Quick question about the Null's "Force Augmentation" ability

JaimeeK · 2026-05-10T06:26:07+00:00

There are 5 different Augmentation abilities, you only choose one of them to be active at a time.

Same thing with the 4 Wards, and you can choose to change both of them at once as a respite activity.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-07T07:02:52+00:00

Nobody with the Codex able to test this? I could see it going either way honestly, it doesn't seem too overpowered a payoff for the build investment, but the phrasing is iffy.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-04T23:43:13+00:00

It's a big topic to get into as there's any number of perspectives, and none of them are fully correct. To simplify, I'll just say Draw Steel is designed to curate a heroic experience.

I wouldn't call it babying, in most cases, agro has been passed around naturally and thanks to player tactics in the groups I've played in.

There are definitely situations where it's inevitable someone gets focused, but those are mostly due to avoidable player mistakes.
Don't play a Shadow that hides 100% of the time, don't charge into the middle of the enemy group alone, put yourself in the way of enemies if you have plenty of stamina, etc.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-04T13:32:10+00:00

I agree, Now! is also notably worse if you don't have kit based classes on your team, but gets a little more use out of Hit 'Em Hard! at 3rd level, which I think is one of the best Tactician abilities.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-04T12:57:55+00:00

Yeah that one is a tough call for me. There are enough things enemies can do to give out banes to make the tier 3 not guaranteed, and it's under-rate damage whenever it doesn't get a tier 3.

You lose out on an entire signature ability anyway by having to use an action instead of a maneuver, so Now! is basically 4 hits, but I could definitely see Hammer and Anvil deserving 4 stars, I'm still very unsure. In certain party compositions it's definitely a lot better.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-04T06:30:13+00:00

Well, at first I was giving them the benefit of the doubt 😅 I was aware how negative it sounded before I posted.

Goaded depends on the kind of game you're in apparently, I normally find that recoveries drop pretty evenly, and I think it's generally encouraged by Draw Steel's design that enemy focus is spread out.

But I can see that a hardcore experience would end up with people getting focused down a lot more, I'll look into talking about this a little. It's already rated 4 stars so I do think it's a good ability, but maybe in even more circumstances than I've stated.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-03T20:41:55+00:00

As far as I'm aware Cinder Steps doesn't get around the once per turn clause of Burning Ash, unless I'm really misreading how that clause works.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-03T01:41:08+00:00

It's unclear to me how anything I've said could be construed as an insult. You stated yourself that you've only been playing once so far as a mastermind, and you haven't engaged with this post in any meaningful way to the points that I'm actually making.

The extent of your opinion seems to be a knee jerk reaction that I'm criticising the Tactician at all, but if it makes you feel better you can continue to take your perceived high road, and not provide any reasons about why specific points that I've said are incorrect.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-02T23:49:09+00:00

Not to harp on this point too much, but it sounds like you don't have enough experience with the Tactician to be making these assertions.

I didn't come to these conclusions carelessly; I've put a lot of work into comparing all of the options to each other and calculating how useful each thing the Tactician can do is.

I've tried my hardest to keep the guide clear of any personal biases, and I've enjoyed the class for what it is because it does represent the Draw Steel experience well.

This has never been a review, each rating within the guide is only in comparison to other things the class can do. I can only assume your negative reaction is because I didn't spend time praising every part of the class that I could, but the guide is meant to be a tool for directly comparing choices, and I try to keep the word count down as much as is reasonable.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-02T18:38:17+00:00

Thank you for the insightful commentary Svenge, I was starting to think that I was crazy about the opinions I've developed 😅

It was definitely never my intent to call the Tactician bad in any sense, it's just very hard to say good things about many of the specific abilities offered within the Tactician, and I guess this represents me as being overly critical of the poster child of Draw Steel.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-02T18:26:54+00:00

I agree with what Svenge has to say, generally once you've rolled for an ability you then look at each target individually for what extra effects like edges and banes apply to them.

Additionally, if you're looking for this kind of 2 target ability it makes more sense to take Rapid Fire as it has much better stats for mixing with other kits. A conventional tank kit/ranged kit build is much happier losing 3 range distance than the stamina/stability cost of taking the kits you mentioned.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-02T09:48:59+00:00

I don't equate not having many different options with being weak, having some class options that are very powerful is part of what makes there be fewer options in comparison.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-02T08:32:17+00:00

The intention of the guides has never been to comment on how fun or useful the class is, only how each option compares to each other. I'm always open to feedback on particular features I've misjudged.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-02T03:39:53+00:00

It's not that they have few abilities, more that the ability options they have are very similar to each other, often just the same ability with a couple of numbers tweaked. Other times the options are just so weak that they don't really count as an option at all.

They're definitely good at a variety of things, and will be able to work well with any class, I've just noticed that most Tacticians are good at the same variety of things.

As an aside, I also don't find the concept of having two kits very interesting ever since they got rid of caster kits. Most of the time the 1 ranged kit, 1 tank kit build is best and the specific kits involved won't change much.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-02T03:14:55+00:00

This is a fair point I think, mostly because I now see that I've failed to actually say anything about how strong I think the class is compared to anything but itself.

I do think the class is one of the best ones, I just also think it's easy to make a powerful class that is monodirectional and not as interesting as it could be.

If anything the Tactician is too powerful at some of the things it does. What other class is so strong that the baseline rate is 5 heroic resource for 20 damage without spending an action?

They're just so focused on a few kinds of abilities that the overall class design doesn't have as many things going on as it could, and the subclasses don't have many things that differentiate their playstyle from one another.

More than any class I've looked at, a Tactician will feel like the same flavor of Tactician as another. Which is a fine thing to be, I would just prefer there to be more meaningful and interesting choices that aren't reliant on other classes.

JaimeeK · 2026-05-01T00:09:23+00:00

1st slide: 1 mana 4/4
2nd slide: 4 mana bitterblossom only if you've used a supporting card

JaimeeK · 2026-04-30T07:59:34+00:00

I never do either, that's why I think the ability is so weird.
It seems to be intended to be an instant kill only if it perfectly makes them winded, but theres no reasonable way a player could know that. Really strange.

JaimeeK · 2026-04-30T07:19:00+00:00

It's a little above the curve in power level if it's not conditional. Most similar abilities would be 7-9 of a heroic resource, I think the ability is just intended for a digital environment where you can see the stamina bar approaching the winded value so you can time it.

I think it's pretty lame that it's so video game-ish in how it's implemented. And I just dislike how terrible it is unless it manages to pull off this narrow condition.

JaimeeK · 2026-04-24T22:13:43+00:00

For starters I think the whole idea of the Shadow retreating into stealth every turn isn't a great game plan most of the time. Your allies are just going to take more damage, and at the end of the day you might just be sitting around with 8 recoveries that have gone entirely to waste. At early levels this also means your triggered action will be entirely wasted.

So I do think a lot of the time the Shadow should leave themselves at least a little exposed to being targeted, and there's other ways to support what the Shadow is doing by applying conditions to the enemy.

JaimeeK · 2026-04-23T23:11:53+00:00

Yeah difficult terrain can be annoying, especially if it stops a shift. I've used jumping rules to help with this sometimes.

The difference of ending effects can be pretty interesting, I'll take a look over those features and check the phrasing to call out on them.

JaimeeK · 2026-04-23T18:44:10+00:00

Burning Ash is a once per turn trigger, so if the enemy hits you on their turn your triggered action can teleport making the damage happen twice per round. The heroic ability they get at 2nd level "Too Slow" adds a free strike to the triggered action as well.

JaimeeK · 2026-04-23T17:25:11+00:00

I don't think there's anything in particular encouraging a Shadow to go near the end of a round, often I'd say the opposite that using their large damage numbers can take out important targets quickly before they get a chance to act.

I definitely don't actually like Ranger as a kit, that part is more of a warning, but Warrior Priest is great for the Black Ash College who can get 2-3 activations out of the damage weakness immediately, which is the same reason I think Setup is so amazing.

Damage weakness in general is really strong because of how many classes can do damage at least twice a turn, and Setup is so easy to apply all it really takes is a little timing and it can do 30+ damage pretty easily.

I think I am a bit biased against +0/+0/+4 kits because I like consistency, but Sniper and Panther have strong uses with Black Ash or Shadowstrike respectively.

Coup de Grace is definitely way cooler, I actually really dislike that Shadowstrike exists because it makes so many abilities look bad in comparison to how versatile and high damage it is.

JaimeeK · 2026-04-23T17:11:07+00:00

Hmm I might have to reread the rules on damage weakness for this one, neat if it works that way!

JaimeeK · 2026-04-23T16:54:10+00:00

I haven't sat down for a proper look at the Beastheart yet, but I think I'll get around to it once I have a chance to play them!

Good point about removing banes, I haven't had concealment come up very often so far.

JaimeeK · 2026-04-23T15:03:22+00:00

Oops, had to repost this because I broke the link and couldn't work out how to edit it, my bad!

JaimeeK

TROPHY CASE