I posted something similar on the general boards, but that was about playing characters for reasons other than their stats.
Now, I am curious as to who your favorite characters are, and why.
Having played a myriad of characters to at least try them out, I started to realize I break characters down into "starters" and "builders", meaning characters that start pretty much at the fun level for me, and characters that take some time to get to the fun level.
For "starter" characters, I like Class deck and Rise of the Runelords Lem, and Skull and Shackles Lini (who I hated at first, but grew on me after some gameplay advice on these forums). I like spells, and these 2(3) get 4-6 spells. What puts them over the top is their 1 weapon. No, it isn't fantastic fighting (although Lini's discard fixes that), but it is something to have a chance at beating monsters without losing a card (spell) to at least a recharge. The reason this works so well for me is because I can use my spells as support, even on my own turns if necessary, with my weapon to beat monsters. Even the lowly Aid is effective alongside a weapon, and I can use that Aid on any number of checks for myself OR others making it, and my other spells, very versatile.
For "builder" characters, I like Tarlin, which blew my mind. I do not play fighter-type characters... EVER. He wasn't very fun for me at the beginning, but once I built up that hand size to 6, and his spells to 5 and blessings to 5, and ally to 2, he was like THE character for me. Sadly, that didn't happen until adventure 4, so ironically I spent most of the game not having much fun. Still, he got there eventually.
So, how about you? Who do you like and why? Did you try out many characters and surprise yourself at who you liked?
Characters I liked from the start is pretty much any Lem. His bardic song power is just so much fun to be able to help everyone with. Also, Ezren, because having so many options so early on is so much fun, and going to the academy is a treat. He might be in the builder category, but I liked him so much I'll call him a starter.
For Builder, Feiya. A thousand times Feiya. Her Hex is just great. once you get to adventure 2 or 3, and are adding 2 to it, AND can hit barriers, she just starts wrecking opponents. The first time you take a barrier that scared you and reduce it to DC 3, it's so satisfying. And also, I love the different playstyle she creates. The number of times we've been looking at loot and I said, 'well, that doesn't seem all that good, but it's AD 4, so I'm all over it' is hilarious. I once even took a divine spell just because it was the most recent adventure. It's been ridiculously fun the last couple adventures.
My absolute favorite so far is Sajan. Going Drunken Master was awesome and I just loved what he could do. Second to him would be RotR Ezren. I love the Arcane spells, especially the non-attack ones, that were in RotR.
Two characters the surprised me: Amiri and Seelah. When I first started playing I thought both Amiri's bury power and Seelah's discard from your deck power were too costly. And I didn't understand why moving at the end of your turn could be very helpful. My wife played both of them in different campaigns and I was often second fiddle to them. Amiri is my top choice for "character I haven't played but would really like to". I almost chose her for a 6 player S&S campaign, because she'd be awesome: Survival, Constitution (plus her power), moving away from the bad locations and bringing others to her. She'd rock S&S.
I will second Amiri and Seelah. It may sound blasphemous to some, but I'd almost rather have Seelah in my ROTR group than Lini (don't hit me), due to her high blessing count.
I'm also pretty high on the Class Deck versions of Kyra and Seoni. Kyra is an absolute power house once she gains a couple of power feats and the Tattooed Mystic turns Seoni into a boon acquiring machine to go with her awesome combat powers.
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I like best characters that have options and unconventional blends of skills - characters that are not necessarily one-dimensional. This includes:
- Vika, because she's a basher who also does craft
- Olenjack, because he's a thief with a high charisma / diplomacy
- Most bards, because they do arcane, divine, and other stuff
I like to have choices and to keep my options open, especially because you never know what's coming in the next adventure deck.
Olenjack is fun, but I almost never use his "display an ally for +2 to any check" because it means I'm giving up my explores for the rest of the turn. What I really like about his character is his focus on poison.
Right now, my favourite will have to be Damiel. His deck cycling has been the most fun out of all the characters I have played.
Next would be Alahazra. I like scouting, and combine that with having the Divine skill and the ability to recharge your whole hand is amazing.
I really like ranged combat that didn't involve spells so Alahazra was a surprise favourite for me. Naturally I liked the Rangers, Merisiel and Lirianne. I wanted to like Lirianne more, but she starts off really slow in the beginning. I liked Merisiel better, and Harsk even more.
I don't know about Amiri, but I agree that Seelah was a surprise powerhouse. Other characters I found very interesting that other people have played in my group were Oloch, Ranzak, Lini, and Ezren.
Characters I still plan on playing are Sajan and Heggal. They seem like a lot of fun, too.
Add to my list Heggal. In fact, I think Heggal is my new favorite chacter. I have ALWAYS played spellcasters in every game... EVER, but once I embraced his versatility instead of lots of spells, he became super fun for me. Charisma as his highest stat is a much bigger deal then I first realized, as it means I can stop worrying about pretty much anything charisma-based, and focus on other things like combat and healing. He just feels very "safe" to me, except on his d4 intelligence checks, of course.
In fact, Pathfinder is challenging my views of the types of characters I play. I ABHOR fighter-types, but with the addition of allies and blessings (which don't exist like this in other games), even the fighter-types can support and do interesting things.
Now... If only I could start liking Oloch, since he is my favorite race....