Yes he is pretty decent.  I think he is probably the best as a mid game replacement, especially if lots of unwanted objects are strewn about the board.

 Now that I have the Highland expansion I think that my favourite character has to be the Alchemist. What to do with that vast stack of gold? Potions, potions, potions...

My 5 favourite characters are as follows:

1: Sprite

2: Genie

3: Warlock

4: Dark Cultist

5: Troll

I also like the Philosopher, as I had a hand in the design of this character!

Ell.

I like the Gypsy. Someone in my circle always plays the Wizard or some other caster, so the Gypsy is always fun.

My top 5 characters i like the most at this moment are:

1 Vampiress

2: Swashbucker

3 Dark Cultist

4 Prophetess

5 Black Witch

My 5 top (including all expansion but not Mephisto specials)

5 Rogue

4 Knight

3 Warlock

2 Sage

1 Gypsy

In every game we have played, when the Gypsy has been drawn she is either the winner, or the first to breach the Portal. The only time she hasn't made it to the CoC, she was played by a new player who did breach the Portal first, but didn't have the stats to get around the Inner Region and was killed by the Vampire.

When the Sage is drawn, my players have learned to try and jusdge waht is coming by the Sages actions, which has lead to some hilarious "ambushes" as the player pretends to be in a hurry to find an open "Draw Card" spot, as well as intimidating players away from Draw Spaces when that nifty item/place/event is waiting as the next draw... "Oh no, I don't want to draw that!"

I have played the Warlock twice now and have had a blast both times. It funny watching the others scramble to "catch up" and get into themiddle region when they see the Warlock already there.

Best melee based character in my book. I'd choose him every time over any other "fighter" given the opportunity.

Rogue...ahhh the perfect foil tot he Alchemist..... run you gold hording elf, run, because I'll be looking for you...

-Salute

Well, since this is my 1st post, hi everyone.

In my group's battles we deal random, except for the times we're playing for he 1st time with a new expansion, when we pick randomly 3 cards to have more chances to find new characters. Anyway in our experience the most successful is the Warrior (4 wins over 32 plays), followed by Minstrel, Assassin and Knight with 3 wins each. Monk and Ghoul won twice and the others once, except for the Amazon, the Gypsy and the Swordman who are quite new and the Priest who totally sucks. We have only the Reaper and the Dungeon expansion sets for now, since we're italian and we have to wait some time for translations and shipments (but Frostmarch has just arrived..).

By the way I'd say that my favorites are the Dark Cultist (cuz I love to get stronger with every kill) and the Troll (easyyy) but I don't care for the statistics: I prefer the Priest to the Elf who is possibly the most boring character on history (IMO of course).

Hi, JTI. I'm new here too.

I like the Troll too... for some reason, both times I played him he ended up craftier than strong, and I won.

Elf is actually top of my list for one reason, which is exactly the same reason why most people hate him = Warping to woods allows him to permanently evade characters. Why is that good for me?

Because I hate…

Hate…

HATE…

HATE!!!

...PvP and CvC. I know I’m in the total minority for this, but to me, it’s the journey, not the rush to the CoC. And being beaten on and losing stuff to a “rich get richer, poor get poorer” PvP mechanism is something not fun (for me).

You’re in the Dungeon? I’m in the Highlands. You’re in the Middle region? I go to the Outer.

If, instead of random, we had “choose your own”, I’d be the Elf… every time.  I do my thing, and there's (almost) nothing you can do to me... ever... period.

This anti-PvP preference isn’t limited to Talisman. I hate shooter games where we deathmatch each other instead of co-operate. In City of Heroes, I avoid the PvP zones like the plague. Etc… I like Talisman despite PvP and character interaction, not because of it. If I could think up of a proper “co-operative” Talisman set of rules, I’d do that. But, such is not to be. It’s a testament to how much I love Talisman that I still play despite the PvP. Otherwise, it would go by the wayside like all the other “If you’re not having fun, why play?” kind of games.
 

Side Note = If I had to pick a second favourite = Assassin, RAW, because my rolling luck sucks.  I mean, I fail at the Chi Square test when it comes to random distribution.  *ME* not my dice, FYI.

The 12th game has been fought today!

It was the Priest vs prophetess.

i was playing with the priest, but i did everything what i could do at that moment. The idol was next to the chapel, so i was hanging around the idol to boost myself up, but i landed only 3/4 times on it in the whole game.

The Priest drew not so many enemies in the game,  and the prophetess was far more lucky with card drawing than the priest.

I was really getting bored with that character and that he was so weak through the whole game...

When the prophetess was around strength 17/18, while my priest was only strength 7, i give it up, and ended the game...

Battle royal was the endgame variant, so i could never beat the prophetess..

But i can't blame the priest. It was the unlucky draws and rolls that made him weak!

The statistics are as follows:

1: Assassin/ Prophetess 2 W

2: Wizard 2W/ 1 lose

3: Swashbuckler 1 W

4: Warrior, Druid, Warlock 1W/ 1 Lose

5: Elf, Dwarf 1 W/ 2 Lose

6: Philosopher, Priest, Monk, 1 Lose

7: Dark Cultist, Troll, 2 Lose

____________________

1. Amazon - Personal favorite, Love the combat re roll and the movement control.

2. Swashbuckler - Big fan of extra turns and drawing extra cards on the field.

3. Highlander - Love his interaction with the highland board and the chance to draw extra cards.

4. Ogre Chieftain - Love the figure, artwork and playing the high strength brute.

5. Gladiator - Always seem to collect hordes of followers with this guy.

6. Dwarf - Been liking the dwarf a lot more since the highland came out and he can interact with hills spaces there.

7. Druid - Looking forward to see how he goes with the sacred pool expansion.

8. Leprechaun - Fun character. You can see I like characters that interact with envirnomental spaces such as fields, woods, hills.

9. Elf - Same as above really, like the flavor of interacting with the woods.

10. Priest - Love playing the underdog and I love drawing the demon and smiting him down where most players would automatically lose a life.

I have some favorite characters like the Monk, Assassin, Elf, Prophetess, etc. When our group plays we each get dealt three random character cards. I always try to take the character that has the most usable skills and abilities because there is at no point in the game where you can loose or have your skills taken from you. So I don’t pick the Troll unless I have no other choice, although I did do really well with him the one time I did pick him. We ran out of play time but I think I would have won depending on how crazy the random alternate ending card would have been. I don’t play the knight because he just starts out with objects that can be quickly lost and then he’s just a guy with nothing but a wallet photo of himself dressed up as a knight.  The last time I won I used the Amazon, a simpler character but a better pick over the Minstrel or Leprechaun (IMO).  I've only won two or three times over the last dozen or so games, but letting your own kids or thier friends win Talisman is worth it, it's a much bigger deal to them when they win than it is when I win.

We have an intesting way of selecting characters.   First we deal out four random characters to every player.  These are not your guys but will belong to the player to your left.  Next you take one of these characters and discard it then pass the remaining three to the player on your left.  This weeds out any OP charcters.  Then after everyone has selected one of their three characters all the non selected characters and discarded ones are shuffled together.  Then a player may keep the one he picked from the three OR discard the one he selected and draw one guy from the deck which he must play.  We call this "true random" and it gives you a chance to play the OP characters or you might get stuck with a really bad one.  Either way if you didnt like any of your three it gives a chance for a new pick.  Anyway players seem to have more fun if they had some kind of choice in who they played instead of the standard one guy and thats it.

    Another optional variant we occasionally add to this is you are allowed on your turn to kill yourself and repick.  But since you can only die and come back as a new character two times this is a gamble (ie extra fun) and obviously also wastes a turn.   

        Here is our list of the most powerful characters in order top to bottom in our opinions

1) Ogre Cheiftan (gather a bunch of minions then beat the lord of the dungeon by more than eight go straight to crown)

2) Sprite (any spell engine chars are powerful and this one gets 2 in case you get stuck with one you cant cast like wiz does) -although the 1 Str can be problematic

3) Warlock (spells again and he wont get stuck with an uncastable keeping him from drawing more)

4) Prophetess (not only spells like wiz but also the whole discard advent card you dont like and redraw is really OP)

5) Wizard (spells again)

6) toss up between Swashbuckler, Amazon, Dark Cultist, Leprechan, Sage

                            Worst Characters = Minstril, Elf and Dwarf

Althought the game is so heavily luck driven that even a low tier char can still win game.

One question kinda unrealted to topic.  Cloak of Feathers- we use it that you can teleport in the inner region since there is no wording on it that says instead of rolling dice like the other teleporting powers say.  Are we doing this wrong?

Also we do the Alternate ending cards hidden BUT with the Warlocks Quest alternate ending SHUFFLED IN!  You take all the quests face down and put the warlock quest face up then keeping the facing same shuffle them under the table.  Then we put the stack on top of table roll a dice and move that many cards down into deck.  If its warlock quest its face up and we play it as if revealed.  If its not then it will be a face down ending and hidden.  Try it guys its the fun of both random and keeping warlock as an option.

Also we simply CAN NOT WAIT for any more expansions so im ordering 3rd Ed City of adventure off E-Bay and are gonna use the city and forest from it for the two unused ends of board. It should work right?.... the cards are in their own decks...

Well I apologize for getting off topic so much but this is my very first post guys so let me know what you think of how we play.

Who's the Master?

I came up with my own way to rate the base difficulty of the characters which I thought I'd try to explain here and possibly get some feedback.  I created this rating system with the intention of answering this question: "If all the players are equally skilled and the special abilities have minimal impact on how the character performs; which characters begin the game with the greatest advantage?"  It's easy to see that in one category like Strength, a Troll is stronger than a Sprite, but would strength always beat craft? Who is better overall? What happens if you are trying to see if a Wizard is better than a Druid?

Stat Scores:

I gathered the scores by rating the variation in levels amongst the 6 different stats: Life, Craft, Strength, Fate, Gold, and # of Spells.  I compiled all the variant levels in these stats then scored them to determine who was more competitive in each category, then added those scores together to determine their overall difficulty level.  For example there are only 3 variations in the points for Life (characters with 4 lives, 5 lives, or 6 lives)  So I scored them respectively 1 for 4, 2 for 5, and 3 for 6.* 

I did this for each of the 6 categories, and came up with something like this for the Wizard:  Life = 1point; Craft = 5 points; Strength = 2 points; Fate = 3 points; Gold = 1 point; Spells = 3 point; giving him a composite score of 15.

Difficulty Levels:

Running the numbers on each of the 37 characters, I found that there is a nearly evenly distributed variation in the composite scores making it seem to me that there may be some credence to the system or that I am at least close to figuring it out.  I rated the difficulty levels with: Very Easy (1), Easy (3), Somewhat Easy (7), Normal (12), Somewhat Hard (5), Hard (7) , Very Hard (2). So without further adieu:

Very Easy = Monk **

Easy = Dwarf, Priest, Wizard

Somewhat Easy = Druid, Gypsy, Leprechaun, Merchant, Minstrel, Necromancer, Valkyrie

Normal = Alchemist, Cleric, Elf, Ghoul, Ogre Chieftain, Rogue, Sage, Sorceress, Sprite, Troll, Vampiress, Warlock

Somewhat Hard = Amazon, Assassin, Knight, Philosopher, Prophetess

Hard = Chivalric Knight, Gladiator, Highlander, Magus, Swashbuckler, Thief, Warrior

Very Hard = Dread Knight, Dark Cultist

If I had enough game tests with players of varying skills, I was wondering if it would be possible to see if wins/loses would begin to correspond with these levels.  If you always gave a first timer the Monk, would he have a better chance at winning?  If you've been dominating your games, try going with the harder players and see if you lose your streak.

I also found that based on alignment, Good has a higher proportion of easy characters, and Evil has a higher proportion of difficult characters which made sense in the context of a fantasy narrative.  Good characters are better with Craft and Fate, and Neutral Characters are better with Life, Strength, and Gold, while Evil characters eek out a lead with Spells but place 2nd or 3rd in other stats overall.

NOTE:

*I know that with spells, there are characters who have an infinite supply of spells, so rather than running that point system as infinite, I just scored it at the starting # of spells.

** The monk is one of the weird exceptions because he automatically gets to add craft to strength giving him an inflated strength score.  Its one of the few special abilities that spill over automatically.

JTBeowulf said:

Dude, really, Priest ??? I'd never hand the Priest to a newbie, hell, I wouldn't want people I dislike to draw him, he sucks SO bad. With the Priest in the game, 3-player games pretty much becomes two horse races, possibly three horse if the Priest gets killed and replaced by a better character. Yes, the Priest can win, but it's one of the longest shots in Talisman.

JTBeowulf said:

This section includes six of the top-tier characters for me (no Sacred Pool, so no thoughts on the Cleric yet) and the Elf is nipping on the heels, so seven very good characters. Whereas the Ghoul along with Priest and Minstrel are the three worst.

JTBeowulf said:

Monk "only" adds +3 in battle. While nothing to scoff about at all, doesn't help him in natural Str checks like Portal of Power or Crypt. Of course helps him up his Str.