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This is the first of four playtest reports featuring: Gruff Axehurl, half-orc barbarian; Hardcastle Stagfield, dwarf ranger; Travis Nino, human fighter. These characters will be built for playtests at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level.
Primary Objective: Make characters in the same way I would have made a D&D 3.5 character, only limited to the Pathfinder RPG Beta rulebook, the Barbarian, Fighter, and Ranger classes, and without multiclassing.
Secondary Objective: Compensate for the “roles” missing in the party to show the diversity of the rules.
Tertiary Objective: Fun!
Level 5
Character Creation:
I made Gruff to be the prototypical barbarian, wielding an orc double axe and enjoying the bonus hit points from his favoured class. Normally I make rangers melee fighters, but considering the other two characters in his party, that was not an optimal choice. Instead, Hardcastle went the ranged route, doubling as a mediocre healer. Finally, because Travis had so many feats and a decent number of skill points for a fighter, I decided to max out Use Magic Device and save up for a couple of wands and scrolls to make him the pseudo arcane caster in the opening rounds of combat. This does not come up in this playtest, but by Level 10 he will be toting a wand of fireballs 17 total bonus for Use Magic Device.
The Playtest:
I expected a combat scenario or two for the playtest, but my wife surprised me with a short adventure. A shepherd needed someone to investigate his disappearing sheep.
On the way through a forest to his pasture, the party was attacked by two bears. My first instinct was to Wild Empathize with them, but one minute is too long to convince a pair of charging brown bears to think it over. For role-playing purposes, I had the party agree to use non-lethal damage. After a few rounds of heavy damage, my characters had to resort to lethal damage in order to keep in the fight. Travis the fighter was knocked unconscious before the bears were laid out.
First encounter notes:
-Barbarian got to use Dazzling Display feat, rolled moderately but failed to intimidate either bear.
-Fighter got to use Whirlwind attack. Fun feat.
-Fighter scored a critical threat doing a non-lethal attack. We could not find any mention in the rules if you can non-lethal crit.
-The fighter was surprisingly easy to hit for a character with AC 21.
-It would have been nice if the Ranger had a 1st level cure spell. When I managed to roll no higher than a 3 using two Cure Serious potions, I felt very screwed.
We continued to the pasture, crossing a river, so having a character in light armour with some ranks in swim and fifty feet of rope was nice. At the pasture, the party investigated the scene, allowing a variety of skills to be used. Between the three classes, there were enough useful skills to figure out an acid-spitting magical beast was the culprit, and we were able to follow his trail. After sleeping for two nights.
Finally on the trail, even though the party was not fully healed. Over a hill required some climbing, back down required some balance. But there is no more balance skill so these three armoured warriors used acrobatics to inch down the other side. Except for Hardcastle and Travis, who had no ranks in acrobatics and so fell most of the way.
Between encounter notes:
-Even without four times the skill points at first level, the characters seem as able outside combat as they are in combat.
-Healing for a full night’s sleep is way too low. Even after two (poorly rolled) cure serious potions, the barbarian and the fighter had a combined deficit of sixty Hit Points. Healing character level worth of HP is such a drop in the bucket it is almost meaningless.
-There was nothing acrobatic about what the characters were doing. Granted, the balance skill was one of the least used skills in 3.5 D&D, but a misnomer like that can take a player out of the moment.
The party came across a house emitting strangeness. A quick investigation and a fight with a wraith was underway. The undead haunt was devastated in the second round, failing to damage the party in anyway. There were two potions in the house, and the fighter’s spellcraft identified one as a potion of restoration.
Second encounter notes:
-Unbeknownst to the DM, undead were one of Hardcastle’s favoured enemies. Getting the bonus to Perception, attack, and damage was nice and worked well.
-It isn’t Pathfinder’s fault that incorporeal undead tend to be very vulnerable, but it is something to remember.
The trail ended and the party finally came to the owner of the acid spittle, a digester. Gruff survived a concentrated acid stream thanks to a good reflex save and cut it in two thanks to a critical hit with his orc double axe (times three, baby! Max damage to boot!)
Third and final encounter notes:
-Unbeknownst to the DM, magical beasts was Hardcastle’s other favoured enemies. Getting the bonus to Perception, Survival, attack, and damage was nice and worked well.
-I’m glad the 3.5 Crit threat system is still in place. Even if it did cut the encounter very short.
Level 5 Playtest Impressions:
-I never once raged, and yet my barbarian kept up with the other characters. I will make more of an effort to rage in the future.
-The ranger came in handy as a skill monkey, but was lacking as a healer. His animal companion, a hawk, was a non-issue. I knew ranger animal companions are squishier than druid animal companions and so I picked one that would serve utilitarian functions, not combat functions.
-The fighter got to power attack, spring attack, whirlwind attack, and overhead chop. Being able to combine combat feats makes this a much smoother class and allows a player to explore different combinations.
-I do not want healing surges, but I generally play with players that dislike being Clerics. Recovering more hit points after a night’s sleep would be an easy fix, as would changing Cure Light Wounds from a 2nd level ranger spell to a first level ranger spell. Would 1d8 + caster level for 4th level rangers (caster level 2) instead of 8th level rangers (caster level 4) unbalance the class?
Thanks for the nice story and the interesting remarks about the game mechanics. It was a pleasure to read it.
farewell,
mean old Cassius
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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How were the Incorporeal Undead vulnerable? Even with a magic weapon you have a 50% miss chance against them unless it's a ghost touch weapon or Force.
I just ran my 16th-17th level players against the Dread wraiths and advanced shadow demons of the STAP scenario Into the Maw and they had a really hard time of it until the Cleric burned a miracle to cast the Ghost Trap spell. None of them had ghost touch weapons, they're specialized for evil outsiders, and they only had a few force spells or items.
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First off, thank you for playtesting as you are! I think it will really help to see how the classes measure up over multiple levels, and your description of the setting is pretty good.
*I agree with your note on healing 1 hp/level with a night's rest, that it's pretty meager. The Heal skill is helpful in that regard, but that still leaves one person without the x2 benefit. I can't think of any kind of fix that I really like, so I think the 1 hp/level is just something that we'll have to deal with.
*Incorporeal undead tend to be vulnerable because their state of incorporeality gives them that 50% miss chance. Which is pretty darn aggravating.
*I would also be in favor of the Ranger getting Cure Light as a 1st level spell. No need to change the spell level of the others--but Cure Light Wounds shouldn't be a 2nd-level spell.
-Unbeknownst to the DM, undead were one of Hardcastle’s favoured enemies. Getting the bonus to Perception, attack, and damage was nice and worked well.
I am planning on running a ranger in a upcoming Pathfinder beta game. Aren't undead immune from the extra damage from the Ranger's favoured enemy ability?
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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Again how is a creature more vulnerable if you miss it half the time??? To be vulnerable would mean they're easy to fight and that just isn't the case ESPECIALLY at level 5!
Undead are immune to crits and sneak attack, but the ranger favored enemy damage works normally against them same as in 3.5. It was different in 3.0 mind you.
Ryan. Costello, did you consider using the Heal skill and the new Treat deadly wounds option? It would have been interesting to see what impact that skill would have made in practice.
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Again how is a creature more vulnerable if you miss it half the time??? To be vulnerable would mean they're easy to fight and that just isn't the case ESPECIALLY at level 5!
Undead are immune to crits and sneak attack, but the ranger favored enemy damage works normally against them same as in 3.5. It was different in 3.0 mind you.
I don't have the Pathfinder PDF in front of me, but I believe undead are susceptible to sneak attack now. Rogues can now sneak attack most things... which will likely get addressed in that part of the playtest.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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I don't have the Pathfinder PDF in front of me, but I believe undead are susceptible to sneak attack now. Rogues can now sneak attack most things... which will likely get addressed in that part of the playtest.Again how is a creature more vulnerable if you miss it half the time??? To be vulnerable would mean they're easy to fight and that just isn't the case ESPECIALLY at level 5!
Undead are immune to crits and sneak attack, but the ranger favored enemy damage works normally against them same as in 3.5. It was different in 3.0 mind you.
Most undead can be sneak attacked, but it's been intimated that Incorporeal Undead cannot normally (unless you happen to be incorporeal too or have ghost touch weapons). Still having a 50% miss chance against spells and most magic weapons leaves incorporeal undead fairly INvulnerable.