Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-15: Cleansing the Flame

Again, the rules for chases are incorrect. This time they copied an entire block of text from 5-13 wholesale, including referencing the Incandescent Terrace. At least this time the results of the chase actually make sense. The scaling of the chase is completely terrible as well, having it scale off number of players vs challenge points is never the way to go for scaling. You just had copy the same scaling from 2-10, which is in the same tier as this scenario. Start with 3 points, and increase the DC or chase points required based on the challenge points.

The Hazard after the chase doesn't have a hazard type at all. It is mentioned as a Trap in the reaction, so I went with that, but the hazard type matters for things like Trap Finder, so it really should be included. Also please stop making hazards that do damage to everyone on the initial reaction as well as on their turn.

When the PCs enter Mahja's house to check it out, they somehow don't hear all the fighting outside. It's also assumed that they close the doors for some reason. I don't like how it essentially forces the action of closing the doors on the PCs, and assumes they wouldn't notice the huge fight breaking out just outside those doors.

They also included a 5th rank spell in the boss's 4th rank slots. I replaced it with another Fireball, but a mistake like this is super easy to notice and fix. If you want an NPC to have more spell slots, you can just give them more slots, you don't have to cheat that hard.

Also speaking on cheating, having someone cast from outside combat left a sour taste in the mouths of my players. It's not that the boss got free buffs, it's that it was pitched as an honorable combat, then someone goes and cheats from the stands and the boss says nothing about it.

The addition of a Huge creature on a map that has a 10ft wide hallway was also a huge mistake. There should have just been more Orcs instead of animals.

I'm also severely disappointed that the Red Reaver claws were completely ignored, despite having a significant meaning to Uirch. He claimed the claws after fighting the Reaver and losing his arm, and when we see him next in 2-10 he's proud of them, and even shows how the claws match the scars on his arm. Then they were completely forgotten about just to give him a shield.

The addition of Uirch also getting a crucible mark was kinda predictable, I just hope something interesting happens there, rather than him just helping Mahja out.

Overall it was fine. At least we had a fight against an intelligent enemy who had good spells and tactics for once. We need more bosses like this. However, this boss could totally have just been a Cleric of the "bad guy" who kills Uirch in front of the party, and have literally the exact same spells and abilities. Nothing about Uirch's stat block was special to him, and it would have been more memorable if we were avenging a fallen ally, instead of pity killing him.

I greatly enjoyed the metaplot implications and the chance to follow Uirch and the Burning Sun orcs once again.

The sinister plot of Sezelrian made sense to me, but the investigation doesn't pay off since the enemies immediately attack after you finish it.

While I am tired of subsystems (chase, this time), it was nice that it only tweaks the difficulty of the upcoming hazard.

Personally, I was also happy about the difficulty of the combats. A double moderate followed by a Severe+ final combat was great. We haven't had serious combats all season, and this was a fun challenge. Unfortunately, the plot says that the final fight is a "fair combat", but the crowd buffer is decidedly not fair.

Combined with copious editing issues (no DC scaling for high-tier chase). Uirch's statblock has level 4 Flame Strike (instead of 5). Low tier also has level 5 cantrips + Fire Ray instead of 4. Uirch's scimitar hit rate is also only +1 instead of +2-3 over low-tier.

I had fun when playing (author table) and GMing. But actually reading the scenario means not having the author's intent; that's why I can only rate this 3 stars.

High-tier is likely to run long, but low-tier should be mostly ok.

As the title says, I had a terrible GM when my party played through this scenario at Paizocon. The game was running long due to a proliferation of tanky targets with one particularly problematic reaction, and even though everyone was focused on trying to win the fights, the GM was still getting irate and raising his voice at us about "table chatter," trying to rush us while claiming the game was running long because of US (and not himself or even the length of the scenario itself). Among other things he did before and during the game, that particular GM was one of the worst I've ever played with and I will be avoiding him at any convention I go to in the future.

Despite of all that though, I still liked this scenario. The story behind it was great, the fights were challenging, and as another reviewer remarked there was more to worry about than simply beating down the enemies. I liked how the orc pantheon was involved, the subsystem was long but didn't really bother me (since the flavor for it was pretty cool), and the set up and falling action after the final fight actually made me feel emotional - in a good way.

If I were to recommend one thing that could be taken out to make this game run faster, it would be the subsystem challenge. Still, I actually liked its inclusion in my run of the game (though it did admittedly have way too many rounds and was just starting to outlive its welcome at the end).

In any case, I agree with the more positive reviewers when I say this scenario does a great job of progressing the Belkzen metaplot, and I look forward for where it will go next. To GMs and players out there though, I'll warn you, this scenario will likely run long. Prepare accordingly and set enough time aside so that you can fully enjoy it.

While reviewing entire season, I noticed there has been going round subsystem burnout with players. I guess it makes sense since ratio of subsystems in this season is higher than in a single adventure path, but I do feel like people make bigger number of them due to fatigue and due to scenarios recently being on longer side in general. In this case, I think case to determine difficulty of hazard in next encounter is good idea, but I do think chase could be shorter by few obstacles since five obstacles with target of under 7 rounds for easiest reward is still lot of rolling even if they roll perfectly and make past it in five rounds. Like maybe target number could be 5 rounds for best situation and three obstacles?

Either way, its fun sequel to the previous one and I'm shocked by end reveal, in good way, though if it happens for third time then the super rare event starts becoming too common plot point. Funnily enough while I can see why people have had conversation about fans joining the honor duel, I have my different thoughts on that encounter: I kinda feel like that while the encounter's consequences are primarily reporting conditions and secondary success, its nature as kinda plot based almost optional encounter kinda make me wish it didn't have any scaling at all and would just be "extreme solo for four characters of lower level of tier, severe solo for four characters of higher level of tier" type of thing. Like with that setup you could still have fans or paladin mook join in for parties of 5-6 players, but honestly i think it would be okay to have fight being on little bit easier side for 5-6 characters rather since I think fight is more about emotion and story than gameplay balance and solo character likely would still have chance to show off their badassery in their final fight.

Either way, it is fun that paizo chose to introduce new shakeups to orc pantheon and lore through scenarios since they could have just easily been one of new tidbits learned in upcoming books :O

Yet another subsystem... I don't like any of them anymore. It used to be different, but since Season 5 I don't need them anymore... Really! But well, at least one haste and then you're done with a few skill rolls. On the other hand, I really liked the story. I generally like everything that has to do with orcs anyway, so I'm quite excited about it. I also think the aspect with the challenge after death is great. A nice continuation of the previous scenarios. In my opinion, however, the great strength of this scenario is that the battles are finally varied again. The previous scenarios in this season were extremely weak across the board. Hit it and you're done. But this time the player characters didn't just have to bluntly smash heads in every combat encounter, but had to decide to either smash heads or act skillfully against another aspect that appears in combat. THANK YOU!
As for the last fight, I have to say that I think it was actually well designed throughout. Of course, there's talk of honorable combat at first. But I find it completely understandable that fans in the stands still don't want to see their idol fall and therefore push him. In my opinion, this is completely consistent with logic. After all, if the player characters pay attention when explaining the fighting rules, it's perfectly clear how the fight will end if the main opponent falls. Therefore, in my opinion, it is not unfair to provide the protagonist with strong adjutants. I really enjoyed the finale and would have liked to play it in the High Tier.
Under normal circumstances, I might have given the scenario 4 stars, as it contains a few minor criticisms. However, since I found the battles in the previous scenarios extremely boring and far too trivial, I give this scenario a bonus star. More interestingly designed combat encounters, please. They don't all have to be difficult. But at least include a bit of tactics.