Well, as the title implies, I am curious as to who people think is the best ranged / stealth style character. I have played several of them, but I am coming to the conclusion that ranged characters that are not magic just can't do the damage that the melee and magic characters put out, and while I enjoy running around and collecting items, it does get a bit monotonous after a while. But when I strap on a weapon and begin attacking, I either miss my ranges, or don't do enough damage to make it matter.

So, I guess my question is, which characters are the best at using ranged weapons, and is it even worth using a ranged character that is not a magic user?

Shojuro said:

Absolutely it is worth it. While initially they aren't great for damage, once you get into Copper weapons and Silver weapons they can really soften up bigger monsters from far away while your Melee hitter advance.

Also, another advantage to Ranged heroes can be said in two words: Rapid Fire. A hero with high fatigue, a good ranged weapon and Rapid Fire can devastate a room full of monsters.

So notable greats from my experience:

Kirga: 3 dice in ranged, and can shut down spawn's 5 spaces away? Deadly, I've used her before and if you give her some weapons with Pierce she can really do damage.

Laurel of Bloodwood: There are several skills that boost her range to damage conversion and make it really useful

Ronan of the Wild: The powerhouse/runner of the ranged characters. With Pico in hand, he has 2 dice in melee, 3 in ranged. He has 4 fatigue and a speed of 5. He is awesome.

Silhoutte: 5 fatigue and 5 speed with 3 dice in ranged? She can give the OL nightmares with Rapid Fire in hand.

So yes, they are worth it since they tend to be faster than the other heroes, plus with good skills draws they can be very useful. Once you start getting into Copper and Silver weapons, they can really start dishing out damage. Even with town items, they are good for sitting in place, declaring a Battle and clearing out soft monsters like Skeletons so the Melee/Magic guys can concentrate on tougher monsters.

Laurel and Kirga get my votes.

1. Kirga. With 16 life points, the only ranged character who's not a squishy, and she nevertheless has 3 ranged dice and a great ability that makes her even less a squishy (newly spawned melee monsters can't reach her). And that for only 3 CT!

2. Silhouette. Her 5/5 (which will sometimes even turn into a 7/5 or a 5/7 with the right skill) is really nice, plus she has the dodge trick that either turns into a guard or a rest at the end of the OL's turn.

Laurel of Bloodwood is nice when attacking, but he's a 3CT, 8 life point squishy. OLs will rejoice whenever he's in a team.

Ispher said:

Yeah, but if she gets that ability that makes power enhancements on black dice become +1 range *and* +1 damage, she can outdamage melee characters most of the time while still staying safely behind those melee tanks.

Though to be fair, if we are talking character with skill combos, she's nothing compared for Landric + card for 2 free surges + blast rune.

Hrmm, it might be i missed an Errata, or an FAQ, but why ain't Grey Ker on those Lists?

With his ability of changing his announced order as long as the "so far done actions do not exceed the movement and attack limit of the new order", he would constantly have a free ready action.

As you place the ready-action token as you announce, and then are free to change to somethign diffrent, because there is no ready token ever mentioned on his ability.

And by that handing him one extra attack per turn with the guard.

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On the Topic in Gerneral:

Magic users have a shorter Range for dishing damage, than Ranged weapons. (It's in the dice itself, and in the skills additionally)

[rolling a white vs a blue on Crossbow vs immolation for example]

So the bigger your dungeon gets the better Ranged characters can become.

Of course Skills like "spiritwalker" utterly destroy that ranged benefit again.

In the later treasures the ranged damage increases faster than the mage things, but the mage equivalents gain some nice features, be it blast or breath.

So basicly, Ranged is better "ranged" damage. Magic hits harder, but must get closer.

Sinso said:

This has been discussed before, and no one buys it. I think there may have been an official clarification that order tokens are supposed to be limited just like everything else, but even if there wasn't, there's no way that ability was intended to give him a free order every turn. That would be stupidly powerful, and would mean that his actual ability text is vastly misleading. Plus Descent's editing is so bad that it's just far more likely that any given loophole is an editing mistake than anything else.

What he can do is abuse the skills that require you to declare a specific action, by declaring that action to activate the skill, and then doing something completely different. For example, if he has the Unmovable skill, he can declare a Battle action for +1 armor and a free Guard order, then actually choose to move twice his speed (or whatever) instead of making two attacks. This is clarified in the FAQ on page 4 (first hit on a search for "grey ker").