All ACG party playtest


Playtest Feedback

Scarab Sages

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Last Friday I ran a party through level 1 of Thornkeep completely comprised of ACG classes. We used Pathfinder Society rules so we could both get credit as well as have a good baseline to compare against.

Our party consisted of a hunter, shaman, swashbuckler, slayer and warpriest. All players were pretty seasoned with Pathfinder.

Here's a quick breakdown of my perceptions:

hunter - Felt like a ranger. The player chose a wolf animal companion and a melee build. Primarily he used his wolf for flanks and used magic sparingly. He did start using magic more as we went shilelagh and some heals. Having a 0 BAB is a little tough for someone playing as a frontliner. At the same time he had a dex build and was the party scout. I'm not 100% sure what role the hunter was envisioned to play, but the name makes me think of an offensive one.

shaman - Felt like a cleric. I don't really get what's particularly witch -like about this class. Calling their oracle mysteries "hexes" just seems confusing. The shaman took the life mystery and focused on channels and healing. She had a longspear to try and help out in combat, but with a 0 BAB and 10STR wasn't very effective. This class uses WIS/CHA and CON (for life link) so feels a little spread out. They don't get a "hex" until level 2 so really it was a weak cleric with only 1+CHA channels a day.

swashbuckler - Felt like a swashbucker... :) My friend has been trying to make a swashbucker from day one so this was a welcome addition. At level 1 the swashbuckler could make some pretty impressive acrobatic checks using panache and was all over the field. I'd imagine once they get mobility this will be a pretty crazy class for a support fighter. I'm not sure if their damage will scale effectively to be the primary fighter, but they're wherever they need to be at a given time. Climbing up ropes and jumping all around the battlefield.

slayer - Felt like a rogue? Hard to say on this one. They get a mark that gives them some bonuses to attack. I kept getting a 4th edition feel on this character. The player built her as a ranged fighter. Her dice went cold towards the end of the night so I didn't get a lot of insight on what the class could do. I didn't realize she had a 1 BAB because of the rogue vibe the character gave off. Just an assumption on my part.

warpriest - Felt like a warpriest (battle cleric). The player used a great sword and ran around bashing stuff. He used the flexible buff system a few times and while it didn't seem earth shattering I liked it. I'm a fan of the inquisitor and this just seems to be a variation on that. He didn't take any sort of healing ability so focused on some self buffs and smashing things.

My general conclusion is at level 1 most of the hybrids seem to represent one of their 2 parts more strongly. That could be my perception or the way players approach them. With the above list we didn't have anyone who was particularly perceptive or able to do anything about traps. We also didn't have anyone with any knowledge or magical skills. Nobody was particularly awesome at anything except for acrobatics/climb on the part of the swashbuckler. On the other hand, had the feeling of being a pretty well-balanced party. Several people could heal, most people had some ability in combat and the party as a whole was pretty mobile.

Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

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Thanks for your playtest feedback! Specific comments:

• We're going to add more teamwork feats that are keyed to a hunter who uses ranged attacks with an animal companion.

• A ranged equivalent of shillelagh would be interesting.

• Trapfinding is an interesting option as a slayer talent.

• We weren't specifically aiming for hybrid classes being exactly down the middle of their two component classes. As we progress with this book, we'd like to see them stand out as something more unique (as the magus does) but still have elements of those two classes, so perhaps more 30% class A/30% class B/40% new class, or something similar.

Paizo Employee

I really like your focus on feel in this report. It's definitely what matters to my players, so this will help me steer them towards the classes they want.

The swashbuckler sounds like a blast :)

Sean K Reynolds wrote:
As we progress with this book, we'd like to see them stand out as something more unique (as the magus does) but still have elements of those two classes, so perhaps more 30% class A/30% class B/40% new class, or something similar.

Just wanted to chime in that this sounds awesome.

Cheers!
Landon


Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Thanks for your playtest feedback! Specific comments:

• We're going to add more teamwork feats that are keyed to a hunter who uses ranged attacks with an animal companion.

• A ranged equivalent of shillelagh would be interesting.

• Trapfinding is an interesting option as a slayer talent.

• We weren't specifically aiming for hybrid classes being exactly down the middle of their two component classes. As we progress with this book, we'd like to see them stand out as something more unique (as the magus does) but still have elements of those two classes, so perhaps more 30% class A/30% class B/40% new class, or something similar.

Agree, sounds awesome. :)


Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Thanks for your playtest feedback! Specific comments:

• We're going to add more teamwork feats that are keyed to a hunter who uses ranged attacks with an animal companion.

• A ranged equivalent of shillelagh would be interesting.

• Trapfinding is an interesting option as a slayer talent.

• We weren't specifically aiming for hybrid classes being exactly down the middle of their two component classes. As we progress with this book, we'd like to see them stand out as something more unique (as the magus does) but still have elements of those two classes, so perhaps more 30% class A/30% class B/40% new class, or something similar.

I like the sound of that last point. It'd be cool.

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