Hi guys! New player, first thread.

I bought my son Talisman for Xmas (and The Reaper about a week later), and we're having a lot of fun with them, except: I keep winning, and my boy's getting a little demoralized. I try to go easy on him, but in this game, the smart path to take is usually pretty obvious - and if I start doing dumb things just to lose, he'll catch on. So I'm hoping there are some 'disadvantaged' characters I can take in the future, to let him rack up some wins.

Here's who we've played so far, with the winner (me) in bold:

• Game 1: Warrior vs. Sorceress
• Game 2: Monk vs. Dwarf
• Game 3: Knight vs. Dark Cultist (killed, replaced with) Merchant

By memory, I'm thinking the Elf might be a little lacklustre, and possibly the Troll. I really want to play the Sage, but I'm avoiding him because I think he'd give me another win!

So, can any of you old pros lend some advice?

I usually find its harder to play a character with lower strength when playing with only these two boxed sets. So there are a number of characters with a starting strength of 2 that you should try. The sorceress seems to be a least favorite character of many people that has a strength of 2. The Troll and the Sage because of their strengths and abilities are actually some of the Stronger characters. Of course all of this is debatable, and if you get some lucky adventure cards it can quickly even the game out. But I would start there.

Also, here are some other ideas to try: Encourage him to try to go to the Adventure card spaces, rather then spaces like the Tavern or City for example (unless he really needs something on those spaces). The more adventure cards you can draw, the better chances of drawing something good (even a monster is good cause it can help you level up in strength or craft). Also, getting up to that second tier once you have a strength of 5 or 6 is usually a good idea because there are spaces with 2 and 3 Draw Adventure Cards. If your drawing 3 cards, thats like having 3 turns in 1, and should help advance your character sooner. An important one is if your character ever gets down to 2 lives or less, try to heal those lives at all costs. Its very easy to think your safe with 1 life, only to have your opponent draw a plague card and then everyone loses a life, and suddenly your dead. Lastly, persistence, sometimes it just takes a bunch of times of playing the game to get used to it. I beat a friend of mine 4 times in a row when we started playing, and then she preceded to win the next 3 games after that, so dont give up.

Weakest base game characters: Priest (hands down the "winner"), Ghoul, Sorceress, Minstrel

Weakest Reaper char: Given the win-loss record of the characters, I'd actually say Knight.

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/402911/my-talisman-statistics

Talisman is all about luck.

You can still lose the game with a very good character.

Base+reaper characters

strong: Prophetess, Dark Cultist, assassin.

Good: Thief, Druid, Warrior, Knight, Elf

Average: Minstrel, sorceress, monk, merchant, sage (have not play the sage yet)

Low: dwarf, troll, wizard.

very low: Ghoul, Priest

____________

This is how i look at it.

I. J. Thompson said:

I think that the Dark cultist should have won from the knight. But it seems that she did not have much luck in that game

Elf is still good. If you want to use his full ability, then you must wood warp all the time, until 3 woods spaces are covered

Thank you for the replies, guys!

Yes, the Dark Cultist was killed very early on, I don't recall how. I think she had had, at most, one kill before she was wiped out. I expect better from her in the future.

And that list linked above was very interesting!

Thanks again.

As others have said. Priest by far and away worst character in the game.

Velhart said:

What Velhart says it's true. Luck is primary factor in Talisman, so I tend to consider "strong" Characters that have useful abilities that do not depend on luck in any form, being luck involved in dice rolling and in card drawing. Stats above average are good; abilities that do not have dice results/land on/encounter specific card requirements are the best.

This is my opinion having played all of these Characters:

Excellent: Assassin, Prophetess, Sage

Good: Dark Cultist, Druid, Knight, Troll, Warrior, Wizard

Average: Dwarf, Merchant, Minstrel, Monk, Thief, Sorceress

Weak: Elf, Ghoul, Priest

Some notes to justify the ranking:

Assassin automatically wins most Strength combats. No luck involved in battle is a dream for players afraid of dice.

Prophetess replaces bad cards she draws and only seldom the replacement is equal or worse than the first draw. Moreover, she looks at other Spells and has always one Spell...

Sage is slightly worse than Prophetess because he's bound to dice rolls if he wants to get/avoid the Adventure card that he peeks at. Luckily, he has free Fate on movement roll! He gets a Spell at the beginning of his turn.

Dark Cultist could be an Excellent one, but the first turns of the game are really hard for her, especially if other players know that she has to die now or never. If she can face some Enemies and gain a lot of gifts early on she will easily win, otherwise the game will be over soon.

Druid and Wizard have good access to Spells and a balanced set of useful abilities

Knight, Warrior and Troll are excellent fighters for different reasons and being strong in battle at the beginning is usually better than being strong in psychic combat.

Dwarf is a good rushing Character, but his abilities are all related to cards in the base set. He's very effective with base set but loses potential with expansions.

Merchant and Minstrel are interesting to play, but they are bound to the cards they draw. They can protect themselves, but nothing more. Minstrel needs to charm an Animal to have a chance.

Monk should be part of the good fighting Characters but he has Weapon/Armour limitation which is too bad. He has a permanente +3 in battle and that's good, but he's 2/3 at the beginning. No Spells.

Thief is good at stealing but that's it. If you cannot run away from angry Characters you'll get beaten and lose your loot.

Sorceress could be better if she had regular access to Spells. The capability to take a Follower is good, while the die roll to take an Object is lame. Better use the psychic combat option instead.

Elf is not considered weak by most players, but I saw this Character in great difficult in all games he has shown in; it has good stats, but an ability that forces him into a fixed strategy that can easily be disrupted by a couple of bad draws.

I consider Ghoul to be weak because of his abilities, but luck granted him a bunch of victories (4 out of 8 games played).

I like Priest a lot, despite his limitations and lame abilities. I almost won a game with this Character, if someone hadn't drawn a Gong of War just before reaching the Demon Lord.

The_Warlock said:

My take on the Sorceress!

Spot the differences?!

Ell.

Ell.

I see, but stealing Spells from Characters is neither as good as taking Followers, the ability you exchanged for balance, nor as good as have at least 1 Spell or draw a Spell at the beginning of your Turn. Everybody may have Followers, while there will be games without spellcasters; what will this Sorceress do, then? No edge against the others.

Now the no.1 Follower-gatherer is the Vampiress, a much more efficient Character than the Sorceress. Perhaps the Spell-stealing ability could be added to the standard abilities, just to give this Character a source of Spells. Or will she become too powerful? I don't think so.

The courtisan has also the nr 1 follower ability.

And her first ability is slightly better than the beguile ability. courtisan can always gain a gold or a object, depending what the player choose.

In addition, that character that she stole from, must miss a turn too

_________

I think it's not good to delete the follower ability from the sorceress to change it for that spell ability.

Taking followers is better, if you have all the expansions.

Good grief... so tonight my son played the Assassin and I played the Ghoul... and I still beat him!

He basically did everything right, I think my luck was just better, overall. That, and drawing a 'strength pool' (I forget the actual name) in the Outer Region and getting all four cones, while he was hacking away in the Middle.

Next game: Prophetess vs. Priest!

My winning streak is over! My son's Prophetess whooped my Priest in a record 75 minutes (our prior games had all taken about 3 hours).

Thanks again for the info and advice, all!

I let my youngest play the Troll. He likes being the big tough monster type, and he's very competitive against anyone with the Troll. But it sure sucks facing him at the Crown with all that strength...

I. J. Thompson said:

Just in case anyone was in any doubt that the already feeble Priest was nerfed in this revision and so is easily the weakest character.

Glad to be of help - hope you enjoys many years exploring the realms of Talisman with your son.