Hey, I've not made many forum posts in a really long while, so... I hope all is good/this is the right place. (As close as I can tell..)
Regarding the GM Core page 56/57, it made a quick reference to adjusting encounter difficulty if the party had an extra player, and then I paused to look up the reference and.. Then I started to realize, I don't believe PF2 actually covers atypical party sizes! So assuming this is the "bug report" (or errata flag space..)
- page 56 GM Core has the topic on Party Size:
The rules for advancement assume a group of four PCs.
The rules for building encounters (page 57) describe how to
accommodate groups of a different size, but the XP awards
don’t change—always award the amount of XP listed for a
group of four characters. You usually won’t need to make
many adjustments for a differently sized group outside of
encounters. Be careful of providing too many ways to get
accomplishment XP when you have a large group, though.
Since they can pursue multiple accomplishments at once, it
can lead to the PCs leveling up too fast.
- Page 57 GM Core, per the redirected citation Group Parity and Party Level:
It’s recommended that you keep all the player
characters at the same XP total. This makes it much
easier to know what challenges are suitable for your
players. Having characters at different levels can mean
weaker characters die more easily and their players feel
less effective, which in turn makes the game less fun for
those players.
If you choose not to keep the whole group at the
same character level, you’ll need to select a party level
to determine your XP budget for encounters. Choose
the level you think best represents the party’s ability as a
whole. Use the highest level if only one or two characters
are behind, or an average if everyone is at a different level.
If only one character is two or more levels ahead, use a
party level suitable for the lower-level characters, and
adjust the encounters as if there were one additional PC
for every 2 levels...
Sorry, looks like there's no edit exactly. I discovered 20 pages later ish what the actual XP budget is. I struggled a bit to understand it but at that point I was awake at some 2-3AM so might just be me.. lol -- Sorry for the inconvenience. :/ I dunno, if anything make a reference to encounter building?
Hey, I've not made many forum posts in a really long while, so... I hope all is good/this is the right place. (As close as I can tell..)
Regarding the GM Core page 56/57, it made a quick reference to adjusting encounter difficulty if the party had an extra player, and then I paused to look up the reference and.. Then I started to realize, I don't believe PF2 actually covers atypical party sizes! So assuming this is the "bug report" (or errata flag space..)
- page 56 GM Core has the topic on Party Size:
The rules for advancement assume a group of four PCs.
The rules for building encounters (page 57) describe how to
accommodate groups of a different size, but the XP awards
don’t change—always award the amount of XP listed for a
group of four characters. You usually won’t need to make
many adjustments for a differently sized group outside of
encounters. Be careful of providing too many ways to get
accomplishment XP when you have a large group, though.
Since they can pursue multiple accomplishments at once, it
can lead to the PCs leveling up too fast.
- Page 57 GM Core, per the redirected citation Group Parity and Party Level:
It’s recommended that you keep all the player
characters at the same XP total. This makes it much
easier to know what challenges are suitable for your
players. Having characters at different levels can mean
weaker characters die more easily and their players feel
less effective, which in turn makes the game less fun for
those players.
If you choose not to keep the whole group at the
same character level, you’ll need to select a party level
to determine your XP budget for encounters. Choose
the level you think best represents the party’s ability as a
whole. Use the highest level if only one or two characters
are behind, or an average if everyone is at a different level.
If only one character is two or more levels ahead, use a
party level suitable for the lower-level characters, and
adjust the encounters as if there were one additional PC
for every 2 levels the higher-level character has beyond
the rest of the party.
Party members who are behind the party level gain
double the XP other characters do until they reach
the party’s level. When tracking individually, you’ll
need to decide whether party members get XP for
missed sessions.
The *only* reference I see to party level between these two is "... adjust the encounters as if there were one additional PC for every 2 levels the higher-level character has beyond the rest of the party." And now that I've re-read that, I think that's its own errata fix that I think is meant to say "... For every 2 levels *higher* the character is beyond the rest."
For now I'm just borrowing from Starfinder's CRB 388/389 regarding the APL adjustments of -1 for every character below 4 characters and +1 for every character beyond *5* characters.
Will digital versions only be available through Dynamite’s store?
Yes.
I already purchased this on Google Play back on Wednesday. This page is apparently late. Not sure about Dynamite's page.. But since I've already read it, I can confirm I enjoyed it! (Without spoiling anything of course.)
==I'm sure this is only a temporary issue==
While I got a notice for an updated AA4 pdf, the pdf I downloaded does not have the changes listed in the errata. I'm not sure if this is the proper place to post but.. Just so someone knows, I guess?
Scenario does a really good job feeling cinematic and engaging with larger interesting Golarion plots.
Investigation has good foreshadowing to what's going on, and the final battle feels appropriately cinematic, with just enough extras given to avoid the final boss from getting run over.
Scenario flows nicely, plot is appropriate for level 5-8 characters, with the plot unfolding into bigger things in a good way.
I'd really like to give this 5 stars, but some particularly poor editing (copy/pasting incorrect instructions from another scenario) reduce it to 4 stars.
It's a chill low stakes diplomatic mission with NPCs who have enough description that they are a delight to roleplay. The mission makes sense, the challenges are largely fun and flavorful. (The poetry slam is a bit of a weak spot)
6 different challenges make it a pleasure to replay and allowing players to pick the challenges ensure they are picking something they can have a good time with.
The defense mini-game is really nice. Super happy to see that instead of the overused influence system.
Battles feel epic and glorious. A suitable adventure for high level characters with cool callbacks and use of existing locations and NPC. Unfortunately the fights are repetitive with only basically 2 sets of enemies (zombies or wights) reused over 4 encounters.
(Here's the zombie encounter with a friend. Here's the wight encounter. Here's the zombie encounter, here's the wight encounter with a friend) Although escalating environmental encounters in the final encounter help redeem it by upping the danger and providing a sense of urgency.
Interesting background that is completely inaccessible to PCs is also a ding against.
All that said suitably epic and enjoyable, but the encounters lack variety and the backstory doesn't come out.
Multiple development/editing issues, references to nonexistent conditions, unclear reward conditions.
Weird railroad in the middle of the adventure to a weak encounter that's hours away from the important location you really should be staying at.
Cool encounters at the beginning and end but final one has some issues. Also really need some notes on the terrain to keep from being a giant featureless wasteland.
Really good use of limited time in a hostile location.
Cool location, memorable NPCs. Great custom exploration activity, although would have preferred if whole party didn't have to do it so that characters that relied on exploration activities weren't just completely knocked out.
Also too much content, scenario is going to run long.
Repeatable Scenarios need variable content. There's virtually none here.
I do really appreciate time limitations, gives value.
NPCs are fun, although the distract the projected NPC pseudo encounter has bizarre mechanics. The rest is fun. Probably the best of the repeatable without variable content.
Reasonable Dungeon Crawl. You don't get to fight the cool creature they hint at the whole scenario and all the pay off feels like it's "outside of scope"
Map and instructions for which way you choose to go are also quite confusing.
Is generally a cool location though with good flavor. Better payoff or better connections could have gotten it to 4 stars.
Scenario makes great use of time limitations in a dangerous location.
Great flavorful challenges that make sense. A few twists that ask, but not require the players do more than they were tasked with in a believable and compelling way.
Not enough background on the 4 NPCs to be influenced, making it hard to get really engaged with the influence system.
You get instructed not to tell people of your mission.
The first named NPC you encounter after you briefing... the scenario assumes you tell the whole mission to her for like no reason other than "she can be trusted"
The combats are uninspired with the middle one being particularly weak.
The locals are all biggoted, taring everybody as "Avistani" regardless of actual heritage.
You keep getting ambushed, and then promised to be escorted safely, only to be ambushed again with your escorts around the corner before having the same promise be made again.
Also the opening premise. Why are you here an hour before an incredibly important negotiation with no into or plan as to what's going on?
Scenario does seem competently put together, largely free of errors and mostly gets from beginning to end without game breaking issues which keeps it from falling to 1 star.
Really nice pre-generated characters with strong options that fit very well into their roles. (Do note that if you expect the cleric to be a healer you're in for a bad time, that's the monk's job in this party)
Custom exploration activity that gives the Mantis Agents that edge the flavor says they should have.
Brilliant writing that gives the GM power and mechanics to deal with whatever zany plan the PCs come up with.
This is basically a perfect example of the format.
I like this one quite a bit. There's room to roleplay with the various faction leaders and 4 little mini adventures each with 3 different sets of encounters making the replayability interesting.
The structure allows experienced players to push and complete the entire adventure in a single adventuring day while a party that has a rougher time can take all the time they need.
The only thing that drops it from 5 stars in my mind is always having to make up a reason for Kazuuk not to help.
