Paul's Best Character Ever: Lini

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

I've stood by as my fellow designers on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game have spoken their pieces on which character they believe to be the best ever and I've held my tongue. Why? Because, though I've known all along why they were wrong, I needed to bide my time. I needed to wait until all the pieces were in place, all the correct products produced and available to the fans... all the evidence available, so I could show definitively and without fear of serious rebuttal that the best character ever is Lini.

Lini is the O.G. Best Character Ever. She was my go-to character during the original playtests of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and she quickly earned a reputation as "pushing the power envelope." It wasn't so much that any single power she had was too broken, but she became an engine that made the game easier for everyone. That engine is largely preserved in her Rise of the Runelords form.

The key component of her awesomeness isn't her powers (amazing though they are). It's the fact that she has 6 spell slots in her deck. There are very few characters with that many spell slots, and almost none of them are divine casters. This gives Lini the ability to fill her deck with Healing spells, which not only keep her and her companions alive, but more importantly recycle the cards in Lini's discard pile—including the healing spells themselves! She has a nearly infinite engine for playing her cards over and over again.

Her powers have great synergy with this engine. She doesn't have to use her spell slots for attacks because she can simply discard a card to get a base d10 on combat checks. She can also add 1d4 to any of her checks by revealing an ally that has the Animal trait. This essentially gives her that bonus to every check she makes, as long as she doesn't discard or otherwise lose her ally.

Her roles build on this rock-solid foundation. Shapeshifter increases her ability to deal with monsters, and Wild Warden makes her more likely to recharge all of those Cures she's going to cast.

I'm not really sure why you'd need more evidence than that to declare her the best character ever, but just for fun, let's take a look at her Skull and Shackles incarnation. This version pushes her toward using her Animal allies instead of revealing them by letting you put them on top of her deck, and increases her combat die from a d10 to a d12. The Feral Druid lets her reveal a Divine card to attack, and the Aquamancer lets her put Attack spells back on top of her deck instead of recharging them. It's a veritable forest of powers and directions to take the character!

The newest entry in Lini's powerhouse portfolio is from the upcoming Druid Class Deck. Once again, she gets to reveal Animal allies for an effect, but in this case she sends them out to attack! This power gives her a minimum of 1d10+1d6+3 on a combat check, and it's easy to increase with feats. The Pack Lord role can increase this attack by another 2d6, and gives her the power to acquire any animal allies her friends might miss. The real jewel in this new Lini's crown, however, is the Menhir Savant, which is unique among all of the characters we've ever made. This new role gives her huge advantages for hanging out at closed locations, including healing all other characters each turn!

As you can see, there are many different viable choices you can make when you decide to play Lini. She can focus on turning into huge animals, casting attack spells, or (my personal favorite) creating an unstoppable healing engine. Lini doesn't have any bad choices, and this makes her the Best. Character. Ever.

Until then, I remain,

Paul Peterson
Adventure Card Game Designer