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Hi to all,
Here's the comments regarding the playtest I conducted with four players, set in Ravenloft and using the Alpha 3 rules and the Gazetter I (published by Arthaus).
The setting: the domain of Forlorn, in the current year (758 BC).
The level: the players started at 1st level. They were all humans.
Rules: Pathfinder Alpha 3 (racial hit points), some setting specific feats, OGL spells only.
The story took the PCs from 1st to 8th level, and started in the village of Forfarmax (see Gaz I, page 82)
The PCs:
Sean MacFarn (human male paladin 8, LG): Self-styled last descendant of the MacFarn clan, he became a holy warrior of Brigantia (goddess od animals, nature and protection), and a dedicated exterminator of goblyns plaguing the land of Forlorn. He is bethrothed to Rhianna.
NOTE: Since in Ravenloft there's no way of determine a person alignement, Sean travels with Rhianna with no problems.
Rhianna ApMorten (human female sorcerer 8, NE): Scion of the ApMorten clan, effectively rulers of Forfarmax, she seemed to be born dead, but a jolt of electricity her mother Lionna (an accomplished wizard herself) unwillingly released brought her back to life. Rhianna has a knack for necromancy, has failed a Powers Check, and yhe Undead bloodline. She is terribly attached to her community, madly in love with Sean and has a strong bond to her other comrades, but is otherwise a very dangerous person. She wants to gather more power for her family, so to win back the land of Forlorn.
Ross MacFarn (human male barbarian 4/fighter 4 CG): Cousin to Sean and childhood friend of Rhianna, Ross is the best fighter in Forfarmax, a true berserker. He's good to his friends as he is bad to goblyns and zombie wolves. He's extremely protective of Rhianna, and enjoys fighting with Sean. He's not fond of Colin.
Colin MacDermac (human male rogue 4/ranger 4 N): Colin is a wilderness fighter, a merciless slayer of goblyns (he still has a scar on his face caused by goblyn feeding). He is silent, cruel and swift. A typical man from Forlorn. His goal is to slay the solleyder, the half-real/half-imagined entity leading the goblyns. He fell in love with Sean, but the paladin doesn’t suspect it.
The PCs have gone up in levels really quickly (unfortunately, I haven't used XP for a very long time, nor I did this time, so I can't say if the different progression work...), with an average of 1 level per two session. I tried to have at least an encounter per session. They started from brief skirmishes with goblyns and zombie wolf, to end with a confontation with an undead treant under an ancient burrowing mound. The encounter ended with Rhianna controlling the massive undead tree, and bringing it back near Forfarmax to be studied by her family (thanks in good measure to the fact that all the other PCs were unconscious and stable). There was no healer, but they managed to survive thanks to Sean and his lay on hand and, later, to a CMW wand used by Rhianna with her Use Magic Device skill.
The mini-campaign (played in May) was balanced between non-hostile encounters and combat.
My comments: I really enjoyed the game. No, really. :-D
General comments by the players:
They were happy to have a character who was useful without prestige classes and violent multiclassing (the rogue and the barbarian later told me the multiclassed out of habit, since they felt less useful than the single classed PCs).
They really liked the CMB, but were not too fond of using one Combat Feat per round.
The “feat every two level” is something they really enjoyed.
The improved skill rank and the skill consolidation (though Perception and Stealth was something I already used for a year and a half of game…) was something well loved, though they felt they had less choices ant first level (having 10 points instead of 40 was something the rogue didn’t really liked), but he adapted with no problems. Seeing the cross-class skills gone made us throw a party, waste us out with beer and wine, the start again the next day.
In general, the reaction was enthusiastic. Mainly because the classes became interesting to be played fully from 1st to 20th level.
Specific comments
Paladin
Really enjoyed the lay on hands multiple uses, but feels the amount cured is quite ridiculous. At 8th level he healed 8 hp… Really not useful. Maybe twice his HD was better?
He felt that “aura of good” shoud REALLY mean something aside from the reaction to detect evil.
He was really taken by the new auras of the paladin. Really. He was a little sad when I told him we’d have stopped at 8th level.
Sorcerer
LOVED the “at-will” cantrips, LOVED the bloodlines (she felt the bloodlines finally justified the sorcerer levels beyond the 5th (the one where you usually took your PrC). The 1st level power is something she really felt is useful at low levels, and less at highest levels, but good to have around anyway (“better than starting throwing bolts”, she said).
In all, she really enjoyed the PC.
Barbarian/fighter
The barbarian became an enthusiastic Cleave-user. :-D
As I said, his main grievance was multiclassing, since it precluded some cool barbarian rage abilities.
Didn’t feel at all annoyed by the rage points, rather he loved them. When I told him some people on the boards found them hard and felt like accounting, his response was “You take a piece of scrap paper, write your rage points total and subtract the number used. If you find this hard, maybe you should take elementary school from the beginning”. ^_^
Liked the 4 levels of fighter too, and said that “the class has finally a reason to exist beyond 2nd level and has became more than a quicker way to fulfill prerequisites for prestige classes”.
So, I’ll say he liked it too.
Rogue/ranger
As the barbarian did, she didn’t feel the need to multiclass, but did so out of habit.
She liked being able to sneak attack more kind of creatures, and the broader choice of feats for the ranger combat style. She also added love for the favored terrain, but pointed out that, in a limited campaign as was the one we played in, her PC became quite unstoppable, since ALL of Forlorn is made by hills.
Conclusion
Well… No 4E for us, it seems. Keep up the good work! :-)
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Hi there jakoov! Nice to hear from a fellow italian Paizoite!
Good job on that game, and good to hear you've had fun playing.
I posted my AR2 playest a while ago, and I haven't since had any other occasion to do some PFRPG testing (blasted work!).
Can't wait to see the beta, as for August my FR campaign will be finished...
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Hi there jakoov! Nice to hear from a fellow italian Paizoite!
Good job on that game, and good to hear you've had fun playing.I posted my AR2 playest a while ago, and I haven't since had any other occasion to do some PFRPG testing (blasted work!).
Can't wait to see the beta, as for August my FR campaign will be finished...
Oh, non sono solo! Che bello. :-D
In a few months, my current Ravenloft campaign (not the mini-campaign I used as a playtest, but the one I've been playing for the past year and a half) will be over, and I'll start playing again in Greyhawk, but with Pathfinder RPG rules this time. Hopefully, the Beta will be already out... ;-)