I've started my Rise game in January as GM. My party consists of a Warpriest of Gorum (Weapon of the Chosen into Vital Strike build), a Swashbuckler (Inspired Blade) 1/Investigator X, a Sacred Huntsmaster reach Inquisitor and a Witch. The roleplay so far was great, as is the investigation in book 2.
Combat however... The party has been surfing through every encounter without any real tension. An example: Nualia (rebuilt to Warpriest and 1 lvl higher than in the book) died in three crits. Lucky I know and my players were thoroughly excited, but a bit anticlimactic for me :-)
Book 2 was no different: the atmosphere in Hambleys field was great, but when ghouls drop with one hit from the Warpriest who has full plate and Protective luck running so is nigh unhittable, it takes away from the tension. I rebuilt the following encounters in Hambley based on this thread and, boy, while they still were able to get through it without too much difficulty, at least there was tension in combat, especially when the Warpriest was paralysed.
Long story short: thanks a lot, Joey (and Askar for later books), for all the work. I will be using this thread to keep my players on their toes.