Some time back, I was reading an old thread on boardgamegeek about single archetype parties. That got me curious about playing a party like that, since it would radically alter the flow of the gameplay.
I decided I would play an all-warrior party, using the RTL app. I chose the RTL app for numerous reasons, including
-Time allows my playgroup to do only one campaign at a time, and we wouldn't want to spend 2-3 months on a "gimmicky" group.
-I could knock this out in probably a few weeks
-One person would control all hero choice
TL:DR: Went well until Act II. Then everything crashed in a tremendous fiery explosion, with only the Farrow brothers standing when the ash fell.
===Be warned this has potential spoilers* for the Kindred Fire campaign===
I decided on the Kindred Fire campaign. This is because I haven't yet completed Embers of Dread or Seeds of Corruption, and I want to experience those with a serious party.
I selected Trenloe the Knight, Orkell the Skirmisher, Reynhart the Champion, and Tahlia the Berserker.
I knew going into it that conditions would be a major problem, and while warriors are tough, healing would be limited to health potions and a handful of inefficient/unreliable items.
When you know you're in for a long ride with health potions (that you may never find) as your only healing method, taking three damage from an attack is very serious. Usually.
=====Introduction=====
This went quite well. The beginning was rough; a zombie activation required a might or willpower test- fail, you're terrified. Everyone failed the might test. You "might" call that unlucky. I did not opt to get the relic available in this quest. I didn't feel a need for it with my party choices.
I one-rounded Wrath Incarnate, so that was nice.
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Heading into the next quest, I purchase
-Brute for Tahlia (health is really valuable here)
-Defend for Trenloe, (I want to direct as much damage as possible on him to get the most out of health potions) In retrospect, that was a terrible choice. Rounds where Trenloe wasn't a legal target were rare.
-Glory of Battle for Reynhart. (I've never played a champion without buying this first)
=====Tombs of Kayladorn=====
Very little to say about this one- I got quite lucky with the game selecting an Ice Wyrm as a boss. When most of your party is rolling Blue/Red... in the words of Hiccup Haddock, "I don't want to fight dragons."
I head back to town and get a Deflecting Shield for Trenloe (I LOVE this shield, I was really happy to see it, though in this party the Shield of Light would be better) a Jeweled Mace, and the Mana Weave. This will probably be passed around a lot, since I have no heavy armor right now. (Spoiler alert- I never passed it around for some reason or other.)
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=====Saving Kildarth=====
Beginning the next story quest- the one where you have to save Kildarth from Merick. I ignored the northwest door entirely, choosing to take the caves to the south, grab the relic, and come up through the locked door. Tahlia did get immobilized, but she was able to use her hero ability to keep moving.
Merick again went down quickly. Orkell and Reynhart were pounding him. I forgot about Aftershock during these attacks, but it would not have made a difference, especially with such high willpower in this party. That duo got Merick down to 3 health, and Trenloe, using some judicious Oath of Honoring, got up there and landed the finishing blow. (While ankle-deep in lava. Absolute mad lad.)
I purchase Unstoppable for Orkell, Stoic Resolve for Reynhart (I usually get Motivating Charge) Shield Training for Trenloe, and Whirlwind for Tahlia. Even with the multi-attack nerf in RTL, I still expect Tahlia to get a lot of movement points out of this skill. (My record is currently 4 movement points in one go. Good, but we all know 16 is *possible*.)
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I want to note that I am now three quests deep into this campaign and I am yet to roll an X with Reynhart. This man is well equipped to deal with Xs, but Trenloe is hogging them for his heroic feat.
=====Hunting a Dragon=====
Then I played the quest where you're hunting Ethas. Fortunately, she was an Ice Wyrm, rather than a Shadow Dragon. I made a major mistake here- I ran Orkell with move+stamina around her to get the search token, forgetting about her freezing aura. He should never have reached the treasure- he should have been exhausted and unable to go further almost immediately. Or died, whichever came first. Or do they come at the same time? He died anyways. I guess Ethas really wanted to eat a muscular stick. The treasure wasn't even worth it.
I marched forwards with the other three, and they quickly took care of Ethas. I had lost 1 Morale at this point.
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I had a choice- go on to the next story quest, or do a side quest. I opted for town, since I had 26 fame at this point. (Tombs of Kayladorn gave me buckets of fame). I picked up the Black Iron Helm and the Mace of Aver.
=====Boom Quest=====
This next quest- where you exit a cave and go around a pass to kill Merick- got very hectic by the end, but we still won. No deaths this time- although it would have been a very different story if Orkell hadn't killed the master broodwalker in the last room.
Picked up some extra XP and the Bloody Dagger in town. I finally bought Motivating Charge for Reynhart, and Weapon Mastery for Tahlia. Since the Bloody Dagger is a blade (I had no idea a sharp dagger covered in blood was a blade- blew my mind) Orkell's damage goes through the roof with the right skills.
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=====A Student of Questionable Morals=====
I head for the side quest where you dispose of a corrupt student. The guy in question, Bowe Wolfe, was twice killed with a total of 3 actions from Orkell the Skirmisher with the Bloody Dagger. Orkell averaged 7 damage dealt each attack, which is much better than I expected. I always looked at the dagger very critically, since a good attack would cost as much as 4 stamina using Dual Strike, and if you didn't take Unstoppable, you could miss.
I lost Trenloe once due to forgetting to spend a valor token on defense. Even though everyone was regularly stocked with valor.
After soundly winning this quest, I head off to the interlude, Defense of Thelys. Do I throw this quest? I really do want the relic...
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=====The Defense of Thelys=====
I went through and easily cleared all the monsters. I lost Reynhart due to an unfortunate poison test, but he was the only casualty. Killed the boss with 2 health remaining on Sir Kane, and rescued all but one soldier. I rushed to rescue that guy dangling over the lava pit (every other time I’d played that quest, he fell and went sploosh in the lava). When I was running to do that, one of the guards in a cabin ran away… at least he isn’t dead. Probably.
I got one of the weaker Act II weapons (Mace of Kellos) but picked up the Rune Plate.
In retrospect, I should have thrown this quest. I needed that relic.
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=====Saving another party of heroes=====
First to a side quest: the Oath of The Outcast one. This started out really hard, especially because of Cave Spiders near the beginning. They have ridiculously strong attacks in Act 2, and there are lots of them. I eventually made it out thanks to Orkell's hero ability.
That was rough. Reynhart died once or twice. Why is this guy dying but Orkell isn't?
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I took a week off. (a literal week)
=====Splig’s totally bizarre appearance in this campaign=====
(I much prefer his Labyrinth of Ruin arc)
Heading into the Glade of All Illusions. This... where do I start? I can't blame it all on bad luck. I can think of several points where I could have regrouped for a better chance. However, I failed an improbable amount of attribute tests and rolled many Xs during crucial attacks. The kobolds also rolled an inordinate amount of surges. And Stun seemed bandied about like candy from various sources.
I failed the attribute tests for the portals multiple times (with attributes of 4) this resulted in my hero party splitting up. My most vulnerable hero Reynhart was alone in a section with kobolds. (Didn't last a round). I sent Tahlia after him. Deciding quickly they couldn't deal with the kobolds alone, she scored 12 movement points with double Whirlwinds and left to join Trenloe. Orkell had joined Trenloe earlier. They dealth with the trolls quite quickly, but Trenloe rolled 4 Xs in a row when attacking an illusion. (Over 3 attacks- I used a power potion to reroll an X and got another X) He shrugged off Splig's hits, but I felt a bit sour about that luck. The illusion was a close call- Orkell threw everything he had at it, getting a perfect roll. With this setup, it was 11 wounds with the Bloody Dagger. The illusion rolled 7 shields with 3 bonus shields. Barely got it.
I took a chance with Reynhart. I stood him up, hoping next round to kill the kobold blocking the portal and run- but I forgot the other monster group in that area had not yet activated. He died again.
About this time (Tahlia had died once, from a Splig activation giving him pseudo Blast) the rest of the group heading to fight Kobolds. It went well- Tahlia scored 8 additional movement points and ran towards the illusion (this would be the third illusion so far) then I lost my last moral from Reynhart dying again.
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=====Prison Break=====
And the prison break that wasn’t really a prison break because I rescued 2 people and left the rest to die because I didn’t want to die because the prisoners all would die anyways if I didn’t stop Merick except everybody died a few weeks later because I didn’t stop Merick
I played the Prison side quest next. This one went awful- Skeleton Archers ko'd 18 health Tahlia in one activation. More Xs. Also, I need to stop splitting up the party- it's bad for morale.
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I squeaked by the first act 2 quest. The next two where terrible losses. Not feeling optimistic about the finale.
==The End==
I rushed the Finale- it went more or less as I expected.
The finale started reasonable well, very little trouble until I got to the illusions. I had taken too much hurt at this point, but I slugged it out and got 3 of the first 4 (one required a ranged attack, of which I had none). I couldn't even touch the last 4, since Crypt Dragons and Demon Lords appeared. I had lost Tahlia and Reynhart at this point, with Orkell dying once. I snagged the key and took it to the Farrows.
It was too much. Even Trenloe was at risk of death. Then Reynhart died again, and it was over.
Final Thoughts?
Act 1 was fun and different. Act 2 was incredibly brutal and not actually enjoyable. The lack of ranged attacks meant I was eating more attacks than a typical balanced party. I think a party of all Scouts would probably do well. Healers too- there are healer builds dripping in damage, and they'll never die. Mages could work with familiar/image spam, but they aren't nearly as durable as warriors.
Was it a fun experiment? At first... I think playing Rise of All Goblins would get you the single archetype experience in a much more digestible form. Or the Delve. Not having a healer (and having to rely on health potions, which you can't count on even finding) is a huge drawback in Act 2 especially.
Now that it’s over, I can finally get to completing Seeds of Corruption. And after that, Embers of Dread. Serious parties this time.
Edited by Lightningclaw