run into equipment, blessing, or ally cards passing a skill check associated with the card will add that card to your hand and save the card to be used by them or another character again in future games. When you first play the game it can be both limiting and sort of odd as a Pathfinder game, typically a party based game where people are together because here you usually want one character at each location who is going to be good at interacting with certain types of cards that are shown to be in the deck and who have the skill and stats needed to shut down the location. As you get more cards and abilities though you have a much wider skill set with many of the characters where cards they might have or abilities they have can help other characters that are at other locations. You also get more reliable ways to search and interact with location decks like having spells, items, abilities, or sometimes even armor effects that can allow you to search and manipulate the decks and where cards are moved in it. Every character has their own unique skills and are fun to play as with some having huge bonuses when making use of animal ally cards, one being better at locations on their own and being able to avoid enemy encounters, one being able to use strong weapon abilities without discarding the cards, one having guaranteed reuse of any spells they cast, one having no access to blessing cards that are often used to support their or allies skill roles but instead having a large hand and spell variety and spell drawing ability, etc. The one somewhat exception being the Barbarian character Amiri (who was also probably the worst Pathfinder Kingmaker party member unless you really changed up her class build and weapon focus), she isn't bad but she does very little of use unless you play on the hardest difficulty where... Full Review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Kennan/review/2082325/