Curious if anyone else finds the Ghoul to be the weakest of all the characters?

No. The weakest is the Elf. Ghoul is just the next. But he's strongly followed by the Priest.

Characters are not meant to be equal. As in real life, some people are stronger, more intelligent or skilled. Some are stupid, weak and lacking ideas.....

No. The weakest is the Elf. Ghoul is just the next. But he's strongly followed by the Priest.

Heh, my stats say Elf and Troll are neck and neck as the BEST base game characters. Ghoul, much like the Priest, is in the group I refer to as "bottom of the barrel", sure, you can win with him, but unless everyone else got nothing but low-tier or worse characters, you'll have your work cut out for you. Sadly, kinda like the Minstrel, Ghoul has been upstaged by an expansion character (Ogre Chieftain, who, unlike the Ghoul, can spam all his Monster Followers into one battle).

I never hated the Ghoul. I like being able to gain life. I would pick him over the Minstrel, Priest and Monk.

Evil with Fate 4 = Awesome. This gives you some range on throwing Fate away from your benefit and then being able to recharge at the graveyard.

Taking a life and adding it to your own = Awesome. If you NEED LIFE and you don't have gold you have the chance to nibble on an opponent and get one back. Or just keep doing it over and over to gain so many lives you're unkillable from being left unchecked. Though I think maybe Ghoul should be a 5 lives character.

Psychic Combat -Who doesn't love this ability?

Raising enemies from the dead is kind of a crapshoot. Then again, with practice you will see you rarely use more than one monster follower on the Ogre Chieftain as it tends to be overkill. Yes the Ogre is better and I like him more than the ghoul. But in practice....the Ogre for some reason tends to get loaded up with strength 3 monsters and I rarely find myself need more than a +3 to change the odds when using him. Except for boss fights and of course your fast forward to the Crown ala LOD. But the Ogre can only pick up monsters where as the Ghoul can pick up just about anything you can fight with strength.

The next time you draw the ghoul, don't hate! He's really not that bad.

With a little luck you can run into the dungeon early game as well.

I like the Ghoul and Priest.

I have on several occasions thought the Ghoul and okay pick (we shuffle and deal 7 to each of us, from which we choose).

In fact, as Granville mentions, Evil and 4 Fate= Awesome and in fact...

characters like this, may find themselves in good graces - and hands, with the upcoming Woodland.

Why pick the lesser of two evils, indeed.

I have on several occasions thought the Ghoul and okay pick (we shuffle and deal 7 to each of us, from which we choose).

In fact, as Granville mentions, Evil and 4 Fate= Awesome and in fact...

characters like this, may find themselves in good graces - and hands, with the upcoming Woodland.

Why pick the lesser of two evils, indeed.

Ahhh I just remembered my favorite character the Dragon Priestess is Fate 5 and Evil. Dark Fate here I come to become the ultimate troll at the table, between dragon spam and messing up people's "Need a high number" rolls. Hurry up Woodlands.

Yes, the future is bright AND dark! I'm going to really love this new dynamic. Come to the Dark Side, we have better cookies!

Seriously I have played with the Ghoul on several occasion and did not win, but I enjoyed the play and I came pretty close. I found that in 2 player game there are not as many good opportunities to use the Ghoul's raising ability, but it wasn't hard to level him up.

I have on several occasions thought the Ghoul and okay pick (we shuffle and deal 7 to each of us, from which we choose).

In fact, as Granville mentions, Evil and 4 Fate= Awesome and in fact...

characters like this, may find themselves in good graces - and hands, with the upcoming Woodland.

Why pick the lesser of two evils, indeed.

Ahhh I just remembered my favorite character the Dragon Priestess is Fate 5 and Evil. Dark Fate here I come to become the ultimate troll at the table, between dragon spam and messing up people's "Need a high number" rolls. Hurry up Woodlands.

We may have to wait. If you click on the "Upcoming" tab on the frontpage, then select All Products, Board and Card Games, At the Printer, then the Woodlands expansion is displayed near the bottom (the generated list is ordered alphabetically). So, assuming a game's status moves up the list as time progresses and someone at FFG is updating the system, we still have to wait for the expansion to get "On the Boat" and through the "Shipping Now" stages. The tension mounts...

I like the Ghoul and Priest.

The Ghoul is okay. The Priest -- not so much! The end (i.e., his demise) couldn't come quickly enough when I last played the character. The Elf is weak too, although this may and hopefully will change with Woodlands -- cue mass evasion

Characters are not meant to be equal. As in real life, some people are stronger, more intelligent or skilled. Some are stupid, weak and lacking ideas.....

Yes. Perhaps it's better to view playing a weaker character as a challenge and more of an achievement when you win.

Hehehe, don't you love these "weakest of all the characters" posts..

I say play as these "cough" weak characters and use their abilities to max. Issue complaints not based on bad luck but true faults in character design. Then I think your tack will change with the Elf and Ghoul.

Raising enemies from the dead is kind of a crapshoot. Then again, with practice you will see you rarely use more than one monster follower on the Ogre Chieftain as it tends to be overkill. Yes the Ogre is better and I like him more than the ghoul. But in practice....the Ogre for some reason tends to get loaded up with strength 3 monsters and I rarely find myself need more than a +3 to change the odds when using him. Except for boss fights and of course your fast forward to the Crown ala LOD. But the Ogre can only pick up monsters where as the Ghoul can pick up just about anything you can fight with strength.

Trouble is, Ghoul has Str 2, so those kills would be far, far better put towards taking them as trophies and upgrading Strength than one-shot here and there. And with Str 2, Ghoul has trouble defeating those Enemies, so to then "waste" them on another battle instead of getting a permanent boost to the stat, meh. Ogre starts with Str 5, he has far less 1) trouble making those kills and 2) need to pump up his Str as much (hell, I've seen the OC with starting Str beat the LoD thanks to his mob of monsters).

Individual game circumstances and dynamics can dictate many outcomes. I've played with all ranges of characters' strengths, crafts, etc and have found that sometimes it is just very hard to level up easily.

To the poster who said the upcoming tabs don't show the new expansions Woodland's internal "progress", well, thats almost always been the case with that tab.

However it is known that it's intended release date is 3rd quarter, which is July to September. Some other posters believe it will be at the Indy game convention in mid-August.

Myself I hope to purchase locally rather than online. I've enjoyed the comfort and service of online shippers (both FFG and others) but for some time the Metro Detroit economy is severely depressed and I would like to support local at this time.

I always recently learned/realized that sometimes these vendors know the specific dates when we don't. So I could reserve a copy. Earlier this year I bought Firelands at an area store and it was great; wasn't too far out of the way, etc.

Raising enemies from the dead is kind of a crapshoot. Then again, with practice you will see you rarely use more than one monster follower on the Ogre Chieftain as it tends to be overkill. Yes the Ogre is better and I like him more than the ghoul. But in practice....the Ogre for some reason tends to get loaded up with strength 3 monsters and I rarely find myself need more than a +3 to change the odds when using him. Except for boss fights and of course your fast forward to the Crown ala LOD. But the Ogre can only pick up monsters where as the Ghoul can pick up just about anything you can fight with strength.

Trouble is, Ghoul has Str 2, so those kills would be far, far better put towards taking them as trophies and upgrading Strength than one-shot here and there. And with Str 2, Ghoul has trouble defeating those Enemies, so to then "waste" them on another battle instead of getting a permanent boost to the stat, meh. Ogre starts with Str 5, he has far less 1) trouble making those kills and 2) need to pump up his Str as much (hell, I've seen the OC with starting Str beat the LoD thanks to his mob of monsters).

Yeah this was my thinking. I like the Minstrel, Priest, and Monk because they are more focused. The Ghoul kind of sucks at everything. The Vampiress and the Ogre Chieftan just do his two different shticks better. I think I might be less frustrated if he just picked a theme and went with it. Helpful would have been if he got back a life anytime he defeated an enemy in psychic combat -- in addition to the life he gets from defeating another character and reducing their life. Or, they simply could have gone the other way and swapped his stats to Str: 4, Craft: 2, and make his power an in-built Runesword effect. Another option to make him more focused would be if he had collected the enemies he defeats in psychic combat rather than battle. Yet another thematic power would be if he could instead gain life points at the graveyard anytime he could gain fate (i.e., from praying). At any rate I guess weak is too loaded of a word, I just find him disappointing because his mechanics are so schizophrenic.

Regarding the Priest, I think alot of people also find him frustrating. Personally I love his mechanic; converting spirits into spells is really helpful. Card economy, and especially spell card economy, is a big feature of the game. The priest is actually deceptively good. If he had weird stats that didn't go with his abilities, like Str: 4, Craft: 2, then he might not be so awesome. The addition of weapons that can be used in psychic combat are also really helpful to both him and the monk.

Regarding the Elf, in the base game he has the highest base stats of any character, which is nice. His ability to leap from woods to woods is helpful for milling adventure cards. If he is lacking one thing it is that they didn't include the cursed glade spot in his ability, so, while there is a woods in the middle region, he doesn't benefit from it that much. A +1 to attack rolls or drawing two adventure cards in woods would have been thematic but I don't find him as frustrating and mechanically schizophrenic as the Ghoul.

Someone mentioned adding an all-character pack that would include the extra characters from the digital version. I'd also like to see that; it aligns with my wish that they would publish an Arkham Horror expansion that is just Heralds and Ancient Ones. My only worry for Talisman would be the Exorcist. Like the Ogre Chieftan and Vampiress doing the Ghoul's things better than the Ghoul, the Exorcist does everything the Priest does only better (and all in one place). Maybe if he didn't start with a spell or if he didn't gain spells from defeating spirits then he wouldn't simply trump the Priest. Actually I think a better mechanic for him is not gaining spells from defeating spirits and instead being unharmed when he visits the graveyard (more like he has an in-built cross).

Thanks for the discussion everyone.