From the rule book I understand that duplicates can prevent a unique character from being killed or discarded. On the other hand, if I have a unique card in my dead pile I cannot play a copy of that card.

With that in mind, is it worth playing 3 copies of unique cards in my deck ? It seems that I run the risk of ending up with lots of dead cards in my deck.

Gerson said:

really more of a deck building question than a rules question. The answer varies from person to person. I tend to run 2x of people I want to see and help me win games i.e. STR boosting Robb, and run 3x of the guys that I really need for the deck i.e. The Blackfish. there are people who don;t run any dupes though for fear of drawing into a single 'dead' card.

It would probably also depend on what House you are playing. For example, Baratheon might as well run 3x Robert and 3x Mel if you have a deck full of Bodyguards, Lightbringer, etc - you have so many saves that hopefully they won't end up in the dead pile in the first place.

This question doesn´t have a correct answer, any person can have a different opinion about that. I think you should only play 3x of a unique character if it really really boosts your game. For example, that is typical of characters that let you draw more cards, like Blackfish, Jhogo or Val.

One possible exception is Targaryen. I have sometimes played 2x or 3x of some characters hoping that I could get back the dead ones with To be a dragon.

Asshai Initiate can make duplicate running in Bara easier too.