| Jorsalheim |
As many of you I'm pretty stoked on getting my hands on S&S and the Class Decks. So, when the character sheets came out last week, I sat down with a d8, some post-its and the sheets on my phone, and started creating groups for my solo-play. I know I'm not going to be able to play them all, but it was mostly for fun.
First I just went through the S&S characters (all 12) and set up groups with the characters I wanted to play the most. I actually, after reading the sheets, want to play every character. But you know, a 12 character team is not possible, and I'm in the middle of a 6 character run now, and I really don't find it that enjoyable when I'm soloing. I decided to set up four groups with three characters in them. With the possibility to adjust them to four. My first group will be Lirianne - the Gunslinger, Alahazra - the Oracle and Damiel - the Alchemist. If I decide to up the character count to four I'm going to add Seltyiel - the Magus. I can probably post the other groups if they are of any interest for you.
Now, the fun part was setting up the Class Deck groups. I decided to go for four character groups. First I thought fully randomizing them, but avoiding same class in a group was the way I should do this. But when my first roll gave me Ezren, I changed my first plan somewhat. I decided that I would split up the seven iconics into the seven groups, and randomize the rest. So I did. But after rolling out the groups I went through everyone and noticed that the class spread wasn't that good. Three bards was all in a group with a Rogue, and three fighters was all in a group with a Ranger. Only one class that had a "perfect" spread, meaning totaling up every character from that class, that class was in groups with an exactly total of two from each of the other classes.
To clarify a bit. As the case was here the Clerics was spread out that the total of the four groups with a cleric had two of each other class in them. So I ended up using some time to figure out which character to move without to much hassle and after some moving of characters I ended up with a "perfect" spread. So now when I total up the groups that have one class, the total will include two of every other class.
So, having spent some time on that. I'm now looking forward to never having the time to get to play every group. But it was a fun exercise, and it made some quirky groups that probably aren't optimal at all, but will make the challenge greater seeing that reports from OP is that the scenarios are more difficult. I can probably post the groups here in a reply later if people are interested.
| NjSoapdish |
It is an interesting idea, which I worry I will now have to spend a good deal of time considering now. First of all it begs the question of what makes a group optimal. For me that means:
1. All characters should be able to consistently win combat checks. I put this first because I think a lot of characters fall short here. I like to have a total of 4 or 5 weapons and spells for this.
2. All abilities (str, dex, con, etc) should be covered by the group to ensure that any challenges can be overcome. Closing locations is a major part of the game and an optimal party should never have a problem with it.
3. All types of loot should be usable by the party, specifically arcane spells, divine spells, melee weapons, ranged weapons, light armor, and heavy armor. This means that the party can make effective use of loot and rewards. Also note that the overlap between the characters in your party should be minimal nothing worse than two guys fighting over the same sword.
Of course character powers come into play as well. If one character is week in combat or a particular skill isn't represented, but those can be boosted consistently than you can work around it.
I'd think the best thing would be to start with your absolute favorite character and choose someone to fill in their weaknesses, and than pick someone that covers what is left. I don't be really interested to see what people's optimal teams are and why.
| Jorsalheim |
When I play I usually go for what looks like fun to play. That's the route I went with on choosing the S&S base characters. I knew that Lirianne was a must play in my first group. But I also was debating, for a long time, putting Jirelle in the first group. But I liked Kyra in RotR, so I knew I needed/wanted a Divine spellcaster. And the Alchemist intrigued me enough to give him a spot on the team. That said Lini was also close. I'm starting to like her the most of the six character group I'm running through RotR currently. Her new roles looks like fun. But I'm letting her wait until the second group.
For the Class Deck groups I think that with a four character with guaranteed four different classes in every group. I'm pretty sure every team I rolled will manage to get through the game, but I haven't gone into detail my self yet on how these 7 groups looks like when it comes to skills/powers/cards. I mostly did it for fun, and I was kind of bored visiting my parents for a week.
I've also played through RotR with only Valeros and Kyra, and every damned Arcane spell I crossed on that path seemed like a waste of time. But in the end, they've had a great adventure, and those spells was just a minor inconvenience. Since I'm soloing mostly, if there is two (or more) characters that would benefit from one card, the internal debate usually goes to which character really needs this upgrade first. Lem in my six character group is mostly just inherits his spells from Lini and Seoni, and sometimes a weapon from Harsk. And he's also the "pack mule" for loot and other important items.
I know the group with the Necromancer is going to be the first one I try out in the OP. And if I'm not quite mistaking I rolled one of the clerics on his team. So that's kind of a fun thought if you go into their character background and try to flesh out the stories of why they teamed up in the first place :)
| MightyJim |
Been toying around with team builds all day. Right now I kind of have a soft spot for goblin raider, witch, and war priest as a bad guy team. ;)
Isn't Feiya chaotic good?
perhaps the Maguc would be a more logical choice for the "bad-guy" team