Growth Through Sacrifice

Frequently Asked Questions

Elements and Elemental Thresholds
General Play
  • Do powers have to be resolved in order, or can you choose to do the effects in the order that's most convenient for you?
    Powers must be resolved in order from top to bottom. If a Power has thresholds, resolve all thresholds you hit, in the order they are listed (skipping over the ones you don't hit).
    There are a small number of exceptions:
    If a Power changes its own Speed, Range, or Targeting, those changes (and corresponding thresholds / costs) are checked when relevant during targeting, not during normal Power resolution. Examples:
    • "You may pay 1 Energy to make this Power Fast." ("Dry Wood Explodes in Smoldering Splinters")
    • "Increase this Power's Range to Range 1." ("Sap the Strength of Multitudes")
    • "This Power can target lands with Blight." ("Inspire the Release of Stolen Lands") – but note that the rest of this threshold effect still resolves at the end, like normal.
    (By the time you're resolving the rest of the Power text, it'd be too late for these modifiers to do anything!)
    If a threshold modifies how an earlier part of the Power resolves, that modifier applies at the sensible time. Examples:
    • "Do not destroy any Dahan." ("The Jungle Hungers")
    • "Damage from this Power may be dealt into adjacent lands." ("Vengeance of the Dead")
    Technically, every use of "Instead..." in an innate power works this way; it's pretty simple for human minds to understand the intent, but the formal specification is messier. Note that a "+" in a threshold effect (like "+2 Damage" in "Walls of Rock and Thorn") is not a modifier, but rather a new Damage instruction – this is occasionally relevant for timing purposes.
    If a Power specifies that something happens later, do it at that time (remembering that these ongoing effects expire when Time Passes unless specified otherwise). Examples:
    • "Once this turn, target Spirit may ..." ("Powerstorm")
    • "After the next time Invaders are destroying in target land: ..." ("Blood Draws Predators")
    • "At end of turn, ..." ("Gift of Constancy")
    "Repeat this Power" as a threshold also falls into this category, since it's short for "After resolving this Power and all Actions triggered by it, Repeat it."
    If a Power explicitly specifies to resolve part of a threshold earlier in power resolution, follow that order. Examples:
    • "+3 Fear, before the Terror Level check." ("Twisted Flowers Murmur Ultimatums")
    • "Before Pushing, Explorers and Towns/Cities do Damage to each other." ("Dissolve the Bonds of Kinship")
    • "First, Gather up to 3 Dahan." ("Wrap in Winds of Sunlight")
    Also related: A Power that is 100% internal modifiers doesn't do anything, so can't be targeted/used for things like "Scream Disease Into the Wind."
    Tags: Resolving Powers, Range Boosts, Speed (Fast/Slow), Targeting, 59 more...
Power Cards
Range and Targeting
  • Do Range buffs apply to Powers that affect "a land with your Presence" or "one of your lands"?
    No. "A land with your Presence" specifies a requirement for the land you're affecting (similar to, eg, "a land with Dahan" or "a land with Blight"), not a numeric Range. While it is usually the same in practice as "a land at Range 0", when using effects that modify Range the distinction matters.
    For powers like Punish Those Who Trespass or Firestorm that have a base effect with normal range and a further effect referring to "lands where you have presence", the range on the base effect can be extended, but the further part cannot.
    For instance, if you reach all the thresholds of Punish Those Who Trespass and have extended range, you can use the base effect to deal damage in a distant land and use the further part to deal damage where you have presence (without extension).
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Range, Presence, Targeting, Reaching Grasp, 10 more...
Spirits and Innate Powers
~ Expansions, Promos, and Publishing
  • What game items have been retired or replaced in expansions?
    Replaced with new cards:
    • Sea Monsters (Major Power in B&C) – new version in JE (capping Fear)
    • Draw Towards a Consuming Void (Major Power in JE) – new version in NI (wording – no functional changes)
    • Growth Through Sacrifice (Minor Power in B&C) – replacement Minor in NI (Roiling Bog and Snagging Thorn)
    Retired:
    • Outpaced (Event in B&C) – retired as of NI
    • War Touches the Island's Shores (Event in B&C) – retired as of NI (which has a new Event with similar theme)
    • A Strange Madness Among the Beasts (Event in B&C) – retired as of JE/NI
    • Tipping Point (Blighted Island Card in B&C) – retired as of NI
    Farmers Seek the Dahan for Aid has not yet been replaced, because that replacement would best be done as part of a Dahan-centric expansion.
    It's fine – but not required – to retire game items "early" (i.e., without buying the expansion which officially says they're retired). That's awkward for replacing game items - since you need the replacement - though some players opt to omit Growth Through Sacrifice, finding the elemental distortion from its absence to be less impactful than it seeing use in play.
    Outpaced, War Touches, Strange Madness, and Tipping Point were all retired for an overly swingy play experience. Original Sea Monsters was so good with Many Minds that it trivialized the game. Growth Through Sacrifice was nearly always game-warpingly good. Draw Towards a Consuming Void was one of the very few things that moves other Spirits' Presence without explicitly stating so, and Nature Incarnate had space on the card sheet, so we printed a replacement.
    Tags: Retired or Replaced Game Items, Expansions, Sea Monsters, Draw Towards a Consuming Void, 6 more...