Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-02: Ward Asunder (PFRPG) PDF

Having both played and GM:d this scenario, I found it to be a perfect Society experience in both cases. There's a loving attention to detail in the approach to the monastery, with the "rules of the road" and the presentation and map of the place itself.

The combat encounters are good, while the finale is perhaps a bit too easy to bypass. As a minor quibble there's a rather sizable infodump unloaded on the players at one point which could be dispersed into more manageable chunks throughout the area, but it's not enough to detract from the enjoyment.

I really enjoyed playing this adventure. It's definitely an RP-oriented adventure, not a mindless combat grind. However, you don't have to have a diplomancer per se; it's more about your behavior and choices than raw social stats. I like that. It's particularly fun for people who are into Tien lore. Reading through the Dragon Empires books will make this one more fun both for players and GMs.

It's also just got great scenery and a callback to an earlier awesome adventure. Unfortunately this one's lower level than "part 1", but that's hard to get around because the main NPC would just be out of his depth in a higher-level scenario. Fortunately the boon for playing both doesn't insist on playing in a particular order.

For that matter, the chronicle sheet for this one is particularly creative with some things that almost anyone will find useful.

The fights in this one weren't the hardest I've ever fought, but they were original and thematic and not complete pushovers, so no complaints there.

Have both played and GM'd this one, it is a good quick adventure fun to play and GM

I was the ‘poor GM’ Damanta is referring to in his review below. While it is true that the repositioning made the combats lopsided (it’s hard to deal with a +28 on CMB or something along those lines), I still had great fun running this scenario.

The best way to describe this scenario, is by saying how rich on lore it is. There is an incredible amount of background information that helps bring this place to life, yet by default that means that a lot of dice have to rolled in order to check if the PCs have that knowledge stored away in the memories. Though not getting most of the lore isn’t a huge issue, I’d say it makes the scenario a whole lot more fun if you do. Just because not every party has access to it, I feel like I should lower the rating by one.

Furthermore I liked the fact that, as mentioned by Galnörag, players have a direct impact on the end of the scenario. Their actions along the way decide what the final encounter will be like. Though it can be an anti-climax, it still leaves you with a feeling that you did well. Otherwise, it can be a pretty rough battle with consequences.

There’s a lot of flavour in this scenario and it gets translated into the encounters, NPCs and boons as well. It’s a nice solid package, but what really annoys me, is the fact that this level 3-7 scenario is the sequel to a level 5-9. While a boon takes into account that they can be played out of order, I feel bad for those that did ‘part 1’ as a level 8 or 9, and now miss out on playing this one with that character. It’s a big flaw in my honest opinion and that does lower my final rating by another one.

That leaves this scenario with three stars. Does that mean that you should stay clear? No, you should not. It’s a fun lore-heavy investigation with some interesting fights. However I would strongly recommend playing it after it’s prequel:

Played this with my lorewarden, together with a riftwarden, a bard, and pregen Kyra.

A nice balanced party, with a variety of skills made sure I had a load of fun and got the story across.

Some combats were a bit lopsided thanks to my lorewardens extreme combat maneuver bonus and defence, but that didn't diminish the fun we had (except maybe for the poor GM during the combats, his monsters got repositioned and tripped to very disadvantageous positions).