Greetings Fellowship,

My group and I started a (socially-distanced) campaign for Shadowed Paths. This was a large majority of the group's first time with JIME, and it's been a huge success! Everyone cued into it quickly, commenting on how fun and engaging it was (while still chiding me for not playing a "real tabletop RPG", but that's fair).

The one thing that I'm trying to encourage is trying out different character classes, particularly in the early game (we've completed the first two chapters). I think a lot of it has to do with that most are not so familiar with the game yet, so they may not realize how fun it is to tailor your character build to virtually exactly how you like it. I was curious if anyone would be able to recommend some good classes for our party?

The party is as follows:

• Aragorn; Captain
• Arwen (me); Herbalist, Musician
• Gandalf; Meddler
• Gimli; Guardian
• Balin; Delver

I'd tend towards not multiclassing until you've got 12 or at *least* 7 XP in a given class. Herbalist is an okay one to multiclass after one mission, since one of the 3-cost cards has a fate symbol, but largely speaking you don't want to add blanks to your deck permanently. (Guardian has a success at 7 XP, too, which is excellent)

Aragorn - Captain is a great role and it works well on him. He might not be a bad choice for Pathfinder/Traveler though? Hunter if you need some extra damage.
Arwen - Herbalist and Musician are a bit different, but this will allow you to really stack up the healing effects. She might really like the mobility of Pathfinder later on in the game to make sure she can get to people when she needs to heal them, but if you don't find that difficult then sticking to Herbalist/Musician is probably fine.
Gandalf - Meddler really is designed for him, I think, and nothing really stands out as a particularly good multiclass option. Maybe he could take Captain if Aragorn drops it? Extra scouting seems strong on Gandalf.
Gimli - Smith is definitely a strong role for characters who are fighting a lot and have lower inspiration limits. Guardian/Smith Gimli sounds really fun to me.
Balin - I'm not entirely sure how Delver is at higher levels, I'll be honest? But my little bit of experience with Balin leans me towards him being another decent option for Traveler/Pathfinder potentially. The other way you could go with him is Burglar, as there are at least a couple cards that pair nicely with some Delver stuff (like the one that benefits you having "Shadow" cards prepared).

11 minutes ago, SpiderMana said:

Balin - I'm not entirely sure how Delver is at higher levels, I'll be honest? But my little bit of experience with Balin leans me towards him being another decent option for Traveler/Pathfinder potentially. The other way you could go with him is Burglar, as there are at least a couple cards that pair nicely with some Delver stuff (like the one that benefits you having "Shadow" cards prepared).

Interesting. Balin seems to thrive as an explorer. Either with Delver, not sure how it holds up later aswell, or with traveler and/or Pathfinder.

How has multiclassing worked out for you so far? Does it feel like your spreading the character over too much cards or has it shown great synergy?

6 hours ago, circus1943 said:

Interesting. Balin seems to thrive as an explorer. Either with Delver, not sure how it holds up later aswell, or with traveler and/or Pathfinder.

How has multiclassing worked out for you so far? Does it feel like your spreading the character over too much cards or has it shown great synergy?

Multiclassing is definitely worth it, IMO. Sometimes it’s fine not to multiclass, but being able to pick and choose which cards you want from each role is really strong.

Considering the starting role cards is almost as important. If you know what the next mission is throwing at you, swapping away from, say, Traveler when you’re going to be on a Battle Map, or Hunter when it’s gonna be a social encounter, isn’t a bad idea.

On 8/4/2020 at 12:50 AM, circus1943 said:

Interesting. Balin seems to thrive as an explorer. Either with Delver, not sure how it holds up later aswell, or with traveler and/or Pathfinder.

How has multiclassing worked out for you so far? Does it feel like your spreading the character over too much cards or has it shown great synergy?

Swapping classes depending on map type is ideal. If you want to power level, the ideal goal is to get the 12xp cards you want from the first class, then swap to the final class and get those 12xp cards. The goal is to end up with a deck full of successes and powerful abilities.

A more role-playing friendly version is to swap classes in/out depending on the map type. For example use a fast moving class with a lot of sprints for journey maps, then swap to the healer for battle maps. Hunter for journey/Guarding for battle.

The exception to this is the new role Meddler. Since it has 16xp cards and you don't have to put a non-success in the deck you are better off sticking with that role for the entire campaign as you won't have any spare XP left over (maybe the finale to get the best starter cards).

On 8/3/2020 at 9:53 AM, Kunitzu San said:

Greetings Fellowship,

My group and I started a (socially-distanced) campaign for Shadowed Paths. This was a large majority of the group's first time with JIME, and it's been a huge success! Everyone cued into it quickly, commenting on how fun and engaging it was (while still chiding me for not playing a "real tabletop RPG", but that's fair).

The one thing that I'm trying to encourage is trying out different character classes, particularly in the early game (we've completed the first two chapters). I think a lot of it has to do with that most are not so familiar with the game yet, so they may not realize how fun it is to tailor your character build to virtually exactly how you like it. I was curious if anyone would be able to recommend some good classes for our party?

The party is as follows:

• Aragorn; Captain
• Arwen (me); Herbalist, Musician
• Gandalf; Meddler
• Gimli; Guardian
• Balin; Delver

I think Gimli would be good as a Smith. Unbowed would help with his inspiration cap and Elf Wrights' Grace and Cirith Inscription would provide good attack options. Forge's Fire is a good one too, especially with that success hungry Axe.

I think Balin would make a good Pathfinder after you got a few Sprint cards from the Delver role. You would be able to pretty consistently trigger Trailblazer with all that Sprint.

Gandalf I think works well as an Herbalist. Both Phosphorescence and Curiosity work well with Gandalf's personal ability.