New (hopefully fun) topic, trying to get a feel for the different opinions here. While each character has subtle differences, in many ways, each character can be classified into one or more 'archetypes.' These are categories where characters will play in similar enough ways that you can kind-of know if you'll enjoy a character based on similar experiences with similar characters. And, well, I'd like to know what your favorites are. For reference, here are all the ones I can think of, but feel free to list more that you think I'm missing.
Melee Specialist (Examples: Valeros, Amiri)
Ranged Specialist (Harsk, Lirianne)
Tool User (Examples: Merisiel, Damiel)
Divine/Melee Fighter (Oloch, Seelah)
Arcane/Melee Fighter (Selytiel)
Full Divine Caster (Alhazhra, Kyra)
Full Arcane Caster (Seoni, Ezren, Feiya)
Support specialist (Lem)
For me, my favorite archetype is probably the Divine/Melee fighter. They are capable enough fighting with weapons that I can devote their spells to support, which are my favorite spells. I hope for some day to have a character in this archetype with even more spells, but we'll have to see.
Coming in a close second are the support specialist and Full Arcane caster. Bonus points if they have both elements (I LOVE Feiya). Arcane casters usually have more spell slots than full divine casters, and a lot of the most fun and wacky spells are arcane, so the toolbox is so much fun. The support specialist just plays into my style perfectly, as I love being the guy who does hardly anything on his own turn because he just spent the last round making sure everyone else in his group was able to do something awesome.
Well, that's my thoughts, what do you guys think?
Where does Sajan fit in with all that?
I'd say in general, I like Full Arcane Caster, but I like being able to support a lot too. Feiya might be the best example of that. I also like characters that are unique (Sajan and Damiel) and can get uses out of certain cards that no one else can.
Where does Sajan fit in with all that?
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I also like characters that are unique (Sajan and Damiel) and can get uses out of certain cards that no one else can.
I'd second both these. I adored Sajan through RotR, and I - like most people who aren't playing him - am pretty jealous of our Damiel this time round. Although I'm a largely-non-combat Alhazara, which doesn't really fit the 'full divine caster' role
I'm intrigued- I think I'd have put Kyra in the Divine/Melee Fighter category.
I think she's been one of my favourites so far (Runelords version) - you can take divine spells, so access to all that healing/support, and good at acquiring blessings, but not so crippled when fighting without spells that you can't close locations (always the difficulty with full casters)
Looking forward to a new version of Kyra in Wrath, so I can try her with a decent number of Divine Attack spells.
What Category does Ranzak fall into?
According to Paizo's website, there is a list of all the archetypes:
Alchemist, Arcanist, Barbarian, Bard, Bloodrager, Brawler, Cavalier, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Gunslinger, Hunter, Inquisitor, Investigator, Magus, Monk, Oracle, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Shaman, Skald, Slayer, Sorcerer, Summoner, Swashbuckler, Warpriest, Witch, Wizard.
But, I can see where you're coming from, yes.
For Sajan, I think I would categorize him in the class of Ranged Fighter, but that's mostly because of his Zen Archer-role. I think that in the original RPG-system he would fit more in the Melee role (or even Divine-Fighter?).
I, myself, prefer Item users. I loved playing through RotR with Merisiel (but I also enjoyed some other archetypes). But in S&S my favorite has to Damiel. G@% d$~n he is so much fun!
If I were to replay S&S I might have a hard time between Jirelle and Merisiel to choose from. :(
I'm not sure about Sajan. My first instinct is Melee Specialist, though you could make a case for Tool user, too.
For Divine Casters, I was a bit torn on how to classify Kyra, but in the end only having a d6 Melee, and with more examples of a hybrid than a full caster in the base set, I erred on the casting side. In general, though, even the castiest of divine casters are still more fighter focused than Arcane casters, which is another reason I made the call (Here I'm referring to the RPG, not the ACG. There are no Divine casters in the game with combat prowess as bad as the Wizard and Sorceror, so the baseline for something being a 'Full Caster' in Divine is a bit lower). As for Alhazhra, you could argue she straddles Full Divine and Support Specialist in the same way Feiya does on the Arcane side, but I tried to limit support to only those who truly struggle without having others to help (it could be argued that even S&S Lem is too self-sufficient for this classification, but it was close enough and I tried to avoid class decks for my examples).
As to Ranzak, he probably deserves his own classification, perhaps Acquisition Specialist? That would be anyone who focuses a significant amount of their good parts to collecting rather than fighting (I think there are some Class deck role cards that you could argue fit in this classification, but I can't think of anyone else whose base card I'd really claim to be comparable.
Sword-fetish Kyra (class deck) has been my favorite by far, so I would say Divine/Melee Fighter. All the staying power of a weapon user along with abundant blessings and some support spells.
I'll second this, loving my Kyra class deck. Sign me up for Divine/Melee Fighter!
Divine/Melee Fighter of course, because of the efficiency and effectiveness.
1) Melee because you don’t have to cycle through spells for combat, meaning you can spend your hand to explore, heal, or buff.
2) Divine so that you can heal back cards you (or others) used to explore or discarded.
This is why any healer shouldn’t be too effective in melee/ranged, otherwise they have the potential to “have it all”.
Ranged Specialist for sure! Dex is my favourite skill so I pretty much turn all characters I play into pseudo Archers.(Ranzak/Damiel/Merisiel/Sajan)
Besides that, the next archetype that I look for in a character is a good balance of tool usage, support, and uniqueness.
Damiel fit all those perfectly which is why he I like him a lot.
Sometimes I also feel like going full on Support/Healer. Alahazra and Oloch really stand out, and Damiel also counts here.