I am starting a play test and running thru some combat with a handful of characters. This really won't be so much of a game session as me and my friend playing around with the new system...pulling some stuff from Dungeon magazines and Paizo products and running through some tests. So far we plan to use the Barbarian and Sorcerer for sure, and two others. I may use a fighter and wizard as a comparison to these two, as it seems somewhat fitting.
I will be posting the progression one at at time and hopefully I can get through a few levels in the next week or two. To start off, some comments on my creation of a sorcerer
BIG NOTE: Resistance is an at-will ability now for my sorcerer. The duration should either be lengthened or should be removed from the 0 level spell list I think. Basically If I were a player, I would just tell the DM I would be casting it on everybody every minute or so when there was potential danger.
Why not? About to go into a door or something, then cast resistance on everybody, fundamentally giving everybody +1 to saves. It's a cumbersome mechanic to have to deal with on a constant basis, and it reminds me of MMO rebuffing kind of. I would rather have the duration just be an hour or something or even take it out of the game for something else instead.
Creating Bigglesworth the Sorcerer Supreme
I used stats fairly similar to the characters in the back of burnt offerings in power (minus the boost from the new system)
One of the first things I've noticed in rolling up a sorcerer is in comparison to the other classes, the options are hard to choose given your lack of combat options. Choosing the arcane or Destined leaves you with less low level combat options, making it a chore in deciding unless you want to go the ol "crossbow" route which I now prefer not to.
Picking my bloodline was hard, because it was really a combat usefulness vs flavor kind of thing. I wanted the Arcane bloodline, but to have a constant attack I would have to pick something else or haul around the dreaded light crossbow of dooom! Well I went with Arcane and picked the dreaded crossbow.
Some things I picked.
Feats and abilities:
Combat casting (first feat)
Improved initiative (bonus feat)
Arcane bond (cat named fishsticks)
Spells:
0 level; resistance, light, detect magic, read magic
1st level; Mage Armor, color spray
Skills:
UMD, Bluff, Spellcraft
Gear:
2 acid flasks,smokestick, backpack, rations, light crossbow, 20 bolts, dagger(small)
Since I was hauling the dreaded crossbow around, I figured I would use that as my main attack and ditch the idea of picking a first level spell as a damage dealer. With my O level effects and SLA's from being a Gnome, my options were vast but with poor damage potential as I am used to with low level casters.
One thing that especially sticked out about my character is that I had 9 stealth with no ranks which made me smile a bit.
Things I liked in relation to the changes made at first level:
1) Higher starting HP
2) Combined skills giving me 9 stealth
3) Extra feat from the bloodline
4) The new racial bonuses that fit well with the character
Things I didn't like:
1) Crossbow reliance due to lack of a constant low level attack.
2) The want to use resistance like an MMO spam-spell.
3) Knowing that at achiving 2nd level, I gain little in the way of meaningful ability as a sorcerer in comparison to most of the other new classes.
More to come.
Making the barbarian was fairly similar as always seeing is the first level difference is minimal minus the overall system changes.
Drayk the barbarian
I walked around the obvious orcish pick and went half-elf on this character.
The obvious difference in character creation is the skill points. I liked the 1.1 alpha system better, but the new way still is massively less taxing and annoying than the original concept. With 4 skills and a 12 INT, picking was pretty easy too taking: Acrobatics, Perception, Survial, Climb, & Intimidate.
Once again, one skill glaringly stood out, which I like. Given the half-elf bonuses, their free skill focus, and perception as a class skill, my perception sat at 10 for finding or hearing sneaks at first level.
The only real picking problem at this point was the decision to take either improved trip or overhand chop (which in use while raging is impressive at first level). I went with trip to play with the CMB.
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[b] BIG NOTE: Resistance is an at-will ability now for my sorcerer. The duration should either be lengthened or should be removed from the 0 level spell list I think. Basically If I were a player, I would just tell the DM I would be casting it on everybody every minute or so when there was potential danger.
Why not? About to go into a door or something, then cast resistance on everybody, fundamentally giving everybody +1 to saves. It's a cumbersome mechanic to have to deal with on a constant basis, and it reminds me of MMO rebuffing kind of. I would rather have the duration just be an hour or something or even take it out of the game for something else instead.
When Alpha 1 was first released and I saw the catrips/orisons at will bit, I immediately went through all the 0th level spells in the SRD to look for problems.
Originally I agreed with you that things like Resistance and Virtue would be problematic. But if you remember that the duration of the spell is only 1 minute, it fixes itself. Can you honestly see a realistic party of 4 spending 2/5 of its adventuring day having the cleric bless them? Bless for 24 seconds, walk for 36 seconds. repeat. I think the short durations of these spells actually mean they won't be used on the whole party, but rather on one member before a known combat. Or something like that.
Most other cantrips I've looked at similarly work out. But there are a few that need changing. It is not ok to be able to create infinite Light, Dancing Lights, Create Water, or Purify Food/Water effects.
I would suggest a rule that only one instance of a cantrip / orison can be in existance at a time. In addition, the 0th level creation effects need to be limited in uses / day.