I ran the guys through Hollow's Last Hope, the prequel to the Kobold King adventure.
A large portion of the adventure is outdoors with an indoor dungeon finish.
Epic point buy, standard starting cash
The character builds were:
Human Samurai w/ 18 str, 14 con, 13 dex, AC 16, power attack, mounted combat
(He used his bastard sword two-handed, and notably did not use his horse for anything except as an additional pair of eyes and ears on perception checks.
Human Gunslinger w/ 16 dex, 14 con, 13 str, 16 wis, rapid reload, TWF, AC 16
(Obviously, he took the pistols and bought shot
Human Ninja w/ 18 dex, 13 str, 14 con, 14 cha, TWF and weapon finesse, AC 17
(He used a bastard sword and short sword, picked up vanish trick at level 2)
Elf Magus w/... doesn't matter for playtest purposes- This guy really just flanked stuff for the ninja, self-buffed with shield and attacked with ray of frost and his longsword every round.
Encounters:
3 wolves
The wolves are in difficult terrain w/ cover in fairly dense woods. The ninja spots them first and is sneaking about 20ft away from everyone else.
Ninja maneuvers into position and attacks the surprised wolves, (10 dmg) with SA, but didn't drop the wolf.
Round 1 -
*Gunslinger goes first, attacking twice and hitting once. (5 dmg) He drops one pistol.
*Ninja is next attacks using TWF, hits twice and drops his wolf. (3 and 4 dmg)
*Samurai is next, moves forward and draws his katana.
#Wolf 1 hits samurai for 4 dmg and trips him.
#Wolf 2 moves and hits the ninja, who misses an AOO. (Ninja takes 5 dmg but stays up.)
*Magus moves and casts a wasted shocking grasp, hoping to discharge next turn.
Round 2 -
*Gunslinger loads pistol, fires and misses a wolf in melee w/partial cover.
*Ninja attacks wolf2 twice, hitting for 8 and 6 and dropping wolf2.
*Samurai stands, eats AOO (3 dmg) and power attacks wolf 1. (12 dmg and dead.)
a day or so passes...
1 hobgob warrior and 1 hobgob rogue
The hobgoblins are hiding in the woods to one side, the PC's are between them and a lake.
They get the drop on the samurai, dropping from trees into melee at the edge of the woods.
hob rogue hits Samurai for 6 on a SA.
Round 1 -
*Ninja wins initiative, charges a hobgob warrior w/ his bastard sword and hitting for 4 dmg.
*Magus goes next, moving and casting shield.
*Gunslinger is next, attacking twice at hobgob warrior in melee and missing twice.
#Hobgob rogue moves to flank and misses the Samurai.
#Hobgob warrior breaks flank, moves and misses the magus with a javelin.
*Samurai power attacks hobgob rogue for 15 and killing him.
Round 2 -
*Ninja waits for magus.
*Magus moves and attacks hob warrior for 6.
*Ninja flanks hobgob warrior, hits w/ SA, 14 damage and dead.
tatzlewyrm
The tatzlewyrm is hiding in a big tree, for plot reasons, the gunslinger moves to the tree ahead of the party. During the surprise round, the tatzlewyrm charges down the tree, pouncing upon the poor gunslinger and hitting him for 22 dmg.
Round 1
*Ninja goes first again. He moves toward the wyrm and throws a shuriken. (2 dmg)
*Samurai challenges and charges and misses the wyrm.
#The wyrm drags a limp gunslinger into the branches above and bites his head off. (9 dmg)
*Magus casts shield and moves toward the base of the tree.
Round 2
*Ninja starts climbing, throws a shuriken and misses.
*Samurai shoots at the wyrm with his shortbow and misses.
#Wyrm charges, pouncing the samurai and deals 12dmg.
*Magus shoots at the wyrm with his shorbow and hits. (4 dmg)
Round 3
*Ninja tumbles into melee and flanks the wyrm, hitting for 11.
*Samurai misses on a power attack.
#Wyrm deals 6 damage to samurai and grapples him.
*Magus shoots again and misses.
Round 4
*Ninja misses twice.
*Samurai power attacks and kills the tatzlewyrm.
animated cauldron
(The cauldron got the drop on the ninja and grappled him. The samurai and magus ganked this animated object in one round on two charges... so... not worth going into really.)
We used the fast experience chart. They leveled up here to level 2.
The magus picked up true strike (which he never used).
More importantly, the ninja picked up the Vanish Trick, which he used to devastating effect.
The samurai shined his armor, buckled his sandals and said he wished he wasn't a ronin after looking at his order power. (Which, I guess is the point???)
1 2nd level kobold rogue
The kobold heard the party hacking down the locked door to his area, hid under his bed and waited. He surprised the Samurai with a knife to the... lower hamstring, I guess... doing 8 damage.
Round 1
*Ninja wins initiative again. Vanishes and moves into the room. He withholds his attack until next round so he can use TWF.
#Kob rogue hits the samurai for 3 dmg and tumbles around him.
*Magus casts ray of frost and crits for 5 dmg.
*Samurai swings, misses and curses his dice.
Round 2
*Ninja sneak attacks thrice (using a ki point) - once for 11 (dropping the kobold), and once for 9 (killing the kobold). His last attack missed.
3 darkmantles
The darkmantles hide above, cloaked in darkness and all go on the surprise round. One hits the magus and grapples, while the other hits and grabs the ninja. The third misses the samurai.
Round 1
*Samurai goes first, hits the darkmantle for 19 and drops it.
*The magus struggles but can't get out of the darkmantle's grasp.
*The ninja gets out of grapple, vanishes, and moves toward the samurai.
#Darkmantle 1 constricts the magus for 5 dmg.
#Darkmantle 2 moves to slam the samurai and misses.
Round 2
*Samurai misses the darkmantle.
*Magus is free of the grapple and swings and misses.
*Ninja sneak attacks the darkmantle into bloody pulp.
#Darkmantle 1 misses the magus on a slam.
Round 3
*Samurai charges darkmantle and deposits 12 dmg.
*Ninja moves and attacks darkmantle in flank and kills him.
Sam and Mag heal using potions of cure light wounds found elsewhere. They also use a plot point item to heal again and receive a +1 bonus on attacks for an hour.
5 wolves and one big ol' worg/warrior2
The party sort of "flees forward" and this minor fight turns major. It starts in one room with three wolves and the samurai charges on into the next chamber.
No surprise round.
Round 1
*Magus goes first, casts shield and moves to center of room.
*Ninja goes next charging wolf 1 in the first room and doing 4 dmg.
*Samurai charges into room with worg, hitting a wolf for 11 and challenging worg.
#Wolves 2-5 charge the magus and ninja with only one hit on the magus for 3.
#Worg charges samurai and does 14 dmg.
Round 2
*Magus, knee deep in wolves, swings and misses and misses on ray of frost.
*Ninja vanishes (last time) but doesn't move, hits wolf2 for 10, misses the other.
*Samurai finishes off wolf 1.
#Wolf 2-3 miss magus (who has 22 AC atm) and wolf 4-5 miss the ninja barely.
#Worg rips samurai a new one, dropping him to negative digits and tripping him, but samurai uses resolve to stay up. (Funnest moment for the samurai, btw. because of next round.)
Round 3
*Magus hits wolf 2 for 11, follows with ray of frost for 3, downing wolf and 5ft stepping into flank with ninja.
*Ninja deals the pain. Threatens a crit on first SA but doesn't confirm. He kills the flanked wolf 4 anyway, moves to flank the worg.
*Samurai manages to crit the worg. (32 dmg)
#Worg misses samurai.
#Wolves 3 and 5 miss the ninja.
Round 4
*Magus hits wolf 5 for 4.
*Ninja sneak attacks worg twice. 23 dmg. Worg is dead.
*Samurai fights defensively.
Here the wolves try to flee and draw AOO's that end the fight.
So, in hindsight, maybe killing the gunslinger so early was not the best representation for a playtest... but... it was probably his high point too, sadly enough. The party really loved having the extra 2k gp that it brought to the party wealth, even though they didn't get to use it. The player said he wished he'd played a samurai.
The samurai really enjoyed using resolve to save his butt and try to go out in a blaze of glory. He really didn't like the ronin challenge bonus and though it really wouldn't have helped much to have the DR against that worg.
The ninja killed things left and right and the player had a blast doing it. He really liked the way ki worked, even using it once to take three attacks in a round.
I left out fights that were extremely one-sided for the players and ended in less than a round - none of those included the gunslinger...
As an aside, the elf magus likened his class to 'an oldschool bladesinger' - meaning it felt like second edition in a very good way.
We will pick back up at level 3 the next time we get to play, though it probably won't be in a modular adventure.
