I've been stuck between Harsk and Merisiel. Can anyone give a simple pros and cons over these two? And if possible, include their 2nd jobs.
Thanks!
Both are going to want to use dexterity weapons. Harks will have a higher guaranteed roll with his +3 Ranged. Merisiel will have a higher possible roll with the bigger die. This is more true when you play blessings. Harsk starts with weapon proficiency, so he can use some bigger weapons or extra powers right out of the gate. Merisiel can take the weapon proficiency (though some people have argued she has no "need" to do so).
Harsk can support other characters in combat, Merisiel can be great when alone at a location. So your team benefits by not having either of them with your other characters, but for different reasons.
Harsk's look ahead power can let him know if your team can deal with what's next in a locatoin. Merisiel's evasion power can let her get out of dealing with something she herself isn't prepared for.
Role card jobs:
Both of Harsk's roles can give him the Divine skill.
Sniper Harsk has a Ranged version of Valeros' weapon recharge, something to make up for blessings only giving him a d8 on his dexterity, and something to help with the fact you teammates are going to be taking cards from your hand on their turns.
Tracker Harsk has Lini's animal recharge power, something to help his Divine casting, and the Giant slayer power (which would be neat to take right at the end of Hook Mountain Massacre and before you start Fortress of the Stone Giants).
Acrobat Merisiel is a barrier defeater, item acquirer, who can leave her evaded encounters (boon or bane) on top of the location to let other characters deal with. That makes it more like Harsk's look ahead power, but it costs you an exploration.
Thief Merisiel is a location closer, weapon, armor and item acquirer (that she takes more feat to reach a bonus of 4 than Acrobat Merisiel does to reach 4 for just acquiring items).
Like I said, both of them you sort of want not with your other characters (if you have any). There are going to be times where they have to be with other characters, whether because the number of open locations remaining demands it, or because a card you encountered causes everyone to be moved to the same location. Merisiel has a personal disadvantage to being with other characters and will have to approach combat differently. Harsk won't have a different combat approach just because someone else is with him.
I think the biggest reason to take Harsk is his look ahead power and combat support. While look ahead have somewhat of a crossover use, no card will say "You can't look ahead at this card." But there are cards that say they can not be evaded. And look ahead can set other characters up. For Merisiel, evading also works on summoned henchman, so that is pretty sweet to just not have to deal with them. The only limit is the barriers that say things like "If any character does not defeat the Zombie Minion, the Zombie Horde is undefeated." Evading in that case would render the Barrier undefeated. But she can still face her henchman last and know whether anyone else lost to their henchman and therefore she can just evade if they did or fight if they didn't.
The biggest reason to take Merisiel is barrier destruction (so many of them are dexterity and she has disable too) and evasion. I think some people seem to evade too much (just my opinion) since you have to shuffle the deck. But if she finds the villain, shuffling him back is fine and it lets you go looting the other locations and preparing for the final showdown. That is all the better if you take Acrobat and can leave the evaded card on top.
I didn't know Harsk found a new job. It was a tough break for him to be fired as a Kindergarten teacher, those kids were his passion. Glad to hear he's landed on his feet.
Dwarves always land on their feet. They're like cats that way ;) And he's glad to be out of the kindergarten. All those kids tugging his beard...
Really, job one for Harsk is to shoot things, either directly or in support. Job two is to scout the deck and set up the other characters. At least that is how he has worked out in our group. He also brings a nice constitution-- best in the game--to the party, and there are enough Constitution checks out there that he uses it. The perception and survival skills are nice too. Harsk is solid, but not flashy. He wears the snakeskin tunic surprisingly well though.
Merisiel is good as a soloist; she goes off to sort through locations on her own. She is also pure dexterity. Specialized, perhaps overly so in the long run. A fishmonger though? Hmmm. I would have though small business owner... a pawn shop perhaps?
There is no reason you cannot play both.
One thing I really enjoy about this game is that depending on your party composition, different characters can end up in different roles. In my 5 character game that has Harsk, Sajan, Ezren, Seoni, Kyra and Lem - Harsk ends up being more of a support character because several others are pretty solid combat characters. However if the game only had say, Harsk, Ezren, Kyra and Lem, then I would expect Harsk to be more focused on fighting stuff himself and build more towards that.