| ruemere |
The following occured during last session.
(during introductory session part for a Barbarian player)
Evening. The strongman for hire (will guide, escort or moderate disputes at reasonable rates, including killing in self-defense, squashing bugs or looting corpses for life) was having a quiet drink by himself in his office (shop-like establishment, just selling services instead of goods).
An assassin appears (i.e. enters through the door without opening it) and whacks lone Barbarian mightily (assassin looks like a starved and downsized version of a troll, albeit with a mass of razorwire hair, smells of smelter and packs a serious punch).
The Barbarian is level 11 (Str 20, 2 largely irrelevant magic items, Keen Falchion, Devastating Blow feat, several rage powers, including Mighty Swing, Strength Surge, Powerful Blow). CR 9 as per Pahtfinder BETA guidelines.
Hamatula - basic stats from SRD 3.5. CR 11 (or a little less, there were no Pathfinder adjustments).
The scene was deliberately set up as to allow Barbarian test a few abilities and then escape. It was just a test of his abilities, not to kill him before introducing him to the rest of the party. Also, all film noir references were intentional, as the current adventure deals with betrayal, revenge for family members and close associates (previous campaign) and Hamatula here is a renowned member of mafia-like merchant family (nickname: Uncle Desperate, or Unkledespert - real name).
The Barbarian puts a punch or two, saves versus Fear (no rage yet, merely mild alcoholic intoxication to the rescue of Will save) and gets grabbed and thrown threw the wall of his office (losing also 6 points of Strength due to poison). There he reflects upon ineffectiveness of his actions, enters rage, grabs a weapon and using Devastating Blow, Powerful Blow and Mighty Swing and deals over 40 points of clean damage to Uncle Desperate.
Uncle Desperate decides to get serious as the fun side job turns a little too brutal for his taste and shuts down Barbarian in Ice Wall cage. Then he exits office deciding to change tactics a bit (after all, Barbarian infamous rages are short lived and, best of all, pretty soon second bout of poison will activate). He also uses Stealth at -5 penalty (one full move action) to hide outside of the office.
Barbarian, thanks to Strength surge breaks down Ice Wall cage Hulk style and follows out. He fails to notice Uncle Desperate but keeps searching. He also fails to note that half of the street has been turned to ice already (backup plan by Uncle Desperate).
Hamatula uses Major Image to create three copies of himself, one in the office, one at the top of the roof, one coming down the street from his real direction. The only exit left is ice covered street. He just wants Barbarian to start running without dwelling too much on time limits (Rage duration, Poison).
Barbarian runs, stumbles and does a spectacular salto mortale thanks to Ice Wall lying on the street. He is quickly covered by another Wall of Ice. Still, he escapes again thanks to Strength Surge, only to collaps out of rage a moment later... however at this time the rest of the party appears, and one Seek the Soulless later there is no street to hide, and one Feeblemind later there are no spells to use for the devil. Salivating and muttering intelligibly, Hamatula succumbs to damage returning into welcoming arms of Hell.
He is going to be back later, he's a member of family after all.
Notes
New Barbarian Rage Powers are spot on. Of them most interesting was Strength Surge which practically negated effects of Strength damage (Poison) and allowed escape otherwise inescapable Ice Wall ability.
The test was conducted using Points version of Rage powers, but the same (or similar) was achievable using Swift Rage Powers.
Devastating Blow was nice, but confirm critical power (Mighty Swing) was much nicer. In a simple exchange of blows (Barbarian's 153hp vs Hamatula's 126hp + damage reduction) Barbarian could win with better initiative. Given special abilities of Hamatula however, it wouldn't happen (as it should be, given difference in their CRs).
Regards,
Ruemere