My wife & I started with a Blinkblade/Banner Spear duo. She went through many of the same thoughts you did about the characters, & she tends to be drawn to assassin/rogue type characters. I tend to go with either a support bard-like character or a tank paladin-like character, and I really liked the concepts offered by the Banner Spear. This combo, for the most part, worked out pretty well for us. Her Blinkblade did most of the damage in a scenario, but I was able to take more hits, offer some buffs, & (crucially) heal the Blinkblade when needed. This covered all our bases. When my Banner Spear retired, I picked up one of the classes we unlocked (Coral/Anemone), offering new challenges (which was a struggle to figure out sometimes). But so far every class I've seen has greatly intrigued me. Lots of cool stuff here. Have fun planning your summer game!
Good luck in your adventures in Frosthaven! I hope my comments below aren't too late and are of some use for you. My wife and I have been playing for a few months and are just about to hit a wave of retirements (roughly 14 scenarios). We play two characters each and I wanted to share our experience on the characters we played in case you find it useful. I played Blink Blade and Boneshaper. Blink Blade isn't as complex as advertised imo, it has some front loaded complexity with the two in one fast/slow mechanism but it won't take long for most players to understand and be powerful. It does have a high skill ceiling, as there are many ways to eke out extra turns and advantages that aren't immediately obvious or easily intuited. Super flexible, self-sufficient class. Boneshaper is a powerhouse imo. Although my experience may be skewed by an early lucky item unlock that mitigated her main weakness. I played her mainly as a "tank" by constantly regurgitating living corpses, cursing enemies and healing allies. She's also a very flexible class, but is more dependent on support from allies when her HP is low as she has few ways to intrinsically restore it. Some scenarios that we've encountered so far have special rules that wreck summons and enemies with multi-target attacks can devastate her turns. Which may make her a higher risk in two player games. I've seen games where she's in two players (Rob's Gaming Table on TH-cam) and she performs well, probably a testament to the skill of her pilot imo. My wife played Drifter and Bannerspear. Drifter is easy, versatile and very um...basic. It's not meant to be insulting, he's just very what you see is what you get. My wife is enjoying playing the Drifter, but doesn't feel particularly impactful as there's nothing there that stands out. A solid workhorse that lacks any real sophistication. An XP generating machine, 30xp before scenario bonus is pretty common. Bannerspear was, at first, a huge disappointment for my wife. She was hoping for a tanky frontliner and didn't feel it performed as advertised. This is partly due to items in Frosthaven, partly due to how the class is structured. Boneshaper switched to tank, while Bannerspear became a the support of the team. In 4p she's a powerful support and this satisfied my wife for a while - it's very low XP. Recently we respecc'd into a tank build that she's finding much more to her taste. She's able to play in that get in there and get scrappy way that you mentioned for the Drifter. The problem for her was that she doesn't like to call for help with her positioning and that she doesn't like all the guesswork (planning ahead) that goes into setting up and executing positional attacks when the enemies and other characters are all bouncing around with no regard for her specific wishes. Bannerspear is hard to execute for those that don't have ally support and don't plan ahead for all contingencies. imo, Bannerspear is falsely advertised as "less complex". The moves are easy to understand on the card, but are much harder to execute in actual play. Her build paths differ fairly significantly from traditional Gloomhaven characters and this takes some getting used to as well. We haven't played Geminate or Deathwalker yet so I won't comment on them. I also want to mention that Frosthaven is a little different to Gloomhaven in a way that isn't immediately apparent. Synergy and flexibility is much more important than gear and abilities that look weak based on a Gloomhaven perspective are usually either more powerful or more flexible in Frosthaven. All the busted gear is gone, scenarios are more complex and more demanding, but the game is designed such that every class has the tools necessary with their cards and perks. Items are frequently more about sharpening the edges of a well crafted and understood build rather than the focus. Sorry if this was too long and/or I bored you. I've just been really enjoying our playthrough of Frosthaven and wanted to share that experience in the hopes it helps with your enjoyment.
This was amazing! And it's not too late. Thank you so much for writing in and sharing your experience, particularly on the differences you found playing Frosthaven compared to Gloomhaven.
Quick correction -- it's GEM-inate not GERM-inate. Appreciate the video, honestly surprised that so few content creators have done a video like this, just looking at the starting classes and breaking them down for audiences, especially newer audiences as the veterans already know most of this stuff. I think some card analysis is always great too, and hope you'll keep jumping into the Frosthaven content creation space as you get into the game. Thanks for the video! RE: Boneshaper at 9:50 or so, you tend to want to summon very very late in the round so that you keep the summon safe until the next turn so they can actually do something before just dying. Boneshaper does have very late initiatives in general. In terms of low complexity characters, Drifter is VERY easy to play. Banner Spear is not complex, per say, but MUCH harder to play well than Drifter. And as you noted, it's just trickier to do the formations a lot in 2 player, though you do have some control. But the Banner Spear also has many options that aren't formation attacks, which may work better in 2player games. But Banner Spear loves having a Boneshaper as a partner as all those skeletons can help out with those formations.
I love your enthusiasm! my wife and I have been playing this last month and love it. i picked banner spear and she picked deathwalker. I'm sure whatever team you guys have will be great. are you going to be streaming your playthrough? cheers
My wife & I started with a Blinkblade/Banner Spear duo. She went through many of the same thoughts you did about the characters, & she tends to be drawn to assassin/rogue type characters. I tend to go with either a support bard-like character or a tank paladin-like character, and I really liked the concepts offered by the Banner Spear.
This combo, for the most part, worked out pretty well for us. Her Blinkblade did most of the damage in a scenario, but I was able to take more hits, offer some buffs, & (crucially) heal the Blinkblade when needed. This covered all our bases.
When my Banner Spear retired, I picked up one of the classes we unlocked (Coral/Anemone), offering new challenges (which was a struggle to figure out sometimes). But so far every class I've seen has greatly intrigued me. Lots of cool stuff here.
Have fun planning your summer game!
Good luck in your adventures in Frosthaven! I hope my comments below aren't too late and are of some use for you.
My wife and I have been playing for a few months and are just about to hit a wave of retirements (roughly 14 scenarios). We play two characters each and I wanted to share our experience on the characters we played in case you find it useful.
I played Blink Blade and Boneshaper.
Blink Blade isn't as complex as advertised imo, it has some front loaded complexity with the two in one fast/slow mechanism but it won't take long for most players to understand and be powerful. It does have a high skill ceiling, as there are many ways to eke out extra turns and advantages that aren't immediately obvious or easily intuited. Super flexible, self-sufficient class.
Boneshaper is a powerhouse imo. Although my experience may be skewed by an early lucky item unlock that mitigated her main weakness. I played her mainly as a "tank" by constantly regurgitating living corpses, cursing enemies and healing allies. She's also a very flexible class, but is more dependent on support from allies when her HP is low as she has few ways to intrinsically restore it. Some scenarios that we've encountered so far have special rules that wreck summons and enemies with multi-target attacks can devastate her turns. Which may make her a higher risk in two player games. I've seen games where she's in two players (Rob's Gaming Table on TH-cam) and she performs well, probably a testament to the skill of her pilot imo.
My wife played Drifter and Bannerspear.
Drifter is easy, versatile and very um...basic. It's not meant to be insulting, he's just very what you see is what you get. My wife is enjoying playing the Drifter, but doesn't feel particularly impactful as there's nothing there that stands out. A solid workhorse that lacks any real sophistication. An XP generating machine, 30xp before scenario bonus is pretty common.
Bannerspear was, at first, a huge disappointment for my wife. She was hoping for a tanky frontliner and didn't feel it performed as advertised. This is partly due to items in Frosthaven, partly due to how the class is structured. Boneshaper switched to tank, while Bannerspear became a the support of the team. In 4p she's a powerful support and this satisfied my wife for a while - it's very low XP. Recently we respecc'd into a tank build that she's finding much more to her taste. She's able to play in that get in there and get scrappy way that you mentioned for the Drifter. The problem for her was that she doesn't like to call for help with her positioning and that she doesn't like all the guesswork (planning ahead) that goes into setting up and executing positional attacks when the enemies and other characters are all bouncing around with no regard for her specific wishes. Bannerspear is hard to execute for those that don't have ally support and don't plan ahead for all contingencies.
imo, Bannerspear is falsely advertised as "less complex". The moves are easy to understand on the card, but are much harder to execute in actual play. Her build paths differ fairly significantly from traditional Gloomhaven characters and this takes some getting used to as well.
We haven't played Geminate or Deathwalker yet so I won't comment on them.
I also want to mention that Frosthaven is a little different to Gloomhaven in a way that isn't immediately apparent. Synergy and flexibility is much more important than gear and abilities that look weak based on a Gloomhaven perspective are usually either more powerful or more flexible in Frosthaven. All the busted gear is gone, scenarios are more complex and more demanding, but the game is designed such that every class has the tools necessary with their cards and perks. Items are frequently more about sharpening the edges of a well crafted and understood build rather than the focus.
Sorry if this was too long and/or I bored you. I've just been really enjoying our playthrough of Frosthaven and wanted to share that experience in the hopes it helps with your enjoyment.
This was amazing! And it's not too late. Thank you so much for writing in and sharing your experience, particularly on the differences you found playing Frosthaven compared to Gloomhaven.
Quick correction -- it's GEM-inate not GERM-inate. Appreciate the video, honestly surprised that so few content creators have done a video like this, just looking at the starting classes and breaking them down for audiences, especially newer audiences as the veterans already know most of this stuff. I think some card analysis is always great too, and hope you'll keep jumping into the Frosthaven content creation space as you get into the game. Thanks for the video!
RE: Boneshaper at 9:50 or so, you tend to want to summon very very late in the round so that you keep the summon safe until the next turn so they can actually do something before just dying. Boneshaper does have very late initiatives in general.
In terms of low complexity characters, Drifter is VERY easy to play. Banner Spear is not complex, per say, but MUCH harder to play well than Drifter. And as you noted, it's just trickier to do the formations a lot in 2 player, though you do have some control. But the Banner Spear also has many options that aren't formation attacks, which may work better in 2player games. But Banner Spear loves having a Boneshaper as a partner as all those skeletons can help out with those formations.
Thanks for the suggestions and insights of these characters. Banner Spear + Boneshaper sounds strong.
I love your enthusiasm! my wife and I have been playing this last month and love it. i picked banner spear and she picked deathwalker. I'm sure whatever team you guys have will be great. are you going to be streaming your playthrough? cheers
I'll keep it in mind! Cheers!