Which characters to toss out of party

[Pediatron]

I've been playing with Ezren, Valeros, Seelah, Merisel, Lem, and Seoni as a 6 player group and done very well in both story and quest mode. 

With all this time to kill waiting for AD4 I have leveled up Lini and Amiri all the way and am close on Sajan (I just didn't like Harsk and Kyra enough to bother)

 

Would anyone recommend swapping out from my original party one or more characters? (I have been pretty impressed with Lini - that add on to EVERY dice roll is huge -- and adding wild warden role is just going to make her stronger as divine caster - so i'm leaning towards adding her in, but not sure who to knock out)

 

Amiri vs Valeros seems to be a wash. I hate burying a card and her movement power only seems useful in legendary.

 

 

Comments would be appreciated -- thanks!

[BernieTime]

"Ezren, Valeros, Seelah, Merisel, Lem, and Seoni"

 

That's a solid party, just be careful you don't burn through decks faster than you can keep them cured.

[MauGibrin]

The only thing your party doesn't do well is Divine spells (only Lem can use them without banishing them). Everything else is covered (Arcane spells, Melee/Ranged weapons). So I would toss one Arcane caster out (personally, I would keep Ezren, but you may choose to keep Seoni) and use Lini instead. You would lose some firepower but would add some versatility. Just don's send Lini to the most monster-heavy location and you'll do fine...

 

Oh, and Amiri is a weaker version of Valeros - only swap him for her if you think the game hás become too easy for your tastes! :-D

 

Cheers!

 

Mauricio

[Hannibal_PJV]

Amiri offer speed compared to Valeros, so it is not so easy task to chose. I would say that anything goes, depending on your playing Style.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Hannibal_PJV

[GeorgeWang]

Cut Ezren first. He's just a less attractive option compared to Seoni. Then cut Merisiel because she's not a team player. Just give everybody a thieves tool and it's like Merisiel is actually on your team.

[Ethics Gradient]

Then cut Merisiel because she's not a team player.

Blasphemy!  I've always considered "I'm going to solo this location and stab everyone in the back" an important part of the team dynamic.

 

Aside from probably doing fine alone, its nice to have a character off by themselves when it's time to temp close locations.

[Pediatron]

Thanks for all the feedback. Ended up tossing out Seoni in favor of Lini - doing well with the party - just one more legendary AD4 to go to finish up (the one with the monk harpys). Doing some 3 player Ezren, Valeros and Lini for Legendary - Ezren goes through the decks with Augury and Scrying and can kill off a villian or henchmen on his own, Valeros provides pure power and Lini closes stuff and deals with all the wisdom checks.

[Celedhring]

To the OP, if you're playing Legendary, Amiri >>>> Valeros by a significant margin in my opinion. Her ability to move twice and carry people with her makes it so much easier to avoid those "wasted turns" towards the end of the scenario, which can be critical in 6 player. I picture her in 'Nam dropping soldiers off a chopper. Yeah, I do. I'm weird like that.

 

If you don't do Legendary, I'd keep Valeros indeed. He's fun to play with all that power.

Edited October 8, 2016 by Celedhring

[Dainalt]

Some of this simply boils down to which scenario you're playing.  Frankly, because of the assortment of magic cards in most locations, no one burns down decks faster than ezren and he ain't 'fraid o' no ghosts, nor much of anything else.  Games theory wise, Seoni might be superior, but in practical use Ezren is better.  That's anecdotal, but hours of observation on my part lead me to the conclusion that, where theory meets the hard road of practice, I'm changing my tires to what's yielded more success.

 

I frankly prefer Val to Amiri.  Recharging weapons means that he only needs to keep one in his hand and even on legendary he typically has the firepower to burn down anyone.

 

Probably the MVP in most games for me is sniper harsk.  He just simply makes everyone else that much more powerful.  Then again, like H_PJV says, you can make any party work, even on legendary.

 

I don't like solo games that much because I like to have more dialogue and location etc, but I have a two character game going with Val and Lem.  They virtually always do every location together, even when it's not the best approach and yet they still do well and the amount of brew they consume is absolutely staggering.  The little bastard might prefer fine wine, but he throws down enough brew to make the brewer run into red ink on racking day and, hell, half the time he's still slingin' a pint while Val's snoring under the table.

[Pediatron]

I have really tried to like Amiri, but I use her move power so rarely compared with Valeros's discard weapon to gain additional dice that I just can't see her advantage even on Legendary.  It just isn't worth burying a card each time for her extra die compared with his shuffling back in the weapon he just discarded.

As for Ezren vs Seoni, I personally think Ezren (not Seelah) is the strongest character in the game. I would take multiple augury and scrying any day over the ability to move a boon to the bottom of the deck twice/turn. It is common for Ezren to get through an entire 10 card deck in a single turn and close the location, then move on and do the same thing next turn at a new location. Add his very powerful spells and arcane items to meet the bad guys and he is my top pick for favorite character. He isn't great at closing things, but that is what other character's blessings are for. Seoni just runs through her deck too fast. And give Ezren the spell component pack and a robe of runes and he almost always recharges his arcane spell/item.  I actually got rid of Seoni and replaced her with Lini and am far happier.

 

So my current party: Ezren, Valeros, Seelah, Merisiel, Lem and Lini

 

Thanks to all for the posts!

[Celedhring]

My issue with Valeros is that once I had him and other characters kitted out enough, I almost never needed to use the discard powers of his weapons, nor was his "bodyguard" power that useful anymore. Even in decisive battles against high difficulty monsters, an extra die was a drop in the sea once I brought support spells and blessings to bear. At that point, Amiri just brought a more distinct utility (in legendary) that's harder to replicate with other characters. There's just so many ways to buff up your combat rolls.

 

But he is fun to play. The game is flexible enough that almost any combo can work with the right card resources.

[Ethics Gradient]

The game is flexible enough that almost any combo can work with the right card resources.

That's probably the best advice in this thread so far.  

 

Even without some good cards, if your party has an adequate number of blessings you can fudge your way through most scenarios.

[Kur0kis3npuu]

I prefer Amiri over Valeros for her Movement Power. It really helps on legendary difficulty and you can some fun scouting tricks with Seelah is you have them near each other.

 

I also prefer pretty much anyone over Lem. Having a caster who can use both Divine and Arcane is all well and good, but Seoni does Diplomacy just as well, if not better, and since you have 2 Arcanes in the party already between Ez and Seoni, Lem just feels redundant and all around useless. At least with Lini you could fill the role of healer since she gets more spells than Lem and Kyra. And at the same time she is also a good combatant. I leveled my Lini to max her Beast Companion and adding 1d4+3 to any check makes her capable of holding and recharging more powerful spells like Restoration or Mass Cure better than Kyra imo.

[Dainalt]

Lem is an excellent healer. Doesn't need to recharge and in fact benefits from discarding his spell. Doesn't waste an exploration to heal. Once he's got a cure in his discard pile, he can heal basically each turn. When you don't need heals, you don't have to worry about drawing an unneeded cure. I can dig not liking him in the way I don't like Seelah or the monk. Not much of a paladin or monk fan. However, there's a way to make all the characters shine and in practical use I've discovered Lem actually great *because* of his healing. Kyra, however, is a real disappointment to me. My lady friend and occasionally another friend will play the table-top version and Kyra's deficiencies weren't really all that apparent but I think she falls behind other classes. On the other hand, heeding my own advice, I'm sure I just haven't found the style that makes her sparkle.

[Celedhring]

What I like about Kyra is the lack of needing to carry around healing spells to begin with, so I can max her utility. I also don't mind not recharging spells - In fact, I actually prefer discarding them outright and just healing them back, so they get shuffled instead. She's a great support character. On-demand healing allows you to play pretty damn aggressively, and finish scenarios quicker.

 

I just don't find the point in Sajan though. I guess you could build something out of Drunken Master, but I haven't found the right potions for it (I guess I need to get more chests).

[Pediatron]

I love the discussion this thread has produced! 

[Urtar37]

Sajan is the worst character in the game. He is so bad at combat, and while you could turn him into a potion charcter with DM, the alchemist gets this for free in S&S.