With the shift to Alpha 3, I wanted to make sure last week's Alpha 2 playtest didn't get lost in the suffle, as there were questions and concerns I still think are valid, so I'm reposting here:
Markham, male human fighter 4, NG (bruiser, fights warhammer/shield or 2-handed with a maul)
Lycia, female half-elf cleric 4, CG (Domains: Liberation and Luck)
Ivy, female half-elf rogue 4, CN (tends to be a sniper-style sneak attacker, but she's coming out of her shell now that she's got more HP)
Lucien, male elf diviner 4, CG (Amulet bonded item)
Valentina, female human necromancer 4, CN (Bat familiar)
Lucien's player was out this week, and the DM had papers to grade for Monday, so the play style this time around was fast-n-loose and short-n-sweet.
I took great delight in having my players inadvertently bring about a dark age during their last adventure, so now they're finding that they've managed to snuff out the lives of, presumably, every good aligned hero in the game world, excepting their own party members. Lots of good role-playing opportunities here.
I decided to start off the gaming session by testing out the new rules for diseases. Since the room they're staying in isn't exactly up to health code standards, I rolled Fort saves for them in secret to see if any of them contracted the shakes from contaminated bedding. The DC 13 would be fairly easy for most of them to make, and I was planning on them having access to a cure disease scroll, so I let the high level for it slide. I rolled a natural 1 for Lycia. She wakes up the next morning after their adventure down 8 points of Dex and twitching like an electrified weasel. Valentina's Heal check, confirmed by Lycia's self-diagnosis confirms that she's likely to be gone in a day with the way the disease is progressing. Markham and Ivy head out to find help while Lucien and Valentina tend their patient. Meanwhile, they start to notice that all is not right in the city of Queensport, finding near-riot conditions up on Temple Road.
Several Diplomacy rolls later, they've acquired the needed scroll and determined (at least in Markham's mind) that something is seriously wrong. (Ivy still thinks it could be a coincidence that all the clergy of Astarte died of poisoning from an alchemical accident around the same time the high priest of Pallos choked to death on a chicken bone while having a midnight snack...)
The actual adventure hook happens when Lycia has a dream about the ghost of a dead sun-priest who points accusingly at her, telling her that she is to blame, and must atone by retrieving "the Censor from Whitefang." Appropriate Knowledge rolls point them in the direction of a fortress in a mountain pass between Queensport and a sister city, jointly manned by forces of both settlements. Apparently, the Censor of Glory is supposed to be headed through the pass into safe-keeping of the temple of Sonus in Queensport. Off the PCs go, only to find that the once-formidable fortress has been attacked and severely damaged by an obviously powerful foe.
The remainder of the evening was mostly a cannon-fodder hackfest, during which Markham reveled in his newly acquired Cleave feat and the rate at which he could level goblins and bugbears with it. Also, the high Perception scores of the elf-blooded PCs garnered them clues that the goblinoids weren't the only forces involved in the sacking of the fortress.
My sticking point on the rules for this evening had to do with the CMB. At one point the party were faced with three worgs. Their big thing, of course, is their trip ability. However, only one party member's DC was met during the course of the combat. Lycia's DC19 meant that the worg attacking her had to roll a 12 or better to take her down. Against Markham they only had a 1 in 4 chance of a successful trip attack. Since the worgs' extraordinary ability doesn't provide any bonuses, they are left with BAtB + Str mod, making them not quite so fearsome as it seems they should be.
Also, some questions: Would flanking provide any bonus to the maneuver roll? Do the old modifiers for multiple legs raise the DC of the attempt as in 3.5?
Tomorrow, in order to give the new PF core classes their due, I'm going to have a competing adventuring company come upon them and instigate a combat. Same level and numbers as my party, so 5 4th level characters in all. So far I have a bard and a ranger in the works. I'm definitely thinking I'd like to try the monk. The other two slots are open game at the moment...I can't decide between an evil cleric or a druid, and I'm not sure what I want for the fifth wheel yet.
Playtest Week 8: Goblins under cover, Party vs. Party, and "What the heck is an Arumvorax?"
This week the party continued to search the ruins of Whitefang for the elusive Censor of Glory. At the end of the last session, the party was prepared to burst into the great hall and surprise a group of 8 goblins, 2 bugbears, and an ogre. With the element of surprise, the party was able to make relatively short work of the group. The only minor snag being when the ogre finally got its turn and cut the rope holding the heavy iron chandelier, which crashed down on top of Ivy and Markham, knocking them prone and doing 3d6 damage in the process.
Later, once the party had determined that the censor was gone, and that the goblinoids squatting there weren't the culprits, they decided to camp in the castle's chapel and recoup before exploring the mountain caves for some sign of the troglodytes they expected were the culprits (although there was disturbing evidence a dragon was also involved...) As they were preparing to leave, I had a pre-rolled party of evil/neutral adventurers happen upon them, convinced that they had already recovered the Censor.
The group consisted of 5 NPCs, all of 4th level: A gnome bard; a halfling sorceror with the fey bloodline; a dwarf monk; a human ranger with blood hawk animal companion; and a human cleric with the Law and Evil domains. The heroes were victorious, but they used up most of their resources in the combat and had to take another day in the fortress before continuing the adventure.
The dwarf monk started off the round by advancing on Lycia and using her Scorpion Style feat to hamper movement and keep the cleric in range for a flurry on the following round. Valentina hit the ranger with magic missiles, causing him to send his blood hawk to attack her while he prepared to defend himself against Markham. The sorcerer kept to the corner and used his spells to hamper the party, slowing down Markham with grease, and blinding Ivy with a glitterdust spell. The gnome proved to be the star of the show, using spells and a wand to keep his heavy hitters up and in the fight. (Although the PF monk seems to have many naysayers on the boards, she intimidated my players immediately and drew concentrated attacks from the majority of the party.) A well laid silence spell managed to hobble the spellcasters for the end rounds of the combat.
Then of course there was the energy channeling fest between the opposing clerics. Both clerics were equipped with the Selective Channeling feat, so there were a lot of hit points going up and down amongst the PCs during the battle. While there were times when channeled energy was inadvertently applied to opponents due to the limited confines of the room, it simply made the combat more interesting.
In the end the gnome bard escaped with the help of an Expeditious Retreat spell and the PCs were victorious.
Later in the night the party faced an Arumvorax, mistakenly entering its den. (I'm thinking that having greater access to skills is going to take my players a little getting used to. Markham is the character with the ability to track, yet he failed twice to check for trog tracks and keep the party from entering the wrong cave...) All I can say is that the "golden gorger" is dynamite! With Improved Grab and a four-claw rake every round, it shredded the big man like a pulled pork sandwich. He survived, but only just.
One main rules snag occurred during the party vs. party fight. Ivy the rogue was blinded by the Glitterdust spell. She has the Careful Targeting feat. According to the description of the feat's benefit, it will "Reduce any miss chance by 20%." My player wanted to know if that benefit counted with the 50% miss chance incurred by the blinded condition. I ruled that it did not, as the flavor text of the feat indicates that it is due to visual acuity. Either I'm wrong, or I went with the spirit of the rules and it is the feat that need to be clarified.
Just a quick note:
The party voted to have this adventure be the last for this group at the moment, as they are anxious to dive into Curse of the Crimson Throne and don't want to wait for the beta. I agreed, as this will give me time to flesh out more for the other party and that gameworld.
So yeah, big spoilers and etcetera for this thread, probably at a rampant pace. Let this be a general warning.
Thus far, the party roster will be sporting the following:
Male human (half-Shoanti) ranger
Male human rogue
Female half-elf bard
Female human sorcerer, possibly using the demonic bloodline
Female cleric, race and deity yet to be decided
Ok, here's the breakdown on the CotCT party:
Mayne, male human (half-Shoanti) ranger; favored enemy: human; wife was killed by Gaedren Lamm
Garreth, male human rogue; former Lamm's Lamb, dumped and left for dead
Eleshanee, female human cleric of Desna (Chaos & Travel domains); former Lamm's Lamb that found refuge in the church
Isis, female half-elf sorcerer (abyssal bloodline); husband killed by Gaedren Lamm
Yllasys Glimmergaunt, half-elf/varisian bard; framed for murder by Gaedren Lamm
We're using the Alpha 3 option for double HP at 1st level; a few of the encounters in the module have been adjusted accordingly and all the NPCs have been converted to the PF Alpha 3 rules.