Best Two Characters to Pair with Kyra and Merisiel but Are Also a Good Duo Themselves

[Mainiac]

I've farmed enough gold to buy two characters and would like to get opinions on which two are a good fit to work in a four person party with Kyra and Merisiel but would also be good as a two person party.  I'm avoiding buying any Character Add-On Pack characters as I plan on getting that pack eventually so don't want to buy any of those characters separately.  Thanks.

[Longshot11]

I've farmed enough gold to buy two characters and would like to get opinions on which two are a good fit to work in a four person party with Kyra and Merisiel but would also be good as a two person party.  I'm avoiding buying any Character Add-On Pack characters as I plan on getting that pack eventually so don't want to buy any of those characters separately.  Thanks.

Valeros and Lem

- they won't compete much with Kyra and Merisiel for Divine spells/ Ranged weapons respectively

- they have 'another character at your location' powers synergy with each other

- Valeros is reliable tank and boss-killer (both Kyra and Meri suffer from not being guaranteed weapons at start)

- Lem covers your Charisma needs and can have support spells (Strength, Agility) on demand in his discard pile, not to mention Cure

 

You may consider substituting Lem for Ezren in a party of 4, but in duo with Val - you'll probably feel his lack of blessings, and the lack of healer

[Hannibal_PJV]

Consider Valeros, Seelah, Amiri as an melee fighter.

Consider lem or Seoni as an Arcane caster.

 

Valeros is good at helping others, Seelah can Also heal, Amiri can move characters around

Lem can help others, Seoni can recharge anything that is arcane.

 

Longshots suggestions Are good ones though. Depends on what do you want to do with your characters. Each have its own merits!

[Longshot11]

Consider Valeros, Seelah, Amiri as an melee fighter.

 

I'd go with Amiri over Val as tank any day of the week, but she is part of the Character Add-on Deck.

[Mainiac]

Thanks for the replies guys.  Do you think I'm better off toughing it out until I get 10k gold and getting the Character Add-On pack?  That's obviously the most expensive gold purchase and I'm almost halfway there at 4500 gold.

[Longshot11]

Thanks for the replies guys.  Do you think I'm better off toughing it out until I get 10k gold and getting the Character Add-On pack?  That's obviously the most expensive gold purchase and I'm almost halfway there at 4500 gold.

Definitely, it gives you a great value for your money, 4 awesome characters, and arguably the best ranged weapon in the game. Of course, that means you'll have to wait longer for new content, so you might instead just get the adventures first, so you don't get bored grinding the same 3 free scenarios.

[Borissimo]

In my experience, the most reliable 2-person party is Valeros + Kyra. Kyra is amazing in 2-player because time is abundant and she can single-handedly make sure you never die. Valeros is self-sufficient and great at taking down monsters. He's also surprisingly good at closing locations: d8 in dex, d8 in con, and d6+2 in diplomacy covers a lot of ground.

 

So in your case, Valeros is a definite buy. Keep in mind that if farming gold is your objective, the two fastest methods (in my experience) are:

 

1. Solo Merisiel on Legendary Poison Pill. This is fast, but obviously rather repetitive.

 

2. Duo Kyra + Valeros on Legendary Quest Mode. This gives you some variety and progression, so it doesn't feel as grindy, but you will lose sometimes.

 

Since Kyra and Merisiel come for free, if harvesting gold is your main motivation, then Valeros is the only character you need to buy. If you're buying anybody past that point, then it's purely for your entertainment and enjoyment of the game. It's up to you whether the fun you'll have playing with another base set character is worth the slight delay in saving up 10k for the C-deck. I do recommend getting the C-deck eventually -- it's a great value and certainly better than buying the C-deck characters on their own.

 

So if Kyra, Merisiel, and Valeros are in a party, who's the best fourth? Well, I would not recommend Harsk. Harsk lacks self-sufficiency, which he makes up for by providing support to the party. However, your other characters are probably the three most self-sufficient characters in the game, so it makes no sense to add Harsk. That leaves Lem, Seoni, and Ezren. Of the three, Lem is the only one who makes a good duo with Valeros, but he's also the least self-sufficient. If you want another character who can hold her own (while occasionally needing to be healed), pick Seoni. If you want a character who has as many spells as humanly possible, pick Ezren.

 

Merry gaming!

[Rhygar]

From my limited gameplay experience if you are looking to form a four person party at some point to adventure with , outside of that C pack , the one person you have to consider is ezren.

 

Finding ways to increase the explorations per turn becomes increasingly crucial as party size increase and you will find if you are too liberal with time, you may find yourself staring at clock rundown with no villain in sight in 4 man party. And when it comes to deep delving into location decks on a single turn there's often no one who come close to the potential of that old geezer come late into magic outside of the c pack. Place him into one or two of the locations like apothecary, old light, academy and watch him go. As your game progress you will find more magic stuff for him to get exuberant with. At times in story mode, you might not find the ideal locations so next best location for him to go seeking magic paraphernalia would be locations high in items or armour and weapon. The garrison for example used to give me good result. Have someone to throw a blessing to acquire those magic stuff he craves if need be. In ezren case, that blessing will allow him a further exploration.

 

Avoid locations with high ally count ( best left for lem, or seoni ; both can match the pace of ezren in such places at times ) or high in barrier. Barrier because he, like most others , will require blessing to make the check consistently and he's a godless being in 4 man party, there's plenty of blessing to go around though.

 

Combat wise, he's assuredly self capable with a good spell repertoire. There's only few instance in game so far where he might need external aid.the constructs being one. Pull the weapon he ditched to deal with them. ( improved mending is a highly recommended spell for utility and high strategic value).i can go abit more in depth but not wanting this to become an ezren guide of sorts

 

As for barrier, lug around a master work tool ( I usually don't in sizable party) and equip the heat metal spell to help him navigate those.

 

My only hesitation, and it's a big one, to recommend him would be if you want to start adventure with just 2 new characters and in that, it's tricky who to pair him up with, outside of C pack that is. Kyra could be good with recyclable blessings to go around with if you don't mind playing her again in a team of 2.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Rhygar

[CA_Obsidian]

This is slightly off-topic, but the thread is good info, so excuse me posting here, too.

 

I have not been playing with a 4 person party for longer than a few hours, my experience is mostly based on my "3 angels" Merisiel, Kyra & Seoni. Have been playing them through B, 1, 2 and 3 and into the mid-30s of the quest mode.

 

With Merisiel covering DEX, Kyra WIS/Divine/STR and Seoni CHA/Arcane, I found myself having covered all the bases and tbh, I never really missed Ezren's INT as INT checks are rare.

 

What I missed sometimes was a high STR performer and I am still thinking about leveling up Amiri so they are 4, but I missed STR mostly when I failed at non-combat STR checks, not in combat... plus I feel the game with 3 chars is the sweet spot for me, more relaxed adventuring than the 4 person party that has to go after 6 locations.

Edited May 30, 2016 by CA_Obsidian

[Hannibal_PJV]

My three some is

Valeros, Lini, Lem... All can cover good range of skills and two healers is good in small groups. An Valeros and Lem can help in big boss fights.

Lini with animals can do anything she wants!

All Are Also good at getting allies, so extra explores Are guite sure!

[Longshot11]

What I missed sometimes was a high STR performer and I am still thinking about leveling up Amiri so they are 4, but I missed STR mostly when I failed at non-combat STR checks, not in combat... plus I feel the game with 3 chars is the sweet spot for me, more relaxed adventuring than the 4 person party that has to go after 6 locations.

 You might wanna stock up on some Crowbars. Give one to Meri and even closing Fort Rannik is a breeze.

[Rhygar]

This is slightly off-topic, but the thread is good info, so excuse me posting here, too.

 

I have not been playing with a 4 person party for longer than a few hours, my experience is mostly based on my "3 angels" Merisiel, Kyra & Seoni. Have been playing them through B, 1, 2 and 3 and into the mid-30s of the quest mode.

 

With Merisiel covering DEX, Kyra WIS/Divine/STR and Seoni CHA/Arcane, I found myself having covered all the bases and tbh, I never really missed Ezren's INT as INT checks are rare.

 

What I missed sometimes was a high STR performer and I am still thinking about leveling up Amiri so they are 4, but I missed STR mostly when I failed at non-combat STR checks, not in combat... plus I feel the game with 3 chars is the sweet spot for me, more relaxed adventuring than the 4 person party that has to go after 6 locations.

Rarity of int check on barriers aside, I get the impression that even when ezren is not in party, the random pick of location in story mode or quest will generate one of those locations which require Int specifcally ( the apothecary with no characters as of now having craft skill ) . The curious thing is with current character roster there is no one with int die that comes close . Nearest is d6. Just another tactical consideration imo for ezren inclusion as the larger the party goes , the likelihood of these location popping up increases.

[CA_Obsidian]

@Longshot11: Good point, almost forgot about the simple beauty of all those B items. My party usually carries 2 Blessings of Torag around for that purpose, but I could reduce those in favor of a +STR item. It's beyond imagination how many items my Meri can bring along in her handbag. Really, I specialized her in that.

 

@Rhygar: True! Seoni luckily carries 2 Blessings of Irori around for those naaasty INT checks. And I agree - in a party of 4, Ezren has to be taken into consideration, but he would not be my favorite 4th party member next to M, K & Seoni (too much arcane specs). I think Ezren would fit perfectly into the classic D&D party: Valeros (STR/CHA), Kyra (STR/WIS), Merisiel (DEX) & Ezren (INT).

Edited May 30, 2016 by CA_Obsidian

[Mainiac]

Thanks for all the great advice everyone.

 

@Borissimo, thanks for the soloing Merisiel on Poison Pill legendary suggestion.  I had just been running her and Kyra on basic quest mode for 100g a pop but this is must quicker. 

 

I'm going to save up for the character add-on pack first which I should be able to get in 3-4 days if not sooner.  Then I'll put together a party and start back through story mode with them.

 

It seems a three person party may be more manageable than a four person party from some of the comments.

[Narkon27]

Thanks for the replies guys.  Do you think I'm better off toughing it out until I get 10k gold and getting the Character Add-On pack?  That's obviously the most expensive gold purchase and I'm almost halfway there at 4500 gold.

That's what I did, after I got Valeros. However, it is also fine if you unlock a few extra characters, like Lem and Ezren before you move for the character pack, as I wasn't very impressed with the 4 heroes in the pack, except Lini. I haven't played a lot with them, but they seem a little harder to use, or at least it is harder for me to get used to them.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Narkon27

[Borissimo]

Ezren is one of my favorite characters, but I don't quite share all of the enthusiasm Rhygar has for him. Note that if you spend a blessing to help Ezren acquire a magic item, then your party isn't really getting an "extra" exploration. A blessing represents 1 extra exploration, so if you spend a blessing on something else, it's like losing an explore. Thus, playing a blessing to help Ezren explore again is a wash -- you lose 1 explore to gain 1, for a net of 0.

 

Another thing to consider with Ezren is that many scenarios in story mode just don't have that many spells, so outside of the academy, Ezren's reputation as an exploring machine has been slightly overblown on these forums (in my opinion).

 

Regarding Narkon's comment about the C-deck characters: I agree that the C-deck characters are, on the whole, harder to use than the base set characters. Sajan and Lini are "investment" characters that start out pretty weak and gradually blossom into the most over-powered characters in the set. Amiri can hit higher numbers than Valeros but has to lose resources to do it, making her decisions tougher, and Seelah's amazingness is hard to see behind her mediocre stats and card list.

[Rhygar]

Fair play borissimo. I've certainly had that considerationt that it's a zero sum situation but in the end the compounding effect of helping ezren over one tough acquisition resulting in him going on a run of 3 or 4 cards wins the case for me personally. situational no doubt, but nonetheless a very real winning scenario that I'd encountered many times. Where a blessing in kyra's represent just that - 1 exploration nothing more nothing less, in ezren hands however, that 1 is 1 +%chance of another few exploration worth.

 

I do need to stress that location choosing and dice roll ( whatever is not affected by it indeed in this game)is important for this to work to great effect which was why I wrote abit on other viable locations for ezren to pick.

 

Beyond this, abit outside the scope of this topic, but allow me to touch on it somewhat, spell cards in the later adventure packs do help a lot to extend the effect of exuberance.

 

And, to cap it off, after approximately 2 rounds - that's 12 turns in 6 man party- of "weening" off the item and ally cards, the true extent of the ease of ezren to navigate through a location will be revealed .with a right deck of course