Most Difficult Characters?

[Thyraxus]

Lini is the best character in the game, solo or not.

After she gets a role card, that's true. But getting there is kind of hard, because before that she is rather weak. Her worst limitation is that she only has a hand limit of 5 with no options to expand it until she gains a role. And considering that one of those cards usually is "locked" with one of her animal allies, it's actually more like a 4 card hand that characters like Valeros and Amiri start out with, but they can boost it even with their base class. Playing Lini without a role feels pretty claustrophobic...

[chaosticket]

Im going to address them by class.

 

Barbarian has more strength and more blessings than the Fighter, but the Fighter can use its abilities far more often while the Barbarian has to Bury cards which generally limits the ability to only to cards you find.

 

Bard is good for support but not good solo. You have to pick the Virtuosos role to be better as solo character. He's technically the worst spellcaster. He is way below the others on spell roles and he doesnt have any strong starting offense. He can be quite good once you get certain power feats to pass any skills checks. Biggest problem is whether you want to heal, carry attack spells, or try ranged attacks.

 

Cleric is even more specialized than Paladin. Its more dedicated as a healer and once you get into Roles the Cleric becomes a living Blessing beacon as it can recharge/put on top of your deck eventually. Unfortunately it is weak with few weapons and spells so needs them itself as it only has a d6 strength and doesnt have any feats to boost recharge.

 

Druid is quite good. It has alot of spells slots and can improve its own checks by revealing and animal ally. In melee its much weaker than Monk. Hard choice of whether to use damage spells, cure, or split.

 

Fighter is decent but has few blessings and more weapon slots than he would really ever need. His ability to use weapons for their effects and only recharge them can be quite useful.

 

Monk is quite good once you figure it out. With the ability to recharge blessings it uses for its own combat it can breeze through combat checks. the Monk doesnt start with weapons so unlocking more is critical as it

 

Paladin is terrible to start off as few weapons and Armor as its favored card. It gets better but when it really shines is higher tiers where you can have alot of blessings you can recharge and scout through locations without losing boons.

 

Ranger is very good at scouting and support, but not so good solo. Its because there arent many ranged weapons that have an effect on yourself. Its not an easy choice between Roles as one gives you d12s to your dexterity checks, while the other allows you to recharge animal Allies

 

Rogue is good at scouting because it can freely evade banes and boons. Its starting attack power is weak, but with more weapons and blessings its easy to solo locations.

 

Sorcerer does what the Wizard tries but it feels better. She has less spells but has the Blessings to balance that out. She automatically recharge spells, and in case you dont have attack spells she has Arcane Blast. Her two roles are mediocre however.

 

Wizard's lack of Blessings is a major handicap. It means he cannot improve his, or others attacks. Both of his role choices are mediocre as they take several feats but dont give a powerful bonuses. He can be fairly strong and surprisingly durable if you specialize in attack spells as he can improve his recharge and carry alot of damage reducing items.

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Major problem is just acquiring multiple versions of cards so you can have your party fully equipped. Thieves Tools and the like are very useful. Some underestimated classes can function quite well with self-healing or anti-trap cards.

 

Some characters start out looking bad but end up quite good. Paladin and Cleric can be regular sources of Blessings for your whole Party after a point. Any feats related to improving Blessings in any way is quite useful.

 

The specialized roles characters can pick later vary wildly. Some barely matter, others have a clear winner between one and the other.

 

 

[Assussanni]

If the question is most difficult to play, in terms of decisions you have to make, then I'd have to say Sajan and Lem.

 

With Sajan you have to constantly evaluate whether the best use of your blessings is to explore, to aid your allies or to save them for yourself for combat. I also neglected to give him a weapon for a while, figuring he was fine with just his fists, which I think was a mistake.

 

With Lem you have to remember that anything in your discard pile can be in your hand if you have another card of the same type, which can mean making tough decisions between recharging or discarding cards (particularly spells). I also find Lem's skill and card upgrades the least obvious - spells and charisma for casting; dexterity for weapons and if so does he need more weapon cards; a hybrid between the two; something else?

 

If the question is who is weakest, then it is very difficult to say without knowing party size, composition, distance into the campaign, and even preferred play style.

 

Lini, Lem, Kyra and Sajan all felt weak early on but all improve significantly later - Lini after her self-boost improves and she gets more spells; Lem after he becomes able to self-boost; Kyra after she gets +strength, better weapons and can put blessings back on top of her deck; Sajan after his hand size increases and he gets a weapon (and I learned how to use him!).

 

I view Ezren as weak because of his lack of blessings but that may just be the way I play. I thought Harsk would be weak when I looked at him, but after using him I haven't found this to be the case.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Assussanni

[chaosticket]

Sajan is pretty strong to me. Early on his main problem was his small hand size so sometimes he would have a hand full of non-blessings meaning he would have a hard time. After more weapon slots and a larger hand size he can easily win multiple combat each turn with multiple blessings of Erastil and a magic crossbow. Pairing him up with a healer works very well as that way if you have you hand full of items and/or allies you can discard them and them heal through a spell. Neither of his Roles is that dynamic, but Zen Archer is slightly better.

 

Ezren started out incredibly handicapped as he had low attack power from 1d6 attack spells and low recharge chance. It didnt take long before several skill and recharge feats that he can easily use more powerful spells and recharge them reliably. His lack of blessings is still the key flaw as it means he can be both a drain on blessings and doesnt help other characters. In theory he could have buffing spells like Strength and Agility to support but those are still nowhere near as useful as any blessing, and by splitting your spell choices you can run out of attack spells.

 

Lem can reach a bottleneck as he cant equip and recharge the most powerful spells as easily as the Druid and Sorcerer. Its common to reach the point where he has no attack spells in his hand and his physical attacks are nothing special by itself. Increasing his fighting power from extra spells, using blessings often, and healing when he uses blessings is key. Its when he gets to being a Virtuoso that things drastically improve. He can use Inspiring Performance often to boost things, use blessings for d12s to rolls, and recharge his spells easily. Being able recharge your hand often is very important so you never have a "dead hand" and healing yourself so risks are more acceptable.

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SUpport and self-sufficiency is something that is often important with some key feats characters can. You can combine both the Ranger's sniper shot, Bard's Inspiring Performance, and Fighter's Teamwork to improve rolls so initially low power characters can actually do well in combat and in turn support others. So cooperation is becomes more and more important to keep powerful characters at their peak and for low power characters able to actually win.

 

The "weakest" characters are the ones with poor abilities to support others and/or help themselves. I almost never use the Barbarian's rage ability because it buries cards. Wizard is pretty much the worst as its abilities are rarely useful and neither of its Roles has efficient or powerful feats. Its highly dependent on using the rarest and most powerful spells you have access to. 11 spells is ridiculous when you could use half of them as blessings for yourself and other characters. I favor the Sorcerer considerably more.

 

Some characters drastically change as they go up in tiers that the harsh start becomes worth it. Cleric and Paladin are both painful as they lack combat power but end up immensely useful for their Blessings.