So, I just tried out new S&S Lini and... she died. She was the first character I have ever had die... EVER.
My big problem was the randomness of her rolls. Sure, I could discard for a d12 for combat, but without a weapon, I often rolled a low number and had no secondary die or skill to make up the difference. I am seeing how she is a "hidden builder" character. Many characters are "builders" and need some skills and powers to really come into their own. Lini appears to have all she needs out of the box- good skills, especially for the Shackles, divine to cure, and discard to hit those strength and dexterity checks. But secretly, she needs more wisdom to keep those cures, and some good animal allies to help her along.
Also, I am really, REALLY confused by some of her role abilities. I can only use one power/card type on a check, and yet her Feral Druid role requires me to use my strength die (d4)+d8, AND can't use a weapon. How is this any better than just shooting a bow at d6+d6? Also the Aquamancer can grab defeated aquatic creatures, but it clogs up her hand AND they can only be used for combat checks. With so many barriers, there may not be any combat for several turns. I'm just not seeing her shape up in any particular way. Normally, I see how I would want to play characters, even if they weren't really intended to work that way (pure spellcaster Seltyiel), but I can't figure her out. I guess Aquamancer could be a good spellcaster that helps fight aquatic monsters only (not barriers, which boggles my mind) and ships, but that seems extremely limited to me. It certaintly wouldn't help against the pirates and mercenaries we kept hitting tonight.
Can you give me some advice and point me to things I am missing? She looks so fun but I can't seem to get it to work.
You can only use each power once, but you can use as many powers as you like on one check. Nothing keeps you from triggering feral druids +1d8 and discarding/recharging to boost your strength to 1d12.
Sorry to not offer more advice. She is one of the only S&S characters I haven't played, so I will leave that to people who have actually used her.
I mainly play her, so I'll give my two cents. S&S Lini isn't a combat character at all to me, she's a jack-of-all-trades speedster.
The ability to turn your lowest two dice to d12 means that she has a way higher skill total than any other character (none of which have even two double-digit skills), and this can be taken further with the Feral power to make Con a d12 as well. This means that more than any other character, she will not be caught off guard encountering something she has to roll a low die for.
That strength of hers synergizes with her other main strength, which is exploring like mad. Once she gets her first power feat, she can put animals on the top of her deck when using them to explore again. Where everyone else has to discard to keep going, she only recharges and gets them all back to use again next turn. That's huge, and it lets you keep blessings around to use on your checks, particularly combat if you don't have your weapon out yet.
My advice for the out of the box character: Build your deck with two cures, but let your group know that you're not a healer, those cures are for you to counteract your discard power unless really necessary. Don't forget to check banes for the Aquatic trait, very common in S&S, which will let you recharge that d12 card instead of discarding. Cycle your deck to get to your weapon to defend against Combat as quickly as possible (or take a Call Weapon spell). Never use blessings to explore, save them for checks. Finally, find both Parrots, they will let you re-roll any check failed by 4 or less for the low cost of a recharge.
I've not played S&S Lini at all, but looking over her powers, I'd say the Feral Druid power is actually pretty good. Like Joshua Birk pointed out, you can still up her Strength to a d12, so then it is 1d12 + 1d8. And you can still play animal allies that would add to your combat check, and those are still going to shuffle into your deck (or get placed on top). And you can still play blessings. And if the card you are making the check against has the animal trait you still get +2 or +4 if you've taken those power feats.
But I'm not sure about anything to recommend for how exactly to play her.
Yes, I think that Feral is the definite way to go for that combat power alone, letting me fill my spell slots with cures and other non-combat spells. My advice above is sort of built toward that so take it with a grain of salt if you go spellcaster.
But the Aquamancer power to put monsters in your hand that Joseph mentioned isn't terrible either. My vision of this in action would be to use that monster as a free discard for your d12 power rather than banishing it for a d4. If it isn't used by the end of your turn, discard it when you reset your hand, giving you more curable "max HP" while not clogging up your hand for the next turn.
Interesting. This was the kind of thing I was thinking about her when I first looked at the character. She seems to have no real weaknesses in her skills. I had not considered simply using her spells for non-combat, since I felt she needed the combat spells to make her a competitor when she came against a non-aquatic, non-animal monster that I was discarding to fight.
I think I will try again with her soon. Playing somewhat selfishly as a divine caster is not something I have ever done. It may be time to start, LOL.
One of the things I have really appreciated about this game, is how differently the characters tend to play
Awesome input from Fendaso there
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I've played S&S Lini through the end of adventure 4 with the Aquamancer role. Here's what I've discovered:
First, she is a slow starter. Even bumping her Str to d12 isn't that great by itself as you've noticed. But, most monsters are Aquatic so you can often do this for just a recharge.
I used my first card feat to get a second weapon. I'm much more likely to be able to get a weapon quickly that way.
I have the power to put Aquatic enemies in my hand - I almost never use them for the d4 combat bump. They get used to power the d12 ability or to soak damage.
As other have noted once you get the power to put animals back on top of your deck you can easily pull off 3-4 explores every turn at no card cost. That's huge.
My favorite animals are: Dodo, for a search and explore, Parrot, for rerolls, and Pterodactyl, for a free move and explore to avoid start of turn effects.
So far I've bought +3 Str and +2 Wis, so using the d12 power and Brine's Sting I can get d12+2d4+5 which is respectable, able to bump to 3d12+2d4+5 with a BoGorum, which handles most tough combats at this stage. I also have the additional +2 vs aquatics power.
Oh and I lost my Cure spell to a random banish somewhere in adventure 3 and played all of AD4 without it. I missed it a lot. Just got it back with my card feat at the end of 4.
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I've played through most of S&S across 3 groups of people that contained every base and add-on character except Valeros and Feiya (and even a few Class Deck characters). In my opinion Lini is the most powerful and versatile character. My main game is Lini/Oloch/Damiel/Olenjack, and even Damiel's potion juggling pales in comparison to Lini's animal companions.
Some tips:
- Give her a weapon, the Vindictive Harpoon is a good choice as it gives a bonus to aquatic creatures and Lini can recharge instead of discard for a d12 if the bane is aquatic. This way you have a backup in case you don't have an attack spell (your preferred method of combat) in your hand.
- Get animal allies as early as possible (Charm Animal helps with this), preferably Toads if you're playing with class decks added to the base set. Toad + Lini = downright broken. One example of that: Lini casts Cure, chooses to discard it, puts a Toad from her hand onto the top of her deck to add Cure back to her hand, then redraws the Toad at the end of her turn. Add another Toad into the mix and you can see how this gets out of hand quickly, she is basically never without Cure and her best attack spell (Swipe). Parrot is another easy choice because you get a free reroll if you failed a check by 4 or less. She usually leaves Parrot in her hand until all her other allies have been spent on exploring.
- She also has a naturally high wisdom/divine/survival which can handle a lot of cards you'll come across, so don't be afraid to boost it with skill feats. It will help immensely when fighting ships. Free Captains' Regatta netted us 31 plunder cards, almost all of which was Lini putting animals on top of her deck to explore 5x in one turn, handily defeating every enemy ship, and drawing back the same animals on the next turn, over and over.
- As others have mentioned don't be afraid to discard for the d12, you can heal yourself and it makes exploring much less frightening because there's a good chance you'll be rolling a d10/d12 for your barrier check.
- She is a combat monster with the right cards and decent wisdom investment. In our game she has Besmaran Vestments (+2 divine attack), Wizard Hook (reveal for +1d6, or discard for +2d6), and Swipe (-3 difficulty) which breezes through almost every combat.
My roommate who plays her went for Aquamancer and immediately took the add aquatic monsters to your hand power, but he almost never uses it (and never needs it). Still though, it has some other good powers.