Gaby's Best Character Ever: Ezren

I see you came down on the Ezren side of Lemzren. That's okay, I guess. I'm sure you were just trying to cheer up Sad Ezren.

Congrats on the award! Totally deserved.

As a wizard, I would like to know the crafting requirements for the +4 Woodchipper of Friendship.

We have an Ezren player at our table. His philosophy of Ezrenising all the things:

1. Identify: use ALL the divinations.
2. Obtenify: get ALL the spells and magic things from the deck for extra explores.
3. Gooify: Yes, gooify, not liquefy. That's what happens to ALL the banes.

He takes 15 minute turns, ending with nothing discarded and most of the location deck either in his deck or in puddles of blasted goo.

I see you came down on the Ezren side of Lemzren. That's okay, I guess. I'm sure you were just trying to cheer up Sad Ezren.

Hahahaha. I went with Ezren because I was only supposed to write about one character. Lem is still near and dear to my heart, though!!!

We have an Ezren player at our table. His philosophy of Ezrenising all the things:

1. Identify: use ALL the divinations.
2. Obtenify: get ALL the spells and magic things from the deck for extra explores.
3. Gooify: Yes, gooify, not liquefy. That's what happens to ALL the banes.

He takes 15 minute turns, ending with nothing discarded and most of the location deck either in his deck or in puddles of blasted goo.

Mmm, goo.

I generally dislike Magic users in any kind of Rpg. But to be fair and square, I played RotR solo with Ezren, because he was so amazing in just exploring and either burning down everything in his path or running away like a scared little girl.

...

I just like to watch stuff burn. A lot.

(I'm trying to say that I think Ezren is my favorite Magic User in PACG so far.)

Also: I enjoyed reading this, gave me lots of chuckles.

HA! Your my type of person Gaby! Thanks for the entertaining synopsis!

I played ezren in RotR and he had plenty of friends: toad, crow, cat...

I appreciate that Ezren may simply not be for me, but when I look at some at his roles from RotR I almost fall asleep. Way, way, way too many powers that are just "Add 1, 2, 3, 4" to some roll. His class deck roles are a big step in the right direction, but I'd still rather see all the +1's on Skill feats and leave the Power feats to interesting card/trait/teamwork interactions.

Westward, most of the characters in RotR have plain bonuses to stuff. That's the nature of RotR being the first and establishing some baselines. That being said the +x plain bonuses can be really powerful (when you can defeat a decent number of monsters without having to roll at all due to static bonuses with helpers that also have static bonuses...).

Kyra has 1/1 power feat (Healer/Exorcist) that are +2 bonuses.
Lem has 2/1 power feats (Virtuoso/Charlatan) that are +2 bonuses.
Merisiel has 2/2 power feats (Acrobat/Thief) that are +2 bonuses (with improvements).
etc.

Ezren was the first PACG character I played (I was like "pshaw, Seoni? That's the easy choice!"). I then found out about things like Detect Magic, Augury, Scrying... :). And of course, I loved the Academy like every good Ezren player would. Thanks for reminding me about those memories, Gaby :)

And playing every hand as if it were Magic: The Puzzling really appeals to me as well, and that's what playing Ezren feels like.

Thanks for reminding me about those memories, Gaby :)

And playing every hand as if it were Magic: The Puzzling really appeals to me as well, and that's what playing Ezren feels like.

You're welcome! Also, EZREN MAGIC THE PUZZLING YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Our Ezren never succeeded at recharge checks. Being able to boost them was what kept him (mostly) alive.

I had little interest in Ezren at first, then tossed him in my solo party for RotR and fell in love, now he's my main character in my groups play through for RotR.

I appreciate that Ezren may simply not be for me, but when I look at some at his roles from RotR I almost fall asleep. Way, way, way too many powers that are just "Add 1, 2, 3, 4" to some roll. His class deck roles are a big step in the right direction, but I'd still rather see all the +1's on Skill feats and leave the Power feats to interesting card/trait/teamwork interactions.

My wife and I had a similar reaction, but she ultimately chose him when we played through Shield of Rannick. Though I persist in saying his powers are soooo booooring (even amid RotR, where most characters have something like that), the sheer amount of spells he can tote around does a lot to allay that. Want a Haste? Ezren's got that. Want an Augury? Ezren's got two.

Of course, he's a pure caster, so a lot of those spells have to be Attack spells, which means you'll often feel like you have to tote around more damage spells than you strictly need. That sort of uncertainty leading to inefficiency just bothers me (also why I don't like characters with >3 weapons) So the only pure casters I've enjoyed are Radillo, whose perfect deck cycling allows her to retrieve the exact spell she just used, and Seoni, who gets to use all of her meager six slots on utility spells, should she choose to do so. :D

Westward wrote:

I appreciate that Ezren may simply not be for me, but when I look at some at his roles from RotR I almost fall asleep. Way, way, way too many powers that are just "Add 1, 2, 3, 4" to some roll. His class deck roles are a big step in the right direction, but I'd still rather see all the +1's on Skill feats and leave the Power feats to interesting card/trait/teamwork interactions.

My wife and I had a similar reaction, but she ultimately chose him when we played through Shield of Rannick. Though I persist in saying his powers are soooo booooring (even amid RotR, where most characters have something like that), the sheer amount of spells he can tote around does a lot to allay that. Want a Haste? Ezren's got that. Want an Augury? Ezren's got two.

Of, he's a pure caster, so a lot of those spells have to be Attack spells, which means you'll often feel like you have to tote around more damage spells than you strictly need. That sort of uncertainty leading to inefficiency just bothers me (also why I don't like characters with >3 weapons) So the only pure casters I've enjoyed are Radillo, whose perfect deck cycling allows her to retrieve the exact spell she just used, and Seoni, who gets to use all of her meager six slots on utility spells, should she choose to do so. :D

I feel like you're really underrating his powers. He's actually able to go a lot lower on attack spells than you'd think because he draws so much of his deck with all the spells he plays. Plus, with Augury and Scrying, you usually have some idea if the top card is a threat or not, so not having an attack isn't always a killer. On top of that, in low-bane locations (Academy!) he is absolutely incredible, since he can use his explore power to get through that location in one turn, usually two max. His powers don't seem like much, but they synergize so well with the character that you really grow to love them.

I can't believe that no one else has commented yet on the tantalizing hint about non-divine blessings.

I've never read Mummy's Mask because I need to leave some adventure paths for other people to GM. Any ideas?

I can't believe that no one else has commented yet on the tantalizing hint about non-divine blessings.

I've never read Mummy's Mask because I need to leave some adventure paths for other people to GM. Any ideas?

S&S has a non-divine blessing. Pirate's Favor which is a Loot blessing to boot.I have also never read Mummy's Mask so am uncertain what could be the possibility.

I played an Illusionist Ezren who, by the time he took his role card had maybe 2 combat spells. It was all Augury, Scrying, Invisibility, Enfeeble, Haste, and Swipe. Throw in Brodert Quink, a Medusa Mask, a Cat, the Intelligence boosting Headbands, and if he was actually making a combat check, I wasn't trying hard enough. He'd set the decks up and let his friends (Amiri, Merisiel, and Sajan) take care of the combat checks.

Augury, Scrying and Brodert let him set the deck up. If he encountered a monster, he'd throw the evaded monsters to the bottom of the deck, use Enfeeble or Medusa Mask to leave henchmen or villains on top. And the Cat and headbands to make sure he didn't fail a recharge check. Just kept a combat spell or two around for those "uh-oh" moments.

The real reason Ezren doesn't have blessings is because he is nigh unto a god himself.

I remember at one point setting up a high level test of RotR with a group that had seen early PACG, but not higher. So I made an ~AD5 Ezren for someone else to play.

After a few turns of figuring things out and fine-tuning, the guy playing him went "So, let me get this straight. Every turn, I play my whole deck, get it all back, and clear out most of my location?" "That's the idea, yep"

S&S has a non-divine blessing. Pirate's Favor which is a Loot blessing to boot.I have also never read Mummy's Mask so am uncertain what could be the possibility.

Oh, neat. Our copy of Pirate's Favor in my brother's Jirelle deck as opposed to my Damiel deck, so I didn't realize it was non-divine.

Our Ezren in RotR seemed worryingly close to the man playing him. 'It's like the rest of you aren't even trying to close any locations' was far from unheard

The wizard character class is really one of my favorite in the entire game (after maybe the bard, of course). Ezren's lack of blessings put me off at first, but Hawkmoon convinced me about how awesome he is. Even with the other class deck wizards around, he still shines.

Maybe not as much as Darago, though.

That Ezren!

Maybe not as much as Darago, though.

MAYBE NOT.

Hey, I love Ezren too, but I have a question, actually im starting to play WoR Box and I want to know if I can play Ezren from RotR Box un this box, using the wizard class deck??

Hey, I love Ezren too, but I have a question, actually im starting to play WoR Box and I want to know if I can play Ezren from RotR Box un this box, using the wizard class deck??

Your Game, your rules. I call this the "rule of fun" so i say go for it.

Just a general word of caution: the characters included in a box are often tailored for that specific box. So Ezren from RotR might lack some powers that interact with WotR. For example, Harsk's WotR character lets him add a bonus when fighting demons. You won't find that on his RotR card. This doesn't mean you can't use the RotR Ezren with the Wizard class deck while playing Wrath of the Righteous--It might just lack some of that interaction with the box other characters would have.

Sure. Not only is it your game, it's covered in the rules.

For your first play session, you’ll need only the base cards, so leave The Worldwound Incursion sealed for now. If you own the Character Add-On Deck, go ahead and combine that set with the cards in the base set as described in Organizing Your Cards (see below). If you own any Class Decks, you may also add any cards from them that have a B in the upper-right corner.

So, put the B cards from your Wizard Class Deck in just like all the other B cards.

Choose Your Character. Each player chooses one character card; this represents the character you’ll be playing in the game.

You own the RotR Ezren, so go ahead and choose him. It doesn't say you are limited to characters from particular sources.

RULES: COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER SETS

Cards in the Wrath of the Righteous set are intended to be compatible with cards from other sets. Certain cards from one set may not be as effective in another one; for example, the weapon Lance will not be as useful in a set without Mounts. When the same characters or cohorts appear in different sets, they are represented with different cards having different abilities and powers. For example, among other differences, the cleric Kyra has the Knowledge skill in Wrath of the Righteous and the Melee skill in Rise of the Runelords. To distinguish between them, we add the Adventure Path name to the card name. For example, “Wrath of the Righteous Kyra” is a different card than “Rise of the Runelords Kyra,” so you may not exchange feats or role cards between them.

Enjoy!