I did the second session of a playtest tonight. It was the second half of running through the Carrion Hill Module.
The party is level 5 and consists of:
Half Orc Barbarian
Elf Conjuration Wizard
Human Paladin who was sword and shield.
Human Inquisitor (ranged combat focused)
Gnome Summoner with a biped eidolon named tiny (it is medium sized)
We got through several encounters tonight including the final one in the climax
This will contain details of the module, please dont read on if you dont wish that revealed. I made changes to my liking in the adventure, but there are still plot points that are revealed.
The first encounter they faced was in the Vats with the necromancer. It included 10 human zombies and a level 7 necromancer (wizard).
2 characters really shone here. Interestingly enough it was the barbarian and the wizard. The barbarian was able to handle himself excellently, making his acrobatics checks on the platforms without concern, and cleaving through zombie after zombie (and i do mean 2 a turn with the cleave feat). The conjuration wizard was able to blind the necromancer early in the fight, effectively taking him out of the fight. The paladin couldnt do a whole lot here. His full plate and heavy sheild meant he failed just about all his acrobatics checks despite the low DC of 5 and he spent most of the time on the ground. The inquisitor did well here but didnt really outshine anyone. He did good damage, especially with the bane ability. It didnt really seem like the judgements made a huge impact, but bane definitely did. It seems he always had a good reason to chance his judgments or used bane first, so he never really built up all 3 levels of the bonus.
The summoner didnt do a whole lot as the eidolon spent 2 turns wrestling with a black tentacles along with the crocodile the summoner summoned. But once tiny (the eidolon) got loose he did well against the zombies, but not in any way close to the barbarian. They defeated and killed the necromancer.
The found the old church destroyed the monster having beat them to it because they had delayed significantly before and after going into the sunless grove. So the monster gained back 2 of his remaining negative levels (leaving 4).
They moved on to the asylum, where they faced a couple of encounters. The first was against a group of orderlies and 2 lunatics (lunatics were bound and chained). the 4 cr 1 orderlies lasted a whole of 2 turns against the barbarian and the paladin. No one else really needed to do anything.
The next fight was a big one. 4 cr 1 orderlies, 2 cr 1/2 lunatics and 2 rounds into it, Crove (level 9 Wizard 3,Cleric 3 Mystic Thurge 3) entered the fray. The eidolon did really well here taking out 2 of croves summons while the rest of the guys cut through the orderlies to get nearer to crove. After a mostly unsuccessful exchange of webs from the party wizard and crove, and the wizard dispelling croves web and dismissing his own, the barbarian charged and crited crove, dealing his entire HP in 1 hit (42 damage), leaving him at 0 and staggered. The rest of the party quickly finished crove off before he could react.
Immediately after the monster appeared upstairs. Thankfully the party would fight it in the room with the invisibility purge, making it a managable fight even with only 4 negative levels on the CR 10 monster. With natural invisibility negated, it was more like CR 9 i think.
Here the party played it smart, the summoner greased his eidolons clothing, and the wizard greased the barbarian's armor. That pluss a few buffs meant often the monster failed to grapple them. The eidolon, paladin and inquisitor all contributed damage, but it was definately the barbarian (especially while hasted) that did the most, though he also took the most, and went unconcious (but thankfully not dead) when he ended his rage after the fight. Both casters had trouble getting through the monsters SR, so they really focused more on buffing the party at first. Eventually the managed to kill it, but a couple party members and one summoner earth elemental (by the party wizard) were nearly out of hp
My Impressions are that I really like the inquisitor. Even when he was buffed with divine favor, using judgment and bane, he still wasn't the biggest damage dealer, though perhaps that was because he was using a bow. Not really sure there, but seems to me the balance is good on the class.
Again the summoner did well, but was not overpowering. This time things did slow down a little though since he summoned something he wasnt completely prepared for or overly familiar with(a crocodile). Things till went pretty well, and I think both the paladin and especially the barbarian still got to shine even with the eidolon there. If the summoner buffed the eidolon it was almost as good as the barbarian but with a better AC. If the summoner spent time summoning instead, the eidolon was not as good at dealing damage or taking his as either the paladin or barbarian. And though obviously the summons help, they were not game changers.
Good read, I've been thinking the same about the Inquisitor.