Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–03: The Hellknight's Feast (PFRPG) PDF

This is from a player's perspective.

Overall, this was a really fun scenario. Has a great mix of roleplay (supported with skills to make it matter), investigation, and combat. The last fight can be brutal for unprepared parties, but not (in my opinion) inappropriately so.

My one real criticism would be length. Both the roleplay/skill challenges and also the last fight can go really long. My table took about 7 hours. That can be a real issue. The roleplay/skill part can be sped up if you cut down to brass tacks, but then you've lost the primary meat of what this scenario's about.

I advise against scheduling this in venues with limited time slots. But in places where you have all the time in the world, this is great!

Ok, You're sent to a dinner isn't exactly new for Pathfinder society but what I really liked was the mechanic for talking sense into people using non social skills. This can give the characters/players that normally stay in the corner conversing with the potted plants a chance to contribute to the mission without running the risk of ruining the adventure for the entire group.

The combats are scaled back a bit from season 3.5-4, so if your local munchkins are still set on "Nuke it from orbit!" your bad guys might get curb stomped a little fast.

Some of the NPCs could use a little more differentiation. It was a bit hard to find the different "voice" for the two heads of the trading cartel. Osirion and Qadiran have always been a little close for me .

One thing that the scenario doesn't address is

I ran this scenario at subtier 5-6 for a group of 4 players (wizard 8, witch 6, cleric 6, rogue 6). Three of my PCs had played in Blakros Matrimony with the same characters, so they were familiar with the influencing subsystem from that scenario. I played in Blakros Matrimony but haven’t run it or read it, so I can’t speak to the particulars of how the influencing subsystems compare, but at a glance they were similar, but I found the setting clearer and the transitions between scenes smoother. In particular, I appreciated having the three word summaries of each NPC’s personality. Also, this has been clarified by other reviews but it bears repeating: you CAN use Bluff and Diplomacy to interact with any and all NPCs. The listed skills are in addition to Bluff and Diplomacy and specific to each NPC.

Three of my players chose to fully engage in the roleplaying, going back and forth two or three times with the NPCs they were trying to influence at each opportunity. The fourth was content to interact minimally and roll the dice. Both styles are fully supported and allow RP inclined players to indulge without forcing RP uninclined players into uncomfortable position. The influencing NPCs does dominate the first portion of the scenario, but there are a few investigation interludes and a combat to break things up.

At one point, I became nervous that my players would be disappointed by the scenario’s end game:

The scenario runs long, as often happens with scenarios that involve sandbox exploration, and lots of open-ended roleplaying. Thanks to the wizard succeeding by more than 5 multiple times, my group didn’t have to influence as often and the scenario still went long. Luckily we still had time for the optional encounter, as it felt important to the flow of the scenario.

The final encounter was extremely difficult, with a wide variety of tricks in the villains’ bag. It made things that much more interesting, particularly because of the number of uncommon monsters used. I would have assumed the scenario requires a very specific party balance to accommodate the mix of skill demands and unusual opponents, but my group was hardly an optimal party and yet they both succeeded handily and had fun doing it.

What I'll remember most about this one was the ludicrously hard boss:

The scenario is divided into a diplomatic session with unusual rules (an interesting idea) and a more traditional battle/exploration. The diplomacy was an attempt to win over a set of VIPs to aid the crusade against the demons, using a limited number of attempts. My high Diplomacy skill was nearly useless because I was told to use Kn:Local instead, which I didn't have, and of all people it was our fighter who actually accomplished anything. I liked the idea of being able to spend turns probing for an advantage on future conversations, but these were handled such that one PC couldn't use another's advantage or really play off one NPC against another despite them having rivalries. It didn't help our enjoyment that the diplomacy session started with a non-interactive introduction to half a dozen unlikeable VIPs.

The battle session then involved a ridiculously hard boss for our six-member party at levels 6-8, even with the GM removing two extra demons to compensate for the odd way this season handles tiers. Result: one PC died, one nearly died, everyone else fled and failed the mission. One of the boss' powers had a DC 25 save to avoid devastating harm, making it a near-automatic GM victory.with one encounter skipped.

So, it seemed like flaws in this adventure's design limited my enjoyment. It also ran over five hours even with the GM removing an encounter.

I ran this scenario last week for a great group of players and had a lot of fun. The group really got into their characters during the social challenges, which provided for plenty of laughs. I like that each NPC is given a brief description of his or her personality, but I still occasionally found it challenging to come up with in-character responses to what the PCs had to say.

In response to a previous reviewer's complaint that traditional social skills don't help with passing the influence checks, it's explained right before the NPC profiles that PCs can use (in addition to the specified skill) Bluff or Diplomacy. Thus, my group was able to eventually win over everyone.

The combat encounters were challenging without being overwhelming, but we took issue with some of the listed strategies, namely using Suggestion to make a PC drop his weapon and shield. Aside from not being able to drop a shield, a player made the case that laying down arms in the middle of a fight with demons would be "obviously harmful" and therefore not a valid use of Suggestion.

Overall, I really liked this scenario, even if it was a bit rough around the edges. If your group enjoys roleplaying (beyond just killing things), definitely give it a try.