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Not much to add to what I've said in other threads, really, but thought I'd write down some musings having played through much of Burnt Offerings (so, only low-level) that are based directly on play. Play has been delayed by my wife and I having a baby just as we started, plus we are alternating with another campaign, but this is it so far (nothing terribly new or surprising here):
6 characters: human fighter, half-elf rogue, half-orc druid, elven wizard, human paladin, human cleric; encounters scaled up with Joey Virtue's thread used as a guideline. Using Medium advancement rules at present. PFRPG 20-point buy. Using Critical Hit and Critical Miss deck for players and opponents.
Hand of the Apprentice isn't scary-powered but dropping or scaling the Int bonus to damage (whilst leaving it on to-hit) is probably a good idea. As it doesn't AoO, presumably can move through its square? What about ending their round in the same square?
Grapple still needs to be clearer. A session of 'grab the greased piglet' with Erylium demonstrated that to some extent.
Players seem to like the early balance of powers.
The extra hit points are a good idea, including the boost at level 1 (we used the flat bonus of 6hp). Has meant that two characters that went down to negative hit points didn't die (but players still felt the burn; they weren't doing anything stupid and it really was just bad luck).
The skill consolidation does make players feel like they can do more stuff (and they can).
The fly skill looks like a PITA. Didn't prepare enough to use it for Erylium, though, so my fault there.
Really like the way that Appraise and Detect Magic work together now. Identify is also now cool.
Jason's proposed Paladin change significantly better.
Jason's proposed Animal Companion rules significantly cool.
I like the new experience system.
Looking ahead, the players like the look of some later changes, such as the level loss from being raised or resurrected being restorable. Dropping multiclass xp penalty a Good Thing. Sneak Attack affecting all a Good Thing (but please extend to criticals as well).
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I now realise that I didn't actually put in any spoilers.
Any, additional thoughts:
Cleric changes cool. Domain powers popular.
Fighters still good at lower levels (but that was never the problem)
Rogue takes bleeding attack as soon as possible (2nd level) but I don't share the concerns some had (I think he should have taken it later, personally).
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I now realise that I didn't actually put in any spoilers.
Any, additional thoughts:
Cleric changes cool. Domain powers popular.
Fighters still good at lower levels (but that was never the problem)
Rogue takes bleeding attack as soon as possible (2nd level) but I don't share the concerns some had (I think he should have taken it later, personally).
Yes the Rogues taking their combat feats early on (weapon finesse, two-weapon fighting, etc) has been quite popular! I can see Bleed being fairly useful since it will scale nicely with a straight Rogue.
Our group is playing through the early levels of the shackled city AP atm. I'm playing the cleric and I adore the domain powers. Channel energy has been enormously useful in extending healing without increasing spell power. Though the Air and Travel domains seem a little too nice to have with a small teleport and an at-will lightning attack.
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Update!
The variant Paladin Jason suggested has a smite evil that can, with a bad roll, to worse damage to evil outsiders than to generic evil creatures, as it's written. Seems to me that the greater of the two should be taken (it's not a huge difference, mind).
New Turning mechanics are popular.
The extra hp are still just right, as the players are nearing fourth level, in RotRL. No one has died yet, but most have been very close (the fact that the trap in level 2 of Thistletop is clearly announced in the description was fair, because anyone caught in that trap would almost certainly be dead).
In the Beta, incorporeal seems now to only require magic items to hit, but have no 50% miss chance. I hope that's genuine, rather than omission, because it's cool.