u/Available-Lab4363

not a favorite character tierlist at all since that would acrually look pretty different lol, moreso looking at how the character fits inti the narrative + how well they're executed on by the player and gm storytelling around them.

ALSO i haven't seen ep31 yet, keep that in mind! logic below

julien- an unlikeable guy, but extremely compelling and fun in his complexity and distastefulness. he isnt a BAD guy, but hes nit a good one- a selfish ine above anything else, which is hammered in again and again. but his selfish motivations dont come from nowherex they're out of a love for life and those he loves. but he isn't going to go out of his way to do good. he's also a playboy shithead and i think that's fun :)

wicander- while i was a bit wishy-washy since sam's roleplay sometimes leans into the comedic aspects of wick in a way where it's hard to keep his image congruent with wicander (funny) and wicander (emotional, complex) at the same time, i didn't wanna make an entirely new tier for him lol. i think his position in nobility and blooded relation to what may wrll be the last living celestial give him an obvious unique position in the stories narrative, and his genuine good-heartedness in a family of rotten apples and emotional core of seeing if he can manage to turn the faith in its head someday i find very compelling. his emotional rp moments trump the funny ones, though i would really love to see his (ex?) lover backstory plot point touched next arc because as it stands it feels very odd

occtis- like wick, i almost put him in the next tier up, but i think ultimately i want a little more narrative oomph on his struggle being no longer alive and how that alienates him and makes him feel before i'm willing to put him there. another scene or two emphasizing that and hes s+ for me. his nobility and lack of sorcery is super fun to me, but his familys brand of evil is a little more face value and boring than wicks', even if the necromancy IS done super fun and cunty and icky in a cool way. i also think the solution ti the tachonis is much simpler narratively than the solution to the halovars, but that may prove to change as we learn more about the tachonis' grander ambitions.

thaisha- boy oh boy i don't understand why people don't like her. she's a complex character who has the same noble origins as wick, occtis, and julien, but she has such an incredibly strong connection to the city the story revolves around (the lloys are THE orc family there and THE reason for their freedon, and have continued to be a storied and strong pillar of the city) but also the theme (the theme seeming to be 'in a world with no gods or their servants to steward the dead and many dead yet to come, what is the solution to a choking afterlife and the opportunities that it presents?' since the druids of the old path are a also a central pillar to addressing that issue, but from what thjazi and the cloak were working on with the afterlives i think its pretty clear a central theme of the campaign will be a restoration of the afterlives or solution to unclogging the tenebral reaches), so thaisha jigsaws in extremely neatly to the narrative. aabria does a hood job of playing an idealistic but restless and hot-headed woman with a deep compassion for the world that drives her to action- like occtis, i just want more touching on her complexities, but i think her relationshop with the fact she strayed from the path and hiw does she truly reconcile that action woll be touched next arc, at which point i'd probably also put her s tier :)

hal/thimble- theyre there for basically the same reasoning so ill do them at the same time. the aesthetics, action, and mannerisms of the characters are all super well done roleplay wise and their involvement with the story as picking up thjazis work and trying to help the people of the city and world is heroic, but i want something a little more interesting out of them. hal has some inner conflict with his desire for peacetimes but need for action but hes falling a little flat and boring to me still in a way i cant quite identify, and thimble i want to see be a bit more complicated- but we may have just gotten that in ep31, seeing how ep30 ended, in what i personally think was a super interesting character choice. with a bit more depth and a few more interesting character choices they can get there for me

murray- i love murrays concept, her visuals and mannerisms and backstory are all quite fresh for me- i just think her very 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps to get an education' attitude about education is sort if a tired narrative to me, and i was deeply frustrated by her repeated visions of the rmtheater ritual NOT being bad and marisha (and tal, but we'll get to that) so firmly believing it must be bad because of a single identify spell as opposed to like other good ass rolls. i also want to see more complexity there since murray hasn't really had to show any ugly sides yet. i also think he strongest ties to the story and its themes are her visions and the fact thjazi cared about something to do with her, which i hope dearly gets expanded on soon

azune/kattigan- very plainly i love their roleplay execution but their narratives are super nothingburger to me rn for various reasons (im more interested in wulfric's dela and katt's familiar and katt's inability with magic and why that is than his familial revenge, but if they're related that's fun; azune's military orphan backstory is also very standard dnd but i hope his sorcerous origins turn into something compelling) and i want more revelations for them to be more than just really good acting choices on top of generic ttrpg backstories. both extremely 'just some guy vaguely attached to the narrative because they have to be as PCs' atm

bolaire- easily one of the most frustrating characters, simply because several times he has completely lacked genre-savviness in a way that just doesn't befit a character meant to be a knife-sharp and infinitely clever psychic god-killing weapon. most egregiously, like murray, was convinced the ritual was bad just because it had necromancy and refused to entertain other ideas; and very awfully handled lady cormoray, trying to trip her despite A; her being canonically a very powerful sorceror and B; literally told she FLEW here, and kept trying to cast spells and tackle the encounter like she was just some CR2 statblock socially powerful npc rather than a high-level sorceror, something he ABSOLUTELY should have known better about. i love the idea, but i really need some smarter and more narrative-savvy player choices to live up to the character concept- OR, a character reason that bolaire isn't actually as clever as he thinks he is and is too proud to be wrong. tied to the narrative's history, and i like his continuing theme of looking for purpose when the event he was literally made for is over, but i want more investment from him emotionally too

vaelus- similar issue to bolaire where the concept is incredible and compelling to me, but the execution is very lacking. i think ashley unfortunately isn't as cool and cold and vaelus is, which is making the execution meet in a very awkward middle. that being said, at least i think she does a good job salvaging her strange character decisions and finding a logic for them, but she's sort of needed narrative guidance to do so a couple times. i think vaelus needs some sort of big in character change to happen to try to get her closer to where ashley's at, and i hope that's what we're moving towards, but as is the dissonance is just a bit much. i hope her arc with her grieving a dead god and if she still even wants to has continued satisfying growth and brings her to a place she can more reasonably participate in the story with, but she sort of all over the place at the moment, and her main reason for being present is destroyed- more needs to be seen from her imo

tyranny- continuing with themes of greta cocnepts and weird executions, whitney seems to wildly swing between ultra serious and ultra silly in a way that makes tyrranys intended struggle with wanting to be good but believing that she's ontologically evil feel staggered and strange. i appreciate her strong character commitment to wicander, i think thats one of the characters strongest points- but other than the dedication to him, there's just way too much wavering and being silly, and i want more to a character (esp a woman in a subservient position lol) than just dedication to another one. i'd love to see her have more discussions about wanting to be good that don't end up stonewalled, or maybe about the fact that her literal material existence is tied tot he halovars since that could be a fun motivation. i hope the silly-serious balance and character independence get better as we go on

teor- love the concept, especially with brennan giving hints of how the paladin magic even exists right now, but i think travis just likes being silly and playing the ttrpg of it all more than being complicated. i sort of feel like hes done that with every character tho so nothing new. i >!hope his next character leans harder into his strengths, ie fluctuation RP seriousness, go with the flow attitude, and commitment to badass combat mechanics!<

EDIT: the more i think about it the more i think bolaire probably belongs in the same category as murray, because as frustrated as i've been with the unsavvy decisions (sorry to keep reusing that word, i just think it's the most apt), i very deeply appreciate the core concept of him looking for new purpose and his disdainful brand of interparty conflict