| CapitaineFrance |
Hi there,
Last weekend I persuaded my group to try those Advanced Classes. We started level 3, rolled stats. I rolled a Bloodrager, my friends went with Skald and Slayer.
Our DM has a Fantasy homebrew world that he want us to play in, so no Golarion. One of the biggest difference was that we weren't "adventurers", but we needed a job, and our wealth was much less than a normal PF character. We could have anything non masterwork, non magical, but no abuse (like having a million alchemist fire or something...).
Because none of us had a skill that could pretend to make money with, we decided to be a team of gladiators. Also, we were brother and sisters. One of my favorite reasons (excuses) to have a party stay together.
I can't tell the stats of my friends' characters, but here's mine (or what I remember of).
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Pon Aya Son - Human Bloodrager level 3
Stats: STR 19 DEX 14 CON 15 INT 10 WIS 4 CHA 15 - Yup, I rolled a 4 in Wisdom. Why not.
Offense: BAB 3, Melee 3+4=7, Ranged 3+2=5, CMB 3+4=7
Defense: Fort 4+3=7, Rfx 1+2=3, Will 1-3=-2, Init: 2, HP: 34, CMD 10+4+2=16, AC: 10+6+2 = 18
I choose the Aberrant bloodline. My opinions on bloodlines later... So I had Staggering Critical. Thing is, it didn't come into play.
Feats: Human - Power Attack | Lvl 1 - Raging Vitality | Lvl 3 - Furious Focus
Equipment: Falchion, Accuracy 3+4=7, Damage 2d4+9 (no reason to not Power Attack), Breastplate, no shield
I could stat my rage stats but there's another issue I'll discuss of.
The slayer was focused on Two Weapon Fighting and the Skald was pretty much like a bard.
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I roleplayed my character as someone somewhat simple-minded, but who was also extremely naive, trusting anyone. Also eating kinda like Goku. We had a RP session where we were just walking in this huge city that's pretty much under dictatorship, so not much freedom. Not that we can't really have weapons (anything bigger than one foot needs a permit). The next day, we had two battle scheduled at the local arena, so I assumed it was safe to not do much during the scene, but the Slayer got in trouble with the guard. and had pay the local guards a horrendous fee. He then went out during the night to steal chickens for us to have food, as our reserve of money was dangerously low.
Then the sun rises, and we go to the arena. At noon, our first encounter takes place.
--- First Fight ---
I don't remember too much how the fight went for my allies, but here's what I got. We played first, then it was them. Being a bloodrager, I rage and charge... and roll a 2, so I miss. Second turn, I roll a 5, missing again. The enemies gang on me, dropping me to like 7 HP. Good start. Then I roll a 8... but it's enough to hit. Wounded the guy badly (like 15 damage). The slayer came and with the Skald "singing the song of our people" (play death metal music), he drops two of them. The last one surrender. As I end my rage, I fall unconscious (-2 HP), but I'm being taken care of.
A couple of hours later, we're waiting for our second fight. I recovered my HP. The officials of the Arena decide to have a special event. Anyone can come and fight us. After a while, a weird woman comes in the grounds. She's alone. Smells fishy...
--- Second Fight ---
The woman decides to play last (we have a thing where we can decide to play lower than our initiative, i don't know if it's in the rules or not, but we like that). So we go. She has 20+ AC, 100 HP, has a high CMD, but a low damage output (like 1d4+4). Thing is, she has this kinda black smoke coming from her that was both her weapon, armor and special ability. We spent the first turn moving, then defending (except the Slayer who shoot, but missed). As she acts, she shapeshifts into a half-ram form and rushes 80 ft. into the bard, bull rushing him 15 ft. back, but dealing like 5 damage. Her strategy was clearly hit and run, as if we'd be forced to exit the "Song of our people" (Ragesong) zone and become fatigued...
We played pretty strategically (Skald well positioning himself, and then Slayer and me rushing the enemy while still in the zone). The slayer took also less than 10 damage, and I wasn't targeted. We won in 3-4 turns.
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After a short celebration, we learn that someone wants to speak with us. It's a noblewoman from another country, and the woman we just fought was one of her bodyguards. Turns out she has a bandit problem and for political reasons, she just can't send her men to get them back, so she wants to hire local warriors, us. We finished on that, and level up to 4.
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The session took place in the evening, after a heavy session of Vampire the Masquerade, so we weren't that fresh, hence the fact I don't remember some stuff. The session went well, but here's the Pro-Con session
Pros:
The bloodrager seems like a potent class. I really the concept, as it is the wild cousin of the Magus (fits well because Barbarians are wild variants of Fighters and Sorcerers are wild variants of Wizards).
The raw mechanics are that of the Barbarian, which have proven themselves to be very efficient at damage-dealing. I played Barbarian (during the beginning of Kingmaker, and my damage output was extreme, I remember having crit a bandit for 32 damage) and Sorcerer (I'm not a fan of the way Magic is handled, but Spontaneous casting works for me, and I just love to have Charisma heavy classes), and it feels like a good mix of both.
Cons:
The bloodlines. I'm repeating what everyone says, but there's a big problem of balance. It is obvious that Abyssal and Arcane are way better than other options. I've been reading posts here on how Bloodrager builds are almost always one of the twos, so I decided to try something else. I wanted to go Elemental first, but... their 1st level power is way too weak... It made me realise that most 1st level are not useful
Aberrant: You stagger on a crit. We're talking Bloodrager here. When a Bloodrager (or a Barbarian) crits something, it's DEAD. Except if it's a big scary monster. Then it has a big chance of being immune or having saves high enough to shave it of...
All the bloodlines with Claws: Actually it's not bad at all. My first Sorcerer (and PF character, 4 years ago) went with Claws, because I liked the idea, even if it's not the best option out there. Gives some possible natural weapon builds.
Celestial: Can be good on the appropriate modules.
Destined: This one looks alright at higher levels, but at low-levels, it's not gonna make much of a difference... Raise the number of uses to 3+cha/day
Elemental: Now that's just a joke. 3 times per day, you deal +1d6 damage. I'm no game developer, but I'd rather have the uses be 3+cha/day (like most Sorcerer mechanics), because between lvl 1 and 8, doing in average +10.5 damage per day, it really won't matter, as 10 damage is just another swing of the barbarian's axe.
Fey: See Aberrant
Undead: Actually not bad, since I believe Charging is gonna happen at least once per battle.
I can't talk of the higher levels, because the highest level I played in PF was 7, and here we just hit level 4. Level 3 is a dead level (well, it's somewhat compensated by gaining the 3rd level feat, but...) The gap between lvl 3 and 4 is just crazy. I went from a Barbarian minus a Rage power to a Barbarian minus two rage powers but who can cast True Strike, Enlarge Person or Grease and get either Reach, auto-enlarge, elemental resistance... Almost like I had two level ups. Maybe too much stuff is gained at lvl 4, and should be spread out a little more.
Slayer opinion: The Slayer character felt good. He said that the class had very good potential, and is waiting on more options for his talents. Because we were two frontline characters, we could flank a lot. Raises a lot of Sneak Attack opportunities. We didn't see the Targeting possibilities, but that's nothing new as most Slayer discussions address that issue.
Skald opinion: The Skald felt like being a full bard, with excellent flavor, but we encountered a big issue. Bloodrage and Ragesong go really bad together. As a bloodrager, I had to choose either beneficiate from the song or raging myself. If I choose one, I have to stick to it, otherwise I get fatigued, except by going with the human Heart of the fields (i believe) exploit.
The song is weaker than the actual Bloodrage. It mostly beneficiate Strength-oriented characters only... It means a lot of classes yes, but in terms of party mechanics, that means at most 2 characters, while the Bard Inspire beneficiate any physical attacker, Str or Dex (or whatever stat). The whole -1 AC for +1 HP/HD is pretty much not that great of a gain, especially that the extra HP (but not damage taken) will fade away as soon as the song stops.
The song should maybe be more of increase damage output/reduce defense and should be added on any type of damage (even magical damage). Often accuracy is better than damage, but damage on top of everything can be very interesting.
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I didn't play them, but I have an opinion on two other classes: Swashbuckler and Shaman. Sorry if I'm misinterpreting the rules.
Swashbuckler opinion: A couple of month ago, I was DMing 7th seas, so it was fun to see the swashbuckler appearing. However I'm not sure what the class if supposed to do... Mechanically, there's three roles for the frontline: tanking, damage dealing, and situational damage dealing.
Situational damage dealing is somewhat different than straight damage dealing. While the role is to still do damage, it requires a set-up. The best example is the Sneak Attack ability. Has great potential but you can't use it as often as you'd like...
Seems the Swashbuckler is going between tanking and situational. However, the defensive abilities seems sorta limited (there's the whole parrying thing, but it's gonna be "possible" 2-4 times a day, maybe 6 at higher level with more Charisma and better ways to regenerate Panache, but it has chances to fail. While on the side there's Monks that dodge one attack per round automatically...). As for damage, well Finesse Strike can be good, but it doesn't compare to Sneak Attacks or Power attacks.
Shaman opinion: When I first saw the Shaman, I was very happy: I love the Oracle mysteries, and I love the Witch's Hexes, so something that's a fusion of both? Sounded great! And total deception...
Wisdom based, while appropriate (sorta, Spirit negotiation goes more with Charisma than Wisdom for me. Look at Shadowrun for example...), I feel Charisma could be used more. It's too often THE dump stat. Only Sorcerer, Oracle and maybe Summoners have interest in boosting it. Even for other Charisma-based classes like Ninjas, Paladins or Bards just go for the bare minimum for enough spells/lay on hand/ki and then try to get as high of an STR/DEX they can...
Also, while I have nothing against the Druid spell list, full caster with Druid spell list and Wisdom based... doesn't it sound a lot like the Druid? Kinda strayed from its sources. Maybe switch to a spontaneous casting... And I don't exactly know how, but yeah, I'd like to have something closer to the Hexes and the Mysteries than the actual system. Keep the familiar tweaks though, it's just great.
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Sorry for my post being pretty long and my english being a little funny.