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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 7431369" data-attributes="member: 30022">If you're looking purely at combat math, then Yaarel's comment about class balance is accurate. However, if you're playing the AiME game as intended - using the Middle Earth setting and the Mirkwood campaign - then the Scholar and Warden come into their own.I've been GMing the game for a little while now and it's important to note that, for most official adventures released, combat is a last-resort. Most encounters are best resolved through negotiation, stealth and avoidance. In the first module of Wilderland Adventures, for example, there is no combat encounter that can't be avoided through skill checks or player agency. Most of the other adventures are the same. Hence, the PC's ability to chuck a fireball or swing a blade is largely irrelevant.By contrast, the critical and deadly part of the rules is Corruption and Journeys. A vast number of things can give you Shadow points. Unlike a game like Star Wars, Corruption in AiME is not necessarily related to "bad choices". You can gain Shadow points by traveling through hostile terrain... fighting a particularly evil monster... witnessing the death of a friend... or simply being caught in bad weather. Anything that makes you tired and miserable and frightened can give you Shadow points. When your Shadow points exceed your Wisdom, you may gain a point of Permanent Shadow (then your counter re-sets). If this happens once, it's a warning. If it happens twice, you start gaining permanent mechanical penalties to your PC, and if it happens four times... you become an NPC.In our very first session, the party Slayer (barbarian) gained 8 Shadow points; 5 points through bad luck, and 3 points through a bad choice. So, depending on the module, they can rack up fast. The Scholar is the only AiME class that has proficiency in Wisdom saves, and this is one of the critical balancing factors for the class. Most Corruption checks allow a Wisdom save to avoid gaining Shadow, so the Scholar is streets ahead of other classes in resisting eventual degradation. Further, during the Fellowship phase, you gain the option to remove some Shadow points - with an Insight check. So, Scholars gain Shadow slower and tend to remove it easier than any other class.The second key advantage of the Scholar is that they are masters of healing. No other class, with the exception of the Warden, has much in the way of healing capability. In AiME, long rests are generally only available in Sanctuaries. Most campaigns start with a single Sanctuary (e.g. Laketown) and it takes an action in the Fellowship phase to open a new Sanctuary. Further, the time-scale of the game is much-extended. The official Mirkwood campaign runs for 30 years, and the recommended pace is one adventure per year. The Fellowship phase is completed after each adventure. So, what does that mean? If you get injured, you're in a ton of trouble. You've got your Hit Dice. Once those are burned, there's nothing else. There are no healing potions, no friendly clerics, and no long rests until the Fellowship Phase (i.e. the adventure is complete!). The Scholar and the Warden become force multipliers. Both bring heaps of additional healing to the table, which keeps the rest of the party in the adventure.Then there's the Journey phase. Most adventures require Journeys, and they can be savage. Random events occur, and many are very bad for the party. Unless you have strong wilderness skills (Survival, Perception, etc), there's a solid chance you'll run into events that either add Shadow or cause exhaustion levels. Perhaps even multiple exhaustion levels. Why is exhaustion so bad in AiME? See above - you can't just do the D&D thing of taking a day off for a long rest. In a month-long foot-slog across Mirkwood, you might get unlucky and gain 3 levels of exhaustion. None of it can be removed until you get to the other side. And then you run into a pack of orcs...Finally, there's the Audience phase. Audiences are where you deal with notable NPCs, and this is the source of 80%+ of all the treasure in AiME. Usually, you get nothing when looting bodies (...except maybe a Shadow point for grave-robbing), and there aren't many dragon hoards around. However, patrons will often reward you. Sometimes, the reward is in gold or land... and sometimes it's in the form of aid to make your next Journey that much easier. Guess what helps in Audiences? Hint - it's not paladin smites, or magic missiles. Once more, the Scholar and the Warden shine.The bottom line is that if you are using the AiME player's guidebook to run a low-powered regular D&D campaign, then the classes are going to be unbalanced. If you can long rest at will, and most treasure is gained from chests and bodies, and exhaustion is a minor inconvenience, and you aren't using the AiME Journey and Corruption rules, then the Scholar, Warden and Wanderer classes are all under-powered. This just leaves you with the Slayer (barbarian), Treasure Hunter (rogue) and Warrior (fighter). So, you're not really gaining anything over just playing regular D&D and restricting the class choice.However, if you play the full AiME as intended, there is much more balance. My group prioritized the Scholar and Warden classes after learning how the game plays, and they have no regrets.</blockquote>

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