Favorite Roles

[Narkon27]

I have only 1 team right now in campaign (Merisiel, Kyra, Valeros) and I finally get to choose roles for them. Ferl free to post your thoughts about other characters, as I am looking to start a new team and want to have as much information as possible on all of them.

 

Merisiel

For me, Acrobat seems the obvious choice; or should I say the only road worth taking. The second level of Hide looks amazing.

Setting up a location for a specialist to come and clean up sounds too good to pass.

 

Sneak Attack has only 1 level less, but is anyone really going to spend 3 more feats on Sneak Attack?

 

Sabotage Location needs one more feat to unlock with Acrobat, and although Sabotage Barrier is most likely wasted on Meri

as she is already good with barriers, I haven't played the physical game and have no idea what I will find down the road.

 

Restricting the "Collection" to just items hurts a little the role, but she is already good enough with ranged weapons

and her strength isn't bad, so this should be okay to pass.

 

Magic Expert doesn't seem to do much considering Charisma is her second worst skill together with Constitution

(Wisdom buffs perception so it is a little higher), so it doesn't seem to be a good reason to take the Thief role,

or to spend the feat even if you do take Thief.

 

 

Kyra

This is a tough one. I thought I liked Healer more as I already have maxed her Heal, and partly because I have no idea what Enemy Lore: Outsider does. If it means she adds the 1D8+1 when fighting banes with the Outsider trait, then the wording of the ability is terrible.

 

But, and this this a big but, the healer role seems incredibly boring. The divine trait can be found mostly on blessings, which she can get as she is now (+5 to divine), and Dawnflower's Favor can be accessed from the other role as well. Additionally, spending 2 more feats on Heal just to make it do something extra, seems a waste of feat points as Heal is not something you want to use very often.

 

On the other hand, her Exorcist unique powers looks very situational. I've had games with Kyra in which she encountered 0 undead. If this happens often it makes this entire side of her powers obsolete. Like I said, difficult choice.

 

 

Valeros

Guardian looks too passive to me. The increase to hand size is nice, but there are a few things I don't like. The armors I have used so far can be played for a recharge effect, or a bury effect,  so I am not sure where the discard comes in.

 

I also find weapons are more interesting than armors so Weapon Collector feels more useful than getting an extra armor and keeping it in your hand just in case you need it. Even more so when the 3 armors he currently has seem enough and I often recharge them as I find more than one in my hand.

 

Finally we have Miraculous Constitution vs Miraculous Strength. I assume the D12 applies to melee checks as well and this seems way more useful than the occasional Constitution check.

 

Too bad I'll be missing Shield Another because it will be great if you group heroes, but I often have Valleros take on a bane-heavy location alone in order to cover more ground.

 

 

If you have any experience playing the next adventures (physical game) and you know something that will tip the scales in favor of one side, or if your experience with the game has  shown you that the The Road Not Taken is more rewarding, let us know.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Narkon27

[CA_Obsidian]

Good info, a few comments from me:

 

Merisiel:

 

I took the Acrobat role in my 1st playthrough to midpoint and happy with Delay, but I am still undecided now that I finished A3S5 again.

 

Pro Acrobat: HS7 > HS6, Delay. I think 90% of people take the Acrobat role because of Delay, one of the strongest powers in the game. Alternatively, you *could* use Ilsoari Gandethus as an ally, and while it takes endless time going through the Sandport Devil dice procedure every time, he basically is the equivalent of Delay in ally-form - if you get him early in the scenario he will almost stick to you.

 

Pro Thief: Sabotage Location costs only 1 point (no need for Sabotage Barrier) instead of 2, Black Marketer > Item Collector (if you're into collecting weapons & armor at all).

 

And, afaik, some encounters in later adventures (and the main boss) can not be evaded, so no Hide/Delay on them.

 

Well, Acrobat is definitely suited for Quest Mode, carrying Ilsoari through literally (no, really) 100s of games could be cumbersome...

 

 

Kyra:

 

Completely agree with you. HS 8 for the healer is huge. My small party of 3 rarely used her healing powers sofar in the game (mostly because Meri & Seoni are 99% solo in their locations). Cure/Major Cure does the trick for Kyra herself for now, so I don't know. Exorcist may be useless if you don't face Undead or Outsiders. Dawnflower's Favorite though is nicer for the Exorcist, isn't it? Still undecided.

 

 

Seoni:

 

Took Celestial Sorcerer during my 1st run. Abyssal Sorcerer/Worthy Sacrifice: it could be useful in some situations, but I can't think of many instances where I would use it. But no matter if Celestial/Abyssal: I would first pump up Arcane Blast & Resistances.

 

Just some thoughts, fwiw.

Edited May 31, 2016 by CA_Obsidian

[Longshot11]

I have only 1 team right now in campaign (Merisiel, Kyra, Valeros) and I finally get to choose roles for them. Ferl free to post your thoughts about other characters, as I am looking to start a new team and want to have as much information as possible on all of them.

First, as a rule RotR roles are rather underwhelming. There's a bunch of powers that appear on both roles (which kinda defeats the purpose imho), and only maybe 1 or 2 “I can't live without this” power. Also, a lot of the upgrades are just more +1's to a pre-existing powers, and while these can be awesome in the long run, when stacked, they are boring as power choices go (I always prefer new tactical possibilities, rather then a small bonus to an old power).

That being said:

 

• you're spot on on Meri. I don't know a person who hasn't taken the Acrobat role, and that hasn't taken Delay as their first role power

• As for Magic Expert – besides what you note about Meri's abysmal Charisma, I don't know what the game creators were thinking, maybe this is a remnant from an early beta-version of the game- but in the whole original game there's no Weapon or Armor that requires a check to recharge, and the Items that do can probably be counted on the fingers of your one hand (definitely on both hands).

 

• Kyra: you're correct about Outsider Lore – it makes you original ability also work v. Outsiders. Outsiders are some of the more powerful enemies in the late game, but their numbers are low enough, and you'll still be using the Lore mostly vs. Undead. In that regard, it could be better to upgrade “Heal 1 when you defeat Undead” before getting to the Outsiders

• Still, Kyra is a good example of those “I could care less” role choices. If you're big on healing (I'm not) – go Healer; if you'd rather get an extra die when meeting the ocacsional Outsider – get the Exorsist. By game's end, I guarantee you won't have felt the difference either way.

 

• Val: The 'armor discard' is in the same vein as Meri's Magic Expert – someone didn't get the memo, while changes were made during card design. There could be an armor with a discard power but I honestly cant think of one; if anything, late game armors tend to reveal for their powers.

• You 'think' you would miss Shield Another, but let's face it – you don't fight monsters and barriers so you can fail, and there's only Scout, Goblin Commando and maybe a Giant of sorts that deal pre-combat COMBAT damage (and a couple of villains in AD4). This power could have a much greater merit if was preventing non-Combat damage, but as-is is near useles (next time you play – try counting the number of times yo take Combat damage, and then see how often Val was around to make a difference)

• you're also quite correct about the rest and yes, weapons always trump armor in my book, so weapons master is a must for me. Incidentally, I've used his 'Close Quarters' powers so Val can carry surplus ranged weapons until I get the extra card feat for the characters that needed them. Also, this allows you to switch his role in the party to a somewhat inferior Harsk: when you're stuck with multiple weapons in hand, instead of discarding them against Goblins just to free your hand, you can discard them to add d4's to people at other locations (and of course, this being Val, by 'discard' I mean 'recharge')

[Derisat]

I made the mistake of taking magic expert on merisiel and assumed checks to recharge items like Magic Orb would be possible. It's not, magic orb was banished..... I really dont want to remake merisiel but I have no choice since the 4th adventure isnt released yet