Right off the bat, your choice leans towards Damiel, because a Gunslinger, if played as a Gunslinger, is NOT a character who will be "combat-ready at all times".
This is because every gun, unless it has the Reliable trait, has the potential to jam: after you use it for a combat check, you roll a die, and on a 1 (or also a 2 for the early-game guns) you have shuffle the gun into your deck.
Wrath has a number of multi-check villains/henchmen/monsters. So, yep, Skizza might take the first check with his gun, then have the gun shuffle into his deck. Unless he has another weapon in hand, or an item he can fight with, he's looking at a d4 Strength for his next combat check.
Now, for Skizza this is ameliorated because:
-- He's rolling a d12 for that test. Still: d12s do roll 1. I know this from experience (I'm playin Skizza in SotPluTo).
-- Skizza can put the gun on top of his deck instead of shuffling it in
-- the Gunslinger deck has an Ammunition called Alchemical Cartridges which can be top-decked by Skizza instead of the gun
-- He can have 6 weapons in his deck (but with a starting handsize of 5, it's not ideal to max that first.)
Of course, you COULD just forget about guns and give Skizza Ranged weapons. He's proficient with weapons and has Ranged: Dex+2, with a d10 Dex which maxes at +4. You'd be nerfing his location-close-bonus and evade Role power feats, but you don't need to choose those.
Few notes:
- Intelligence in WotR is next to useless (as in most paths BTW)
- even with Gunslinger, you're probably not going to stick to guns for long; yes, you'll be competing with Adowyin for ranged weapons, but WotR is choke-full with rnaged weapons that beat most of the Guns I've seen (I'm not familiar with the Class Deck); yes, those don't get the BOOM of a discarded Gun, but when they add your AD# to the check with *reveal* - they're hard to beat.
- your party lacks an Arcane caster, so you may still be well-suited for Crowe; still, I'd recommend Balazar - use support Arcane, and you'll never be caught not-battle-ready, after the first blessing of the timer is flipped over (he's not good at cycling his hand though)
- in WotR, you also need to think in terms of Mythic Paths. The way you seem to be headed, the Trickster seems like your thing (+ Dexterity / Intelligence). However, this path is probably best reserved for Adowyin (her other option, the Champion, would be adding to Strength, which for her is almost equally useless; OTOH, Trickster allows her to move mid-turn which is meshes well with her scouting) - so she can cover the occasional INT check you need her to
- Mythic Marshal is an awesome Path that adds to STR and CHA - perfect for Balazar (and for Crowe, if he casts from Charisma - I don't remember?). So, you might want to go Strength basher, who can cast from Charisma - you'll thank me later :)
Good point on the quality of Ranged weapons in Wrath. I'll admit I only played Wrath in Organized Play, so I'm unaware of that.
The Gunslinger guns are good, but not stunningly good. And:
-- Arguably the best deck 1 gun (Shock Musket +1) adds Electricity when you discard it. I wouldn't carry that in Wrath.
-- Arguably the best deck 2 gun (Toxic Blunderbuss +1) adds Poison when you discard it. I wouldn't carry that either.
-- Arguably the best deck 6 gun (Flaming Musket +2) adds Fire when you discard it. That's not ideal for Wrath.
A lack of Arcane caster in the group means you miss out on literally the best spells ever printed in PACG. Seoni is also powerful and I've never felt that she was particularly squishy when I played her through the path. Haven't played Crowe, but he could be good as well.
Intelligence in WotR is next to useless because you'll really never be making high Intelligence checks (although having Knowledge may be helpful, and that's keyed off Intelligence, the places where it matters only allow Knowledge and do not allow raw Intelligence checks). Someone with an Int mythic path is usually sufficient to make them, even if their die is only a d6 or d8.
Balzaar is not support! He is a melee character that also casts some spells. Our Balzaar absolutely ROCKED once he got his mythic path
I echo Longshots recommendation, he will be MUCH better for you
I played Damiel in SnS and he is awesome a few times a turn. He doesnt handle the multi checks as much and Wrath is FULL of multi checks
As for the Summoner, I don't like playing support and I feel wouldn't be good at it too since I REALLY like fighting monsters in this game and with my last experiences with Arcane casters, I die like crazy (Wizard, Sorcerer, Arcanist). Looks like Crowe is a good choice for me after all since I do plan to get his ARCANE +3 ASAP.But I want to get some clarification with "Intelligence in WotR is next to useless", does this mean there are very few locations that closes with INT?
I took to looking at Damiel because I can pack myself with as many potions as possible and healing potions are recharge to use for me instead of getting banished (the cleric don't need to worry about me).
Now the current dilemma seems to be if I choose Crowe I would be competing with both Tarlin and Alain for 2-handed weapons (Alain would be getting polearms).
Is the Arcane Skill that Crowe will provide outweighs getting INT/DEX (Disable) from Damiel? Since we haven't started I did not study the Mythic Path and Location cards. (Somehow I feel it's cheating, but I think I can read Mythic Paths but not location and scenarios.)
- sorry, I wasn't clear on Balzar: I meant you use his spell slots for support, not use HIM in a support role. In fact, he was the surprise hit for me in this set in the way he totally WRECKS Combat checks. This is because he scales about 2 times faster than other characters - due both to his Mythic Path AND his Veteran Battle Chicken. For scale, in AD6 you'll be starting combat with +19 flat bonus, and for this you don't even need a weapon in your hand (or deck, for that matter) - leaving you free to stock up on Blessings/Allies to power your explorations. In short - he's a short combat machine, so keep that in mind. (LOL, ninja'd on Balazar by a couple of minutes :)
- skizzers already answered about the application of Intelligence. He is also right that it would've been nice to have someone on the party with a decent Knowledge, but it's not crucial
- on Damiel - I'm assuming you'll be bringing in Potions from other sets? Because otherwise, WOtR is really short on Potions and Alchemicals (I can't recall any, in fact).
- Crowe has a single power on one of his roles that cares if his weapon is 2-Handed, and it's not that amazing (imho). If you want it - yes, there'll be a shortage of 2-Handers to spread around; if not - there's plenty of good 1-Handed weapons, so don't worry about it (again, this in my eyes is another PRO for BAlazar who doesn't need weapons ta all)
- I would say Crowe's (or anyone's) Arcane outweighs both Int and Disable (both of which, again, are nearly non-existent in WotR); still the best Arcane spells are "support" (i.e. non-Attack) and this doesn't mesh well with his powers (Crowe is a really strange beast to me - he has FIVE Weapons, and then his powers stimulate you to get him TWO more Attack spells for the deck - how many ways do you need to kill things anyway?!?), but you can always make the call if and when you acquire said spells.
Good luck with your choice :)
And with the discard-a-spell for a monster card, he basically gets d10(+2) + d6 + d4 + AD# as his combat die, am I correct?
(He can also do Fortitude, Strength, Dexterity and Constitution if I choose Eidolomancer, so LOL).
- Keep in mind, discarding monsters for combat is better done to feed Padrig's power, not Balazar's 1d4 (you get bonuses for matching monster Traits, and post-role it gets even better)
- My girlfriend played Balazar and went that road. In AD6, she starts at +19 flat at half of the six basic checks in the game... So, yeah.