I'm planning on introducing this game to my wife, but I have only played a few scenarios myself. I'm looking for suggestions on which two characters might work well together throughout the adventure path. I recognize that just about any combo *could* succeed, and that we could always play more than one PC each, but I don't want to overwhelm her with choices or set us up for a more difficult (or complicated) first play-through than needs be.
Any advice would be most appreciated. :)
I tend to categorize characters by Arcane, Divine, Dexterity/Ranged, and Strength/Melee. I think you want to consider ways tog get those skills so that your group will find most boons useful.
Kyra has both Melee and Divine.
Lem has both Arcane and Divine.
Lini has Divine and can increase her Strength or Dexterity via a power.
So they would all be good ways to diversify.
But more importantly, play a character you have fun playing. You or your wife might not enjoy playing a spell caster. Don't feel like you have too.
I play with my wife and we actually each play 2 characters. That allows us to see more locations, and have more skills in the group, but still each take half the turns in the game. So that might be something you want to consider. But, even though we do that, none of our 4 characters have the Divine skill. We play Ezren, Sajan, Merisiel, and Amiri. It has been a lot of fun.
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My wife and I have two sets of characters we have been playing. I picked both combos to help support my wife's characters as she was new to the game in particular and this style of game in general.
The first pair is Valeros and Seoni. The second pair is Merisiel and Harsk. These two combos seem to support each other well. Valeros can support Seoni in combat (especially early on) when at the same location. Harsk can support Merisiel in combat when at another location (which she likes).
Obviously, any group of two characters will have challenges where certain aspects are concerned. For example, Valeros and Seoni have more difficulty with Wisdom and Intellegence checks.
When my wife and I started playing, she actually gravitated to Merisiel. Merisiel is a great character, in that you get to throw a big die most of the time with her, and she doesn't really struggle with most barriers. Like Hawk said, though, it really comes down to how each person wants to play. I usually pick Melee bruisers, but that is just my style. I am liking the balanced characters in this, though, so I love Lini and Lem.
My girlfriend enjoys playing Melee types, and (as you may have guessed) I like playing Bards, so we went Valeros and Lem. It's been a very solid pairing thus far.
My two favorite combos are Seoni/Ezren + Kyra and Lem + Valeros/Amiri. Both combine weapons, divine, and arcane spells to great effect. Lem + Valeros is probably the most versatile, and they'll rarely be fighting over any loot. Lem helps big V with all his noncombat checks, and Valeros helps the little guy in combat. Overall they work pretty well together
Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I should have mentioned that I did already pick up the character add-on pack.
The combination which I would avoid to start: Lem and Merisiel. For whatever reason, this combo was commonly picked during playtesting, and while it can work, it ends up being troublesome for most new players, because Lem usually wants to be with another character, and Merisiel usually wants to be alone.
After that, I'd avoid any combination of characters that seem very similar (Seoni and Ezren, Valeros and Amiri) at first, and Lini can be tricky to figure out (but is very good once you do).
My #1 suggestion for new people, though, is this: we (intentionally) designed the characters to have very different play-styles, and some characters are just a poor fit for some players. If you're playing through and not having much fun, seriously consider trying a new character.
Thanks for playing! I hope you enjoy it.
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Right off the bat, I highly recommend Kyra. Her healing power is amazing, and she can beat stuff up pretty well -- whether with weapons, or Divine spells. I've managed to solo her all the way through Adventure 4 (and not further only because I haven't continued by choice). When you add in her automatic D8 against all Undead, she is quite the fighter.
As the second character, I have had a blast playing Sajan. Being able to play as many blessings as you want on your combats -- and recharge them as well -- is unbelievably helpful. Add in that with a power feat you can automatically add Magic to any of your non-weapon combat (and fire, after that), he's amazing to play. With Kyra in the group as well, you don't even need to worry about holding an item or ally for healing cards like Staff of Minor Healing or Father Zantus.
Harsk and Seelah
-Access to ranged and melee weapons.
-Both can stand their own in combat
-Seelah has divine for some healing.
-Harsk is an excellent combat support character
The negative is no access to arcane
as a seasoned card gamer, i found kyra to be a lot of fun. she is versitle while being able to cycle through her deck quickly and heal herself back. just be sure to through some blessings if yoy find some masterwork tools early on.
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Right now I'm playing solo with Amiri and Lini. They're a bit of an odd choice perhaps because they are both strong in some things (Survival) and weak in others (Stealth, Intelligence), so they don't completely complement each other, but I've had fun with them and have gotten them more than halfway through #2 (so that's 11 scenarios including Perils of the Lost Coast) without too much trouble. I think it's a fun pair also for thematic reasons, both of them being untamed wild types. Lini's starting to get pretty strong once she's gotten some bonuses to Strength and the animal aid power.
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IMHO, I have played Lini and my brother Valeros.
We are currently on Adventure Path 6 scenario 1
(we play on Skype) I set up the game and he pulls cards as I turn them over so that we can play together.
So he covers the top part of the character the Melee stuff and I cover the magic stuff. we pretty much get through it with very few issues but well balanced.
Lini goes with 4 heals and 2 melee spells
Valeros goes with weapons and armor
While I will not recommend any 1 character duo in particular, I would recommend that you let your wife pick first, then you pick a character that would act in support to her play style, and if she doesn't pick someone with the divine skill, you do. It will increase your survivability considerably.
As mentioned before, Valeros and Lem give you access to use almost anything and have abilities that complement each other during the others turn. They make for a very solid duo, I think.
I always will advocate for Lini. Her Wisdom and Survival skills and overall flexibility with animal allies make her the best overall character at closing locations. That ability alone can not be understated.
My wife picked Merisiel and I was debating on taking Ezren, but decided on Hrask instead. So, we're magic-less, but a good number of blessings between us and our Powers seem to meld together well.
We went through Brigandoom! and due to some rotten rolls early on (three 1's on four dice is pretty bad in my book) had a very tense game where we both had zero cards left in our decks and only two cards left in the last location on the last turn. We didn't top-deck the Villian on the last draw, so we'll have to give it another try.
Are the any particular challenges you see with this pair of heroes? Recommendations for what Feats would be most useful for this duo would be appreciated too.
Thanks for everyone's input so far!
Any skill you don't have a d8 in will eventually be a potential problem. But I'd especially highlight your combined weak Charisma. That is going to make allies difficult to acquire. Not impossible, but difficult. Try to pick up some cards that can help with that (Troubadour for example).
You'll also be competing for weapons, since you'll both want Dexterity based weapons.
My wife and I started with Merisiel and Sajan, so we had the same problems. We were successful enough, but we decided to add in Ezren and Amiri (each of us playing 2 characters) so that we'd find spells more exciting when we encountered them and also Strength based weapons useful. That isn't by any means the kind of thing you need to do to be successful, for us it was more about making it fun when we encountered almost any card.
I will say this: I think a lot of people laugh off Harsk's d12 Constitution, but come deck 5 and 6 I'd love to have it.