Without a doubt mine is the MInstrel. 

I've never played a game as him and had a good experience.  Perhaps it is due to bad luck on my part, or just that I'm not playing him well but he's on teh bottom of the stack for me.

How about you?

The elf. He has nothing worthwhile abilites and he's just average.

The elf. He has no worthwhile abilites and he's just average.

Toss up between Sage and Prophetess. Mainly because they feel "too good". Sage (aka Philosopher from 2nd ed) was the #1 hated char in the olden days, nobody really bitched about the Prophetess. And he tends to slow the game down. With the new wording, Prophetss is "only" 2-4 in 6 games around here, but just feels like she needs horrible luck to draw something bad.

Ghoul and Sage. If i draw them, i don't want to choose them

In the last game I played another player's Troll was just carved up.  I'm not sure if he played it badly, but I'm not sure what I would have done differently if I'd played the Troll.

The Troll's only benefits seem to be regeneration and no die-roll at the crags.  Using both these abilities cost him a turn.

Although perhaps he only seems to be an awful character because he got turned into a toad.  Twice ...

The Priest is terrible, but I still think my least favorite to actually play is the Ghoul.  He's evil and all, but his zombie followers are too impermanent to be of much use, and psychic combat is only good when you've got the Craft to back it up.

Still, he's better in 4.5 now that he can replenish fate at the graveyard.

Augustisimus said:

I think the benefit of the troll is that he can be dangerous early on in the game. If he you can keep the momentum going, he usually can do pretty well, at least by my experience.

I honestly don't have a least favorite character. I realize that all can be Dark Cultists.

I've got serious problems playing the Elf. 2 out of 3 games resulted in a midgame death for me, and I usually die only in the late game. But with the Elf, I don't know what happens.

No Character is that bad to be considered uneffective, but I also dislike playing the Sorceress. I always get my ass kicked by those so-called "neutral" Characters, like Troll and Warrior; now that whey have plenty of Life there's no chance to take them down with Psychic Combat. If they don't draw Followers it's hopeless with the Sorceress, you must avoid the others.

Never had a real problem with the Elf. On strategy is to somehow get your hands on the Orb of Knowledge at all costs.  You then bounce back and forth between "woods" and pick choose what you want to encounter.  One rousing two person game was the Prophetess vs the Elf in this mode.  We burned through the Adventure deck fast, were loaded up, and the game was actually fast to the end.

I used to play the Ghoul a lot in the old days and always did well with it.  Some of the juicing of other characters have made it less balance in PvP and now it is no longer a favored character.

Okay, so far my least favourite is the Priest.  He has a low strength and can't use weapons, so he has a hard time gaining more strength as the game progresses.  Nor can he make psychic attacks, so he can develop his Craft to a really high value by fighting heaps of spirits, but can't use this ability to attack anyone making him useless in combat at the Crown of Command.  Perhaps he could get lucky and draw the magician late in the game, but that's leaving a lot to chance.  If anyone has a strategy to get the most out of the priest could they let me know?

In the game I had playing him the other day I visited the Village Mystic and was turned evil.  Soon after I bumped into the Patrol and was sent home ... the Chapel.  Being now an evil character I lost a life.

Augustisimus said:

One word: Temple! Seriously, that's pretty much all you can do, barring luck with Adventure card draw. Sure, the Knight does pray better than you, but gotta make most of what you have. In my games the Priest is 1-5, but I think he really should've been 2-4, 1 bad decision (use of Acquisition) and poor rolling for Command Spell saw the Druid catch up to him and kill him. Best draw for the Priest would probably be Warhorse + Colossus.

JCHendee said:

So does that mean the Orb of Knowledge is no longer a one-time charlie ?

I also used to hate the priest. Toothless do-gooder. Plus any character from Adventure onwards....

Am pretty sure we just used to take them out and play with the original set + expansion

As far as I remember, the Orb was never a one timer... and it certainly isn't in 4er.  Any character who can get it and manage to stay on draw spaces as long as possible gets some real boost in gathering freebies... and let's face it, Talisman has leaned on freebies (drawn toys and goodies) more and more over the years. Some characters might be weak compared to others, but the fact that they still win from time to time shows where the game is tipped most often... in the freebies! They not only bolster one in activities but make ones S/C points go up faster thereby.

I've occassionally played games where we stripped out all magic objects except the Talismans, usually with 4 or more players.  I don't recommend it unless everyone involved has got some backbone, and is actually building an adventurer not based on toys.  Its amazing how many characters with those widely imbalanced Strength and Craft attributes go down real fast.  And guess what... the elf never went down in the three times this was played.  The Troll 2 times down.  The Priest died all three times.... twice in one game.  The Prophetess got whacked by another player in every game for all those multi-card draws.

Hmmm.... with this in mind maybe I would list the Priest and Prophetess in a tie as the least liked character(s).

I had to go check. From 2nd edition:

The Orb of Knowledge has one charge.

Once used, place it on the discard pile.

You must use it when you are about to

draw Aventure Cards. It allows you to:

  1: Draw 1 more Adevnture Card than

required. You then discard the one you

do not wish to encounter.

I am pretty sure it was same on 1st edition too. Never had 3rd edition. Not got 4th edition yet but it is my birthday this week....

So a much more powerful artifact. Interesting house rule to play without magic objects. Perhaps that could be enhanced in some

way so they are not removed completely but acquired from another source. Maybe the Warlock, rather than only dishing out Talisman's

you can choose a Talisman or draw a random magic object. Would be ineresting is your quest was to discard a magic object...

I guess you would be allowed to re-roll if you didn't have one.

Anyway, back on topic. That proves my point, no-one likes to play a good guy/gal.

Ah ha, I see what you mean from 2nd edition.  And definitely not the same in 4er.  But the good guy / bad guy thing I'm not so sure of... and considering the endgame slaughterfest... aren't they all bad guys in the end?  That's the whole problem with alignment in Talisman... in the end, it is meaningless.

But I still like to play the elf [sort of] now and then (a good guy), and dislike the Priest [sort of] as much (a good guy).