I was curious about the character rules and whether or not anyone thinks picking your own character among friends would still be a bad thing? I could see in some tournament etc, but do you feel that any of the characters are still unbalanced where you could pick that one that would just advance quickly in some way beyond others who did not get them?

By the way I only have the 4th revised and the two corner expansions. There just seem to be so many characters that I thought it has gotten more balanced and maybe more so with the three expansions I currently lack. Anyway feedback would be nice for those who play regularly.

Soulbearer73 said:

Characters in Talisman have never been balanced between them. Every expansion, including the base set, features some Characters that are clearly better than others. Some are "potentially unbalanced", others are "potentially weak".

Some personal evaluations and an overview of the expansions, to give you a general impression:

Base set

Weak: Elf, Priest

Average: Ghoul, Minstrel, Thief, Sorceress

Good: Druid, Dwarf, Monk, Troll, Warrior, Wizard

Possibly unbalanced: Assassin, Prophetess

The Reaper expansion

Weak: /

Average: Merchant

Good: Knight

Possibly unbalanced: Dark Cultist, Sage

The Dungeon Expansion

Weak: Philosopher

Average: Swashbuckler

Good: Amazon, Gypsy

Possibly unbalanced: Gladiator

The Frostmarch Expansion

Weak: /

Average: /

Good: Leprechaun

Possibly unbalanced: Necromancer, Ogre Chieftain, Warlock (the second one is for sure one of the most unbalanced characters in 4ER)

The Highland Expansion

Weak: /

Average: Highlander, Rogue, Valkyrie

Good: Sprite, Vampiress

Possibly unbalanced: Alchemist

The Sacred Pool Expansion

Weak: /

Average: Chivalric Knight, Dread Knight, Magus

Good: Cleric

Possibly unbalanced: /

The_Warlock said:

Only minor differences for the other sets (although Alchemist is straight up OP with the CoC ending and oddly Rogue is currently undefeated), but for base game, I would go:

Weak: Priest, Ghoul, Minstrel, Sorceress, Druid

Average: Assassin (not RAW Assassin, he's just ), Prophetess, Thief, Warrior

Good: Dwarf, Elf, Monk, Wizard, Troll

Only RAW Assassin would be unbalanced, never, in all the years of playing Talisman has the Prophetess been even above-average for us. Lower midtier in R4th.

Hi

Me and my friends play pretty regulary, and even track all kind of stats of our games. Different characters are good at different stuff in the game. For example if you have gypsy and no one else have caster then she pretty much suck, but she is very good if the other players are casters. I must say that all characters have their strenghts and weaknesses pretty balanced except 2 char's which imo are to powerful and I iwll explain why:

Alchimist: Well the problem is not that he can heal, replenish fate, or buy spells with his gold. The problem is that it's to easy for him to gain gold and I'm not talking about gold u get from cards or even gold from trinkets. But with all expansions there so many non-important magic objects and objects he can transmute that it's hard to stop him from getting items. The only change needed is to make him only be able to turn magic objects into 1g aswell and it's all good.

Assassin: His skill is not that imbalanced if you only play with the original board. But again with all expansions and especially dungeon there is so much strenght enemies that he easily get the snowball effect, and he actually don't need any items to progress and that should not be the case.

Warlock: Well he is not imbalanced but very strong due to two things, one that he starts in middle region and second that he starts with craft 5. If he had started with craft 4 everything would have been great. But ye it's not that big of a problem.

Persiatic said:

IMO Craft 4 or 5, it doesn't make a difference. He can still cycle two spells on each of his turns even with Craft 4, spell-cycling being his major ability. Just starting him on the Outer Region, City probably most thematic, he would very likely fall right into the middle of the pack, instead of being one of the top-tier characters. Str 2 + 1 Fate just doesn't cut it for long when you have Str 3+ people in the same region hunting you down. Middle Region start and immediate access to the Temple is a bigger issue for me than Craft 5.

Well the difference between 4-5 craft for warlock is regarding how easy it is for him to reach 6 craft and 3spells. I agree that easy access to temple is one part because with 1 fate he can easily get 1 more craft and cycle 3 spells. Which imo is a huge difference than 2 spells (much less chance to get stuck in spell cycling).

So yeah moving him to outer region would also solve the issue I guess =)

Dam said:

When I proposed the above ratings I was thinking mostly about the abilities and the "comfort" while playing, not the actual wins. Otherwise I would have stated that Ghoul is between the Good characters while Druid, Dwarf, Sorceress and Thief should stay in the Weak rank because they don't manage to win. Dwarf won only once in 8 games, when I did a 2-player with my girlfriend to teach her Talisman and I was outrageously lucky in drawing Maiden, Familiar and Solomon's Crown in a few Turns.

Yes, the unbalanced one is the RAW Assassin, but still he has won only 50% of the games he was in. Prophetess is in my opinion unbalanced due to the great advantage given by her Special Abilities. No other Character has abilities that are so often usable, you always feel sure and serene while playing, even if you don't come out as a winner. A Prophetess who is left free to draw cards and cast Spells will always win the games; only alliance of the other Characters against her AND some mistake by the player can bring her to a stop. The same is required with other Characters, especially Warlock & Ogre Chieftain. The latter could never be stopped, even by the cooperative action of 3 other players. He won all games he has been into, even without the Dungeon and with 3 different persons playing. We decided to ban him for now and perhaps one day we will see a game between all imbalanced Characters and see who's winning.

Thank you all for the input, I have been thinking over what has been stated. I do agree that some characters are OP and in some situations their specific rules allow them to have a very good advantage.

After discussing this with my friends we decided to just stick with the rules of random selections. The only thing we added is a one time mulligan. What we do is pick randomly our characters from the deck, that is the cards are fanned out in front of them. They choose and secretly look at their character. If they want to keep it they put it face down and keep it to themselves. If they do not like their first pick the card is shuffled back in and they pick again and that is what they must pick unless of course they die. Then they can re-pick for a new try at the game.

We figured that if you could pick your character it may take some people too long to pick and taking up game time, which can be hours long. I have all the expansions except the Frostmarch, and I am hoping for the re-print to be available soon so I can finish the collection.

Again, thanks for the input so far.

We use a random-draw-plus-one-veto system. Works great. (Same for Arkham Horror, btw.)

Alex