Our Party:
Human Barbarian (Animal Totem)
Human Cleric (Melee Focused)
Human Sorcerer (Imperial Bloodline)
Half-Orc Ranger (Animal Companion)
Our group found the adventure both fun and challenging at the same time. We had minor issues with the system itself so far, and most things felt balanced. We finished the playthrough in about 4 and a half hours.
The ooze was a fairly simple fight with no complications. The first goblin fight was quite easy as well. The Cleric was able to successfully tank some hits (using his raised shield and his reaction to shield block). The barbarian, sorcerer, and ranger were all able to contribute to the fight in significant way also (mainly in the area of pure damage).We were caught by surprise against the centipedes and suffered minor damage, which the Cleric was able to heal with some Channel Energy.We successfully perceived and identified the fungus hazard, and dismantled it with ranged fire cantrips.
The Cleric (who is a worshiper of Iomedae), identified the shrine and the Waters of Lamashtu with a Religion check, and wanted to disable the fountain. The Quasit fight took us by surprise and we suffered some major poison damage but we managed to burn some more healing, and pull through (even with their healing). The Cleric and the Barbarian also successfully destroyed the fountain itself.
Against Draxus, we were able to enter the fight with full health after the barbarian used some potions that she purchased with her starting gold. The Sorcerer immediately dispatched the rat with a 3 action use of magic missile (first non-cantrip she used). We took some attacks of opportunity when we tried to position ourselves in flanking positions but it paid off in the end as our Barbarian and the Ranger's bear were able to reliably hit him. Our Ranger did end up with Dying 1 in the fight but the Cleric was able to immediately use Stabilize on his turn to prevent any further trouble. We then used our last potions to give the Ranger and Barbarian as much health as possible before the end of the dungeon.
The Sorcerer spent an hour identifying a scroll they had found while the others rested. The Cleric ended up cleaning the shrine while he waited which the players were rewarded for. The party decided to leave the items (book, bowl, and dagger) on the dais as they felt it would be wrong to take from the temple.
The only fight we had major difficulty in was the cave of goblins that included the spellcaster. The Ranger hung towards the back for most of the fight, using his animal companion to assist the rest of the party in the battle. Our Barbarian and Cleric were knocked down by a Grease spell and quickly overwhelmed by multiple attacks of the Goblins. The Barbarian went to dying, made her save but then was immediately struck down on the following turn. She then went to Dying 2 before she used her Hero Point to recover. The Sorcerer was able to position herself towards the side of the enemies to release a super effective burning hands (the 2nd of her 1st level spells). This helped turn the tide as the Barbarian and Cleric were able to freely move out of the grease (after most of the lackey goblins were killed). They then moved on the goblin with the horsechopper and the caster and were able to finish them off within a turn.
Overall, we all enjoyed both the session and our characters. The Cleric (who usually plays some form of Healer) was super satisfied with his capacity to assist and heal his allies, and found the Weapon Surge domain ability quite useful when facing some of the tougher enemies in the dungeon. The Sorcerer made good use of her cantrips, and also engaged in melee if she needed to (she took the weapon proficiency general feat from being a human), both the ranger and his animal companion were effective throughout every combat in the dungeon, and the barbarian was able to be a very effective striker for the party as well.
So far so good, looking forward to see in anything changes when we mix up our classes/races etc. for the next module.
