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I am new to this type of game, and my playing partner is a very enthusiastic 8 year old. In the rpg, there are always certain "bases" you want to have covered in order to better ensure party success. Does this same reasoning apply to the card game?
Would running two martial types leave us with major ability gaps? Or leave us in competition for the same cards all of the time?
My daughter loves Amiri, and I personally like Harsk and Valeros.
It's similar, but not as stringent. While not necessarily required, it helps to have someone who can heal in some way. Otherwise it depends on which set/adventure you're playing. For example, in Skull and Shackles the Survival skill is helpful, while Rise of the Runelords is a bit easier than the others and you may not have trouble no matter who you pick if you play well.
For card composition purposes, try to specialize in either separate combat skills (Melee/Ranged/Arcane/Divine) or separate subtypes of them. Amiri and Harsk (RotR versions?) are Melee/Ranged; Valeros can recharge weapons rather than discarding them and has his helping ability. I doubt you'll run into much trouble with just two players, though.
Hope this helps!
I find that playing a lower number of characters (1 -2) in the game comes with a higher risk of death and they really benefit from having someone along with Divine skill for the healing spell. Lem is good to have along for that reason. He also can recharge a card to add 1d4 to fellow characters checks on any roll if he is at your location.
My daughter loves Amiri, and I personally like Harsk and Valeros.
Consider the following things:
- Harsk and Amiri both cover Wisdom/Survival, which in a 2-player game is somewhat redundant, and leaves you vulnerable to other checks (Intelligence, Charisma...though these will mostly come up for boons/closing location, so nothing too deadly); OTOH, Valeros can cover Charisma checks when paired with either character
- Amiri and Valeros will compete for melee weapon; however, they're excellent fighters and can generally handle combat with even average weapons, until they get that *one* special weapon in their deck. Also, you can specialize Amiri in 2-Handed and Valeros in 1-Handed + Shields
- Post-Adventure 3, Harsk will be able to recharge Cures or other Divine support spells (though, in RotR, you'll be fine without them, in all likelihood)
- Valeros (with his support "d4+X" and Amiri (if you take her "move another player at end of turn" power, both benefit from being in the same location
- Contrary to the above, Harsk benefits from being in a different location than the player he supports. This is irrelevant if you don't take Amiri's "move another" power, but it really lack synergy with Valeros, so Harsk+Valeros would be the only "bad" combo
In short, all 3 are great heroes, and in RotR you will have fun, whichever combo you take. I'd go with Amiri+Valeror, personally, but you should consider what play-style you would prefer: if you and your partner would like to 'buddy-cop' through the Adventures, both going through the same location until it's done - get Valerso; if each of you would prefer to pick a different location and do their thing there, or if you'd like to splice some support spellcasting into your monster-slicing - go Harsk.
You should totally roleplay a discussion between your daughter and her NPC villager dad about the pros & cons of embracing a Barbarian career. Think long-term prospects here. I think you should insist she goes to the Academy and try for a Cleric MA. Or maybe a Druid PhD: environment conscious, can reconvert as a vet...
Don't forget literacy!
Plus, a Barbarian's got nothing on a Cleric's health plan...
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Ha! I've already tried talking her into Seelah or Kyra, but she is enamored with Amiri's frost giant sword.
I actually did run Lem in Brigandoom! and died. My dice were abysmal, and I kept taking damage greater than what I could recover by recycling Cure. The final nail in my coffin was when I discarded my sling against a Cultist and rolled three ones.
We are nowhere near adventure three, so I might continue to run Lem. We will see how it works.
- Post-Adventure 3, Harsk will be able to recharge Cures or other Divine support spells (though, in RotR, you'll be fine without them, in all likelihood)
Once he gets the Divine skill, Harsk will be able to keep Cures in his deck after playing them, but he'll have trouble recharging them.
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Lem is an OK healer, but he's not great. I'd recommend Lini and / or Seelah, if you're strictly sticking with the characters that come in the Runelords box.
If you do stick with Lem, make sure he's clinging to Amiri whenever he gets the chance (viz., they're at the same location). When he recharges cards to add 1d4 to her checks, it leaves his hand size smaller, reducing the risk of damage on his own turn. He will be less vulnerable once you add more offensive spells to his deck...I would recommend running him more as a spellcaster than as a dexterity-based ranged fighter. Try to find the Deathbane Light Crossbow +1 for him - he needs a decent ranged weapon.
Good luck.
Lem is an OK healer, but he's not great.
I'd beg to differ. Granted, he's not as likely to recharge the Cure, but if he does, or if he's loaded with several of them, he has a greater chance to see a new Cure sooner (due to his searching power cycling his deck fast), as opposed to Kyra or a conservative player's Seelah, in my experience.
But, yeah, once you put Lini into the picture, the competition is over, in pretty much any department...
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Lem is inferior to just about any healer that has the "instead of your first exploration in a turn" healing power. Those are the best healers in the game, because it's virtually on-demand. Lem is better than Harsk, and Seelah, and other casters who have the divine skill only on a minor stat, but he's just not as good as a cleric.
Class deck Lem is slightly better at healing in that his powers reward having a lot of Healing-trait cards that can be recharged, although the downside is that if you're playing in OP such cards are a bit more difficult to come by in that deck. He'd be great for a non-OP Runelords, though.
Lem is inferior to just about any healer that has the "instead of your first exploration in a turn" healing power. Those are the best healers in the game, because it's virtually on-demand. Lem is better than Harsk, and Seelah, and other casters who have the divine skill only on a minor stat, but he's just not as good as a cleric.
Wait, what? Lem's recursion ability makes him a fantastic healer, as long as you intentionally choose not to recharge your first Cure spell, so as to keep it available to get back each turn.
Clerics/etc. can discard a divine card *and* skip an explore to heal someone.
Lem can discard a spell at the start of his turn to get back a cure to heal someone.
Both heal for d4+1. You can add feats to built-in powers, but Lem also gets a big upgrade (without any feat cost) whenever he finds a better healing spell (Mass Cure, Holy Feast, etc. depending on the set).
It's less of your deck that can be used to fuel guaranteed healing (just spells vs. spells + blessings), but sacrificing explores is a significant cost, and Lem generally is going to reliably cycle through more cards (through his buff power) each turn than clerics do.
I agree wholeheartedly with philosorapt0r. Rise of the Runelords Lem is a great healer. Class Deck Lem is even better in that department, but RoTR Lem is certainly no slouch.
In a 2 player game, you can probably get away with using Kyra's "sacrifice an explore to heal" ability, but in a higher player-count game, the opportunity cost of that exploration is more of an issue.
To answer the OP, I played Lem and my fiancee played Valeros in our RoTR play-though, and that worked quite well. Lem would be a great complement to Amiri as well. If you go that route, I agree with Calthaer that running some Attack spells would help your combat, at least until you find that Deathbane Light Crossbow +1.
But the most important question is "do you have fun with this playstyle?" I feel that Lem will better fit the gaps (Arcane, Divine, Knowledge, Charisma/Diplomacy) then Harsk when paired with Amari, but if you have more fun playing Harsk then go with that. You'll have some challenging scenarios going down that route (scenarios that require you to acquire allies might be particularly tough, unless you get lucky and find that many of the animals are animals), but if you can tell a story together with your playing partner and avoid getting frustrated it should be a good time. And you will also find scenarios where your dual fondness of Survival-type characters will be quite the asset.
Best of luck to both of you!