jolyonb

Beastskin (Barkskin? Whatever that treasure card spell is at low level that lets you avoid taking damage). Character was Lem, adventure was Local Heroes, party with Lina, location was the Academy. Was the first card of the adventure.

1.1.6.1. Just got hit with a goblin commando, and needed to discard a card. I discarded a spell, and was immediately given the option to recharge, which shouldn't happen.

Hmm. I'm too scared to play at all at the moment, given the severity of some of the bugs that are around. I guess I won't be getting this sweater...

I should clarify: I have no issue with paying absurd amounts of _gold_ for things if you want to play free. I take issue with the absurd amounts of _money_ things cost if you want to buy them. I'd like to support this game, but I also want a bit of a bang for the buck, y'know?

So, 1.1.6 was released today, and we finally have the full game available! Yay! But... why is everything so expensive? Seriously, I don't have a problem with dropping you guys a few dollars here or there, but... The base game to play was $25 (US). Ok, this is a bit expensive for an app game, but it's on par with the card game, and there is a free to play option. No complaints here, we now have everything that was included in that purchase! Character alts are a big schtick in this release! People are excited! Why are the two bundles $30 (US) each? That's more than the game cost to buy, and for fairly minimal changes! It's nice that we can now purchase dice, but the basic dice bundle starts at $20 (US), and goes up to $40!! Individual dice can be as much as $10 each. For something that is *entirely* cosmetic to the game, this seems ridiculous. If dice were $1 each, I might splurge on a few, maybe $2/3 for the nicer ones, but this pricing scheme is kind of absurd. Given that dice don't change the game experience at all past some colors, I really find these overpriced, and am much less inclined to support the product.

Thanks for the feedback. I've updated a few things in the guide to reflect your comments. Do folks think these guides are useful? Should I continue to write them up for other characters?

Locations Lini really rocks at most locations, once Animal Trick is going. I particularly like her at Mountain Peak, The Old Light, Woods, Glassworks, Habe's Sanitorium, Shimmerglens, Halls of Wrath, Ravenous Crypts of Gluttony, Shimmering Veils of Pride, and Vault of Greed. Other This presentation has been very focused towards getting Animal Trick strong, then pursuing a caster track, and playing some tricks with weapons in the meantime. I haven't tried it, but I suspect that the alternative track of getting Animal Trick strong, but dumping points into Strength and really pursuing a fighter-style track while utilizing spells to buff up combat abilities will also work (I'd still go Wild Warden instead of Shape Shifter, however). Many of the tricks that you would want to use for such a track have been touched upon in this guide. Comments/Questions/Feedback welcome.

Inventory Weapons After you pick up your weapon slot, you will want to get Lini a weapon ASAP. She stands a much better chance in combat with a weapon + animal trick, and you can still use Beast Form to boost the skill dice to 1d10. Before picking up weapon proficiency, you want to get her a crossbow that doesn't need weapon proficiency. In order of desirability: B: Light Crossbow B: Heavy Crossbow L1: Frost Sling +1 (Treasure) L2: Light Crossbow +1 C: Deathbane Light Crossbow +1 Once Lini gets weapon proficiency, we can start to have fun. The Shock Longbow +1 (B) is a solid initial choice, and will help for fighting off low-level monsters. However, you'll tend to do better with a melee weapon: give her the biggest, baddest weapon you can find! Something like a Greataxe +1 (L2 treasure), or a Greatclub +3 (L4). To benefit these weapons, you'll want to bump strength once you're done with wisdom. Even though strength is d4 while dexterity is d6, there's a reason to go with bumping strength: Lini can only have one weapon in her deck at a time. If she encounters a combat without a weapon, then she'll be using her strength check by default, so you might as well put bumps there instead of in dex. Also, melee weapons tend to have better dice than ranged weapons. Note that you can use the monk amulets as a surrogate weapon too, which also use strength. One approach I do like is to give Lini a scythe. L2: Scythe +1 L4: Keen Scythe +2 (Treasure) L4 Loot: Fanged Falchion These weapons all have the property than any d4 rolled on the check will have a 4 upgraded to a 5 (6 for the L4 items). They all have 2d4 on the weapon, as well as 1d4 from Lini's strength, as well as 1d4 from Animal Trick. Any help from Lem/Valeros/Harsk also comes in the form of d4's. Play a Blessing of Gorum? Get another two d4's. Using a variety of spells/items that help you out on a combat roll (e.g., Incendiary Cloud from an arcanist, +2d4 and fire!)? Add more d4's! Your little Lini can become quite the machine with a scythe in hand, and she can usually deal with lower level combats without expending serious resources. Armor Lini don't need no stinkin' armor! Spells Lini is a great divine spellcaster, so make sure to kit her out with great divine spells. I like a balance of utility/cure/boom spells for Lini (1/2/3 is my default distribution). A lot of spells are downright terrible, but do your best to pick reasonable things as you move up to better spells. Here are my picks. Utility. If I have to pick one of these, it's Augury/Scrying (depending on what I can auto-recharge). Throw in a second, and I'll pick Greater Aid. B: Strength. Sometimes it's nice to actually be able to buff the party. B: Augury. Always good to be able to search through the deck. 1: Fiery Weapon. Sometimes it's useful to have the fire trait, but note that this is only on a weapon. Once you've got a scythe, note that this adds 1d4. 3: Greater Aid (Treasure). One of the strongest buff skills in the game, this one is well worth having in the deck. (I pass on the lower versions of aid/guidance.) 3: Scrying. Cure. You probably want two in your deck. There are three levels of cure spells. Major Cure is a strict upgrade of Cure, but note that Mass Cure requires a second character to be present to use. B: Cure. 3: Major Cure. 4: Mass Cure. Boom. Alas, there's not many boom spells. I tend to hoard a lot of Holy Lights in Lini's hand at low levels, unless there's strong competition from Kyra. B: Holy Light is the best boom spell for quite a while. B: Inflict is a poor man's Holy Light, but it's a good placeholder while you wait. 3: Swipe is just fun. 1d8+3 isn't huge, but this spell can help other characters too, and it's great if you really want an item. 5: Sunburst (Treasure). The biggest boom spell in the game. So much fun! At lower levels, you won't have enough boom to rely upon for all combats, and you'll be forced to melee/ranged combat regularly. At higher levels, especially if you picked up a couple of extra spell card slots, you'll find that you'll often be able to use a boom spell for harder combats, while low-level combats will typically be taken care of by a straightforward melee combat check. At higher levels, Lini will be such a potent caster that she'll be able to basically auto-recharge any spell that she uses (possibly not Mass Cure or Sunburst, but those should still be very good chances), and most offensive spells will suffice by themselves to beat a combat (often guaranteed, when animal trick is included). Items Lini's never going to have many item slots, but there's a few items that are really worth considering. The monk amulets are worth getting, because they act like surrogate weapons. C: Amulet of Mighty Fists L2: Amulet of Frozen Fists (Treasure) L3: Amulet of Shocking Fists (Treasure) L4: Amulet of Fiery Fists They all add magic to your melee attack, which can be important. The last one also adds fire, which can also be important for particular monsters. All of them add some bonus to damage too. Note that you can't use one of these in addition to a weapon. If you're using a scythe, consider adding an orb to your inventory that adds +2d4 and is rechargeable! Firestorm is recommended, because some monsters need fire to kill them dead. Alas, all of these are treasure, but I seem to pick them up fairly regularly. L3: Orb of Firestorm (Treasure) L4: Orb of Ice (Treasure) L4: Orb of Storms (Treasure) General Purpose B: Caltrops are good at low level. They can really help Lini stay alive! Once she gets going though, ignore these. B: Crowbar is useful for a whole range of checks that Lini isn't so great at. Furthermore, with an animal friend, she can auto-recharge it! L2: Ring of Protection. Lini doesn't get armors, so this is useful in keeping her from annoying auto-discard monsters. L4: Headband of Inspired Wisdom. +2 to all wisdom/divine checks? Sounds good to me. L4: Greater Luckstone. Lini will basically auto-succeed on the recharge check on this, so it's effectively a +2 on recharge card for her, as well as an insurance policy. L4: Staff of Heaven and Earth. Barrier? What barrier? Lini has plenty of spells to burn on this. Allies So long as you take animals only, I don't care what you take. I'm fond of the following: B: Crow B: Fox (Treasure) B: Giant Weasel (Treasure) C: Saber-Toothed Tiger L3: Monkey L3: Cat (does double duty on recharges!) L4: Eagle L4: Bear L4: Lizard L5: Velociraptor Blessings Fill up with whatever you like; there's no bit benefit for any particular type for Lini. I like the following: * Blessing of Gorum is worth it for Lini's melee combat checks. With Beast Form, changes 1d10->3d10, which is respectable. Also good for scythes. * Blessing of Erastil is good if you're using a bow, but if you move to a scythe, switch to Gorum. * Blessing of Pharasma is good for supplementing spellcasting. * Otherwise, I like a mix of Milani/Gozreh/Sivanah/Cayden Cailean.

Card List Weapons: 0 (+1) Spells: 6 (+2) Armors: 0 (+1) Items: 2 (+2) Allies: 3 (+3) Blessings: 4 (+1) Because Animal Trick is so important to Lini, and because you have Wild Empathy, there is a clear priority here for picking up another three allies. However, I strongly recommend giving Lini a weapon as her first card, because low-level Lini is really quite weak and pathetic. With a weapon and an animal friend, she has a chance of beating combats. With just her d4 strength die and an animal friend, you'll be discarding a lot of cards to turn d4 into d10, but you still have no static bonuses, so combat will still be dicey. Once you get beyond weapons/allies, I like spells, because Lini's about to come into her own as an amazing divine caster. And more boom is more fun, right? An extra blessing will never go astray, and I also like to give Lini an extra item, for reasons you'll see below.

Powers Hand Size: 5. No options here Proficiency: None initially, but upgrades for light armor and weapon proficiency. Animal Trick: Display an animal from your hand, add 1d4 to your check. Works on any check. This is seriously useful! Upgrades add +1 to your rolls. That's like adding +1 to all of your rolls for Lini. Prioritize this! Wild Empathy: If you play a card with the animal trait, instead of discarding, recharge. You start with this, and will use it a lot. Beast Form: Discard a card to upgrade a Str/Dex die to 1d10 instead of 1d4/1d6. Again, you start with this. I find that I don't tend to use it much. You have three power selections before roles kick in. Your first two bumps should go to Animal Trick. For your third, I wish it could go to animal trick again. But, you're forced to pick a proficiency, so go with Weapon Proficiency. Armor Proficiency is a terrible power to take. Roles Shapeshifter Beast Form: Three possible bumps here. +1/2 whenever you use beast form (so, 1d4/1d6 -> 1d10+1/2) Add fire trait whenever you use beast form These bumps pale in comparison to bumping Animal Trick, and I'd bump hand size too before looking at these. The benefits are just too small. Animal Collector: +2/4 to checks to acquire animal allies. I'm sorry, all of these are survival skills. Why are you having trouble with them in the first place? Pass. Wild Warden Ritual Training: +2 to divine checks when playing/recharging a spell. Second upgrade: +4. This one is also really nice. +2/4 to casting and recharging spells is a biggie! Enemy Lore: Animal. Bonuses to beat up on animals? There are so few animal monsters, and they tend to be pretty low on the pecking order. Pass. Both Hand size goes up to 6 (shapeshifter) or 7 (wild warden). This might be worth a bump, but it's got strong competition from Animal Trick. Animal Trick caps at +3 (shapeshifter) or +4 (wild warden). Another +1 to every check I make? Hmm, yes please. Miraculous Wisdom: Change 1d10 on wisdom checks to 1d12. This is such a tiny benefit that it's really not worth a power feat. Pass. Verdict Clear winner for Wild Warden. An extra +1 on animal trick over Shapeshifter means that the first beast form feat is subpar in comparison at best, and then Ritual Training turns Lini into a beast of a divine caster (pun intended!). Strongly recommend Wild Warden, but you have to decide: Do you bump Animal Trick? Do you take Ritual Training? Do you bump hand size? Tough decision. You choose. Munchkinism Thyraxus points out below that in story mode, you can get Lini to "skip" a power feat by skipping an appropriate adventure (probably "Undead Uprising" works best), and then complete all of AD3. After unlocking roles, you can go back and do that mission, and assign the power feat to a slot that only became available after selecting a role, and hence select a feat other than weapon proficiency.

Skills Str: d4 Dex: d6 Con: d8 Int: d6 (Knowledge +3) Wis: d10 (Divine +1, Survival +2) Cha: d8 There's a few ways you can take Lini. I recommend treating her primarily like a divine caster, and pumping wisdom to begin with. It's curious that she has +3 to knowledge checks; there's very little else she'll use Intelligence for. However, it does help in closing some locations. Once Wisdom is maxed, I suggest strength, to accompany whatever weapon you decide to get her to use.

Ok folks, time for some more fun. Yes, I'm procrastinating. Today's character: Lini, one of my favorites! General Notes Lini starts out as a very weak character, probably the weakest except for Lem. She can be a pain to nurse through the lower levels. However, once she gets going, she really becomes a superstar. Her primary ability is to have an animal companion help her on any check. Yes, you read that right. That animal companion can be upgraded to add 1d4+4 to ANYTHING. This means that Lini is the most versatile location-closer around, and can handle her own quite well. Furthermore, as things progress, she becomes the strongest divine spellcaster in the game. I find that Lini doesn't do a whole lot to help other characters. She can occasionally heal others, but for the most part, she's perfectly happy being off by herself. There are a couple of cute synergies where other characters benefit her, but she's not great at helping in return. So, you'll probably see Lini mostly off by herself, closing locations that nobody else wants to be around. Lini's versatility makes her one of my favorite characters to play. You just have to get her through the low-level drudgery. Once you get her going, she'll perform well in solo play as well as in any party.

After activating Seelah's ability, you actually need to drag a card from your deck to your discard pile. I suspect it's not automatically done so that you have the option to undo if you misclicked (you can't undo after discarding, because you might receive an unfavorable result and have to actually discard the card). Edit: Oops, not Crusade... can't remember the name off the top of my head...

@Edannan, I'm not sure aobut the Ebon Thorne; that seemed like a mistake to me. I haven't found the Catskin Leather in treasure chests yet Note that the black arrow rangers are superior to the elven archers - don't go replacing them!

Oh, I'm getting the gold. The display just isn't right...