Unlike other Tabletop Games, By Gods and Kings focuses primarily on balance. With that being said, if you are running a six man party and all six are damage, you’re not going to be able to progress far without making alterations.

A starting party consisting of players using The Shard of Blunt Fists, The Shard of Energy, The Shard of Focus, The Shard of Sight, The Shard of Executions, and The Shard of the Harvest will not make it very far into Tier 3 content. There’s only so much in By Gods and Kings that you can just overpower. The 6 Shards above are quite useful, but with just the six of them, you’re very damage heavy.

As you progress you will discover that two things are very important. You will need someone who can either take damage for you or mitigate it, and then you will need someone to repair and restore hit points where needed: A tank and a healer if you will.

You will also find yourself in a position where being able to manipulate hands and fields will become highly useful.

There are several combinations that work. Having one player take either The Shard of the Arcane Guardian, The Shard of Valor, or the Shard of Iron Will, will give you someone that can either taunt enemies or cover damage. Having a player take the Shard of Restoration will allow you to heal others, however, the Shard of the Devout will create shields where needed and still allow that player to deal damage.

No starting combination is wrong, just some are better and more suited to the combat than others. Try and strive for balance when starting your party and you should be fairly successful.

So Chris, what is your favorite starting combination?

My favorite combination for six players is to use the following six shards: Shard of Iron Will, Shard of the Devout, Shard of Executions, Shard of the Harvest, Shard of Illusions, Shard of Blunt Fists. This combination gives you a lot of versatility. Iron Will and Devout are both hybrid shards, so with Devout, you can still deal magical damage which will go well with the Shard of the Harvest. Iron Will can still do physical damage, which will go well with Executions. Illusions can feed Blunt Fists and give someone the ability to really hammer out damage where needed.

While we talk about the need for a tank and a healer, it should be noted that they can also be damage dealers. A tank doesn’t have to be a gigantic meat shield who just absorbs everything that is thrown at him and doesn’t dish it back out. A tank merely helps to prevent other squishier characters from getting beat on. The player using the Shard of the Devout has a pretty powerful 3 of a Kind ability, Transfer Life, that will assist in healing where needed.

This is a more dangerous setup, but with every Shard, minus Illusions, capable of putting out a lot of damage, you’ll be just fine.