Cheezgrater's page

I am doing relatively well with Lini. She plays like a slightly more offensive version of Lem. Her biggest problem is that she is a bit more dependent on having a solid "adventuring partner" than some others. If Valeros, Harsk, or Lem are not in the party, she suffers somewhat.

I play her as primarily support/healer while still being able to pass basic combat checks and throw one or two big hits.

Spell selection (Primarily Heal/Support):
Guidance, Find Traps, Cure (2-3), Holy Light.

I want to get a couple more support-type spells in and not run quite as many heals. Unfortunately the only thing I have come across is Strength, which is not really what I am looking for. I want to switch the Guidance for Aid, and drop two of the cures for another Aid and a Fiery Weapon.

Always adventure with a partner. Either stick close to Valeros (best choice) or Lem, or keep Harsk at another location. Any one of the three of them can provide you with a 1d4 bonus on your combats (only Valeros can do it for completely free, though.
If multiple potential partners are in your party, coordinate with as many of them as possible.

I got lucky and found an Amulet of Mighty Fists (not running with a Sajan so it is shuffled into the item deck). (If you custom build, Mighty Fists is a basic item so is fair game to start your deck with).

Potential Combat checks *without* discarding a card
1d4 Strength
1d4 Reveal Amulet
1d4 Reveal an animal Ally
1d4 Valeros *or* Harsk passive bonus

A 4d4 is as good as a Wand of Force Missile (4 - 16, average check 10), and can take out a lot of things. As long as she stays coordinated with her partner, she can dish that out all day long without it costing her anything.

If she casts Holy Light, that can go 1d10 (Wis) + 2d6 (Spell) + 2d4 (Valeros or Harsk & Reveal an Animal Ally) + 1 (Divine Bonus). 6 - 31 Average check 18. That is pretty good odds to take down even a lot of villains/henchmen.

If she doesn't have a spell in hand and needs to go heavier, you can get an extra d4 or d6 by recharging a snake/tiger ally.

Discarding a card to get the d10 die for strength for a combat check is generally not a great trade-off. A d4 will roll an average 2.5, while a d10 will roll an average 5.5. You are essentially discarding a card for a +3 bonus, when there are multiple ways to get better bonuses without discarding.

*Without* discarding any cards or casting any spells, and assuming that Lem and Harsk both recharge a card to help, Lini's best possible check:

6d4+1d6 (Recharge Tiger Ally) or 7d4 (Recharge Snake Ally)

Average check 18, with NO discarded cards by anyone in the party, including blessings. Discarding a card for the d10 strength die would only raise the average to 21.

Now, if someone is going to play a blessing for your check, by all means discard a card to switch your dice. That will switch the bonus from the blessing from a d4 to a d10 as well, giving you a base 2d10 on the check.

Regarding spell choice:

Find Traps is a fantastic spell, since you can add the bonus to any character dealing with any barrier - essentially, as long as Lini has one of those in hand, there isn't much to fear from barriers.

Guidance is nice for small nudges on tight checks (Difficulty 6 charisma check for a character that only has a d6 charisma dice? Guidance just doubled their chances!). If you have an animal ally to reveal, Guidance is also a nearly guaranteed recharge (Divine 4, with 1d10+1d4+1) Aid is a better guidance (I just cant seem to get ahold of a copy - the only time one has come up, Amiri was alone at the location and botched the check!).

Fiery Weapon / Fire Sneeze if you can get it - more solid supportiness.

I will admit that my current 3-cure build is excessive, but it has prevented character death a time or two (Cure two party members, and then cure self if the recharge checks failed - as long as you never let all three cures sit in the trash, you can cure every round if needed).

The only way I can see running Lini as more offensive would be to stack Inflict/Holy Light more heavily. She could tear through things, but the recharges on those can be a bit tight sometimes.