Pathfinder Society Special #4-99: Blessings of the Forest

I've run this one about five times so far, and played it once, and I have to say—I don't really get tired of it. It has the epic feel of King in Thorns but with some great innovations and polish. To me, this is a great special. There are a few well known issues with it (missing bits and pieces) that might never get officially updated, or they might. But overall this special combines great characters with an evolved structure and mechanics, and I hope it will be a template for specials moving forward.

Blessings is an even mix of both combat and skill challenges. Players can more or less choose in early encounters.

Blessings was well organized and themed.

Update: I’ve played this scenario at both subtier 3-4 and 7-8. At subtier 3-4 (and probably 1-2) this scenario is too difficult, a 2 star scenario. At subtier 7-8 (and probably 5-6), this scenario is great and 4 stars.

At subtier 3-4, Blessings was too difficult. We essentially TPKed 2 times (but were saved by the clock before the last PC went down) and we didn’t defeat a single combat encounter the entire scenario. Writers need to remember that at levels 1-4 at conventions, that many of the PCs are non-optimized for combat (too many spellcasters) and players don’t have a 100% grasp of the game. We had our butts kicked.

At subtier 7-8, the combat was just right. The skill checks had some roleplay involved and were somewhat amusing (not sure if that was meant on purpose).

There were too many encounters chained in a row, with not enough time to rest. For spellcasters, they ran out of their best spells long before the final encounter.

The bog rules were neither realistic or fun. Traps with suffocation are not fun (either nothing happens or you’re dead) and are a time waster in non-combat. We spent 15+ minutes watching two PCs with +0 Athletics flounder and almost die. No one wants to die by a bog because the ranger failed too many Survival checks. Why not have anyone who fails 2 Athletics checks in a row be fatigued or enfeebled? Why is it so hard to pull a PC out of a bog with a rope? This experience was very non-heroic in a long series of non-heroic encounters at subtier 3-4.

While the story was OK, Blessings had nothing to do with the plot of season 4 (which was concluded with Trapping the Hags Claw).

Overall: At low tiers, it wasn't fun. At high tier, it can be enjoyable. (3/10 or 8/10)

No issues with the story, but gameplay wise this is an endurance gauntlet with too few opportunities to refocus or make medicine checks, especially for lower tiers.

1st edition parties might be able to handle these, but because of system changes they don't work in 2e.

I didn't like last year's special that much.

Not so this year! The story grabbed me from start to finish. Thank you that no sub-system was installed. So far, in my opinion, they haven't been that great in organized play. But the players have enough opportunities to choose the variety themselves. Each part had a healthy mix of interesting and varied combat (the animals were really cute at one point), a bit of roleplay, and more than enough skill tests, all of which never get unfair (Maybe even too easy, but it's better too easy than too hard). I also think the achievement rewards are appropriate and well used. The only criticism is the grand finale. I think everything was fine up until the boss fight, but the last chief guru is somehow a bit misplaced with his skills. It fits into the story, but it didn't seem really challenging to me. But this point of criticism should not make the rating worse. We had a great evening at our table. So everything done right.

And this Special ist repeatable without any restrictions! Thx a lots for this decision