I'm in the lucky situation that I fancy most things of fantasy art and genre ;), so I like to play and/or try most characters. I will say the one I have had most success with, in all versions of Talisman is Prophetess and Dwarf and I also like them both very much.  The ability of the prophetess to get a second chance to pick any adventure card is, in my opinion, the single most valuable ability in the game, This, paired with her spell-cycling ability and her knowledge of all other players spells at all times, make it easy for her to dominate the flow of magic in the game. I always try to get her craft score at six as soon as possible so I can have three spells at hand whenever I can acquire them. She's weak in combat, but that is only one of the issues in Talisman. Having said that, I always hang on to a psionic blast card as long as possible with her. 

    Dwarf has a 50/50 chance of opening the portal from the get-go and likewise, his ability to manage the mines early on puts a constant pressure and anxiety amongst other players as soon as he hits the middle region. Then, throw in a few spells at hand and he is a formidable opponent. He also has good fate and lives, making him able to take a little beating from the strength characters now and then.

   Warrior is another character that is very strong and of course also is Wizard. 

  Of the other characters, I like the Sage from Grim Reaper and also the chivalric Knight from Sacred pool. Haven't played with other extensions, but Leprachaun sounds funny. So does Gypsy. 

    My least favorite character is assassin.  He pretty much depends upon landing on other characters, but I just find this ability of his to make other characters unable to roll the die very ridiculous. I know it is "assassin", but was there no other way to design him? Same problem with assasin as class exists in Warhammer Fantasy Role Play. He is the only character with 3 extra attacks, so often people just enter the assassin class to get that one extra attack then leaves it. I guess it is hard to design a good concept of the assassin in a game to begin with.  I actually think D&D 3.5 have one of the best applications of the assassin as class without making him too weird or overpowered. In Talisman, when we have assassin in play, everybody do their best to kill him/hurt him at all moments, making him less desired among us all. The interpretation of the rule that he can assassinate anything even encounter cards he picks is absolutely ridiculous, IMHO and we have never contemplated playing with such a rule as this is clearly the most over-interpreted rules-lawyer abuse I have ever seen in a game. WE start with three random cards each and pick one,  so if you pick the assassin, you were warned ;)

Dam said:

Sorry to disagree, but right off the bat I think you missed the point.  I'm trying to do an "all other things being equal" scenario to figure if you have two equally skilled players (not a newbie versus an old pro, but say, a bunch of complete noobs) which characters start the game with the highest numerical advantage in terms of points on their card?  If you had say, the Dark Cultist who starts the game with 3C 3S 4L 1G 1F = 12 points, and then you get a Wizard with 15 points and two spells, you've got a serious advantage with Wizard before you even start talking about special abilities.  That's how I'm trying to look at it.  While "mileage may vary" with each person's game skill and opinions will always vary on player preference (someone may always love the Assassin because she only loves taking out other players with that special ability), I still think this may statistically correlate with a more people's experiences.

Taking the priest as an example, he has second highest craft and the highest level of fate so with those two categories he's on the top end of craft characters AND has more points overall than all but 3 of 37 characters.  Same with Minstrel.  Both are high craft, high fate characters at the start before taking into account their special abilities.  The Warlock or Sprite might beat the Priest in craft by one point, but they don't have even half the fate tokens to spend at the start and I think that gives him a clear edge.  You might say "I don't think fate or gold or whatever makes a big difference when I play" but I'm thinking "if I ran these games thousands of times, would that small advantage show up?"  I think it might.

That said, when you do start to look at the Priest's ability to instant kill all craft enemies, he could just float past half the enemies in the deck without batting an eye.  "Demon card at the start of the game?  No problem."

JTBeowulf said:

Fate might be big IF the Priest could replenish it somehow, Good characters don't have access to Graveyard like Evil/Neutrals do. Plus, while the Minstrel's (another of the very bottom-tier characters) abilities at least somehow compensate for his Str 2 by allowing him to use a charmed Animal in battle as well as a weapon, Priest can't even use a weapon to boost himself! And this is from an AD&D veteran who didn't mind the only-blunt restriction. But really, no weapons of any kind!?

JTBeowulf said:

Except that for doing so he gets very little to no reward. Talisman is about increasing your stats, which the Priest's kaboom on Spirits doesn't provide, no trophy. And every character says no problem to a Demon at the start of the game, you only lose 1 Life even if defeated. Now, if you were forced to stick around until you kill the Enemy or are killed yourself (or somehow manage to Evade), then Priest might be nice. But with Str Enemies still more prevalent in the deck, meh. Like all Good characters, Priest's high starting Craft is partially useless since he can't attack in psychic combat and thanks to his kaboom ability, he doesnt' even need Craft in most psychic combats. Priest with Str 5, Craft 1 and the same abilities would be much, much better than the crappy 2/4. High Craft is only good if you have an ability like the Warlock's or Sprite's and/or can attack in psychic combat. Works as a defense against other characters attacking in psychic combat, but then, even if they only have a Sword, attack in battle as you have the edge (pun intended ).

The 13th game has been fought today!

It was Knight vs Philosopher

I was playing the Knight and i have draw some cards in the outer region. i also went to the middle region, but it seems that it is difficult to land on the temple. With those desert spaces, the middle region is still dangerous. I drew a warlock quest that says that i must give  character one gold, but i have not compete that quest in the whole game..

The Philopher has build himself up with a lot of craft, while the Knight has defeat a lot of strength type enemies.

We both move into the dungeon, and we drew a lot of dungeon cards. When the Knight has 3 lives left, he drew the Tinker Imp and another craft type enemie. My craft was lower, so i was trying to use  the ( Elixer of Wrath? or Rage?) that add 3 craft to my score or something, but i rolled a 2 that means i lose a life, and i also lost the psysic combat. The Knight has only 1 life left.

That moment, i decide to go back to the chapel, but it was a bad decision, because while i was moving back, the Philopher became stronger and stronger. He defeat the dungeon lord,... landed on the Crown of Command, and defeat me with the Crown, in 5 or 6 turns while i was moving forth to the dungeon.

We have only drew 37 adventure cards on the mainboard!  All the others are from the dungeon!

Nobody went into the Highland, because i thought it is a weak area to level up...

I must say that the dungeon expansion steals all the exciting adventure of the game, because you can level up quickly there.

The statistics are as follows:

1: Assassin/ Prophetess 2 W

2: Wizard 2W/ 1 lose

3: Swashbuckler 1 W

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

5: Elf, Dwarf 1 W/ 2 Lose

6: Knight Priest, Monk, 1 Lose

7: Dark Cultist, Troll, 2 Lose

_____________

I won 4 times, and my opponent has won 9 times

I was very close in some games, including this game with my knight..

The merchant.

Just love him!!!

My personal favourite is the Philosopher. Not because of his strength, but simply because he is a philosopher. I also like the Priest, the Monk, the Minstrel, the Merchant, the Valkyrie and the Cleric. As you can see, I mostly prefer "underdog" characters with a high Craft value, mostly because they are more challenging, and thus more fun to play. I don't mind if I could  have won with a more powerful character, as I enjoy the game in any case. And I always introduce new players to the game, so I am always destined to lose, in any case.

The Troll is one of my favorite characters, most out of nostalgia from the 2:e edition which was the first edition I played.

Another one is the Rogue. I think she has a good mix of different skills and a pretty high fate-value.

I have to say that the Dwarf is an under rated character in my opinion.  I always pick him.  He is a bit out classed if you have the other expansions as he is not as strong as some of the newer characters, but his abilities when it comes to end game are a boon in my humble opinion.  Plus he gets a lot of fate. 

Generally with my group, the first time around everyone gets to pick their character, but if they die and reenter the game, they have to randomly pick from the supply.  I think this is a happy medium between playing a character you like and trying something new that you would normally not think about playing.  My group is pretty good about picking diverse characters the first time around anyways.  While Dwarf is a steady stand by, I will sometimes pick something that is a bit harder to play like Priest, just for variety.

Its always funny to see someone play the Philosopher to end game when they have buffed up the character...its a bit funny to see a philosopher....with 10 strength.....

It would be the Minotaur (when it comes out), because my starsign is Taurus, or Highlander, because of my Scottish heritage. Gameplay wise I actually really like the Amazon and the Swashbuckler. I really like strength based characters and those two have a unique way of fighting without being based on raw strength, like the Troll and the Ogre chieftain.

My Top 5:

• Alchemist (His alchemize skills are very useful near the end of the game)
• Dark Cultist (Obviously, for her "Forces of Darkness" skill)
• Dwarf (Mainly because of his ability to roll 1 die at the Portal of Power, and 2 at the Mines)
• Gladiator (Due to his recruitment of followers, adding to your Strength in battle)
• Gypsy (Choosing to be unaffected by Events and picking up discarded spells is great)

Well, I guess those are the ones I'd pick. There are perhaps some I missed, and I can always find something interesting or useful in more or less every character, but this would be my Top 5 picks.

Der1 said:

It's not that weird, honestly. Plato was a wrestler, but he is perhaps better represented by the Sage.

My husband and I keep track of our wins and losses in one-on-one games, and we award scores to characters based on how much they win by (if they win by a lot, they get a higher score; if they win narrowly, their score is lower (though still higher than the losing character's score)). Our top 5, so far, are:

1. Alchemist (7 games played, undefeated, pwnage is consistently major)

2. Minstrel (2 games played, also undefeated. I'm thinking his wins were flukes, since he's kind of a weak character. Score will probably drop after another game or two.)

3. Prophetess (4 games played, undefeated)

4. Priest (1 game played, undefeated. Also a fluke probably... priest is lame.)

5. Sage (6 games played, 5 won)

And our bottom 5:

3-way tie for lowest:

1. Amazon (2 games played, 2 losses... another fluke, I think--before we started keeping track, I tended to win with the Amazon)

1. Magus (2 games played, 2 losses)

1. Merchant (2 games played, 2 losses... is anyone surprised?)

4-way tie for second-lowest:

2. Chivalric Knight (1 game played, 1 loss... this character has a disadvantage in games with fewer players, it should be noted)

2. Cleric (1 game played, 1 loss... her loss was narrow, though)

2. Philosopher (1 game played, 1 loss... another fluke; the philosopher is pretty strong, I think)

2. Thief (1 game played 1 loss... I always lose with the thief, but he's my favorite to play. I love watching everyone run away from me. :)

Jenna, how are you picking your characters? Just asking 'cos of the disparity between the number of games each char has been in. I prefer to keep the characters at a level space, so base and Reaper characters all have the same amount of plays, ditto for Dungeon, then Highlands and Frostmarch. In an ideal world, I'd want all characters from all expansions to have the same amount of plays, but oh well, pipedreams .

Dam,

We each roll a die to determine the number of characters we choose from. So, if he rolls a 1 and I roll a 6, I choose from 6 random characters and he's stuck with who(m?)ever he gets. We plan to play every character against every character eventually. We'll be like 80 when that happens probably, but it's a fun goal.