Pick my party!

[fleamo]

I'm going to show Pathfinder to my friends this weekend for the first time. I've been playing a bunch solo and with my girlfriend, but haven't tried anything more than 2 players.

I'm looking for advice on party composition so that I can have decks and locations ready to go when everyone shows up.

I still intend to let people pick their character, and if someone wants to try something that isn't in my party list, that's cool too.

But, I want to try and showcase the more useful/fun to play characters while maintaining good balance.

There are a couple catches:

• Party must include Lini (and she's using the Amulet of Mighty fists, or whatever it's called)
  
• Party size will be somewhere between 3 and 6 people, and I want to prepare for all eventualities
  

I was thinking something like:

3 Players
Lini
Valeros
Merisiel

4 Players
Lini
Valeros
Merisiel
Harsk

5 Players
Lini
Valeros
Merisiel
Harsk
Kyra

6 Players
Lini
Valeros
Merisiel
Harsk
Kyra
Ezren

[h4ppy]

Looks like you're a big fan or Merisiel but note that her powers are reduced in a big party. Might be better to swap her for Seoni or Lem in the 6p? Seoni's good at blowing things up, Lem's good at helping others.

Also, be sure to have plenty of Cure spells if you're playing 5/6p. You don't want somebody to have to sit around doing nothing because their deck's empty (I find Seoni in particular can suffer from this if not managed well).

Harsk is a great choice, you might find he starts each turn with only one or two cards in his hand, though ;) Oh, and give him as many crossbows as you can instead of shortbows (which are weaker).

[fleamo]

h4ppy wrote:

Looks like you're a big fan or Merisiel but note that her powers are reduced in a big party. Might be better to swap her for Seoni or Lem in the 6p? Seoni's good at blowing things up, Lem's good at helping others.

Also, be sure to have plenty of Cure spells if you're playing 5/6p. You don't want somebody to have to sit around doing nothing because their deck's empty (I find Seoni in particular can suffer from this if not managed well).

Harsk is a great choice, you might find he starts each turn with only one or two cards in his hand, though ;) Oh, and give him as many crossbows as you can instead of shortbows (which are weaker).

All good points.

I put Merisiel in the third slot because I figured Lini + Val would be at one location, while she soloed another. But, might be wise to swap her out of the larger groups.

[h4ppy]

Have fun!

And don't forget to make some awesome standees and send me a photo of them in action too ;)

[TClifford]

Actually, I don't like Merisiel in the medium sized groups [3 - 4]. I don't like that when she evades she doesn't actually reduce the location deck. In 1 and 2 player games, that isn't as much of an issue. In 5 - 6 it is nice because it helps you find the Villain quicker and then you can concentrate on either closing out the other locations or setting up a temporary close to finish the scenario.

Also any 3+ group that doesn't start with Lini, Lem, Valeros is just fail in my book.

[Captain Bulldozer]

I personally think the selections you've made are great... though to be fair I've never played a game with more than 4 characters before, so I'm only guessing at how it would work out.

Whatever you decided about Merisiel, having Harsk and Valeros is extremely helpful, since they both allow helping with combat checks. Kyra and Lini should be able to cover all of your healing (or at least most); Ezren has some nice utility here and there and is no slouch at combat either. I personally like him over Seoni, but I think they're both decent choices.

[Chad Brown]

I think the arcane casters want to know why you hate them. :-)

Seriously, though: these look solid. I'd be careful about adding Ezren at the end, though - presuming that the 6th player will be missing sessions most of the time, he can be a tricky character to wrap your head around. In particular, he's less likely to help other people unless he's has some time to adjust his deck (by acquiring new cards).

Thanks for playing!