Since it's basically my wife & I playing together, I'm trying to figure out what the best party mix is for two players.
She's chosen Merisiel and seems to like her.
On the Brigandoom! scenario I played Erzen and it didn't feel like a good mix; seemed to always be weak at combat.
On Poison Pill, I tried out Valeros and combat went much better, but we were essentially magic-free. We ended up encountering a spectre and were unable to defeat him (requires a spell or magic weapon which we didn't have). That seems like a weak spot we'll regret later on.
I'm tempted to try a third character (Seoni or Lem?), but I really need to settle on one and stick with it our I'll miss out on rewards and feats (Erzen is already down a skill feat due to not playing Poison Pill).
Of course, that leads to another question; I feel like if I want to play another character I need to go back and do a single-player game to catch them up.
You guys are probably laughing at my hand wringing; I'm just really enjoying the game and want to make sure I've got a good start before we tear into the adventure packs.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. :)
Keep in mind you can get +1 weapons which are all Magic trait that apply to your check.
Ezren's not always weak at combat, but you do have to assemble the right mix of spells for him. His initial deck is pretty bad compared to the others. You need at least 3 attack spells in the deck to keep him happy.
My wife is Merisiel and I'm Sajan in a game we play. I felt the same way about the spell issue. But no matter what, in a two character game there are going to be things neither of you use. If you play Ezren or Seoni, you'll be missing out on the divine spells. If you play Lini or Kyra, you'll miss out on the arcane spells. And Merisiel is going to want the dexterity based weapons, so you'll be missing out on the strength weapons.
One option would be to each play two characters. If you both enjoy the game, that would give you both more of an experience of the different aspects.
But if you do just stick to two characters, in terms of a good team up, I think you have a few options. But play whatever is the most fun for you. Probably the strongest recommendation I would give be to pair her with Lini or Kyra. In both cases you'd get Divine magic. Divine includes Cure which would be nice for Merisiel if she's discarding cards to add 2d6 via her power. Kyra can use weapons and would favor the strength based weapons. Lini's powers make her a good all around character to help fill in the wholes in a 2 person team.
And as to your other issue, I don't think it will be a big deal if you make a house rule that you as long as you've chosen your character by the end of Perils of the Lost Coast you can give them the skill feat. Many people have commented that if they ever add a character to a party they will house rule it to let them pick up all the skill, power, and card feats the other characters in the party have. So don't sweat "faking" the completion of Perils.
Of course, you'll miss out on the fun of replaying those scenarios with your newly chosen character!
When my wife and I started playing the game we each took one character. She also took Mersiel (stabby!) and I took Kyra. We took several times to figure out the game but we found similar issues with the 2 character game.
Then we started again with 3 characters each. This is when the fun began. With more options also came more to deal with. I would recommend starting again (it's only 3 scenarios) and playing either 2 or 3 characters each. As for what mix, I would say Kyra, Lem, and Lini are 3 of the best choices to make, with Mersiel a strong fourth. We have all four plus Valeros and Seoni (big arms and big guns). Ezren and/or Harsk make good choices I think and I look forward to seeing them if we play another round.
Hope this helps, or at least getting the creative juices going. Either, enjoy the game. There are not "Right" choices after all, though Ezren solo would probably be one of the toughest games ever.
Somewhere it was said that in play testing each character had been solo played through the whole adventure path, so anything is possible. Though surely some characters would find this more difficult than others.
Ezren's problems would be some what mitigated in solo play since solo you rarely need to play allies or blessing for exploration. But he would probably still be tough.
So last night after reading this and posting on it, my wife and I decided to add two more characters to our game. I will now play Sajan and Ezren, she will play Merisiel and Amiri. This gives us a pretty wide coverage of all the possible card types (except Divine spells, but you can't have everything). Ezren will take care of our magic problem. Amiri will take care of our strength-based weapons problem. Plus Amiri makes a great partner for Merisiel. We'll put her turn just before Merisiel's so if her and Merisiel are at the same location, she can take her turn then move herself (and one other character if necessary thanks to her power feat) out of the location to free Merisiel up to use her power. We haven't played them yet, but hopefully will soon.
Sajan and Merisiel just finished The Skinsaw Murders on Sunday between church and the 1:00 PM EST NFL kickoff. I don't feel like delaying my enjoyment of Hook Mountain Massacre, so we are just going to build them as if they completed the other scenarios. I counted up the level of cards (Basic, Elite, deck 1, deck 2) Sajan and Merisiel each had, took the average and am giving Ezren and Amiri the same number. And I'm just giving them their 3 skill feats, 2 power feats, and 2 card feats. Its a house rule, but I think my wife would kill me if I told her we had to start the two of them at square one.
My brother and I are playing Valeros/Lini and personally I think Lini is perfect for a 2 player game - not only can she carry the very useful Cure spell to make up for any bad rolls/situations - but her animal ally power that adds 1d4 (which I've already upgraded to 1d4+1) to ANY check when she has an animal out makes her the perfect person to cover to try to make any rolls that Valeros can't make.
In other words I think one of the biggest weakness of a 2 player run is the amount of skills that neither one of you will be good at since most characters only roll good dice on a couple of things and that ability does a good job of filling in the gap for rolls that aren't too ridiculous.
Somewhere it was said that in play testing each character had been solo played through the whole adventure path, so anything is possible. Though surely some characters would find this more difficult than others.
This definitely occurred, but it is not true that each character made it through without failing some scenarios.
well, let's see here: often, my friend and I play with just 2 people, and we've done alright with the following combinations:
Kyra and Merisel (I'm Kyra, who is a murdering machine now that I got a heavy pick +1; Merisel is always murder machine)
Lini and Harsk: (I'm Lini who is more animal focused than anything else, and who specializes in throwing aid/guidance on Harsk, who returns the favor to me during my combat checks)
we've each also made our own characters: I'm playing Kargoth the Barbarian, and He is playing a gnome alchemist (he burns consumables to power his bombs and has high # of items in his deck; I can reduce combat damage by 1, and have amiri's movement power). with this duo, my friend has switched to playing the "healer" of our group.
in short, this is what I've learned playing quite a few 2 player games: you should have someone who has a reliable way to heal (either potions of heal or the cure/major cure spells). also, we tend to run 5 locations, which means that we tend to scatter and try and close locations that we are advantageously aspected towards. also, staff of minor healing is awesome. be prepared to fistfight for it if there's not a healer.