CHARACTERS . The Abomination is a peculiar duck . He ' s good in certain circumstances , but ' religious ' heroes won ' t have anything to do with him this means no Vestal , no Crusader , no Leper . The others are godless heathens and will let him in their party , but they ' ll still freak when he hulks out . Abominations don ' t synergise well watching one another embrace their curse and turn into a tenfoot goatmonster is very upsetting for them , and they ' ll compete for party slots humanform Abominations need to be in the middle to be useful , beastmode ones need to be in the front , so you ' ll have to make arrangements if you want both to hulk out at the same time . On the other hand , provided you ' ve got a Jester to soothe the savage beasts , they will rend the enemy into tiny pieces . The Jester can help with the positioning he can Finale his way to the back and then play Yakety Sax while the beasts run amok . It ' s fun , but watch out for stress causers . Other prime candidates for a goatbeast party include the Plague Doctor they both have blights , and the Abom is especially vulnerable to backliners Jesters , who provide buffs and calming music , and . well , I like the Houndmaster . Houndmasters are very versatile . I had him in front with dodge trinkets . Works up to Level 3 IIRC but not sure how viable it is after that . . Antiquarians are useful . They ' re not tremendously useful in a direct fight , but with Protect Me ! they can provide a useful buff to an ally and protect themselves from harm , and the help they provide re scrounging gold , carrying gold , and collecting valuables is a fine asset . Something to contemplate Antiquarian uses Protect Me ! and cowers behind a Highwayman . The Highwayman used Duelist ' s Advance , and is automatically counterattacking anything that aims at him . With Protect Me ! any attacks aimed at the Antiquarian get redirected to the thief and countered . The protection boost helps , but you ' ll want dodge trinkets and a healer just in case . Antiquarians have a heal , but . it ' s not much use beyond getting off of Death ' s Door . . Grave Robbers are good if you use them right . Fairly versatile , hard to hit , great crit rate , almost always go first in the round , and three Grave Robbers taking turns to Lunge can do a lot of damage . Fragile , though . The ' three Robbers ' arrangement is fun but I don ' t think it ' s very reliable if it goes wrong , it goes wrong fast . Same for Highwaymen they hit hard , but they ' re fragile . Keep an eye on them , and have A Plan in case they get badly hurt . . Jesters and MenAtArms aren ' t exclusively buffbots , but they aren ' t exclusively combatants either the ManAtArms is a nuisance , because just about every ability he has is a good one and well worth using . You have to put some thought into what you want him to do in a given party lineup . He ' s very good at keeping vulnerable characters safe , though . Also very good at punishing those bandits with the shotguns , and other multihit enemies , but chiefly the bandits nothing shuts those clowns down like a ManAtArms and Highwayman with Riposte active . . Vestals are straightforward . Judgement is really good it lets you finish off a wounded gribbly while touching up your healer ' s health . Melee Vestals are theoretically doable if you want to do that but I wouldn ' t call it especially viable . Might want to keep a meleerange ability handy in case of shuffles , anyway . . Later on , you ' ll get Trinkets little articles that improve a character in some way at the expense of another . You ' ll need to decide what you ' re willing to give up , and what bonuses are worth any price . There ' s two general approaches to increasing a character ' s stats shoring up weaknesses , like giving a Crusader or Leper a speed trinket , or boosting strengths to ludicrous levels , like taking a Leper and giving him a Sun Ring makes you hit harder when the light ' s high and Slayer Ring makes you hit hard against enemies of a given ' type ' or Fortunate AmuletWarrior ' s Bracer which both increase melee damage that particular combo can do disgusting amounts of damage . The very best example , I think , is the Blasphemous Vial it ' s a Very Rare Plague Doctor trinket thatmakes attacks in general more likely to hitmakes blight attacks more likely to inflict their DoT payloadmakes stun attacks more likely to stun their victimsincreases stress damage takenThe Plague Doctor ' s big strength beyond all the blights is her spectacular combo of stun and speed she generally goes early in the turn order , Blinding Gas is accurate , effective , and hits the back rows , which are also the enemies most likely to do nasty things to your party while in theory the Vial makes her more vulnerable to stress , in practice the fact that it allows her to consistently lock down the enemy back line , often for consecutive turns , makes that irrelevant . Giving a Sun Ring to a Leper does both it counters his inaccuracy , and it increases his already good damage output . It helps to think over what your goals are with a given party composition , and what approach you ' ll use with it if you ' re planning to use , say , A r b a l i s t O ccultistHoundmasterBounty Hunter for magic tricks Watch as I make this Bone Commander disappear ! and party disruption pulls , stuns , debuffs it ' s probably a good idea to distribute a debuff and maybe a speed trinket to the Occultist and some stuns to the Bounty Hunter and Houndmaster , to make the ' trick ' more reliable .