Review & Ratings of the Character Alts

[Borissimo]

With Adventure 6 came character alts (or "equipment sets") — slightly different versions of the original 11 characters. Whether you buy these with cash or with gold, the prices are exorbitant. To help folks decide which characters are worth getting, I posted a review on YouTube, but it's kinda long (35 minutes) and I thought some people might prefer to read my thoughts rather than watch a video. Here they are:

 

I gave each character one of three ratings:

 

: This character is "meh:" slightly better or playably different from the original, but not enough to warrant dropping 6 or 7 thousand gold.

 

: This character is fantastic. Worth the price.

 

: This character sucks. I would never play with it even if I had it for free.

 

I'll post all the ratings up front; my detailed explanations will follow.

 

Shadow Merisiel

Survivalist Amiri

Scholar Ezren 

Forest Harsk 

Sunwrought Kyra 

Lieutenant Lem 

Feral Lini

Painted Sajan

Formal Seelah 

Frostfire Seoni 

Armored Valeros

 

Shadow Merisiel

Strength D6 (down from d8)
Wisdom D8 (up from D6)
Acrobatics +1 (down from +2)
Stealth +3 (up from +2)
Starting Allies 1 (down from 2)
Starting blessings 5 (up from 4)
Sneak Attack renamed to Shrouded Sneak Attack now adds +1 to the discard for all versions.

Losing strength is a slight downgrade because some bows use the strength die and Merisiel sometimes has to punch things. Gaining wisdom is a slight upgrade because wisdom is the most useful stat overall. Losing acrobatics for stealth is a slight downgrade because stealth is almost nonexistent, whereas acrobatics is frequently used later in the adventure to avoid damage. Losing an ally for a blessing is a slight upgrade, since blessings are usually better than allies.

 

But really, all that stuff is minor, so everything's a wash up till this point. Then Merisiel gets a +1 bonus to her Sneak Attack when she discards a card. That's nice, but it's small, and you don't usually discard a card for sneak attack — you usually recharge. So technically, this alt is an upgrade, but everything is so minor that I can't fathom dropping 6k gold for this. A resounding "Meh."

 

Survivalist Amiri

Constitution D10 (up from D8)
Charisma D4 (down from D6)
Starting Weapons 4 (down from 5)
Starting Allies 3 (up from 2)
Barbarian Rage renamed to Relentless Barbarian Rage, can now be used for survival checks in addition to Strength, Melee or Constitution.

Trading charisma for constitution is a tiny upgrade. You were never going to rely on Amiri for charisma anyway, while constitution works with her hero power and can sometimes help her avoid damage. But constitution doesn't come up much to begin with, so like I said: tiny upgrade. Emphasis on tiny. Trading a weapon for an ally is a good upgrade: Amiri will have plenty of weapons anyway, always starts with a weapon, and can always punch things with her face if needed, so losing a weapon to gain an extra explore is really nice. Finally, applying rage on survival checks is very welcome: later in the adventure, survival shows up a fair bit. It also helps Amiri pick up animal allies.

 

All in all, then, this new Amiri is without question a solid upgrade over the original. At the end of the day, though, a bonus on survival checks and 1 extra explore aren't worth 6 thousand gold for me, so personally I still rate her a "Meh" — just maybe a "Meh +."

 

Scholar Ezren

Dexterity D4 (down from D6)
Wisdom D10 (up from D8)
Arcane +1 (down from +2)
Knowledge +3 (up from +2)
Starting Weapons 0 (down from 1)
Starting Items 4 (up from 3)
Expanded spellbook and Focused spellbook renamed to Augmented and Enriched,  now works on items with the magic trait in addition to spells.

This one gets my vote for the best designed alt of the bunch. Trading dexterity for wisdom is a nice little upgrade. Wisdom is the most useful stat overall, but for Ezren specifically, having higher wisdom is extra nice because it helps him pick up divine spells for those sweet, sweet extra explorations.

 

But the stat change is just the appetizer here. Thing start getting crazy with the skills. Ezren loses an Arcane to gain a Knowledge, which is a HUGE nerf. Knowledge almost never comes up in this game, and when it does, +1 isn't likely to make a difference. Arcane, though, is a sore loss. Sure, it's just –1, but that's a –1 to ALL of Ezren's combat checks, recharge checks, and arcane spell pickups. The further you go in the adventure, the less significant a –1 becomes, but over the course of a campaign, you are all but guaranteed to fail some checks you would have otherwise passed.

 

So what does our Scholarly friend get in exchange? For starters, he loses a weapon to gain an item. This is amazing. I've played through multiple campaigns with Ezren, and I literally never wanted to see the weapon in my hand. It's just a dead card in your deck, and finally now you can have it gone. The extra item lets Ezren either max out at 7 items instead of 6, or pop a card feat into allies for an extra explore. Either way, it's a huge upgrade.

 

Then Ezren's spellbook gets buffed in a huge way. I cannot count how many times I cast an arcane spell and saw a Wand of Enervation staring up at me from the top of my deck. Even if the item isn't immediately useful, it sucks to be ****blocked on your first spell of the turn if you're planning to play more spells later — who knows how many goodies you could have picked up if only you could reach behind the Amulet of Life clogging your deck top? When Expanded Spellbook picks up items in addition to spells, you could have something like 17 or 18 of your 21 cards pick-up-able whenever you cast a spell, leaving allies as the only card type that can block you.

 

That's why Ezren gets a "Wow" from me: the –1 to Arcane is a huge loss, but it's compensated by two huge buffs that completely nullify two of the most aggravating things about playing as Ezren. 

 

Forest Harsk

Constitution D10 (down from D12)
Wisdom D8 (up from D6)
Fortitude +1 (down from +2)
Survival +3 (up from +2)
Starting weapon 4 (down from 5)
Starting Ally 2 (up from 1)
Starting hand size 6 (up from 5)

Whoever designed Harsk must have just received a fresh batch of meth from the Obsidian labs right beforehand, because I don't understand how this alt is balanced in any way. If you've read my earlier comments, you know that losing constitution for wisdom is a clear upgrade, losing fortitude for survival is a clear upgrade, and losing a weapon for an ally is a clear upgrade. The stat/skill/weapon changes are all upside. And then for some reason Harsk gets a bigger hand size? An easy buy for anyone who plays with Harsk.

 

Sunwrought Kyra

Strength D8 (up from D6)
Wisdom D10 (down from D12)
Melee +3 (up from +2)
Fortitude +2 (down from +3)
Starting weapon 3 (up from 2)
Starting armor 1 (down from 2)
Enemy Lore: Undead now adds an additional +1 to checks vs undead.

Like Harsk, Kyra is the product of large quantities of meth. She gets a huge boost in melee power, from d6+2 to d8+3. Just so we're clear, that's an average of 7.5; Valeros and Amiri average 8.5 each. So our little healer lady is now whacking things with almost as much strength as the resident warrior and BAR-frickin-BARIAN. I guess she really hit the Sandpoint Gym over the holiday break and got swole. Don't skip leg day, kids. What horrible ravages have been inflicted on this character to compensate? Well, um, she also gains a weapon (which she needs because it's not her favored card type) and loses an armor (the worst card type in the game). Oh! And she gets a +1 on her Undead Lore power. Because that makes sense.

 

Kyra's only consequential loss is a point of wisdom. Having –1 on spell recharges, spell pickups, and the various perception/survival checks that pop up in the later adventures does hurt. You'll feel some pain when making hard survival checks in scenario 6.3, for instance, because on those hard survival checks Kyra will probably receive a blessing or two, which turns the –1 penalty into a –2 or –3.

 

The thing is, there's no real choice when building Kyra. The "divine blaster Kyra" archetype doesn't work because Kyra doesn't have enough spell slots and because there aren't any damn divine attack spells in the game anyway. Kyra has to go melee, so getting +2 on all her melee checks and an extra weapon to boot is more than worth the downgraded wisdom die.

 

Lieutenant Lem

Dexterity D10 (up from D8)
Wisdom D4 (down from D6)
Knowledge +4 (up from +3)
Diplomacy +2 (down from +3)
Gains Light Armor proficiency
Gains possible Heavy Armor proficiency upgrade

After a nice string of "Wows," we're back in "Poop" territory. Lem uses dexterity for his crossbow, so trading wisdom for dexterity is a definite buff. "But Boris!" you cry. "Haven't you always said that wisdom is the best overall stat?" Yes, it is, but for Lem specifically the loss is minor. His wisdom is bad to begin with, so no one was counting on him for wisdom checks anyway. Furthermore, one of the three wisdom skills, divine, is housed under Lem's charisma. And finally, Lem eventually gets 1d4+2 or +3 on any check that matters, so he can take a loss better than most. Losing diplomacy for knowledge definitely sucks, but it's not the end of the world since Lem's diplomacy is still high. Getting light armor and heavy armor is of course completely irrelevant.

 

EDIT: At this point, Lieutenant Lem would be a "Meh." A +1 on dexterity checks is nice but not worth 7000 gold. However, there is one more change — credit to Thyraxus for finding it — that Obsidian did not document in their original post: Lem loses an ally card to gain an armor card. I hope by this point in my write-up everybody understands why this is an awful change, driving our diminutive lieutenant into "Poop" territory.

 

EDIT #2: After two pages of replies, it appears that my thumbs-down rating of Lieutenant Lem is the most controversial of my 11 ratings. And I mean "controversial" in a good way: I actually agree with some of the points made in response to this rating. One thing I neglected to consider is that because Lem recharges cards for a pretty good ability, he suffers the least from having a good card (ally) swapped for a bad one (armor): he can always put bad cards to use. Furthermore, if you play in a small party, having a damage reduction card can actually be more valuable than having an extra explore. This perk is enhanced even more if you use Treasure cards and have found some of the nice new armors for your Vault. If you can convince yourself that having +1 armor (and armor proficiency) is a good thing for Lem, then with the upgrade to Dexterity, this alt is a straight upgrade over the original.

 

Feral Lini

Dexterity D8 (up from D6)
Charisma D6 (down from D8)
Knowledge +2 (down from +3)
Survival +3 (up from +2)
Starting items 1 (down from 2)
Starting allies 4 (up from 3)
Beast form renamed to Savage Beast Form, now adds a d12 (up from d10)

I handed out two "poop" ratings that I know will be controversial, and this is one of them. Let's run through the list: losing charisma for dexterity is immaterial. Losing knowledge for survival is an upgrade, though since Lini eventually has something like 1d10 + 1d4 + 10 for survival anyway, I'm not sure how much another +1 matters. Beast form goes up from d10 to d12, but since this is not a skill you ever want to use, the upgrade here is lame.

 

Okay, so everything is a wash up to here. Now we get to the cards, where Lini loses an item to gain an ally. I'm gonna call this a nerf. Yes, of course, allies are amazing for Lini. But in my playthrough with her, I had countless issues with the item slot. Lini wants to hang onto cards like Sihedron Medallion, Emerald Codex, spyglass, and of course the various orbs if you're playing with treasure chests. She's already short on slots, and losing one is a major pain. As for allies, I personally don't ever max out the ally slot. Lini wants spells, items, blessings, and (if you swing that way) a weapon, so it's hard to dump 3 of your 6 card feats into allies. That's why Lini gets a "poop" rating from me — the only thing in here that matters is the loss of an item card, which is bad. Everything else is inconsequential.

 

That said, if you disagree with me about the item thing, then Lini is a definite "Meh." Congratulations!

 

Painted Sajan

Wisdom D6 (down from D8)
Charisma D8 (up from D6)
Acrobatics +3 (up from +2)
Fortitude +1 (down from +2)
Craft +2 added
Starting weapons 1 (up from 0)
Starting allies 2 (down from 3)

This is the other of my "poop" ratings that's bound to spark debate — actually, I've already seen debate about it on these forums. We lose wisdom for charisma, which is bad. We gain acrobatics for fortitude, which is good. We gain craft, which ... who cares? And then we lose an ally for a weapon. Now, for me, that's just friggin terrible. Sajan doesn't want or need a weapon. Of course, there's a role card that's all about using weapons (Zen Archer), so clearly Obsidian and at least some players think that giving weapons to Sajan is good. I think that those people are just plumb wrong, and that losing an exploration card to gain dead weight is just awful. Still, if you're one of those crazy people who thinks clogging up Sajan's hand with a weapon is a good thing, then this might actually be a "Wow" for you.

 

Formal Seelah

Constitution D6 (down from D8)
Intelligence D6 (up from D4)
Melee +1 (down from +2)
Divine move to Charisma
Diplomacy +1 added
Starting armor 2 (down from 3)
Starting items 1 (up from 0)

Seelah's stat changes are aesthetically pleasing (I never thought it made sense for someone like Seelah to be dumb as bricks) but mechanically immaterial. Like Ezren, she loses a point of her primary attack skill, and like Ezren, she gets amazing stuff to make up for it. Moving divine to a bigger die is awesome. Gaining diplomacy in conjunction with changes that make Seelah want to put points into Charisma is awesome as well. Realistically, that +1 diplomacy ends up being +2 or +3 by the end. Losing an armor is awesome, and gaining an item is awesome as well. I never understood why a paladin couldn't carry around a spyglass, and finally, Seelah can! Since Seelah can always flip a d6 to make up for her slightly weakened melee prowess, I'm delighted to have this character. 

 

Frostfire Seoni

Dexterity D10 (up from D8)
Charisma D10 (down from D12)
Diplomacy +1 (down from +2)
Arcane +3 (up from +2)
Starting Spells 4 (up from 3)
Starting Blessings 4 (down from 5)
Arcane blast renamed to Stormfire Blast, now adds 2d4 (instead of 1d6) and the cold trait in addition to the other base traits.
Acid blast altered to also replace the cold trait.

Seoni's arcane skill changes from d12+2 to d10+3. The average result is the same, but d10+3 is usually better. Most of the time, you'd rather have a higher minimum than a higher maximum, and having that extra +1 on the bottom helps Seoni be conistent against easier monsters later on. It can also eliminate those pesky "I have a 1 in 10 chance of failing this important check; should I spend a blessing?" situations that occasionally pop up.

 

Seoni gains a point of dexterity, which is mostly irrelevant, and she loses a point of diplomacy, which is annoying but gets less so as the campaign goes on (since she's obviously going to max out charisma). What matters is that extra spell. Ho. Ly. Cow. Seoni BADLY wants more spells, and having an extra one to start — and a cap of 7 instead of 6 — is huge for her. Seoni's problem has always been that she doesn't really want to use her arcane blast power because it's weak and only gets weaker (proportionally) as the game goes on, so she has to fill her deck with combat spells. But with only 3 spells to start and only 6 at the cap, having adequate blasting power limits how many scrying and other utility spells she can carry around. That extra +1 spell lightens her load immensely. She loses a blessing, which hurts, but it's a worthy tradeoff.

 

Lastly, we get to her improved arcane blast power. I've seen some misinformation on these forums about it. Please note: the cold trait is an ADDITION to the fire trait, not a replacement. Is this good or bad? Well, some monsters are immune to cold, but how often do you find a monster that's immune to cold AND you need to use your arcane blast against it? Rarely. So honestly, the cold trait doesn't matter much (and might occasionally help), while the boost from d6 to 2d4 is very welcome. That's a boost from 3.5 to 5, with a higher minimum and way less variance. A 1d6 will roll a 2 or less fully 1/3 of the time, whereas 2d4 only does that 1/16 of the time. And quantitatively, getting +1.5 on this ability matters a lot because the ability is so weak to start with.

 

All in all, Seoni gets a desperately needed extra spell and a very welcome boost to arcane blast. Losing a blessing and taking –1 on Diplomacy hurts, but those are the best designed characters — the ones that give you something and take something away. A solid "Wow" from me.

 

Armored Valeros

Dexterity D6 (down from D8)
Constitution D10 (up from D8
Melee +1 (down from +2)
Fortitude +1 added
Starting armor 4 (up from 3)
Starting allies 1 (down from 2)

If Forest Harsk and Sunwrought Kyra are the children of meth, then Armored Valeros is the product of bad acid. Or maybe Obsidian's just trolling us. Who knows? All I know is that Armored Valeros is a walking dumpster fire. Trading dexterity for constitution is a slight downgrade because dexterity matters more. Losing melee sucks (and actually makes him tied in combat strength with the new cleric!), so you'd think Obsidian gave him something incredible in exchange. Let's see: Fortitude +1? Who cares. Starting armor +1? Another nerf. Starting allies –1? Another nerf. Dammit Obsidian it's just nerfs all around! Anyone who drops 6k gold on this piece of crap should be allowed to sue for a refund.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Borissimo

[Saint Ajora]

I'm a bit disappointed with these alts, overall. I would rather have the "original alts" from the Class Decks than this. At least, they would come with new powers and roles, a complete character redesign.

[Darkren]

Are you papa boris on youtube?

[Darkren]

But yes, I agree, allowed Ezren to also draw items...  Big.

[Borissimo]

I'm a bit disappointed with these alts, overall. I would rather have the "original alts" from the Class Decks than this. At least, they would come with new powers and roles, a complete character redesign.

 

I agree. It seems obvious why Obsidian didn't go this route — implementing new roles and mechanics would have taken WAY more effort than churning these alts out — but if Obsidian were going to do anything at all, they should have committed to the class deck versions. New mechanics and role cards would have actually justified these exorbitant prices.

 

Are you Papa Boris on YouTube?

 

I sure am!

[Ripe]

Well, giving weapon to Sajan make sense if it's Temple Sword or one of those Acrobatics weapons but otherwise... not really.

 

Truthfully, none of the alts is really overwhelming and I'd prefer Class Deck versions of the character to this, but I understand why they couldn't do it at the moment.

[Darkren]

 

 

I sure am!

 

When are you doing the AD6 playthrough?   Kinda interested to see how you tackle 6-5.

 

I had to cut it down to 2 chars, and I was able to take that all the way through legendary...  the rune wardens just add up too fast.

[Thyraxus]

One aspect you didn't mention about Lem's alternate: he loses an ally to gain an armor, which is a big minus for him.

 

Regarding the "0 items" on original Seelah: I always interpreted that as the representation of the of "vow of poverty" that Paladins can take in the Pathfinder RPG.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Thyraxus

[aksFourpaws]

Painted Sajan

Wisdom D6 (down from D8)
Charisma D8 (up from D6)
Acrobatics +3 (up from +2)
Fortitude +1 (down from +2)
Craft +2 added
Starting weapons 1 (up from 0)
Starting allies 2 (down from 3)

This is the other of my "poop" ratings that's bound to spark debate — actually, I've already seen debate about it on these forums. We lose wisdom for charisma, which is bad. We gain acrobatics for fortitude, which is good. We gain craft, which ... who cares? And then we lose an ally for a weapon. Now, for me, that's just friggin terrible. Sajan doesn't want or need a weapon. Of course, there's a role card that's all about using weapons (Zen Archer), so clearly Obsidian and at least some players think that giving weapons to Sajan is good. I think that those people are just plumb wrong, and that losing an exploration card to gain dead weight is just awful. Still, if you're one of those crazy people who thinks clogging up Sajan's hand with a weapon is a good thing, then this might actually be a "Wow" for you.

 

Personally I am really curious about playing a Zen Archer and still think that Painted Sajan is a poor Setup for that. Big Maybe if it would have been a Weapon for an Item. For me Sajan is already the worst character, since he is really unreliable without his own fault. He is just terrible at dealing with multiple combat checks between hand refills. Not getting a static bonus from the Amuletts, like with other Weapons, doesn't help either. But that can't be solved without redesigning the character like in the Character Decks.

 

Then aigain I lost more games to Wisdom than any other Check except maybe straight combat checks, so every reduction there under a certain point feels like a bad trade to me.

[Borissimo]

When are you doing the AD6 playthrough?   Kinda interested to see how you tackle 6-5.

 

 

I had to cut it down to 2 chars, and I was able to take that all the way through legendary...  the rune wardens just add up too fast.

 

Ugh, I'd love to do AD6, but my account is bugged -- it crashes whenever I try to load my party. Unless I find a workaround, I'm stuck waiting till 2017 unfortunately.

 

One aspect you didn't mention about Lem's alternate: he loses an ally to gain an armor, which is a big minus for him.

 

Wait, what?! I just copy-pasted all the specs from the original post, and those do not mention this change. Hang on, checking the ipad ...

 

Okay, you're right! This is an undocumented change and it DEFINITELY sends Lem into the poop category. Guess Obsidian tried to sneak that one through on us.  Thank you very much for pointing this out! I've updated the OP and given you credit for the observation.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Borissimo

[Sines314]

Losing an ally isn't too bad for Sajan. A big reason to use him is so that he can carry Blessings to help everyone else out. Since he can't really fight multiple monsters if you used up most or all of his blessings before his turn, there's not much reason to burn allies just to take extra actions. So, losing an ally for a weapon isn't so bad here as it would be for everyone else. Although, it does have a bit of anti-synergy, as the weapon now makes him more capable of taking on multiple enemies at once.

Personally, I'm not terribly interested in Zen Archer Sajan. Losing Dodge 3 (for Dodge 2) and Liquid Courage (for the strictly inferior Survivalist) isn't worth being able to recycle bows that you'd normally discard. You already have recyclable blessings. However, if I were to use Zen Archer Sajan, I'd say it's a mild improvement.

 

It's also worth noting that Forest Harsk's extra card slot doesn't give him a higher maximum hand size. It's basically a free level 1 power feat. Which, admittedly, is still pretty good. But it's not QUITE as awesomely better as it might appear at first. Though he'd still be worth it without it, especially if you wanted to give him some divine spells, thanks to that higher Wisdom.

Edited December 28, 2016 by Sines314

[Thyraxus]

One thing that I didn't notice about Seelah's alternate version just by looking at her stats, it tooki until I actually started playing her to realize: Switching her spellcasting stat from WIS to CHA gives her a bigger die, true, but she has only room for 2 '+1' pips in the latter as opposed to 3 in the former.

 

So the maximum for her Divine checks are d10+4 for her alt versus d8+5 for her base version, which is pretty much eqivalent. That means, in the long run she actually won't be a better caster overall (but then, you really wouldn't expect a paladin to be a spell slinging machine anyway). What it actually means is that you no longer have to decide whether to maximize spellcasting (+3 STR/+3 WIS) or combat (+4 STR/+2 WIS). You can just go +4 STR/+2 CHA and have both.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Thyraxus

[Effusion]

One thing that I didn't notice about Seelah's alternate version just by looking at her stats, it tooki until I actually started playing her to realize: Switching her spellcasting stat from WIS to CHA gives her a bigger die, true, but she has only room for 2 '+1' pips in the latter as opposed to 3 in the former.

 

So the maximum for her Divine checks are d10+4 for her alt versus d8+5 for her base version, which is pretty much eqivalent. That means, in the long run she actually won't be a better caster overall (but then, you really wouldn't expect a paladin to be a spell slinging machine anyway). What it actually means is that you no longer have to decide whether to maximize spellcasting (+3 STR/+3 WIS) or combat (+4 STR/+2 WIS). You can just go +4 STR/+2 CHA and have both.

Her melee bonus went down from +2 to +1 though so you're getting the same d8+5 melee as the 3/3 base build.

[nsr]

The charisma spellcastimg has some synergy with blessings of iomedae. You can boost the spell recharge roll 2 dice by recharging a blessing. And I think it may add some dice too on non-combat spells.

[Matsu Kurisu]

The first alt I shelled gold for was Seelah and I have been absolutely loving her!

the hidden gem is the light armor d.... skin? (reveal for+2 diplomacy/charisma)

I did a complete play through to 6-2 and I still have this in my deck

 

PS. Geat analysis. The only ones I am considering are on your list

[Nym]

It looks like the alternate versions of Ezren and Seelah don't currently apply their respective -1 to Arcane and Melee. So I guess enjoy that until it gets patched.

[black child]

Oh man I can't agree more with you.


The greatest challenge of this game is to play with 4 or more characters in a scenario, we must get more exploration and less failure dealing with banes(and closing locations), so more items and allies are welcomed, while more armors sucks.

[Darkren]

Divine attack spells....  holylight.  Sunburst.  Sign of Wrath.  Holy light is really only good up to AD4, granted.

[Ripe]

Divine attack spells....  holylight.  Sunburst.  Sign of Wrath.  Holy light is really only good up to AD4, granted.

Don't forget Fire Sneeze promo card... that is also Divine attack spell.

[sancmat]

That's for the run down.  I'm tempted on a few.  I'm almost through the game with every character.  Next is either more characters or get through Legendary mode.  I need  skull and shackles so I can give them more money.

[Thyraxus]

the hidden gem is the light armor d.... skin? (reveal for+2 diplomacy/charisma)

Wait till you get your hands on an Ebon Thorn...

[Sines314]

I'm inclined to get Lieutenant Lem a bit more credit. First off, he gets a free feat, something only Harsk gets (although Harsk gets a much better one). He's also the only alt to get a new feat options in Heavy Armor. Now, the loss of Diplomacy and gain of Dexterity is a bit of a wash. Personally, I'd call this a net gain, as his Charisma is likely to be high enough on it's own to take care of many problems, whereas his Dexterity needs more help. So the stat changes are about even, if not slightly advantageous.

 

However, then we get to armor. -1 Ally for +1 Armor and Light Armor Proficiency. Now, Lem doesn't have armor cards naturally. And while Armor isn't super useful, a single armor card is nice to have in hand, especially for a character who isn't super great at combat checks. So a single armor card in the deck, and the proficiency to use it, is a pretty good addition. Does it compare to the -1 Ally? Well, Lem tends to be better in smaller games, where burning allies for extra turns isn't as important. This is especially the case given that his generally mediocre stats means you're not going to want to burn allies for extra turns anyway. Even with Solo Performance, you can only recharge so many cards to help out your own fights.

 

Furthermore, the armor card isn't really going to be dead weight in the deck. If you're not recharging cards with Bardic Performance, then you're not really using Lem properly anyway. If you get the armor in hand, and you won't need it, you can just Recharge it to fuel Bardic Performance. Sure, the ally you lost would do that just as well, but it's nice to have a single card in your deck that can do something no other card can do, so that you can choose to keep it around just in case. It's not going to clog your hand up if you don't want it to.

 

This all gets a little better once you start getting enchant armor with non-damage reduction effects. To be fair, you could just carry around a damage prevention item, but now that you're not doing that, you're trading an Ally card for an Item card, a somewhat better trade.

I'd say that Lt. Lem is actually a small upgrade. You gain a fair bit without losing too much.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sines314

[nsr]

I found that Lieutenant Lem matched my playstyle with the original Lem, since I gave the original Lem some Dex upgrades and an armor slot for the Snakeskin Tunic.  This makes him more reliable with the Deathbane Crossbow.  So it worked nicely.

[Effusion]

On the subject of Ezren dropping a weapon slot for an item, act 6 added a couple of weapons which might actually be useful to him, Chellan sword of greed and Karzoug's burning glaive. These are both strength based weapons that can heal on an int check. Ezren doesn't need much healing but it's still nice to be able to get allies, spyglasses, and spells discarded with staff of heaven and earth/hungry shadows back.

 

I hope we get more weapons that act like magic items in the future to give that slot more value to casters.

[Thyraxus]

I'd say that Lt. Lem is actually a small upgrade.

I had 7000 gold to spare so I went ahead to buy Lem's alternate and gave it a try (mainly because I had one party going - my "casters only" party I mentionend here - where he was still the last character not in his "alternate mode"). That was before I was even aware of your post. Then I came here to comment on my experience, read your contribution and had to realize that you have already expressed pretty much exactly every single opinion I had. Or, in other words: I agree completely with everything you wrote.

 

Just one minor thing to add: what's especially great about having an armor card is that any bonuses from it are tied to a different card type from all the other usual sources, so you can just stack it on top of whatever else you can throw in the mix.

 

The armor I gave my Lem was a Catskin Leather. It requires a recharge to activate its special bonus instead of a reveal, which means it's not immediately reusable like the Snakeskin, but it gives a +3, which is nice for tough combat checks.

Edited January 25, 2017 by Thyraxus