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Hey all.
I realise there may be a similar thread out there. Just would be interested to hear all of your views on the characters of this amazingly fun game. I've ordered the Hells Vengeance expansions as well as some others to expand my games with friends as they come with characters that interest me.
But what characters do you all like? And why? Have any of you found good combos with other characters or cards etc?
Just thought it would be an interesting read and might help me improve my own games too!
Thank you all in advance.
For context: I usually play with a fairly large group - 4 to 6 players. I imagine my preferences might be different if I were playing with a smaller group. But what I have found is: its fun to be able to do lots of things. I enjoy having the capability to explore multiple times per turn, have options for dealing with whatever shows up, and occasionally lend a hand to my allies at key moments. As such, I'm a big fan of strategies that let you recharge a lot of stuff, and characters that lend themselves to this - because you get to play your entire hand over and over and over again, without risk of killing yourself.
So I think my favorite character experience so far is playing Lightning Thief Simoun through Mummy's Mask. With Horus->move->examine->maybe encounter->explore combos you get to go through a lot of location deck cards. You can stack knives to kill just about any monster. You have bonuses (and a good dex and int) to handle most barriers. There's a fair number of boons you can get, and when you run across the odd nasty barrier or a good boon you can't get you can just evade (and move, and examine, and maybe encounter something else instead) and let someone else deal with it. You can bless your allies at key times. And it all recharges, so you never have to worry about running out of things to do.
I enjoyed playing Mother Myrtle through Season of the RIghteous for similar reasons, though I will note that one wants to be a bit careful with that particular pairing. Myrtle with lategame WotR spells gets out of hand in a hurry, and while winning scenarios in one turn might be fun for you, its not necessarily fun for the people you're playing with.
I've just looked at those two characters. I now understand where you're coming from and how they could be seriously good given the right gear! Thanks for the reply!
Characteristics I like in a character are (in no particular order) versatility, flexibility, having useful powers, interesting choices, ways to be useful during other player's turns, being powerful/functional/capable, and working differently to everyone else.
S&S Damiel is probably my favourite, he very much had all of those things going for him. My only negative for him was that none of his unlockable power feats (even on his role cards) were very inspiring, but I think that was necessary from a design/balance perspective since I always felt that he was progressing very well despite this.
Other characters I've particularly enjoyed so far for combinations of the above reasons have been RotR Ezren, WotR Balazar, and WotR Adowyn.
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Lately I have been playing with only 1 friend so we play 2 character each, sometimes 3 each.
2 of my favorite combo is;
Zetha (from the Summoner Class Deck) and Varian (from the Pathfinder Tales Character deck).
I use to find Zetha weak, but I have grown to like her non-combat utility, since she can use her stealth skill for any non-combat check.
We're playing Skull & Shackles right now, just started the 3rd scenario, can't wait for the end of this scenario so that we can finally get our role card.
Varian is a pretty powerful mage, and the fact that he gets to increase his melee if using finesse is just so cool to me. I also like any mechanic that help automatically recharge spell, and the fact that he can actually put back one of his spell in his hand, makes him one of my top 3 favorite character in the entire game.
Combo wise- Zetha has a Power that allows her to draw 1, 2 or 3 (role card) monster from the box at the start of your turn, I then proceed to give 1 monster to my other character varian, which he will use to recycle his spell at the end of his turn; With Varian I get to bury 1 card from my hand to draw a spell and shuffle any number of spell from discard into my deck.
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2nd Combo is
Lazzero (from the Hell's Vengeance character deck 1), Talitha (from the Magus class deck), Angban (From the Gunslinger Class deck)
Reason for combo, Lazzero can heal someone at his location, but the cost is that must forfeit his first exploration and someone at his location must bury a card from his hand. And the coolest thing is; the character who buries the card does not be the one getting heal, so I get to heal anyone at my location, by; either using Talitha and bury a blessing, or Angban and Bury a Weapon with firearm trait or a Shield (*usually the latter). And then I get to recharge that buried blessing to reroll or succeed at recharging a spell, or in the case of Angban recharge the weapon/shield at the end of his turn.
Lazzero is a decent Divine caster, with a decent strength rating, on his role card, he gets to recycle his spell automatically by recharging them and even shuffling them, and can even extend that power to other character at his location.
Talita, ability to recharge buried blessing is so cool, and with lazzero, this power is even more useful. She also get to recharge her spell, actually on her role card she gets to put the spell back on top of her deck, if she reveals a card that as the staff trait on it. she also has a decent strength rating.
Finally Angban, ability to recharge buried firearm weapon is extremely cool, and he gets to recharge buried shields as well. and get an additional utility while teaming with Lazzero. on the role card he gets to examine 2 or 3 cards once every turn.
I personally don’t have favourite characters, but I like characters that Are different, that has trange, different powers, characters that do things differently...
... maybe it is a consequence of playing a lot, soma character that is just good with weapopons, effective casting spells etc. Is not very interesting. There has to be some tweaks and obscurioutus in that build to make it interesting. Even some weaknesses can make character more interesting. How to manage those weak spots, how to owercome them? Or just manage Somehow in spite of them.
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My favorite characters tend to be the ones that are unique. Maybe they take a set of cards no one else really wants all that much and makes them amazing (Illusionist Ezren or Drunken Master Sajan) maybe they use cards in some weird way (playing them from the discard pile) maybe they break a rule (retrieving buried cards), but no matter what, I want them to be different from the other characters. Thankfully, I think the characters so far have a done a great job of doing that. Even different versions of the same character have felt unique to me. Class Deck Valeros seemed considerably different enough to me when compared to Rise of the Runelords or Skull and Shackes.
But overall, I like Arcane and Melee over Divine and Ranged.
As for combos, there are so many great ones that can be created. S&S Damiel with CD Rogue Olenjack might be my favorite so far. I've mentioned playing this one with Calthaer in Skull and Shackles. Damiel gives Olenjack poison to fuel more and more explorations. He has potions to help with checks Olenjack might struggle with. Then he heals himself and we do it again.
This has been really interesting to me to read all of your responses. Thanks guys. I'm glad this post got a good response
This was a character in Pathfinder Society that I really liked.
Kazmarok is a dwarven blackblade magus from the Five Kings Mountains, bound to a dwarven waraxe which he forged from the metals contained in a meteorite. He discovered an piece of ancient dwarven history, and from then on started chasing down Society adventures that led further into the history of Sky Citadels and the Sky Key. I played him up as the dwarven historian from old World of Warcraft missions. I originally created him because everybody played a magus with high dexterity and high crit weapons like rapiers and scimitars.
This is an interesting insight into the RPG, which I don't play.
I'll just point out you wandered into the Card Game forum... Welcome! Feel free to stick around.
Ahmotep
skizz something (the rat from the gunner CD)
The basic magus for SnS (cant remember his name) Are easily in my top 3.
Ahmotep though is probably my favorite core set character, including add on decks, not CD's though.
The fact that you could potentially add X or Minus X to a check with her role power feat was so amazing and great in almost 90% of mine and my buddies events play through.
I will say I have started a solo run with the lightning girl, simoun, and the old with lady with the soldier looking ally she always has and I LOVE them, Estra. but started a new MM with a friend so I put those characters away and started the new version of the SnS Magus character form the Magus CD. SO far I am feeling ok with the guy. Some aspects are great yet I feel there is some missed potential for him.
But back to the ESTRA, its great to cast spells. Let them hit the discard pile, then use her ally to bring it back. SO its like you get free cures and such. She is so versatile with her ally it makes any challenge fun to solve.
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My favourite characters tend to be the ones who can cycle a lot (so much, that I coined the term "cycling velocity" or "recharge velocity"). I value hand readiness over a lot of other things, and I tend to dislike characters with more static hands.
So RotR Harsk, RotR Merisiel, S&S Damiel, S&S Lirianne, Varril, CD Feiya... but when it comes down to it, I'll play any style.
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Until very recently, I had one requirement for characters: They had to have the Divine skill. I like being able to heal myself and use Find Traps. Alahazra was my favorite in the pre-trigger world, because she could set up location decks for everyone else. It took me a bit to get used to WotR Imrijka, but I'm liking her now, especially at the location where you can fight monsters to get boons. I really want to get Salim through an entire adventure because I like what I've played of him so far.
Lately I've been branching out into non-divine characters. I'm playing Zvarbel and Celeste in two different campaigns and enjoying both of them (though I wish Zvarbel's hand cycled more). I want to try Varian. I also like rogue-types like Merisiel and Emil.
Scouting and deck cycling are what I usually like to see in a character.
I played a Tier 1 Alase through the Cosmic Captive special and really enjoyed it. Alase can scout locations and recharge blessings (often, not always). Her Cohort gives her a weak Melee skill, but with recharged blessings and a decent mix of utility spells, she did alright. With her God-caller role card, it looks like she would still do very well in the trigger- and scourge-filled Mummy's Mask adventure paths.
My favorite character is always the one I'm currently playing, whomever (s)he is, even if I took her/him randomly without looking at the rules (just because the pic is cute).
Been so for nearly 40 years of playing D&D, won't change now.
I mean... shouldn't it always be the case by pure definition of roleplay?
I have a great love for characters that can cycle through their decks quickly or otherwise manipulate them. S&S Alahazra and CD Radillo immediately spring to mind. MM Mavaro is getting more interesting the more I get used to him ... at the moment, I'm playing him as a pure spellcaster (except for his 3 cures, all his other spells are INT/Arcane/WIS/Divine, so I can display any one to cast another one).
I generally find basic weapon-users to be kind of meh, and prefer spellcasters.
I play all kinds of characters, but the ones I like the most are mostly the monks, magi and HV characters. I also liked Yoon, Zarlova, Salim and the Summoners a lot.
For the most part, I want the characters to be self-sufficient or bending the mechanics in a way that makes them play different from the majority of the other characters.
I usually avoid ranged characters and prefer melee over magic.
I second Eliandra on liking to play characters with Divine, but I think my husband would correct me & say I like characters who can heal. My first non-Divine character was CD Damiel, and he was a blast (pun intended). But he also packed 2 Cures because he auto-recharged them when he banished them... My Feiya carried Cure/Major Cure though all of PluTo, passing it off to someone with Divine in exchange for a heal. I played 1 scenario with Chuffy, who is incapable of healing, and I didn't really enjoy the experience. Other than that, I think every character I've played has had Divine...
If I had to pick a favorite, it would either be CD Damiel or CD Kyra. Damiel was great on his own, but he also had a bunch of potions & Cures to help his fellow adventurers, but didn't always do so well with Demons (he liked poison & electricity...). Kyra kept the party alive & sliced through monsters with her swords like they were butter, but she struggled with a lot of the barriers in RotR.
Story-wise, I am ridiculously excited to play Radovan, because I love his books. He's not exactly my typical character, so we'll see how that goes, but I'm looking forward to it.
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Addendum: After WotR, I have mad love for characters who get resistance or immunity to before-and/or-after-you-act damage.
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If you'd like the PACG design team's answer to this question, here's what we have said in the past. Of course, if asked again, we might have different answers on any given day.
- Chad: RotR/WotR Seelah
- Mike: CD Wizard Darago (with nods to Balazar and Aquamancer Lini)
- Liz: S&S/MM Damiel (seconded by Vic)
- Gaby: RotR/CD Wizard Ezren
- Keith: WotR Enora
- Tanis: Promo goblins Ranzak and Ekkie
- Paul: RotR/S&S/CD Druid Lini
In addition, we asked some other members of the community to weigh in:
- Hawkmoon: RotR Sajan
- Cartmanbeck: S&S/CD Oracle Alahazra—later changed to MM Mavaro
If you'd like to weigh in with a blog of your own, let us know!
Mike
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My impression is Keith was being a good sport and writing a Wrath blog when he "chose" Enora as his favorite character... I'd be interested in learning if he has a Cartmanbeck-like revision now. (Alase?)
Here is the correct link for Cartmanbeck's original blog: S&S/CD Oracle Alahazra
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Nearing the end of Mummy's Mask, I've been very fond of Drelm. Solid in combat, support from divine spells, but just amazing with barriers. Obstacle or trap, I just laugh at as I'm adding in Divine- with most of them allowing disable, points into wisdom count double. And my Blessings of Abadar are rechargeable, and give 2 dice, or 3 against barriers. After playing plenty of characters frustrated by barriers, it's been a dream playing one who isn't bothered (actually two, as I've also got Simoun in this game).
S&S Oloch might have a spot, but the game I was playing him ground to a halt. After Valeros in my RotRL game, I was looking forward to playing someone who was more support. And I figured he'd pair well with a friend's Ranzak- let Ranzak run ahead, any monsters he evades I could tackle with my d12 strength.
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Grazzle is an impressive healer, just because he doesn't have to be in the same location as his target(s).
I like CD-Lem for his awesome spell-casting and spell-grabbing. Going to the spell-heavy locations and not having to worry whether the spells you pick up are Arcane or Divine makes me happy.
Class Deck Sajan (with the Slashing weapons that use Acrobatics from the Monk Class Deck) is frightening. Especially with a Mythic Path...
Brielle is always a fave, especially when the devs actually used the term "nut-punch" when describing the conceptualization process. Getting your buried cards back when you berserk is HUGE.
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We're still on RotR as we play infrequently. Been playing for over a year (perhaps 2?) and we just finished the 4th installation.
I started with Harsk, but abandoned him for Lem when my son (who owns the game) opted for another character. Bard is my fave class in PF, so I was really excited to pick him up. Divine spells are an option?! I can recharge cards to give allies a 1d4+? bonus on checks of any kind?! Love it! Holy Light has saved the day several times in our games. My favorite spell in the game, at the moment.
I narrowed my favorite characters down to 4. In no particular order:
Siwar – She was one of the more challenging characters to get started but after picking up her role card I felt like a superstar. Being able to kick banes off to your teammate then blessing & recharge for bonus to ensure he succeeded was amazing. Oh yea, those blessings recharged when they succeed. Her deck had a fair number of allies I would use to generate tons of explorations while letting my ally handing the combats.
Tarlin – I fell in love with him during Season of the Righteous. Hand size of 7 pre-role card. D10+2 melee along with 3 cures in his deck allowed him to be a beast. Helping my allies get through their turns with my blessings. If they ended up not needing a lot of help, he could ripe apart decks using blessings to explore. Always felt like I did most of the heavy lifting when I was playing him.
Alahazra (S&S) – The only character I played through full careers twice. First time in Skull & Shackles then again the same S&S version in Society play upon release of the Oracle deck. Prior to trigger cards she is hands down the most powerful character. The speed at which she can thin out decks and set up her team with scouting was/is amazing. Never came close to losing when she was present.
Feiya (CD) – Played her in Season 3. With the loot ally that allows you to reset your hand at the start of turn, I was able to play blessings, spells or Hex away my hand to aid my allies and then still take my own turn. She was a very solid character and the Witch deck was well done.
Honorable Mention – Currently Playing Ezren (MM) and having a blast with him. Just got his role card and I feel like he is really going to start putting it down.
Tangent:
So going through this got me thinking of the number of characters I have played. I haven’t been as active in the PACG lately as I don’t own the last 11 Class decks (Gunslinger to Occult) or Mummy’s Mask box set but I do own the first 15 class decks and first 3 box sets. So I counted up the characters I have played vs seen played vs no experience. Including content I don’t own (which kind of skews the numbers) I’m at:
Played: 39 characters
Seen Played: 51 characters
No experience: 40 characters
I think this count is right.
Honorable Mention – Currently Playing Ezren (MM) and having a blast with him. Just got his role card and I feel like he is really going to start putting it down.
I played him through MM and he can get pretty crazy. He's the only character in the game who can (eventually) construct his deck in a manner such that every card can be played for an unconditional exploration.
I find it kinda surprising that I don't see much interest in Raheli on the forums here.
I have only seen one person play her out. He would cycle his entire hand every turn. Primarily to get back to his cure spells but it allowed him to blow out the checks he was making each turn. I think I would like her Gravewalker role card. I think she is a really solid pick just due to the number of amazing items in the witch deck.
I've played with two Raheli's, one of whom is currently in my bi-monthly group at Bel Air Games. She's been tearing it up there. Loves item deck upgrades.
My favorite tends to be the character I'm playing right now, though there are a couple that I still talk about long after being done with them.
S&S Alahazra: over-powered scouting and location-thinning ability, but since I rarely killed things with her she remained on par with the other 4 characters. Lots of fun using mostly utility spells.
Moved around with Valeros and would hand him a blessing at the start of each turn (as long as I had acquired a couple) - sharing the love and increasing his number of explores.
WotR Adowyn: between scouting, the awesome animals in the Wrath set (Unicorn, Pegasus, and esp Dire Griffon), the cool ranged weapons that Wrath introduced, and her evasion, she was just a ton of fun.
Once we hit deck 5 or 6, she regularly had over-20 (or near-30) as a static mod to her combat checks.
Brielle (Barbarian CD): I could go on at length about how awesome she is.
There is nothing like beating up low-level guys with, say, your Holy Candle and later the high-level ones with your Charmed Red Dragon. Her bury-becomes-recharge ability turned into rapid-fire deck cycling (as well as making it nigh impossible to fail a combat check) and her high item and ally counts gave her lots of meta/utility options.
Simoun: First off, the knives in MM are pretty good (what with chakram canceling BYA abilities right off the bat, not to mention the dagger of doubling and other upgrades). And Lightning Thief is a blast with its focus on moving, scouting, and the electricity trait.
Sure, you might run into a trigger, but imagine how much fun it is to close a location during your move step. And then two more when you play a blessing of Horus while one is top of the blessings discard.
Honorable mentions:
Talitha (Magus CD) for her consistency (via rerolls, never fearing 'bury' effects as a punishment, and automatic spell recharging) and fun new spells
Zetha (Summoner CD) for just breaking the game.
Play Wrath, take the Str-Dex mythic path that ignores things like Veteran, use a cracked-out Stealth for every non-combat check you want (including recharge checks), evade anything you don't want to face, profit.