ttoida

Hello! I started a thread about individual characters' strengths and weaknesses, which I'm happy to see has sparked some discussion. I'd like to start a new discussion about party arrangement. I play exclusively with 6-person parties, so that's what I'll be talking about, but feel free to talk about your own party of any size! So, as I mentioned in my other post, my part of six looks like this: Seelah Merisiel Ezren Seoni Kyra Harsk So, we have one very strong melee weapon/armor user (Seelah) and one weaker one (Kyra). We have an excellent ranged weapon/light armor user (Harsk) and a pretty good one (Merisiel). Pretty much all the skills are covered, including the best Acrobatics, Stealth, Disable, Diplomacy (debatable), Arcane, Divine, Knowledge, Fortitude, Perception. Only one missing is Survival, but Harsk is pretty solid, and Kyra's Wisdom is often a good substitute. I like Lem and Lini as well, but I'm not sure who I'd swap out for either of these characters. Maybe Lem for Seoni, and Lini for Kyra, but I think both of these would ultimately be a downgrade.

Hey there! OP here. I posted this hoping to spur some dialog, which I'm happy to see has happened! I certainly didn't expect it to get pinned, but that's great! Anyway, I had originally intended on posting commentary on all 11 characters, but I ended up taking a lot of time and space on the first six that I decided to post the other five later. And then I didn't do that. Fortunately, Blave has posted some excellent thoughts on the characters that I ommitted. Having played the game a bit more, I think the original set I posted is the best part of six (I might make another post on party composition). Here are a few thoughts on the other five, and why I don't like them as much. Sajan: Seems a lot of people really like this character, but I just never have success with him. Dex and Acrobatics are nice, but Merisiel is already better at these, and she also has Disable, which is critically important. His ability to recharge blessings is nice, but that only applies to combat, and not extra exploration. Unfortunately this means his blessings are far more valuable in combat, and using them in exploration seems a pretty big waste. He really needs them to even be average in combat, and with the small hand size I find that he clears locations significantly slower than everyone else. I'm also not a fan of either of his advancement paths. Lini: I really, really want to like this character. I think maybe I need to play her more, because in theory she seems excellent, but in practice she's struggled when I've tried her. Adding an extra d4 (and more, with upgrades) to every single check for free is pretty awesome. The problem I have with her is that I frequently find myself stuck without a way to fight bad guys. I don't need everyone to excel at combat, but everyone needs to be able to kill 8 or 9 value monsters pretty regularly. With no weapons, she needs to rely on offensive spells, which can only be used once before recharging. She can discard to activate beast form, but even then she's not great. FYI, I haven't seen it mentioned, but the Amulet of Fists is also good for her. Lem: Another character that I really want to like. High Charisma and excellent Diplomacy are fantastic. I really think he should have Disable as one of his skills. As other people have mentioned, I always choose Weapon as his favored card, and once you get the Deathbane crossbow he's pretty good at fighting bad guys. Versatile caster, but not as good as the dedicated casters, which is ok. He can struggle to recharge stuff early on, but with a few levelups he's fine. He can also swap spells out of his discard, which is incredibly useful. The biggest problem I have with him is that you have to split your party up to cover as many locations as possible, which means his assisting ability often goes to waste. Valeros/Amiri: Without getting into too much detail (this is well-covered by Blave), ultimately my problem with these two is that they don't bring anything else to the table. Their skills (Diplomacy and Survival) just aren't good enough to be reliable. Seelah is a much better choice for a weapon/armor user. She's just as good at combat, and adds a lot more versatility.

So, I've completed all of the available content with the following party: Merisiel Kyra Seelah Seoni Harsk Ezren Here are some thoughts on these characters. Merisiel: Good character, the only one who has strong Disable, which is pretty important. Also has good Acrobatics and Stealth, which don't come up as often, but can be useful. High Dex makes her very strong in combat, although she sometimes has trouble finding one of her weapons. Fortunately with her Sneak Attack and a decent Strength score, she can often defeat an enemy without even using a weapon, and of course in a pinch she can Evade. I try not to do this too often though, because it's important to get through the decks as fast as you can. Biggest weakness is probably that she has a lot of Items, which aren't all that useful until you start getting some good stuff later on. Kyra: Good character. Best Divine caster in the group, and with a decent Strength score she can hold her own in combat. Her healing ability is ok, but again you need to get through decks as fast as possible, so you can't afford to skip too many explores. Her bonus against Undead is very useful, and her high Wisdom makes her very good at closing a lot of different location types. Weakness is her low Strength score, which limits the benefit of Blessings in combat. Seelah: Great character, with a very strong kit overall. Good strength and melee, and the ability to add a d6 to any check is amazing. More than makes up for her lower strength, as compared to Valeros or Amiri. Not a great spellcaster, but can Cure herself to get back all the cards she's discarding with her Inspired Grace. Crusade is situationally useful, good for burning through a deck looking for a villain/henchman. Good Charisma is important for acquiring Allies and closing locations with Diplomacy. Weakness is, as in the pen and paper game, a reliance on multiple ability scores. Strength and Wisdom are both important to her, and both are only d8, but as noted above, her Inspired Grace can make up the difference. Seoni: One-trick pony, but is very very good at that one trick. She kills stuff, regardless of what cards you have in your hand. Not a lot of finesse here, just blasting stuff over and over until everything is dead. High Charisma is useful for some things, and her Arcane triggers off Charisma as well, so she has two useful skills. Weakness is that she is pretty bad at everything else. With only three spell slots, you can't afford to carry a lot of utility spells, and her other ability scores are all pretty low. She also burns through cards pretty quickly, and doesn't have a good way to get them back. Harsk: Wonderful support character. Reliable in combat, since he pretty much always has weapons available. Base Dex is only d8 though, so while he's generally good, he has the same issue as Kyra in that his base combat die is low. He's much better as a support character, with two excellent powers. Sniper's Shot is excellent, especially since it only requires a Recharge and not a Discard. Scout Ahead is also great, allowing you to see what's coming so you can plan accordingly. Weakness is that his skills aren't very good. He has Survival and Perception, but with a d6 Wisdom they're just not reliable. Ezren: Versatile caster, has so many spells that he has a lot of room for utility. There aren't a ton of great ones early, but later on things like Fiery Weapon are excellent. Can hold his own in combat because he usually has a lot of spells available. His Powers are all very good, Expanded Spellbook can extend his turn if he has stuff like Detect Magic available. Eldritch Exuberance is amazing in certain locations, but he really needs this stuff because he doesn't have any Blessings to gain more explores. He does have Allies for this though.