Looking to head out on a solo adventure with the three dwarves!

Ive used Gimli before, although found him underwhelming with suggested starter items/class.
And I have no experience with the new dwarves or classes.

Turning to brighter minds for some tips and suggestions!

You might find some useful info in here: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2453000/humans-elves-or-dwarves

Have fun planning!

I'll basically copy my post from the above linked thread.

I think I've settled on what my Dwarf party would be.

Gimli - Battle Axe - Smith

Dis- Hammer - Captain

Balin- Sword - Shield - Delver

Gimli would be my high damage output since he could finally hit Max damage on the Axe consistently with Forge's Fire. Hammer has pretty efficient damage/success so I'd be fine without lots of extra success symbols and let Dis Lead the Charge a lot. Balin would be more of the explorer with lots of Sprint and would really thrive in Darkness. Even though I think the Elves or Humans would probably be better all-around parties, the Dwarves sound kind of fun!

41 minutes ago, Birdman137 said:

I'll basically copy my post from the above linked thread.

I think I've settled on what my Dwarf party would be.

Gimli - Battle Axe - Smith

Dis- Hammer - Captain

Balin- Sword - Shield - Delver

Gimli would be my high damage output since he could finally hit Max damage on the Axe consistently with Forge's Fire. Hammer has pretty efficient damage/success so I'd be fine without lots of extra success symbols and let Dis Lead the Charge a lot. Balin would be more of the explorer with lots of Sprint and would really thrive in Darkness. Even though I think the Elves or Humans would probably be better all-around parties, the Dwarves sound kind of fun!

This sounds like an awesome plan! Hoping to have a few days off soon to do some planning.

Thanks for the tips!

31 minutes ago, circus1943 said:

This sounds like an awesome plan! Hoping to have a few days off soon to do some planning.

Thanks for the tips!

I should say I haven't thought through armors yet, but I tend to lean toward the Cloaks. If I were to use Ring-Mail, I would give Twice-Wrought Ring-Mail to Balin as an inspiration engine that pairs well with the shield. I wouldn't plan to upgrade past Tier 2 on that one. I may also think about going Ring-Mail for Gimli, upgrading to Wrath's-End to raise my Spirit by 1 if I decide to go with Honor-Knell at Tier 3. Not sure yet though.

Let me know what you end up choosing and how it goes!

1 hour ago, Birdman137 said:

I should say I haven't thought through armors yet, but I tend to lean toward the Cloaks. If I were to use Ring-Mail, I would give Twice-Wrought Ring-Mail to Balin as an inspiration engine that pairs well with the shield. I wouldn't plan to upgrade past Tier 2 on that one. I may also think about going Ring-Mail for Gimli, upgrading to Wrath's-End to raise my Spirit by 1 if I decide to go with Honor-Knell at Tier 3. Not sure yet though.

Let me know what you end up choosing and how it goes!

Will probably be a while before I get some game time. Non-stop work for the forseeable future.

Have barely had the time to look through the new classes, sadly. Which is why Ive turned to the hive-mind.

How does this game scale up? I mean, does it get harder with three or four characters as opposed to two? Does it get easier? Does it change at all?

There was actually a thread just started on BGG to discuss that very question. Here's the link in case you're interested:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2475279/how-it-5-players

I seems to vary based on experience a bit. The app tries to keep thing about even as you change player count. With more players, it spawns more enemies. You get more actions per turn, but threat also increases faster. It seems that high player counts can be unforgiving to the novice player because you can get overwhelmed by enemies quickly. For more experienced players, large parties seem to make the game a bit easier.

I've played mostly 2P, but also finished a campaign on 3P and one adventure each with 4P and 5P. I found 3P to be easier than 2P. The 4P and 5P games I played were well balanced and fun as well.

My 3 Dwarf campaign went pretty dang well. Ember Crown, and I think I only lost one adventure, which was largely my own fault for trying multiple times at an agility test that I could've circumvented if I'd played smarter

Gimli- Captain, Sword/Hatchet, Ring Mail
Dis- Smith, Sword/Sling, Ring Mail
Balin- Meddler, Staff/Horn, Traveller's Cloak

I ended up multiclassing Gimli into Delver for a couple missions, then back to Captain. The extra scout at the beginning of each mission allowed me to get Dis in a great position very consistently, and I would rate it very highly among starting role cards.
Balin multiclassed into Traveller at the same time, and then I believe I gave him Guardian for the last mission since it was a battle map. Meddler was a great source of inspiration early on using Nosy, and I enjoyed using the card that allows you to have up to 6 prepared cards in conjunction with the card that has you scout 4 and prepare 3 extra. Made him very strong when I could get that combo off.

As for weapon combos, the Wit Sword with the upgraded Sling does insane damage, especially against elite targets. Obviously Dis would be better off using Might or Spirit, but she fared just fine as it was. The staff/horn wasn't a particularly great combo but it worked okay, and being able to stun people and leave the space is a nice touch later on. Balin was definitely more of a scout anyways, leaving most of the fighting to the other two.

Edit: To clarify, this was my first full campaign with Shadowed Paths, so I wanted to try out new weapon combos very badly. The Sword/Sling is probably the best combo of the bunch, though I don't know who the best character for it would be as our only Wit 4 so far is Bilbo, who only has 1 hand. The duelling sword is a great option for him, though, I'd think, having seen how much damage he can do with a dagger.

21 minutes ago, SpiderMana said:

My 3 Dwarf campaign went pretty dang well. Ember Crown, and I think I only lost one adventure, which was largely my own fault for trying multiple times at an agility test that I could've circumvented if...

Great tips! Sounds like a fun party. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to playing full dwarf party!

1 hour ago, SpiderMana said:

Gimli- Captain, Sword/Hatchet, Ring Mail
Dis- Smith, Sword/Sling, Ring Mail
Balin- Meddler, Staff/Horn, Traveller's Cloak

I'm curious how Gimli played for you? Which upgraded Ring-Mail did you go with? Were you able to utilize both his weapons well? Captain doesn't have a lot of inspiration generation so how did you generate inspiration for him?

3 hours ago, Birdman137 said:

I'm curious how Gimli played for you? Which upgraded Ring-Mail did you go with? Were you able to utilize both his weapons well? Captain doesn't have a lot of inspiration generation so how did you generate inspiration for him?

He was great. Like I said, Captain really enabled Dis to get set up with her Fire Hearts and stuff. Dis had the +agility ring mail so I gave Gimli the one that makes all damage facedown. As for weapons, having one ranged weapon for both Dis and Gimli helped immensely with action economy. Dis preferred to attack in melee range because that sword is so dang efficient, but I don't really recall what the sword was like for Gimli as well. I'm sure he did more damage in melee range though.

I got the Warg-Pendant early which I threw on him just for the extra inspiration (Dis could've used it with her wit weapons, but she had a better pierce option anyways). Either way, Captain helps him scout and he can put successes back on top after attacking, so he doesn't need inspiration as much as most characters if he's fighting enough. Plus throughout the campaign Balin was able to generate some inspiration for the others as needed with Nosy, and then with Traveller cards.


OH, I almost forgot, the other big thing that helped me out was preparing Fury on Gimli and Dis whenever I could. It really maximizes their damage output while mitigating their low inspiration limits. I don't think I realized when playing with the core that you were spending fate results, rather than inspiration, which makes so much more sense for the dwarves with the 3-limit (Dis to a slightly higher degree, since she can add fate symbols with Fire Heart as needed).

Some great tips and ideas in here. Hoping to bring the game to the table soon. Maybe even with painted figs!