MHCD

Those are some interesting ideas. Some mysterious philanthropist needs to just drop a check off at Obsidian with a note that it's for Pathfinder Adventures multiplayer development. Especially cross-platform.

I second the suggestion. The ability to communicate this would be incredibly helpful. Doc Mage is playing Kyra and is caught unprepared to deal with a Goblin Henchman. Thankfully, several cards in multiple characters' hands are highlighted. After a couple selections, "Doc Mage requests that Harsk play Blessing of the Gods" appears on King_Momo's screen, and "Doc Mage requests that Lem use Bardic Performance" appears on MHCD's screen. A couple more selections are made, and Doc Mage sees a "Kyra plays Blessing of the Gods" notification, with the accompanying additional die appearing, followed by a "Lem declined the request to use Bardic Performance" prompt. But MHCD isn't a jerk, and plays a blessing instead. And I am in agreement that "faster than no game at all" seems plausible - for when they get to it. There is a lot of potential to take the game in a lot of directions, and it's taking a lot of time... At least the only "negative" thing I have to say about the devs is that I wish there were a lot more of them and that they had a lot more resources.

That's not a bad idea. I might be less inclined to do it with Scholar Ezren, as there's already the possibility of taking one card feat in weapon competing with the much stronger preference for spells and items, and if I'm using Scholar Ezren, I'm already trying to minimize roadblocks in his amazing deck cycling and exploration abilities. But for a late-game feat on a well-rounded generalist/survivalist style regular Ezren, that's probably something worth trying - it makes him even more independent and versatile, and potentially doesn't hamper your other card selection anyway, since you may be saving on a defensive spell/item/ally choice. One of the cool things about this game is it's hard to unintentionally make a "bad" character or party. Every combination of deck, feats, characters, and so on, yields different strengths, weakness, synergies, and surprises, so keep trying new things like that. On a related note, I have without regret selected an armor card feat for another character: Lieutenant Lem, thus allowing him to carry both Djezet Skin and Festive Wool Hide. I mentioned their benefits in another post, and I have yet to complain about using both at once, especially when soloing or hoping for new blessings.

Not trying to spam here, just sincerely interested. Are there any devs or fans who can answer this? @MHCD, pretty sure it was Hannah Kennedy that did the alts. This dev blog post implies as much, and she's also been responsible for a bunch of the card art. Thank you very much! I had even read that blog post, and I must have missed Hannah's name. All that searching through credits and looking up artists to find the style that matched, and it was right there the whole time ha.

Not trying to spam here, just sincerely interested. Are there any devs or fans who can answer this?

Thing is, with Lem you often don't want to recharge a spell. You want it in your discard pile so it would be available when needed. Sure, Lem can get through his deck rather fast but that still doesn't guarantee you'll get it when most needed. That is especially true in 6-5 where his ability to cast Mass Cure (or even Major Cure) every turn will make a huge difference. But that doesn't work if you do it with every spell - otherwise, you would have no spells with which to feed the swap. Don't get me wrong - I love versatile performance, but you have to find a balance between recharging and discarding if you want power, versatility, and longevity (with the exception of casting pretty much just cure spells). But part of that is just personal preference. I will say that like Amiri's rage, perhaps the most powerful aspect of versatile performance is the ability to make use of garbage boons you collect throughout the scenario... which is another advantage for Lieutenant Lem. Djezet Skin makes it all the more likely you'll be acquiring those spells and allies you encounter to swap for the preferred ones in your discard pile. I agree with King Momo that the armor slot is especially handy for utilizing those rare armors. In one game, I have Lem using the Djezet Skin (which complements him wonderfully), and in another, he has the Festive Wool. Festive Wool means Lieutenant Lem has the option of trading that armor slot for another blessing, so really it comes down to which one you like better: d6 wis d8 dex or d4 wis d10 dex -1 ally +1 armor or +1 blessing, your choice each scenario In that case, it's weighed even more heavily in favor of Lieutenant Lem, but again, it comes down to personal preference.

The reason why Merisiel is god tier is because of her Evasion. IMO, the only two god characters are Seelah and Merisiel. They are the only two with abilities that are just consistently strong or have a high ceiling for situational investment. I have to disagree; I think evasion is not that strong. Your biggest plus is, if she finds the villain early. First off, there is a low chance (Assuming a 4 person party it’s 1/6 that she’s in the location that has the villain). Then she isn’t guaranteed to find it early in the location (It could be at the bottom of the deck). Then (if on legendary) there’s the problem that the location might be out of the way, so if I move her without closing it, I might have to back track losing valuable turns). Even if it works out well, the evasion may shuffle the villain back to the bottom. You can do the same thing with Augury and some items, but Augury is much better as 1) It might get rid of other monsters you can place on the bottom 2) It places the villain on top 3) It doesn't cost tempo and can speed things up. On legendary when finding the villain (Depending on the scenario) it can be better to just take the free closing and know where the villain could be in the remaining locations (Especially on legendary if it’s a location with only one adjacent location) Evasion is good when you are forced to summon something during an encounter, or someone else’s encounter (Goblin Raid, bandit tower). Any other situation is a net loss of tempo (If I explore and evade my encounter, I lost an explore) Merisiel biggest flaw is she doesn’t start with a weapon in a deck that doesn’t have many weapons. This hurts Merisiel more than Seelah who also doesn’t start with weapons, because Seelah doesn’t need Dex to be strong, and without a weapon Merisiel is forced into strength. Sure you can evade encounters until she gets a weapon, but again that’s losing tempo and turns. I agree she’s the best barrier killer, and alone if she gets a ranged weapon she is a very strong combatant. I’m definitely not saying Merisiel is bad, and evasion has it’s uses, but it definitely isn’t god tier in my opinion. Merisiel also has a decent strength, though (which is easily boosted by blessings), and she can recharge or even discard when in a tough spot. She favors a quickly recycling deck anyway, so it shouldn't be too long before you find yourself with multiple weapons - she can certainly dig through her deck for them much better than Seelah, who is penalized for doing so and may end up discarding them anyway with an unlucky or unoptimal use of grace. The fact that she can recycle quickly without investment means she utilizes items like the staff of minor healing better than some, mitigating the opportunity cost of using allies or blessings to explore. Something I tried out a couple months ago and have had some fun with is giving Merisiel the Ilsoari Gandethus I found. As she can evade a potential summon, the only downside is occupying an ally slot, leaving her a better scout than Harsk from the beginning of the game, since she can use Ilsoari's superior scouting method. Repeated use occupies a slot in your hand, but you essentially buy the scouting power feat for the cost of an increased hand size feat. And I know that card is not exclusive to Meri, but she can use it more easily than anyone, particularly in the early game. Her evasion and spike damage potential may seem great but only circumstantial; however, the more she sees play (especially as the game progresses), the more often one can find those circumstances coming into play when her abilities are exceptionally effective. I still don't know if I'd put her in "god-tier", but she certainly has a high floor with still room to grow. I also agree with the comments regarding the impact on "tiering" played by factors like party size (and others like synergies with other characters, but that is a long and complicated discussion itself). - While I doubt anyone would give Harsk overall MVP, his potential undoubtedly scales with party size, for both roles and both alts. - I'm in the possible minority who prefer Valeros to Amiri in small parties, where the advantages of lower variance and Teamwork powers and the benefit of being able to recharge weapons are more significant for me; but the larger the party, the more Amiri can throw weapons at enemies and HULK SMASH her way through obstacles without worrying about death by discard (or requiring healing to recycle weapons). Legendary difficulty also impacts the warriors' comparative effectiveness, which again scales based on party size. I'd vote Val having a higher floor than Amiri, but at least overall, she has a higher ceiling (solidified when using her alt). - Ezren is another who scales up with party size, especially when using used as a utility mage instead of a blaster. The more blessings others have to pass around, the less the opportunity cost of bringing the wizard, and the more teammates facing various challenges, the more he can really bring to the table his ability to support anyone doing anything. Unparalleled exploration in the right locations only exaggerates that curve. - Lem's change depends on grouping playstyle. Some people are more likely to explore in groups with a large party size, but I generally spread out more with more areas, so for me, Lem's effectiveness increases with smaller parties who can travel and close areas together (though I think he can be played to handle his own in large parties as well, especially if you go with Virtuoso). As a jack-of-all trades character, his value may further increase in smaller parties for those looking to cover more bases. Even without Virtuoso or any superior skillful / clever use, you can always spam healing with Versatile Performance to nova top-tier blessings support, Seelah-level exploration, or just solo without worry of playing conservatively. - Sajan likely has the greatest disparity between optimization floor and ceiling, but if potential effectiveness is how things are ranked, I can't see him anywhere but in the same high rank as Ezren and Lini, though more because of differences in playstyle than party size. Sure he can be misused/under-utilized and become the most regrettable choice on a team, but no one else provides both the best consistent spike damage for tough combat checks and the best blessings bank for versatile individual and team support - with healing support (and practice), he can even fulfill both at once while also exploring like a boss.

Who is the artist who did the portraits for the character alts?