I just wanted to share this with people, and see whether anyone had had similar experiences.
We've completed RotR twice now- a 4 character play-through (Valeros/Seoni/Sajan/Seelah) and a 6 (Kyra/Lem/Sajan/Lini/Amiri/Harsk)
having done that we've returned to our 2-character play-through, and we're basically stuck.
Ezren and Merisiel have reached the start of Adventure 5. They have fairly poor decks, which may partly be due to having been the first party we started out with, and not placed enough emphasis on picking up better boons earlier. Ezren's best spell is a Lightning Bolt, but most of the time he's making do with a Force Missile or a Lightning Touch. Merisiel is happy if she gets the Deathbane Crossbow, but most of the time she doesn't.
They feel underpowered- unable to deal with wisdom checks, unable to close locations - no idea how we'll even begin to handle all the direct damage and constitution checks in Adventure 6.
I can't decide whether this is because we only have 2 characters, whether it's because of the combination of characters we have, or because of our decks, but even contemplating making it to the end seems crazy at this point - I feel like they'll only survive if they bump intop Kyra and Valeros, on their way home with 22-card decks and full sets of feats.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? what did you do?
I don't have any 2 character parties. My wife and I play together, but we decided to play 2 characters per player. But, I'd encourage you to tough it out. You've made it this far after all. Take caution you don't die. You might fail a few scenarios, but doing so will just give you more opportunities to upgrade your decks (which I'd guess would be perhaps your biggest weakness).
I'm a bit shocked you still have Force Missile or Lightning Touch this far in. If you really feel you must do something, then rather than add more characters, I'd use the loophole of having Merisiel play Lightning Touch and Force Missile so you can banish them and draw replacement spells from deck 3 or lower when you rebuild your deck and are short on spells. I'd normally say that is a bit cheap, but again, I'm amazed you still have Force Missile and Lightning Touch in deck 5.
You can just go back and play previous adventures in an attempt to pick up better boons so you are better prepared for the future since you feel you're underpowered for where you currently are.
I made it thought the box with just Seoni and Valeros. There were some very close calls, and very hard closing checks towards the end, but they made it. I was lucky enough to draw pretty good cards, but it helped that a few times I ran out of time. If you find good boons you could even time out on purpose, keep the boons and start again. This is also kind of cheap, but it might help.
On our six-player run-through, we ran out of time regularly - on the plus side, there were times when it was clear we weren't going to win (2 unoccupied locations, 6 turns left, or similar) which allowed us to sink blessings / Lem recharges into getting better boons.
From what I can recall, Ezren and Meri charged through AP4, sinking their few blessings into henchmen and location-closing, with barely a chance to do more than a straight roll for a boon.
I think I'll try getting Meri to banish the basic spells - A Swipe or 2 could make the difference.
Of course, what Ezren REALLY wants is a Horsechopper +1, but he'll just have to find one of those...