2nd/3rd Edition Characters

[Fulgur14]

In this pensive season, let's have a look towards the past and see what characters were there in the past and whether they would add anything interesting to the DE.

2nd edition:
Base set came with 14 characters that are the "core" of Talisman. All of them are in 4th edition as well.

The first expansion, titled simply "Expansion" (was it made by Piranha brothers?) had another 14 characters. 8 of them is in 4th edition (though some, like Knight, with very different abilities), so let's look at the remaining six:
(Quick note: with stats, I'll only be listing Strength and Craft. Fate didn't exist in older editions and life value was fixed at 4.)

Barbarian - 5/1, neutral, Forest. His abilities are auto-Guide (no roll in Forest, Crags and Chasm), and interesting "double attack" ability: after attacking another character and winning (but taking something else than life), he can immediately attack the same character again.
So a pure Strength character who can bully the weak by taking two Objects in the same turn or even an Object and a life.

Halfling - 2/3, neutral, Village. The little Halfling has three pretty unique abilities. First, after landing on a Plains space, he can ignore that space and take another move -- making his movement around the board faster or getting another chance to get to the one space he wants to go to. Second, he can repeat any roll that's Craft-dependent (so that adds his Craft or compares to it), like psychic combat, opening Portal of Power or going through Mines. This apparently lets him reroll all dice in multi-dice rolls. Third, he gets better stand-offs in battle and psychic combat: has to be defeated by 2 points to actually lose.

Hobgoblin - 3/3, evil, Crags. A Goblin-themed character a bit similar to the Goblin Shaman. Apart from standard "no Crags roll" ability, he can take any Goblins he encounters as Followers, having them add their Strength in battle. This would be probably overpowered in 4ed since you could get huge bonuses from Goblin Marauders in Dungeon. Final ability of Hobgoblin is interacting with Hobgoblin Enemies -- those can't be taken as Followers, but you can send them to any other space in the same region not occupied by another character and even if you don't, you don't have to fight them.

Pilgrim - 2/4, good, Chapel. Pilgrim starts with a spell. He can exorcize Spirits (sending them to another space in the Region not occupied by a character) and he can convert Monsters by rolling over their Strength. Converted monsters become Followers (only one at a time) and can fight instead of Pilgrim. The card specifies that Enemies killed by the converted monsters can't be taken as trophies, but that's not really in line with general 4ed guidelines where you can take a trophy even if it's killed by a helper.

Ranger - 3/3, good, Village. Ranger is basically Guide: the character. His main powers are immunities to various environmental hazards: Crags, Forest, Chasm, Storm and Blizzard events and Desert. The only other ability is a +1 bonus against Dragons and Animals.

Satyr - 2/4, evil, Crags. Apart from Crags immunity, Satyr has an unique ability to panic characters he lands on, moving them 1 die roll in any direction, but no region-switching. Truly interesting is the last ability, though: Satyr automatically gets any Follower drawn by another character in the same Region if they are at most 3 spaces from him.

[Fulgur14]

I'll post different expansions in their own posts to not make it overly long, btw.

So, next was The Adventure expansion. This expansion had 8 characters, but none of them is in 4ed. DE had already taken one of them, Ninja. Plus, Warrior of Chaos was remade as Dark Cultist, who shares his signature ability to roll a die for a gift when he wins in combat. The remaining 6 are:

Centaur - 3/3, neutral, starts at any Plains. Apart from Forest immunity and the ability to take any "Centaur" enemies as Followers (there are no such Enemies in 4ed at the moment), his main ability is optional +1/+2 bonus to movement, like Shaman's Cheetah form. His final ability is a bow shot. It's written in a bit of confusing way, but the intent is apparently that after moving (Outer/Middle region only), you can take a shot at any character, Enemy or Stranger 3 spaces away or closer. Then you fight (no info how you fight Strangers) and if you win, you discard the Enemy/Stranger or take 1 life from character. If you lose, you don't lose anything.
4ed doesn't really do range attacks, though. Perhaps letting him start with a Bow?

Orc - 4/2, evil, Crags. Apart from Crags immunity, he can take Goblins, Hobgoblins and Wolves as Followers by rolling over their Strength, letting them add their Strength in one battle. Wolf gives an additional benefit: Orc can use it as a Riding Horse to roll 2 dice for movement.
The main issue I see here is that there's not that many Wolves (though expansions add some, like Winter Wolf or Direwolf). Orc would need some expansion-independent ability.

Samurai - 4/2, neutral, Village. Samurai has two abilities. One is ranged attack performed instead of moving. This works similarly to Centaur (except no attacking Strangers). The other is fighting using karate. This allows Samurai to attack another character with Craft (but it's still a battle and the other character still uses Strength) and if he wins, he stuns the other character instead of normal reward, which means that until that character loses a turn (not clear if he automatically loses next turn or if he has to choose so voluntarily), he can't cast Spells. Samurai has low Craft, but on the other hand, spellcasters tend to have low Strength, so maybe this is balanced.

Soldier - 4/3, good, City. Soldier starts with Helmet and Sword and can get them for free in City when he loses them (no idea whether he's allowed to give them to Alchemist and then take new ones in the same turn). Apart from that, his other abilities are very situational: immunity to Patrol and Raiders (probably expanded to Highland Raiders as well) and the ability to use the Mercenary without paying anything. Soldier would need some improving.

Witch Doctor - 2/4, evil, Graveyard. Starts with a spell. Witch Doctor has an obsolete (and not even very good) ability to trade in Craft Enemies which wasn't normally possible in 2ed. The only benefit is that he can trade them for Spells instead of Craft. His final ability is to curse a character he lands on. This constrains the character's movement in some way, forcing him to move towards Chapel (Ruins for evil characters), and letting the Witch Doctor evade them until they get there. I guess that a better implementation would be to simply forbid cursed character from going through Portal of Power until they get rid of the curse.

Woodsman: 3/3, neutral, Woods. Apart from standard Forest immunity, Woodsman is pretty interesting character. First of all, he can draw an extra card in Woods. Next, he doesn't need an Axe to build a Raft. And if he DOES get an Axe anyway, he gets a +1 bonus when using it in combat. Finally, he can take Animals defeated in combat as followers (only one). The Animal Follower will automatically add its Strength, but if you're defeated (probably in battle only? not sure), it dies.

[Fulgur14]

The 2nd edition Dungeon expansion added another 14 characters. 7 of them exists in 4ed, furthermore, the DE adapted the Pirate and Dark Elf was remade as Vampiress who shares his signature ability to drain life from Followers. The remaining 5 are:

Inquisitor: 2/4, City. Inquisitor starts with one spell and doesn't have a specific alignment, instead he gets to choose at the beginning of the game. Inquisitor can attack psychically and he can (in Outer/Middle regions) imprison characters of different alignment by encountering them. The characters move to City (from Outer Region) or Castle (from Middle Region) and miss their next turn.

Martial Artist: 3/3, neutral, Village. Martial Artist can do heroic leaps where he can move 1 space further if the original destination is occupied by a character. The interesting thing about this ability is that it apparently works in Inner Region -- nothing on the card contradicts that. His other ability is using a "killer blow" in battle, which means that he rolls a die, loses the battle on 1-4 and wins on 5-6. This is a pretty interesting ability since it gives him a 1/3 chance to win any battle, no matter the opponent's Strength -- and of course, it gets stronger with fate, Lucky Charm and similar things.

Saracen: 3/3, evil, Crags. Saracen is immune to Desert and he has two abilities related to Followers. First, he can enslave a Follower of another character he encounters by rolling less or equal than the number of Followers the other character has (the more he has, the easier it is to steal one). Second, he can sell his Followers at end of his turn and get 1-3 gold for each.

Swordsman: 3/3, neutral, Village. Swordsman starts with a Sword (surprise) and has two interesting battle-related abilities. First, he can disarm a character, forcing him to ditch one of his Weapons at the end of turn. The way it's written, disarming works after battle and you can make him ditch any Weapon he has, even if he didn't use it in that battle. The second ability is Parry: this allows Swordsman to get a +2 bonus when he's attacked in a battle, but if he does it, he can't get a better result than stand-off.

Zulu: 4/2, neutral, Forest. Forest immunity and he can rout characters defeated in battle, rolling one die and moving them accordingly. The ability is stated to work in Outer region, Middle region and Dungeon only, but that could be improved.

[Fulgur14]

2nd edition City had only 2 new characters, both existing in 4ed (Minotaur and Valkyrie), and 4 special characters that added new powers to you. Timescape had 8 characters, but they don't really "fit" in the Talisman world so let's skip them. The final full 2ed expansion, Dragons, had four characters, but three of them were included in 4ed Dragon expansion and the fourth, Questing Knight, is probably the base for Chivalric Knight -- some of 4ed Knight's characteristics also seem to be taken from him.

Let's have a look at 3rd edition then!

Base set contained 11 characters. Only 4 of them (Minotaur, Swashbuckler, Warrior and Wizard) exist in 4ed. In addition, Dwarf Warrior is just redone Dwarf, Knight Templar is a variant of Knight and Wood Elf is redone Elf. Ranger is very similar to 2ed Ranger. The 3 remaining ones are:

Barbarian: 4/2, neutral, Forest. 3ed Barbarian shares only his Forest, Crags and Chasm immunity with his 2ed counterpart. He starts with helmet and axe and he has the ability to go berserk in battle, giving him a +2 bonus but forcing him to lose 1 extra life when defeated. Perhaps a Berserker character could be developed with this?

Goblin Fanatic: 2/3, evil, Ruins. Goblin Fanatic can't use any weapons since he has his trusty ball and chain, allowing him to roll 2 dice in both battle and psychic combat and add the results. And automatically losing if he rolls doubles. There's that. Goblin Fanatic can also take Goblins and Wolves as Followers, adding their Strength in one battle.

Skaven: 3/3, evil, Ruins. Skaven can take Skavens and Rats as Followers (adding Strength in one battle), starts with a Sword (but then again, most of 3ed characters have some starting equipment) and can teleport on rolling 6 for movement.

3ed Dungeon! 6 characters. Druid and Fire Wizard are in 4ed. High Priest is a variant of Priest. Chaos Warrior is a variant of Warrior of Chaos. Shaman is basically the same as ♥♥♥♥♥. The only new character is...

Beastman: 4/2, evil, Forest. Forest immunity, plus he can eat Followers at start of his turn, healing 1 life per Follower discarded.

3ed City! 6 characters. Assassin is in 4ed, though the 3ed version is more like Ninja/Martial Artist mashup. Dragonslayer is in 4ed. Black Orc is a variant of 2ed Orc. Halfling is similar to 2ed counterpart, but instead of Plains-hopping, he can avoid encountering anything after moving with 50% chance.

Chaos Dwarf: 4/2, evil, Ruins. Starts with Axe and Armour and when he defeats a character, they can't prevent loss of life with Armour.

Witch Elf: 3/3, evil, Ruins. Can redo battles like Amazon and has an additional ability that lets him take 2 lives from defeated character instead of one.

3ed Dragon Tower: 4 characters. Sorceress is more like Wizard. (3ed Wizard can keep a spell by discarding another.) Alchemist is like a prototype of his powerful 4ed self. Astronomer is basically Prophetess under another name.

Chaos Sorcerer: 2/4, evil, Graveyard, starts with 2 Spells, can exchange trophies for Spells.

I found a few more 3rd edition characters, but nothing too interesting, so I guess this will be all for today.

[Quartzquiz]

I'm thinking that the Barbarian might be a character in the new Cataclysm expansion. There is a big guy with a huge sword on the cover, and Barbarians are usually found in post-apocalyptic worlds.

[sanityismyvanity]

quartzquiz님이 먼저 게시:

I'm thinking that the Barbarian might be a character in the new Cataclysm expansion. There is a big guy with a huge sword on the cover, and Barbarians are usually found in post-apocalyptic worlds.

Thundarr!

Oh wait, wrong post-apocalyptic setting :)

[Marcin Raelian]

Polish 2nd edition has few different. So Dungeon Expansion has

Dark Elf: 3/4, Evil, Graveyard, starts with 1 spell, immunity for Siren's song, he may drains life from followers like Vampiress from T:DE and after defeated another character ( combat or psychic battle) he may force him to lose 1 point strenght or 1 points craft instead of a life ( not below start statistics)

[Fulgur14]

I noted Dark Elf, but didn't post since it seemed to be reworked into Vampiress. Also, I did not note the immunity to Siren -- in 2ed, this ability was on every non-human character, but this distinction doesn't exist in 4ed.

[Marcin Raelian]

Characters from 2nd edition "Cave ":

Cannibal: 5/1; evil; forest; he cann't use spells except Command; he not may has any followers but he can eats them and gains 2 lives from each; After defeated another character in combat that has only 2 lives left he may try eat him. If Cannibal rolled 1,2 or 3 on dice this character was killed !

Evil Demon: 2/4; evil; crags; he may ignores any Sprites and Demons; he must attacked characters if he moved on space where they are ; he may attacked character at psychic battle;
he may ignored any spell casted on him except Command if he rolled 1,2,3 or 4 on dice; characters defeated by him in combat lose 2 lives !

Monarch: 3/4; good; city; he begin game with 5 gold; before he entering the Cave (Region) he may choice any 1 weapon form purchase deck; he may ignore any strangers; U may not be attacked by good characters except Command spell !

Morlok: 3/3; evil; dungeon entrance !; He do not loses lives after losing a combat at the Dungeon but he musts instead moved towards to dungeon entrance at his next turn; he may adds 2 to score in combat against characters while at the Dungeon or Cave and he substracts 1 from his score if the combat takes place will elsewhere; he loses 1 life for each turn he
isn't at the Dungeon or the Cave or on the Crown of Command space; he gains 1 life by winning any combat.

Seer: 1/6; neutral; ruins; he has 1 spell at begginning; He may ignores any events; he may attacking other characters
by psychic battle; he is immune to spells except Command spell; he may draws 2 cards more than the space requires and
discard 2 of his choice that he don't wish encounter!

Vampire: 2/5; evil; graveyard; he begins game with 2 spells;he may adds 1 life to his life taken by him from characters
defeated in combat;he cannot has followers but he can drinks blood from them
and gains 1 life from each; He is safe at Vampire Tower space.

Warrior from the Underword:2/5; neutral; plains; he may destroy any sprite as like Exorcist; he begins game with 1 spell
and 1 random magic object !; other characters may attack him only throught psychic battle not in combat !; he may avoids combat with monsters if he rolls 1 on dice.

Wandering Hermit; 2/4;good;crags;he is loner if he ends move on space with other character he may moves again;
he cannot has followers but he can gains 1 craft instead taking of them !; he don't loses lives at the desert and
on result praying of the temple; he gains 1 strenght for every enemy defeated at combat !

So what You thinking about this characters? Maybe they comeback at Talisman DE too

[Fulgur14]

Hm, I wonder what is the legal status of the Cave characters -- does the copyright belong to GW? To the Polish publisher?

Warrior of the Underworld is interesting in that starting with "1 random Magic Object" is easier to do in DE than in the physical game. How exactly is it supposed to be done in the physical game? Revealing Adventure cards until a Magic Object is found?

Wandering Hermit seems pretty overpowered with its stat bonuses. Seer is like ♥♥♥♥♥+Prophetess with God mode cheat activated.

And Evil Demon deserves a mention simply because the current Talisman actually has Demon-type Enemies!

[Marcin Raelian]

Fulgur14님이 먼저 게시:

Warrior of the Underworld is interesting in that starting with "1 random Magic Object" is easier to do in DE than in the physical game. How exactly is it supposed to be done in the physical game? Revealing Adventure cards until a Magic Object is found?

Yes I remember 3 of them : salomon's crown, talisman and magic sword once.

[Marcin Raelian]

Fulgur14님이 먼저 게시:

And Evil Demon deserves a mention simply because the current Talisman actually has Demon-type Enemies!

He could may escape from Demon Lord's grasp without fight now (after drawing this ending as hidden )

[Solaufein]

I wish there could be old characters in this game.
Looking for Dark Elf

[Quartzquiz]

It's official: The Barbarian WILL be in the new Cataclysm expansion!

[Rachel D'Arc]

Fulgur14님이 먼저 게시:

2nd edition City had only 2 new characters, both existing in 4ed (Minotaur and Valkyrie), and 4 special characters that added new powers to you. Timescape had 8 characters, but they don't really "fit" in the Talisman world so let's skip them.

A shame, really.. I'd have loved to see Timescape in the current edition.