A healer with lots of stamina the Tinkerer is one of the champion characters. The Brute-Tinkerer duo lacks damage and while the Spellweaver can provide a lot of it in bursts, there will be downtime that can cause some problems. teammates. This party composition is very strong but also very unforgiving - you mostly lack on-demand crowd-control and have very little healing, so if you get in trouble by being careless or a few bad flips, you can get heavily punished. From among the group of Gloomhaven classes, the brute is the tank and often useful for some early success in your quest. You will be experimenting with the various contraptions like you can summon decoys, or throw smoke bombs. Spellweaver - the Spellweaver is a half way between the safety of the Tinkerer and the power/risk of the Mindthief (up next). Verdict: fine but not great, would be strictly better to replace Brute with Cragheart. And you can certainly create a party that works well with the Tinkerer. And sometimes the poor tank needs a break. Tinkerers, they use cards to lose it. Ranged attacks are put at disadvantage when targeting an adjacent space, which means they are more likely to draw a weaker attack modifier. Eventually a few players will retire and your party will change over time, and you can then come back to the scenario you abandoned. The scenario will ramp in difficulty as each party member exhausts. I'd mainly like to hear about starting classes, but locked classes are fine as long as you just use the symbol name. However, at level 1 a Tinkerer has 3 areas of effect ability that helps to boost your damage. For a Spellweaver, looting isnt a Spellweaver - Spellweaver + Cragheart is the best 2p composition, and Spellweaver + Brute was certainly top 3, so it should come as no surprise how good this holy trifecta is. I know that at certain times having a little peace and quiet is nice. Thanks, Justin, for this piece of clarity. I am wondering if any of you have went with a party that may . But seeing all those damage numbers stack up each turn is really rewarding! These links are clearly indicated by the Amazon banner near the top of the page. Many people focus on the silence of selecting your initiative. To be able to deal melee attacks or manipulate with mental abilities, you will need to know about the position of your allies and enemies. Long resting is obviously preferable if you can afford to spend the turn doing so. Fighting every enemy will likely get you killed. Brute + Spellweaver + Cragheart. The six Gloomhaven starting classes are: Brute Cragheart Mindthief Scoundrel Spellweaver Tinkerer One line overviews of the Gloomhaven starting classes and symbols Brute Symbol for the Brute in Gloomhaven The tank that can do a fair amount of damage and push monsters into harm's way. A few disclaimers: this guide is obviously based on my own experience and is certainly not definitive. Come on over and I'll pour you some Cheerwine. After all, Everyones got to eat.. Table Of Contents What You Will Need to Add Player 5 Read between the lines. Many people focus on the "silence" of selecting your initiative. Spellweaver - a really good party composition, the Spellweaver brings more control, just enough healing, and a lot of aoe damage to complement the single-target of the Mindthief and Brute. Read our review to find out! But be careful, dont tank just because you are tempted to since you lack the abilities to reduce the damage you take. Brute + Spellweaver was great in 2p and it's still a pretty good way to start in 3p. Initiative helps with this because enemies often attack by initiative tiebreakers. A low score for health makes you play her the way it is designed Some scenarios may require you to pull in some of your big attack loss cards that you tend to avoid for crowd control. The only thing really going for this combo is that both characters are intrinsically very powerful (as opposed to someone like Scoundrel or Tinkerer who both require allies to be effective) and have nice, large health pools, which never hurts. If you aren't saving gold for any particular item, you should generally always donate. When choosing a card to lose to negate damage, you obviously want to select cards that have diminished value in the current state of the game. You are really quick and probably the first to reach a loot. Gloomhaven does not need the fantasy classic; a tank, a healer, a rogue etc. Tinkerer deserves to rank 1 among the 6 Gloomhaven starting items because its a character that supports and heals and the characterizations can be done so intricately. Meeple Mountain believes that board gaming is the gateway to building better relationships. 4 person party-music note. body#layout .hamburger-menu { Gloomhaven is a cooperative board game for one to four players designed by Isaac Childres and published by Cephalofair Games in 2017. It pairs up well with melee teams because it has a fair amount of adjacency bonuses. Got plenty of multi target attacks, but piercing shields might be tough. /* Last tag covers anything over one higher than the previous max-size cap. The Tinkerer rounds out the weaknesses/risks of a Brute + Scoundrel party by providing a bunch of utility/support to keep the damage-dealers safe. But you could end up relying on others to heal you as well. @media (max-width: 1200px) and (min-width: 801px) { .bg-photo {background-image:url(\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-u3nxB5mMkGU\/Xyzaudwl1-I\/AAAAAAAAras\/KP_fHVsx300gCPnQEMtp5ewr_UajwN6QgCK4BGAYYCw\/w1200\/bg.jpg);}} Everyone needs to rest from time to time, and that includes your Gloomhaven mercenary band too. However, upon increased damage and use of the area of effect cards, along with blood lust can get you exhausted. Because your team is constantly shifting as characters retire, you may want to refit your hand when you see the abilities of the newly introduced characters. You will have to pray your enemies are next to an ally. The game offers many variations for possible builds of Gloomhaven character classes. Brute is tied with a Cragheart for health points at level 1. And since the Scoundrel has a low hand limit, youll be exhausted before you even notice. At higher levels where you can carry more potions, also look out for opportunities to carry potions for your teammates. If your party has a dedicated tank (like the Brute), its fine to often keep them in front to absorb some damage. Each class in the game has been designed with great depth to it. Gloomhaven and Frosthaven is the best tactical dungeon crawling game out there. To sum it all up, the different starting classes have their own charms. Verdict: great and easy to use. At the beginning of the game, you can choose from six characters: Cragheart, Mindthief, Spellweaver, Scoundrel, Brute and Tinkerer. It is obvious she is low on stamina and If I were to rank the top most valuable skills to learn in Gloomhaven, it might be managing your initiative. of 8 cards. The party lacked damage and while the Spellweaver can provide a lot of it in bursts, there will be downtime that can cause some problems. If you keep using your melee attacks often, chances are youll end up being the one who needs support later. These are the perks you should take for the Spellweaver, in order! The campaign book has 95 scenarios, but to finish the game, while playing a decent amount of side quests, most groups end up playing approximately 65 scenarios. Tinkerer - the Cragheart can feel awkward with the Brute, the Brute feels awkward running in and having no one follow and/or no real accompanying burst damage. Here's an introduction to Gloomhaven starting classes if you are getting started with this legendary role-playing game. The ranking is based on a more personal evaluation of how these classes work while delivering damage, how you score experience points, how good is the class at looting, their health score, movement, stamina et cetera the class has. Spellweaver - The Spellweaver provides less consistent damage than the Scoundrel or Mindthief and this is a bit of a problem. That said, I dont know what mercs you are playing so I cant tell if its just a poor duo or inexperience. The premise is based on basic deckbuilding principles: your attack deck gains strength as you remove unwanted (negative or +0) cards and instead turn them into desired (positive, +1, or +2) cards. as a Tinkerer. Hopefully, this guide to Gloomhaven starting classes has been helpful. Gloomhaven pulls no punches as it sets loose the deadly minions and monsters upon your team of mercenaries, forcing players to learn the overt and subtle nuances of the game design in order to succeed. Each party size (2, 3 and 4) is individually rated as this can have a dramatic impact on character effectiveness and allows you to build the best 4 player party, best 3 player party and best 2 player party. Your band of mercenaries drags through the doors of The Sleeping Lion and collapses into rickety chairs around a vacant table. Combos that are not recommended: Spellweaver + Scoundrel The Cragheart can be called one of the flexible classes among the 6. Scoundrel is a rogue character best suited for single target attacks. This can help keep those summons alive to have more impact. Required fields are marked *. For a Scoundrel that isnt an option. I would say that this is a very forgiving start to a 3p party composition - the lack of damage will make it harder to succeed at higher difficulties, but having a tanky character and healing should help less experienced players to get adjusted to the game with a very safe group. This is because you are expected to reduce damage and shield at almost every scenario and using these cards gives you experience. Verdict: no damage is no good. This board game has been a hit among hobbyists, the reason being the depth and intricacies make it extremely fun to play. You can! width: 55%; You're not supposed to tell what abilities you're using when selecting your cards. One person doesnt need to needlessly absorb every point of damage. Hopefully you will turn invisible before all enemies act and therefore get an entire round without being targeted. scope of getting experience. terms of causing damage. They are often the most powerful abilities your character has (and usually bring hefty XP with them). Mindthief - The Mindthief works for this party in much the same way as the Scoundrel, providing a lot of melee damage with the space provided by the Brute and Tinkerer. Even the one high potential attack card is lost once used. Skip Navigation Accessibility Feedback Toggle Sidebar Show Menu. If you couldnt already tell, theres a lot to consider when approaching your battle plan. need to use only two based on the situation. Now that you have the basic insights from this Gloomhaven guide, gather your friends and get started! Or better yet, if you or a teammate utilizes invisibility you can have them stand in a doorway and turn invisible. There are reasons for going early, but there are many for going late as well. Some of these are more suited for certain scenarios than your high-level options. The Scoundrel brings pure damage and not much else but that's exactly what you want with the two characters you already have. For newer players, I strongly recommend selecting perks that thin down your attack modifier deck before going for the others. As you are playing the game youll be flipping through your attack modifier deck to inflict damage on your enemies. Keep in mind that these cards are lost once used. m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) Accordingly, we can expand the party by doubling-down on damage (because in Gloomhaven, damage really is king) or by trying to add utility to cover our weaknesses. This is to keep yourself from the damage a melee causes. Verdict: deadly but requires precise play, can be very punishing. It's easy to mess that up with just 2 mercs, much less when you're trying to coordinate more. For a game with only 2 key players, each one is on his own and has got to pull his own weight. If there is an NPC to protect in a level, then youll know you need to focus on crowd control and potentially chasing down that NPC. float: right; @media (min-width: 1201px) { .bg-photo {background-image:url(\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-u3nxB5mMkGU\/Xyzaudwl1-I\/AAAAAAAAras\/KP_fHVsx300gCPnQEMtp5ewr_UajwN6QgCK4BGAYYCw\/w1600\/bg.jpg);}} As you play through your cards you slowly start losing stamina until you need to rest and lose a card permanently. Another strategy that is easily overlooked right after revealing initiative is checking the monster ability cards. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Father of 2, currently residing near Orlando, Florida. This can cause enough damage and weaken the enemy. A Mindthief will have to keep moving if they A Mindthief is low on health, so while playing as a Mindthief you will have to get in quick fights and then scoot off as fast as possible. Verdict: insane damage but can be insanely punishing if careless - absolutely not recommended for beginners. Players may be tempted to think that they always need to get the jump on the enemy and go early. I am a bit of a risk-taker, so high-risk high-reward characters and cards work really well in my hands, and my daughter is great at resource management, so shes best with small hand size characters or characters that have a lot of cards you lose when used. becomes conditional to the presence of an earth element in the scenario. A big advantage of GH vs D&D is that you can . Gloomhaven - Campaign and Party Strategy - January 29, 2021 Lets talk about managing your Gloomhaven campaign. Some are quick to sideline this as just a different version of dice, which leads them to disregard the value it brings into battle for a few key reasons. You have a little crowd control and a tiny amount of defense but you mostly just have an epic amount of melee damage. The other combinations which arent mentioned here fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Thanks for taking the time to steer me in the right direction. Each time you visit Gloomhaven, you have the option to donate 10g to the Sanctuary of the Great Oak. Scoundrel needs a nap When can you rest? Another party with basically no weakness. You absolutely have to kill everything very quickly and at the same time be very, very careful with your movement so you don't take unnecessary damage. Here I'm not necessarily doing that because I'm honestly not sure which of these three combinations is the best - I think they're all pretty much equally good and it really just depends on your playstyle and level of comfort. Best of the Best: B-5 Hatchet's personal mission 24 Warding the Void: A-3 In this case, consider how to spread yourselves around a room so that enemies will pursue different members of the team. } You make an oath under your breath; next time, things will be different. It presents a good mix of melee, elemental ranged attacks and has some healing abilities too. She can collect loots from quite a bit of distance. Read our review of World-traveler, hardcore kid, drummer, dreamer, ambi-gamer (video and board), and neighborhood-friendly geek. wise that you trade this card for something more useful. It also is high on stamina with a card hand size of 12 gives. As mentioned above, some scenarios require you to run fast and avoid enemies. Tremors. body#layout .page, And, of course, the Scoundrel will have adjacency bonuses thanks to the Brute as well as the safety allowed by the Tinkerer when she inevitably gets hit. with active negative conditions. If, on the other hand, you sometimes help other people but at some other times act like an a**hole, you reputation will tend to stay near 0,and won't help you unlock anything interesting. Positioning yourself on the walls of doorways can limit how many times you are targeted by ranged attacks. I'll be starting Gloomhaven in a few weeks (as soon as I wrap up the D&D game I've been running for 4 years), and am starting to think about what class I want to play. Mindthief - the Mindthief is a great partner for the Brute. When you are down to your last two cards before you must rest, you may not want to play abilities that have you pulling a Leeroy Jenkins into an enemy mob. Communicate plans with each other. A brute lacks this. As a team, sort out which of the approaches would be more effective. deal with the cards like a pro. Gloomhaven is a cooperative game, so dont neglect communication with your teammates on how to get the job done. Spellweaver - a really good party composition, the Spellweaver brings more control, just enough healing, and a lot of aoe damage to complement the single-target of the Mindthief and Brute. And with such dangerous enemies around you, how can you afford to long rest? And I still encounter a loss at times. Your summons would be an essential weapon for you. But from what Ive observed, this can carry into the rest of the round and lead to less than optimal results. speciality. there is op character, namely spellweaver at lvl 9. honestly there is no huge difference who comes with her, but i prefer tinkerer, so i can spam inferno 4 turns in a row. You have a 1 in 10 chance of pulling the Null (or the 2x). float: right; display: inline-block; And with this years release of Jaws of the Lion and the upcoming Frosthaven, new teams of mercenaries are joining in the adventure spawned from the imagination of Isaac Childres. But those heal cards may not be of as much value in the late-game when youre concentrating on finishing off the last monster or two. Since most scenarios generally involve killing monsters in some capacity, increasing the number of 2x critical cards in your attack deck is a significant improvement. When it comes to damage, the to level up quickly because almost every starting card has experience point If you get to the point of the campaign where your party reputation is high enough to get significant discounts, you can buy and or swap potions relatively cheaply. Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts.