I was extremely disappointed in these--I was hoping for the alternate character deck cards, and I've been planning on spending money for new characters. But these aren't really new characters, and they aren't different enough to enable new playstyles. Playing through the game with the new alts for Merisiel/Lem/Seoni/Valeros is going to feel a lot like playing through the game again with the original characters, it's just going to cost a large premium of dollars or time. I'd gladly spend money for replayability or spend time with different characters, but this isn't it. They just LOOK different and have slight tweaks in gameplay that aren't entirely positive. (Shadow Merisiel loses flexibility with her lower strength, for instance. Why would I pay $10 for that? If she lost flexibility but played significantly different, sure!)
Honestly the price feels high even if they WERE the alternate character deck cards--I paid 12$ or so for the original four pack of extra characters and didn't regret it. I can't see paying a total of what, 40$ for four new characters to replay the base set adventure? As is I guess I might grind up gold for one or two of these alternates (the art on a few is very nice, at least), but there's a good chance I'll have simply played out the game by then.