I find that when I have a new empty slot like 'human skill', it makes my deck weaker if I don't have a human skill to use. Adding 3 'walk cards' lowers the odds of other cards being drawn. This is a minor point, but I love minor points. I suppose this is only an issue early in the game, but it can be annoying. If it's possible to leave these new slots entirely empty so they don't add cards do your deck, your character wouldn't become weaker.
Yes, all the deckbuilding fans from Magic will tell ya it ain't minor, precisely because of your observation on weakening the deck. Here's Jon's commentary: Yes, you might find it hard to fill that slot the very instant you get it. That's because of game design: there are no items available for that slot at low and irrelevant levels. You will now find more available and will get stronger (and ready for the main game).
What's makes this a minor point in my opinion is that it only effects you the moment you get the slot. As you pointed out. But my problem is that the effect this can have is that your deck can become weaker by gaining a level. And that can't be the intended effect.
I rephrase Jon: the target deck size is the 36 (+ default Move) that everyone has after a few levels in. This is the game. You get a handy (and easy) introduction to the game before that point where you run with fewer slots.
That doesn't really adress the 'intended effect' bit. I'd say you should always become stronger by gaining a level, not weaker. But like I said. Minor point as it's only relevant for a very small portion of the game.
The becoming stronger by gaining a level still exists. You receive more hitpoints, for instance and it gives you more options. You might not have the capability to take advantage of those options yet, but you are given them. Certainly you would not find this to be a problem on your second run through, or if you had to restart your party as I had, because you would have items to fill those slots. The minor point you call it, hits at the core of the game and card balance. If you could leave slots empty likely all you would need is a single epic item on each character to have a great advantage. You would know what you were drawing every turn and you know it would be usable. This would break the balance (and fun) of the deck building aspect.
I had not considered the fact that you could then leave all slots empty except one or two. Good point.
Having a Blank card that each character could equip one copy of might be a possibility, but yeah - multiple blanks bad.
In single-player we should ensure that you have the ability to put something into a slot that you just got opened up. Did this perhaps happen to you? We might not have enough low level human skills, for example.
It did happen to me. And it was about low level human skills. Come to think of it. I think I still only have 2 human skills, and 1 of them is so bad I don't even bother to use it.
This happened to me, and I recall it being exceptionally frustrating. My elf wizard unlocked the elf skill and proceeded to feel useless. Having all the attacks I needed diluted by movement cards was incredibly annoying; this made some battles incredibly difficult when I had to spend the first two rounds discarding hands full of blue before I could deal any damage. I think I ended up giving up for the day, coming back the next, and finding something in the shop that I could buy to slightly alleviate the issue (elf skills still all seem to be, somewhat annoyingly, about movement and nothing but).
Yeah, lack of racials needs to be adressed - they are far to few, and too many of them have horrible drawbacks early on (Squeamish or Superstitious on a mage, yay!). I don't think I found a single elf one I felt usable to quite a bit into the game.
I certainly didn't choose my first elf skill for many adventures. I think it was Apprentice Footwork. 3x Walk is usually good enough compared to that, especially considering power token. Funnily enough I still don't have any elf skills without token requirements. Similar problems with other racial skills, but elf was worst.
I'm having the same problem in the campaign. I've reached level 7, and my party of 2 elves and a human is losing almost every battle because my elf warrior and wizard are only drawing movement cards. 2 days later I finally see untrained insight and untrained evasion for sale in the shop, but they really don't help me deal damage. So, the elves are already mobile, and I like that part, but they don't have much ability to kite opponents. So, I have a [Suggestion] How about a Bow? A ranged attack for warriors would give elves a chance to hit and run. I'm really tired of discarding a walk and a 2 dash, just to draw two more dash the next turn. So my 2nd [Suggestion] Please make some elvish racial traits that aren't just another move.
Agreed on difficulty of getting racial skills. I have 9 chars at level 7 (3 about to hit level 8) and I have only gotten 3 racial skills from chests. Add in the three you get from the free starter pack gives me 2x Novice Ferocity (dwarf), 3x Untrained Command, and 1x Perfect Evasion (elf, and requires a major token). I'm seriously considering buying the elf starter pack just for the elf skills.
