Griss

**Griss** is a varl Hero character encountered in *The Banner Saga* series.

## Background

The model Varl warrior. Griss doesn't have much distinction to his name and little influence on the politics of Varl, but he's a warrior through and through, having fought in every great war and killed countless Dredge and men alike. Dependable, when he's not shooting his mouth off.

## Active Ability: Battering Ram

The Strongarm smashes an adjacent unit with his shield knocking it back up to 4 tiles and pushing it *through* anyone in the way. Battering Ram does Armor damage to the target, adding 1 more Armor damage for each unit it passes through.

The ability can be used on both friend or foe, making it versatile in many situations by changing a unit's position on the board. Ramming a Shieldbanger does *not* trigger the Return the Favor.

**Rank 1:** Knock-back and 1 Armor damage

**Rank 2:** Knock-back and 3 Armor damage

**Rank 3:** Knock-back and 5 Armor damage

## Second Active Ability: Choice

In the second part of *The Banner Saga*, when Griss reaches Rank 6, he can choose a second active ability between:

* Malice (Provoker), like Fasolt
* Bring the Pain (Shieldmaster), like Mogr

## Passive Ability: Return the Favor

A character who performs a melee attack on a Shieldbanger loses 1 point of Armor for each successfully landed hit.

Return the Favor triggers every time the Shieldbanger takes Strength or Armor damage from an adjacent enemy, which can make it devastating to hit him with attacks that strike multiple times, like Bloody Flail. Ranged attacks do not Return the Favor.

## Joining the Party

**Saga 1:**  Early in Chapter 3, Griss will be overheard disrespecting Hakon. If *properly* confronted about it, Griss will be embarrassed and he will later offer to join Hakon's personal guard in order to redeem himself. If Hakon doesn't *explicitly* decline his offer, Griss will offer to join one last time: that happens if you emerge victorious in the War battle against the Dredge that have invaded the small village before Ridgehorn. If Griss survives Chapter 3, he will join Rook's caravan in the end of Chapter 7.

**Saga 2:**  Griss stays with Hakon and the Skogr caravan.

## Possible Death or Departure

**Saga 1:** Griss can be killed during Chapter 3. If Hakon's caravan loses the War against the Dredge that have invaded the village just before Ridgehorn, Griss' body will be found among the dead.

**Saga 2:** He can be killed in early Chapter 8 if he is ordered to lead a charge against the Dredge to buy the caravan some time to safely disembark from the longships following the Ormsa River into a chasm.

**Saga 3:** Griss can die in the second return to Arberrang in Chapter 21 if you get the varl involved in putting out fires.

## Playstyle

* Griss starts with high overall stats along with 2 Exertion, that compensates his short Shieldbanger movement range (3 tiles).
* He is a very versatile unit that can be used either as a typical Shieldbanger (in this case max out his Armor and Break) or as Warrior (max out his Strength at 15).
* Battering Ram can be really useful to change the formation of the ally or enemy pieces on the board. For instance, a bulky enemy can be pushed behind other enemy units effectively blocking him out. Or, a high Strength ally (e.g. Gunnulf or Hakon) can be given a *gentle push* so that he comes in attack-range of an otherwise unreachable enemy unit.
* Battering Ram can also be used for damage-dealing combos in combination with Impale, Rain of Arrows or Slag and Burn, even when Griss himself is injured.

## Trivia

His name loosely translates to "grey, aged".