Party balance

[hcobb]

"Molly" from https://www.hcobb.com/tft/necropus/ is suboptimal because she doesn't have Alertness, but this is covered by other party members who are far more experienced than herself.

Every starting party ought to have a super genius witch who has Alertness, Charisma, Naturalist or some other talent that's a game breaker once IQ hits 15+. She'll also have Staff V (to combine Defend and attack option), 7-hex fire (for branding your bolts), Pathfinder (check every morning and your party will never be lost), Spellsniffer (that, that and that are the magic items. Their enchantments are...), and possibly Scrying.

Put her behind three starting character Light Crossbow Snipers who mow the board with three 2d+2 flaming bolts every turn. Or perhaps put her in front of the snipers to engage the few enemies that stagger over to your side of the map.

Consider replacing one of the snipers with her gargoyle apprentice who carries a silver halberd staff and is working on IQ 9 so he can learn Aid.

[Skarg]

So the thread topic is ironic, because you're actually looking for the most imbalanced character designs and broken rules to suggest a notional "best" party design?

[tomc]

Though I play differently, I enjoy reading posts from those who play TFT more like a board game. Optimizations, interesting combos, loop holes and exploits are fun to read and think about.

How much they influence a campaign is up to each GM, but the occasional munchkin-ly villain will keep the players on their toes.

[hcobb]

Do we need an adventure where three starting hobgoblins take down a PC party of four or more? If so, what's the end game? Sell the PCs to a slave trader?