This post will not be formatted, updated or monitored it serves only to make it more visible and link to the original at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/9j7y6d/initial_feedback_from _completing_15_playtest/
If you wish to participate in the discussion I encourage you to go there and add your thoughts, comments and suggestions.
No idea how to set a post as *spoiler* so be aware there will be spoilers for the first two Doomsday Dawn Adventures.
For a TLDR refer to the Takeaways section at the bottom
Valid for Pathfinder Playtest V1.3
Foreward
- Unless mentioned the player is fairly new to Pathfinder and not building optimally, they would have received some guidance but their character is not optimal
- The gear they have is pretty optimal since the newer players were confused and I told them to take +1 light/medium armour or expert heavy armour, 2 expert level 2 items and a lvl 1 potion
- Surveys will be completed once the 2nd adventure is completed
- The Barbarian received a +1 Greataxe
- I exchanged the scroll of fly for a potion of fly since no one would be able to use the scroll
- Struggled with the first adventure almost getting wiped by the boss with multiple people getting knocked down throughout the adventure
General Observations
- In combat healing was very strong if specialized in
- Martials are very strong and feel very good
- Playing against monsters you don't understand is more fun
- Always bring a ranged weapon
- Magic weapons are very strong
- Just because you give a party a potion of fly doesn't mean they will use it
Initial Observations on the Fighter
- The fighter built around power attack and the reversal feat to counter flanking and used an expert bastard sword, +1 breastplate and expert light shield
- The action economy of two-handing the bastard sword and using a shield doesn't work as expected
- Took a bit of damage but generally was not at risk of getting knocked down
- Attack of opportunity only came up a few times and only mattered once although I had accounted for it in the way I played the manticore against them (rather than sit up in the air for 2 turns shooting I had it swoop in and out at whoever was isolated)
- +11 to hit means hitting the regular gnolls on 5+, critting on 15+ (20% miss, 30% crit) and hitting the manticore on 9+ and critting on a 19+ (40% miss, 10% crit)
Initial Observations on the Barbarian
- Took Dragon totem and wielded a +1 Greataxe, +1 medium armour and sweep
- Felt like a worse fighter although he only had 2 Barbarian feats and I don't know if he was taking his temporary HP in to account for damage
- Counting rage rounds was a pain and he forgot what round he was on
- Didn't rage every fight although I don't know what to make of that
- Sweep was very powerful and came up often as well as one-shotting the hyenas
- +9 to hit means hitting the regular gnolls on 7+, critting on 17+ (30% miss, 20% crit) and hitting the manticore on 11+ and critting on a 20 (50% miss, 5% crit)
Initial Observations on the Paladin
- Built for AC with expert Plate, expert heavy steel shield and expert longsword
- Lay on hands was very weak although I do not think the player heightened it
- Used battle medic extensively although failed often due to an 8 Wis (Goblin ancestry)
- Retributive strike didn't come up often
- Had 23 AC with shield raised didn't understand he needed to raise his shield at the start
- Gnolls needed 15+ to hit in melee critting on 20 (70% miss, 5% crit), manticore in melee hit on 8+ critting on an 18+ (35% miss, 15% crit)
- Hit chances were the exact same as the Barbarian
Initial Observations on the Cleric
- Played by an experienced Pathfinder and TTRPG player
- Cleric of Sarenrae built strictly for healing
- Used an expert scimitar, bracers of armour, healing staff
- Put out very high healing numbers and met all the healing needs for the party through spells, channel and battle medic
- Used electric arc and sound burst when not healing to very little effect and never used the scimitar
- Only succeeded with electric arc once in half of the adventure the rest were failures or crit failures
- Was very unsatisfied with how useless electric arc was and shocked when I mentioned after the game the chances listed below
- Electric arc deals 1d6 damage and uses a DC 18 reflex save for up to two targets within 30ft gnolls are a lvl 2 creature with +7 reflex save what and since they are rolling they have one extra success on a tie. +7 and DC18 means double damage on 1, full damage 2-10, half damage 11-19 and no damage on a 20
- For the manticore 10 reflex means double on a 1, full 2-7, half 8-17 and none 18+
- In melee the cleric has a +4 to hit and deals 1d6 damage hitting gnolls on a 12+ critting on a 20 (55% miss, 5% crit)
- For the manticore hitting on a 16+ and critting on a 20 (75% miss, 5% crit)
Initial Observations on the Monsters
- They feel more threatening and a bit less swingy
- The ACs seem right although the saves seem a bit off being on average higher than the AC
Takeaways
- The fighter feels very good although the rest of the martials feel like a worse fighter due to TEML
- Healing seems very good if you focus on it
- Monsters feel fairly damaging and fun to play although the PCs and mosnters feel a bit spongy due to max HP although this might just be due to unoptimized PCs and our healer bot cleric
- Barbarian rage feels a bit off and counting rounds is a pain, trading 1A on your first round in combat is not worth it if you have to move and only makes more sense once you are in melee
- If you are a caster unless you build for it there is no point in attacking due to not getting any weapon proficiencies and having a low Str or Dex just like 1E
- Cantrip damage is less than 1 strike action and less likely to hit while it costs 2
- Damaging spells have less than a 50% chance to succeed and are only worth the actions if you deal full damage
- Casters will always have a worse to hit since they get their item bonuses way later, martials have expert weapons at level 2, +2 master weapons the same time casters get +1 to hit (why this is not included in staves i have no idea)
- Creative uses of magic seem to be non-existent and now more focused on terrible blasting, healing and buffing
Suggestions
- One of the design goals of 2E was to make two identical classes in a party distinct so why not allow the two classes to increase their weapon, armour and spell proficiencies in different ways?
- Train in armour, weapon groups and spells every few levels with the same level requirements from the skill system? Give the different classes different number of proficiency increases in the separate groups (fighter gets more weapon proficiencies than the paladin)
- Why is a caster who devotes himself to casting spells and nothing else so much worse than a fighter who devotes himself to weapons? Give casters slightly less spell proficiency scaling than the fighter or tweak the TAC and saves of monsters. A caster should be able to succeed against a mook around 75% and a boss ~50% of the time otherwise it feels bad to play a caster. If this unbalances the game tweak the spell effects succeeding at a lesser effect feels better than getting the same effect on a failure.
- Add one more level in TEML to help differentiate proficiency levels.
