I'm not yet putting the Alchemist on the Warlock level, but I can see a lot of possibilities for him to get there. It's generally the power creep I'm worried about.

Base game has 1 character in a high tier: Troll (7-8 record)

Reaper, also 1 character: Sage (7-8)

Dungeon 2 characters, Gypsy (6-5) and Gladiator (5-6), with Amazon not far behind

Frostmarch 2 characters, Ogre Chieftain (5-4) and Warlock (5-4), with Necromancer bit further behind than the Amazon, but still better than all base + Reaper chars.

Of the base + Reaper chars, only Dark Cultist (5-10) and Elf (5-11) are close to upper mid-tier and even they lose two out of three appearances. Will Highland give us 4+ top-tier characters?

My Choice list is based on characters i like the most to play, and it is also based on their abilities and how good they are.

If the abilities are interesting, good and fun, then the chance is high that it will be placed in my first choice list.

I have play 10 games so far vs a real opponent

The Rankings are:

1 Assassin with 2 wins

2 Wizard 2 wins/ 1 lose

3 Swashbuckler/ Prophetess/ Druid with 1 W

4 Warrior 1 W/1lose

5 Elf / Dwarf/ 1 W / 2 lose

6 Philosopher/ Warlock/ Monk 1 lose

7 Dark Cultist / Troll / 2 lose

------------------------------------

It's 6-4 for my opponent, so i must take my revenge, otherwise i am falling to much behind

I'm actually shocked the Elf is the 2nd best character from the base game (just based on pure win-loss stats). Early on, he wasn't doing that great, of late, he's been getting wins. Today, he almost died, making it to the City to heal a turn before the Minstrel drew Pestilence, but went on to win. Of course, Minstrel would've taken him in battle I think, but couldn't get a Talisman. One was in the Hidden Valley (where the Knight died), but it was guarded by a Hydra, who kept regenerating every time the Minstrel defeated it in battle (Str 12 vs 4, so not a difficult task).

Dam said:

Well, i have not use his ability so much with teleporting from woods to woods.

In my eyes, the elf is very boring.

I rather play with the Priest..

But i have only play one time with the elf. ( the opponent 2 times)

It's sad, i like elfs, but this one has no interesting ability's

Elf is rather on the easy side as far as how to play goes. Land on Woods, then you're on auto-pilot, Woods-Woods-Woods until all three Woods on the Outer Region have a card on them. Then you venture back out again. Sometimes the Woods-Woods bouncing only ends as you leave to hit the Middle Region and then straight away to the Inner Region.

Dam said:

that's the problem.

From woods to woods and drawing cards as normal is nothing special to me.

It's just a boring character to play..

He can do nothing else. ( no bow, no combat abilties, no spells (except evading) etc

If you look to the expansions, the characters have become more interesting to play.

swashbuckler get's a extra turn plus extra cards on fields

Alchemist has some different option to use.

Even the amazone, (who has bad artwork) has 2 good abilities for moving and combat)

What's so fun about the woods-woods warp...

It can be effective with the right cards, but's that's all.. ( and is that fun?

Velhart said:

It's not about fun you silly, it's about winning ! Woods-Woods bouncing, the Elf is safe from a lot of bad stuff, though still vulnerable to Reaper, Strangers and Events. Winning > fun in my book! Of course, most of the time winning = fun .

Dam said:

haha

It seems i base it on the fun factor..

If the Character is interesting to play, and it has good abilities, then the chance is high that i will place it in the first choice list

-

But first choice/ second choice etc is not based on winning.

I have a separate list for that..

~That's my book ~

I hope the trend of more and more powerful characters will end. But at the same time - I got excited when I saw that Alchemist, and felt like I can't wait until I get my hands on that Highland expansion - and that was because he looked powerful. Had he looked like someone resembling the Priest in power, I wouldn't have gotten as excited. So I understand that they kinda have to do so.

On the Elf-thing - when people get the Elf in our games, they usually end up with a stranger or place in at least two of the forests rather early, making the woodsjumpingpart not that great (unless it's something like an idol or something like that). His biggest asset used to be that he was 3-4, making him balanced, and good at both str and cra, which in turn meant it didn't matter much if he got a lot of boost to his str or cra. (While if someone like the Troll got a lot of craft, he still couldn't get to the middle quickly) But that advantage isn't nearly as great as all the special abilities of the expansion characters.

Ogre chieftain has the best winning % for us, winning, I think, 3/4 games, with the fourth game being me in the middle as OC, 1 health, only managed to roll a 4-6 twice in twelve tries, allowing for someone (can't remember who) who had psychic combat to get to the middle and kill me when he had 1 hp left too. But second to him, it's been the dwarf all the way, how can you not rate him as a high tier char? He just needs 3 more craft, maybe 1 or 2 more str, a talisman and then he's off to the middle. That's a ring, a maiden and a talisman for anyone keeping score. Which I believe is all he had the fastest game of talisman I've ever played.

We draw 2 character cards and choose one, but I don't really like that you kinda get bummed out when you get someone like the thief or the warrior - who used to be someone you got at least fairly happy when you got before all the expansions. It's more fun if the chars are balanced than if they just keep getting better and better. Not to mention how much worse the Ghoul feels now, with the OC and Necromancer in the game. I liked the idea about items being better for one of the original chars, just to give them a bit of a boost. They just keep getting nerfed more and more as it is, being that there are less situations that the original characters are good in since there are more cards. Take the Sorceress for instance. When the Gnome used to be in almost every game (since you'd at least almost go through an entire deck every time you played), she was great. She's still not bad, but she's a lot worse off than she used to be.

Tomas_the_Thief said:

He can be a snappy chappy, but starting 3/3 doesn't really do him any favors one way or another. If he draws one of those Objects you mention, he can very quickly lose it to another char with more Str (or Craft if capable of psychic combat). Str 4 is sorta iffy for my taste, even with 5 Fate, Pits are a straight die roll. Str 5-6, then I feel more comfortable. Sadly, by the time Dwarf gets to say Str 5, Craft 6 (given the Adventure deck is nice and HUGE, lot more less than optimal stuff in there), at least one higher Str character is closing on double digits or a Craft character same on Craft.

With the Elf, the problem is also that if a place. or stranger card show up in all the woods, then the elf's wood warp is not so useful anymore.

When i have tested out the priest, he won the game. The Priest is not so bad as he looks like. But he must plan his moves very carefully.

Once he reach the temple, he will become a god

The Warrior's ability looks pretty low, but i can already imagine that if he holds 2 magic weapons in his hand (maybe fate stealer and another) then he will become pretty powerfull. + he has 2 dice, choose the highest)

I have not play with the thief yet. ( but stealing all the mules sounds fun to me)

New sneak peek at talisman island !

This time we see the Flight Potion ! A retro card from the Mountain expansion

And a new enemy card called: Thundercrest !

Flight Potion (3th edition)

You may drink this potion instead of rolling the dice for movement.

Discard the potion after you have used it.

The potion allows you to move to any space in the same region.

A short list about the cards what we have seen, and which type card it should/could be..

Adventure cards:

Eyrie Vanguard

Treasure cards:

Dreadwing..?

Highland cards:

Events:

Tumbling Boulder.

Enemies:

Harpy, Thundercrest

Magic objects:

Flight Potion?

Spell cards:

Simulacrum?

Velhart said:

So it's a Teleport spell (not really flight spell) but as an Object so Craft doesn't matter. Nice!

It would be nice to find out a little more about Thundercrest... hopefully.

I was wondering... "potions" are adventure card or special card like "spell-card"?

Mod_XXII said:

Flight Potion ( based on 3th) is a adventure card for Highlands.

( So, i think it's not a special card or spell card..)

Likely a Magic Object, like the Potion of Strength.... to be found in the Highlands deck.

JCHendee said:

Yes, i think that too.

The elixers from the reaper are also a magic object...

Velhart said:

My guess would be that Thundercrest will be in the same deck as Dreadwing. Though I don think it is fair to call it "Treasure cards". Rather some kind of Eagle deck that contains great eagle followers you get to draw from when defeating the Eagle King.

Hinnyboy said:

Yeah oke, but there is no other name how we must call those type cards..

So i have listed it as a Treasure card...

The Thundercrest don't look very friendly. i assume at this moment, that it will be a enemy

I hope we hear some news soon

There is talisman news

This time we see the vampiress !

I like her abilities !

Landing on characters to steal their followers, and she can also use them to gain lives

Plus she has the psychic attack abilitie too... NICE !

Wow, she is a phyco! If she lands on the graveyard she replenish both life and fate + she can take followers from other characters + phycic combat ability + gain life for followers and not to mention, she has 5 life. She is the ultimate evil

Yeah,

she don't have to worry about healing lives..

If she is evil, then she can go to the graveyard, and if she is good, then she can also go to the chapel

I would like to point out my amazing powers of fortune telling, although I got the gender wrong:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=130&efcid=1&efidt=296655

For my next trick, I will predict that the sun will come up tomorrow, and water will continue to be wet.

Man, I think I have to set up my own psychic phone service. I'll start practicing my Jamaican accent...