I was very interested in the Top 10 monsters thread, especially with veteran players explaining their choices and personal tastes on the matter.

I was curious, if you had to pick, what would your Top 5 Heroes be? Top 5 classes? How about Worst 5 Heroes? Worst 5 classes?

Why do you think said heroes/classes deserve that standing? Thanks for the insights!

Top 5 Best Heroes:

1. Logan Lashley

Most broken character in the entire game as Treasure Hunter by far. Even though its more the Treasure Hunter than Logan himself, he can single-handedly change the outcome of an entire quest with his mobility and damage output.

2. Elder Mok

Endlessly regenerating healer that also rips the Overlord of one of his best cards for free every encounter. Unparalleled recovery means he can spend stamina and health with abandon.

3. Nanok of the Blade

Black defense. Perfect stat distribution. Immortality feat. Free surge every single attack. Broken.

4. Astarra

Her heroic ability is absolutely *insane*. I've ran two campaigns with her, and the things she can do and the places she can get to with that are enough to drive any Overlord mad. Give her some Elven Boots for even more craziness. Very solid stats, and her heroic feat, while not as impressive, can have surprising utility in a game where every square of positioning counts.

5. High Mage Quellen

Astarra has usurped the throne, but Quellen is still fantastic. Stamina is the lifeblood of the heroes, and his regeneration makes him the superlative Geomancer and Conjurer. His heroic feat can give him some absolutely legendary turns too, keeping the Overlord on his toes.

Top 5 Classes:

1. Treasure Hunter

Wins campaigns more than any other class. The staggering amount of treasure this class provides the heroes is game breaking. And that's on top of being a damage powerhouse. Pretty much needs to be countered by Baron Zachareth. So good its actually not fun..

2. Runemaster

Best mage hands down. Yes, its simple, but the damage output right from the start is fantastic for winning early quests. Runic Sorcery has incredible utility, and surge-free Blast forces the Overlord to position his forces sub-optimally to prevent losing all of them.

3. Marshal

Outstanding Overlord control. When used properly this class will heavily cripple the Overlord deck, which is half of the Overlord's power. The fact that their cards can always fail thanks to "By the Book" means they cannot commit to any given plan, forcing them to sub-optimally account for multiple outcomes. The Marshal heavily punishes the Overlord whenever he tries to commit to a big engagement through "Just Reward". Other great utility skills like "I Am the Law" provide versatility the Warrior class normally doesn't possess.

4. Knight

Insane mobility makes this Warrior fantastic. Oath of Honor is a broken skill that lets even a low-movement Warrior get wherever they need to be, through difficult terrain and other figures. Advance is far better than the charge ability other Warriors possess. Give them good armor and Defend and they keep the rest of the party safe. They also don't really give up much damage to do all these things, making them the backbone of any party.

5. Bard

Most of the healers are good, but my favorite is the Bard. Stamina regeneration is critical in a good healer, and the Bard does this the best. They can revive the entire party through Song of Mending without spending a single action, making it almost impossible to perform a TPK as the Overlord. They also boast an excellent crowd control skill (Dissonance), condition removal (Rehearsal) and burst healing (Concentration). Everything you want in a healer so long as you stick together, which you generally want to do.

Top 5 Worst Heroes:

1. Eliam

Awful heroic ability. Awful heroic feat. Brown defense on a warrior. Worst character in the game.

2. Brother Glyr

2 speed. Awful stamina. Lousy heroic feat due to low stamina.

3. Red Scorpion

8 health. Bad heroic ability and staggeringly bad heroic feat.

4. Brother Gherinn

Even the reworked version is bad. 3 speed sucks. Heroic ability is weird and un-healer like. Heroic feat pre-requisite is unnecessary.

5. Dezra the Vile

Being next to the monsters is the last thing a mage generally wants to do, especially a mage with 8 health. Heroic feat is awful. Yay, I can immobilize monsters that are next to me.. so they can eat me. Hmm..

Top 5 Worst Classes

1. Spiritspeaker

Ugh. I want to like this class so much, because its cool and unique. But its just bad. Stoneskin is horrendous for a starter skill. The rest of the skills scale very poorly through the campaign. I wish FFG would rework this class because I *want* it to be good! Tempest is pretty much the only thing this class has going for it, and Reanimates shut that down hard. Vigor should cost 2 exp.

2. Stalker

Doesn't do a single thing better than other scouts. Worse damage than Bounty Hunter and Treasure Hunter. Worse utility than Thief and Treasure Hunter. Worse mobility than Wildlander. Weak skills with little impact.

3. Hexer

Way too long to setup Hex tokens in a game where engagements may be over in a single turn. Clumsy and awkward mechanics (Plague Burst alone is a headache to figure out). I do like Affliction though - one of the best skills.

4. Berserker

A skilled Overlord will completely shut down this class. Whirlwind is useless if monsters position properly. Counterattack is useless if the Berserker isn't attacked from melee range. If the berserker isn't attacked, he doesn't deal more damage from Death Rage. No utility and cannot protect the party. Only good in co-op adventures.

5. Necromancer

One-trick pony in the form of Army of Death, with no utility at all. Easily shut down by killing the reanimate otherwise. Horrendous starting weapon. So many better mages than this.

Would you still rank Nanok as best warrior after his new version In stewards?

Would you still rank Nanok as best warrior after his new version In stewards?

I think the H&M Nanok is solid and in the top 5. The new version retains his great stats and black defense, and he can now use Cloaks without penalty. Giving him something like the Baron's Cloak is actually pretty decent and somewhat makes up for the inability to swap armor on/off like he used to be able to do.

That being said, he is no longer the cream of the crop in my books. The new Heroic Ability is interesting, and I'd have to try it in a campaign, but as I've said in other posts, it can be played around, and there will be some maps where it can't be used at all. I don't like that.

He replaced a strong defensive heroic feat with a strong offensive one. I'm okay with that. Two bonus attacks is better than the average feat. Very potent at taking out a single stubborn target.

Unfortunately, these perks just don't compare to getting a free surge on every single attack, which was game changing and made many weapons totally nuts (e.g. Bearded Axe).

I think the best Warrior hero in the game now is Syndrael. She has a decent stat distribution (would rather Awareness over Knowledge..), and her heroic feat, while not 'flashy', has won many games for the heroes. The value of two free full move actions cannot be denied, especially since it gives one of those actions to a hero off of their turn, which has endless utility! (e.g. Repositioning Astarra prior to her turn for a great use of her own Heroic Feat, or pulling a hero out of lava or some other dangerous situation)

There is no shortage of 'good' warrior heroes. Orkell is growing on me the more I experiment with him, and Trenloe with something like Elven Boots is very strong. Sir Valadir takes up the mantle of surge-master - not as strong, but not bad paired with a healer that can restore Stamina. I like his 4 willpower, too.

Im using Skirmisher Orkell during a campaign at the moment and cant see the appeal. Having a warrior with low health and a brown dice is just bad and his ability doesn't seem useful enough, most other monsters in the group can usually still attack him after he moves one space. I thought Eliam looked more useful than him, but perhaps im just not using Orkell right.

Orkell the Skirmisher is one of my favorite combos ever played in a campaign. Yes, his brown die let him get hit hard- but really, that doesn't matter, because his 5 speed and 5 stamina makes it all worth it (especially if he has a healer in the party supporting him). He even gets a "free" KO once per encounter because of his heroic feat. Your build may vary, but I bought skills in the following order:

1st XP: Keen Edge (for better killing)

2nd XP: Back in Action (so when I got KO, I could move like it was my job)

Bought the Archaic Scroll after the interlude

3rd, 4th, and 5th XP: Carve a Path (for super killing, and now 6 speed !)

Returned Keen Edge and Back in Action with the Scroll

6th XP (with 2 from exchange): Unstoppable (No miss "Carving", with a stamina of 6 so I can do it twice before taking the time to rest? yes please.)

7th XP: Keen Edge (you know, for better killing.)

8th XP: Back in Action (because +2 health)

If you happened upon an additional XP, you could grab "born in battle" instead of Back in Action the second time.

While he starts the game as 5/10/5/brown, with the right build (no gear necessary) he can become 6/12/6/brown, which is solid . And with gear like the Cloak of Deception (don't forget his might and awareness are both 4) his brown die essentially becomes "50% chance to ignore 1 attack per round."

Wow I didn't know Cloak of Deception existed! That would really beef up his survivability. Wish I had the Labyrinth of Ruin expansion xD

Having 6 speed and carve a path is super deadly, however im playing the Road to legend app and im not sure if its worth it since AOE attacks are much weaker (Full damage to one monster, half damage to all others affected)

Do you not think "Unrelenting" is an essential skill since it gives another free attack?

"Unrelenting" is an essential skill since it gives another free attack?

Worst class : Necromancer.

Since the beastmaster does everything of this class better with better heroes, I don't see the point ...

Worst hero : Serena (and or) Raythen - Bad feat, bad stats, brown die, weak

Best class : Marshall (counter attack fatigueless, etc ... )

Best hero : Lindel -

Heroes I would definitely Rank in a Top 5:

Mordrok: He has superior stats (14 health without any drawback), his recovery of fatigue is downright broken under the right circumstances (walk him over lava if you need fatigue badly or use other persistent effects to trade health for stamina) and he has a pretty good heroic feat.

Elder Mock: We play him with his ability being once per round, instead of once per turn (and by the standard rules, he can make use of each other hero using surge to recover fatigue and such) and he is still insanely powerful with that heroic feat on top.

Andira Runehand: Her ability is automatic, you can NOT prevent it unless you use reanimates or skeleton archers, there are many quests where this will hinder your efforts greatly. You can only strike her down first and she is reasonably durable. Her Heroic Feat on the other hand can end up being too unreliable though.

Okaluk and Rakash: In quite a lot of cases, he consistently has the equivalent of three actions every turn, his stats, to make up for it by being lackluster, but his heroic feat has been quite greatly improved. The pure advantage in action economy is still amazing.

Lindel: While I think that unlike some of the others, Lindel is not unbalanced, he is just so incredibly useful to have. Good stats, no weakness against any type of attribute test making him very flexible and a heroic feat that, while not too powerful, is sometimes great to make sure that an important plan works.

With the classes, I think there are a few which are just unbalanced and a few which are just very good:

Bard: Very unbalanced, he has a somewhat lackluster starting weapon, but with just a few XP (Concentration and understudy come to mind), he can do incredibly much, he needs a hard counter to balance his power to help up heroes who are knocked down, no other healer has as much fatigue recovery, period, he can just use his most basic skills and support a group to an amazing degree.

Treasure Hunter: He gets a starting skill that throws in extra damage better than classes whose starting skill is ALL about that for free, more or less while also being as good at searching as the thief is with extra XP, he has an extremely useful starting weapon and the trinket that will be greatly useful.

...then later, he gets sleight of hand and gets free pierce AND the ability to more easily shift around treasure.

He is not invincible, even without a counter, but just right from the start, he gives you trouble on THREE fronts: High damage, opening blockades and maximizing gold.

Apothecary: Good healing, buffing AND damage. Not as broken as the Bard, but definitely a handful, few bad skills (though some are slightly redundant, but stackable in return) and the only healer with a ranged starting weapon that is not that bad.

Champion: His buffing potential is pretty great, I think it puts him even above the knight and his charge skill is actually good. Being able to pile up resources between encounters is very valuable since heroes usually lack that option.

Shadowwalker: He already starts solidly, but once he gets shadow step, he REALLY gets powerful. Not broken, but the extra damage piles up nicely and the different abilities make a very solid scout, if perhaps a bit lacking in treasure finding.

Worst heroes and classes:

Spiritspeaker: Useable, but just so much lesser than the other healers. Tempest and Ancestor spirits are good, Energy drain is very solid, but shared pain is much too situational to be ever worth picking, Healing Rain is overpriced and Cloud of Mists can end up backfiring, despite being quite amazing.

Berserker: Bad, bad starting skill that does not work together with the good skills and is made completely redundant later, whirlwind is amazing, you will have a very hard time avoiding it, and being able to immobilize is very useful. The Berserker is still usable, but he just should get an upgrade compared to others.

I think otherwise, there are not really any classes deserving the nomination. Hexer is, I think, actually rather good if played right, Stalker might be a bit underrated, but I still have to reserve my judgement.

Heroes:

Grisbane: He gets better the more conditions are introduced, but I fear he still is overshadowed by pretty much every other warrior.

Shiver / Dezra: Too few situations where you want to get close to monsters as a mage, but okay when you have something like a rune plate.

Ulma Grimstone: You usually do NOT want the potions, but the other treasure. Reusing fatigue or power potions is useful, but everyone else needs to be adjacent... And her stats are a bit lackluster.

Rendiel: You do NOT want to bank on the overlord knocking your friends down, you also quite often, as a healer, do want to use a skill to help people up without using an action...

Jaes the Exile: He is pretty popular with my hero players, but frankly, I think his hero ability is just way too weak. Yes, you can get five stamina with something like mana weave, but pretty much the only worthwile point with him seems to be that he is one of the few mages with decent strength...
There just are too many alternatives to armor that does not work with runes too.

So many people hating on Spiritspeaker.

Vigor is amazing!

Throw that skill on Elder Mok and you've got a pretty beefy character that just all round improves the team.

Orkell the Skirmisher is one of my favorite combos ever played in a campaign. Yes, his brown die let him get hit hard- but really, that doesn't matter, because his 5 speed and 5 stamina makes it all worth it (especially if he has a healer in the party supporting him). He even gets a "free" KO once per encounter because of his heroic feat. Your build may vary, but I bought skills in the following order:

1st XP: Keen Edge (for better killing)

2nd XP: Back in Action (so when I got KO, I could move like it was my job)

Bought the Archaic Scroll after the interlude

3rd, 4th, and 5th XP: Carve a Path (for super killing, and now 6 speed !)

Returned Keen Edge and Back in Action with the Scroll

6th XP (with 2 from exchange): Unstoppable (No miss "Carving", with a stamina of 6 so I can do it twice before taking the time to rest? yes please.)

7th XP: Keen Edge (you know, for better killing.)

8th XP: Back in Action (because +2 health)

If you happened upon an additional XP, you could grab "born in battle" instead of Back in Action the second time.

While he starts the game as 5/10/5/brown, with the right build (no gear necessary) he can become 6/12/6/brown, which is solid . And with gear like the Cloak of Deception (don't forget his might and awareness are both 4) his brown die essentially becomes "50% chance to ignore 1 attack per round."

I really enjoy playing Orkell as a Skirmisher as well.

However if you are not able to get Cloak of Deception, I think he will truly run into problems in Act II. Most armors would reduce his speed or boost his survivability only marginal.

I haven't played a final with Orkell yet, but in the final he wouldn't even have a heroic feat. (Since I play with Orkell and Rendiel, the final might turn out ugly since I only have 2 heroic feats). So I think he really is underpowerd in the final (or when he can't get revived).

I think Charmy has rated my Top 5 haha but I would like to change some nominations:

Top 5 Best Heroes:

1. Lindel : I prefer Lindel over Logan mostly becuase of his HA, the possibility that he can't pass any attribute test makes him ideal for objetives based on them (or effects like crumble terrain in MoB), besides he has good speed, stamina and health. His mostly like a Legolas to me, running everywhere, killing everyone with nothing to stop him hahaha

2. Elder Mok : What has been said of him is enough for me, solid choice.

4. Marshal : Or like my party likes to call it " The Rage Quitter ". The possibility to control the hand of an Overlord is very good. The only downside I see is that in most of the cases you are force to play it along with Alys because of the Knowlegde testing. Aside that, I have seen Overlords Rage Quitting because of her hahaha I mean, she's isn't OP but if the Overlord is not experience or is careless, she can be a pain in...

1. Spiritspeaker : I was excited when I firts read this class...but then, when I tried it, I realized it has a high cost for what it does and not scaling as other classes. I think this class wasn't though deeply during game developing and testing. I even started to rework it, searched in forums (here and in BGG) but...*sighs*

It's not hate, it's more like frustaition it can't do more, it has very expensive skills for a must have class.

So, top 5 ?

let's go (the conversion kit is ignored)

Best heroes :

- Lindel - good stats, will almost never miss attribute test, and has a good feat that let an attack be sure to hit. No real bad points, indeed

- Ispher - Healing 2 hearts each turn makes him maybe the best healer possible, allowing to heal other while healing himself alone. Even his feat will take a hero back in full motion

- Mordrog - He will take advantage of many conditions instead of suffering from it (poison will heal him fatigue for example), have many HP, stamina and move, and a feat perfect for finishing a troublemaker monster or a lieutenant.

- Astarra - For 1 fatigue, she will move 4 spaces each turn and have 2 free actions to attack, or move over and be a real threat than is almost unstoppable. Even her feat let her open a path through all ennemies, so she can always go where she wants to

- Sir Valladir - His surge will be a good option for attack to hit the target, his feat is a good way to fight strong and spare a rest action, and if no broken, is really good and on the top of the heroes, making him a fearless fighter and a good ally for the team. Hopefully, he may miss sometimes ...

Worst heroes

- Raythen - ability useless most of the time, because of tile limitation and usability, brown die, and no real good point, even is life point are not enough to make him a bit good. Maybe with 5 in speed, he would have been playable.

- Serena - Weak HP, hero ability that need heroes to stay near her, she needs to do many rest action, her feat can fail at all ... few options makes her playable, and many of them are weaker than almost all heroes

- Corbin - His attritubes points make him a victim of many traps, his hero ability cannot help him survive small attacks, and his feat needs to be played before an attack, so is almost useless and cannot be played as a reaction to a big attack. On top of that, he is slow !

- Orkell - He will hit the ground all the time, offering many cards to the overlord to draw and loses many actions for heroes to stand him up.

- Dezra - No enough HP to uses his ability with good interest, her feat is a suicide, and does not even match good with the hexer ... played her once, not gonna do again !

(could say Rendiel too, Silhouette , Roganna , Jonas )

Best Hero Classes

- Treasure hunter - Can have + 1 damage and Pierce 2 on each attack and will offer to the party the possibility fo have the chest and the much money on ever quest. So, heroes may loses all act 1 and trample on act 2. So, balance is broken

- Marshall - With a counter on reach with stamina less, the possibility be a support healer with his 3xp card, and/or counter overlord cards, a Marshall will always be a threat to the Overlord in many ways.

- Apothicary - Can do 1-2 actions for free (attack and revive) on each turn, giving many healing potion to all, and be a real threat to the OL. Can be a good fighter and a descent healer in the time.

- Bard - Can heal all the team always without any action or what, and is the only class that offers heroes the possibility to play again if they are all eating the ground, meaning that the overlord loses a winning condition. Like the Treasure hunter, broke balance and games.

- Knight - The more it kills, the more it will play, again and again. So, as soon as the knight has a good weapon, it will be a destructive machine that will broke all monsters and be a real unbreakable wall. If followed by a good healer, the end of the OL is near reach ...

Worst Heroes Classes

- Thief - The only good card of the thief is the possibility to open and closes doors for free. Except for that, the rest is useless ... the base card is weak, useless, and goes over many hero abilities, 3xp cards are so weak that is would be funny if it wasn't a shame, and since no other cards than the basic one is a "ranged blade", his only good card has no real uses.

- Spiritspeaker - Cannot remove conditions, his only good skill (Tempest) can be a totally waste, and except in some few cases, has no real uses. All other healing classes does things better

- Necromancer - Since the Beastmaster does everything better and with better archetype, I wonder the uses of the necromancer now. Is oftenly good on act 1 and bad on act 2, is boring to play (summon back and move reanimate, losing action for him, all the time), and is never of real uses. Reanimate never stay enough to be a threat, or cannot play in good order to be a moving bomb ... Never saw a good and happy necromancer player

- Berserker - Since his base card is the only one that cannot be used with the other cards of his class, and since both of his 3xp cards does not worth the xp cost, he is a descent fighter, but outclassed by all other with ease.

- Conjurer - Needs so much of fatigue to be of some uses that many heroes cannot use it with good results. Images tokens are weak, many of the class does really nothing, for many fatigue, and is outclass by many other class (runemaster, hexer)

I really wonder how the new hybrid classes, which are going to be introduced in 'The Chains That Rust', are going to change such lists. Some heroes like Dezra the Vile really have wired hero skills/feats which don't seem to fit their archetype. However, If I can use a warrior class deck to use Dezra as a Battlemage it might be possible to get some nice Combos. Sure, she has only 8 HP, but maybe the Battlemage skills will mitigate that.

I'm really looking forward to the new expansion.

not so sure that it would change anything to Dezra. her HP is too low and her feat is useless, whatever class it may be

not so sure that it would change anything to Dezra. her HP is too low and her feat is useless, whatever class it may be

I couldn't disagree more. Let's imagine whatever hybrid deck allows Dezra to choose a warrior class. I don't really care what the hybrid cards are. Warrior class = Berserker.

1st XP: Brute. (+4 Health, 2 additional wound recovered whenever you stand up.)

Now, Dezra goes from a 5/8/4 to a 5/12/4, which is really decent, especially considering her hero ability which encourages her to get up close to monsters (whirlwind would also be a great skill for her). With her increased health, she can afford to walk up to a group of monsters and use her feat to immobilize them all (recovering 3 or 4 fatigue/health at the start of her next turn).

Exactly. She could spend fatigue like a maniac if the overlord doesn't keep the monsters at a distance. Give her a proper armor and maybe some trinkets to boost her life even a little bit more and she's fine. Not the tankiest warrior you could think of, but who cares if the monsters are dead.

I agree the hybrid classes are really going to make a difference on some characters.

I reckon "Jaes the Exile" will be a powerhouse of a battlemage with his already high health, plus give him rune plate? He could have some crazy health.

Hoping they will have a "Rune Sword" type of weapon in the items too

I´d like to see some hybrid stuff on the OL side as well...

Shadow Dragons who can flicker, Goblin Archers who can Firebreath, and Kobolds who get an automatic Blast on attack.

Seriously, though, now that I got to think about it earlier yesterday, designing a tree with interconnected branches to regulate plot card purchases would be awesome, assuming it can be done without jeopardizing balance too much.

And to get back on topic, I think these hybrid classes are quite scary for me as an overlord player. Mitigating all weaknesses heroes may have by making everybody the swiss-knife of dungeon crawling seems überpowerful. It probably is better design than I think it is, and more moderate on the power side, but right now I consider it to be more than a boost for the heroes. In the current state of things I don't see why players wouldn't choose a hybrid class? If they have a good cross character with perfect stats for a class that is not in his/her archetype, why not always choose the hybrid class?

Hybrid decks block access to the 3XP skills of your "other" deck. So, a Monk/Disciple could never purchase Radiant Light or Holy Power, for example.

OK that kind of makes the thing more reasonable, then.

Hybrid decks block access to the 3XP skills of your "other" deck. So, a Monk/Disciple could never purchase Radiant Light or Holy Power, for example.

OK that kind of makes the thing more reasonable, then.

I think so as well. There are some classes where the 3XP skills aren't so important (stalker, thief.... knight?) but there are many (skirmisher, wildlander, disciple) where the lack of access to those skills will likely be a huge offset. I'm confident FFG thought these decks through, but I guess we'll see.

Or in the case of a monk that benefits from some unarmed attacks. Being forced to unequip weapons at the start of your turn to do that cool skill and not being able to trigger an ability that gives surges to (insert weapon type here) is an acceptable nerf.

I think so as well. There are some classes where the 3XP skills aren't so important (stalker, thief.... knight?) but there are many (skirmisher, wildlander, disciple) where the lack of access to those skills will likely be a huge offset. I'm confident FFG thought these decks through, but I guess we'll see.

FFG did some mistakes before and some expansions broke the whole game. Let's hope this one is not one of thoses