Ok,
Did a playtest today for the Inquisitor and Alchemist. I have to say, this was one of the longest fights I've ever had in a game. 15 combat rounds.
PC's
Woodling Catfolk Druid (8)
Drow Ranger (3)/Sorcerer(5)/Arcane Archer(1)
Kobold Summoner (9)
Duerger Duskblade (9)
Half-Ogre Knight (9)
NPC's
CR 7 Cohort Shapeshifter (Dire Tiger form)
Catfolk Fighter 3/Noble 5
Catfolk Commoner 3/Noble 1
The PC's were escorting an exiled (runaway) prince and his commoner significant other to a remote catfolk settlement so they could get married before the girl gave birth (she was 8 months on). There was a 5,000gp reward on both their heads (treason, by law).
Two bounty hunters had been attracted to the party due to one of them asking about the reward on the missing prince. Those two followed the group at a distance of about 3 hours for a couple of weeks, then saw them take off out of a remote town with two catfolk on a wagon. Figuring the two were the missing outlaws, they quickly hired some local muscle to help them ambush the party.
BBG's (not evil, just bountyhunters)
Henara the Mad, Tengu Alchemist (9)
Fenara the Focused, Tengu Inquisitor of Law (9)
Frik the Minotaur Fighter (5)
Frak the Minotaur Fighter (5)
Paul the Centaur Archer (fighter 6)
Saul the Centaur Archer (fighter 6)
STR: 16 DEX: 14 CON: 15
INT: 11 WIS: 14 CHA: 12
HP : 106
AC 20 (10 + 8 (Armor) + 1 (Natural) + 2 (Dex) - 1 (Size)
Feats: Improved Initiative, Point-Blank-Shot, Precise Shot, Shot on the Run, Rapid Shot, Many Shot, Weapon Focus (Longbow), Weapon Specialization (Longbow)
Weapons : +1 Composite (+3) Longbow of Shock or Acid (Paul had Shock, Saul had Acid, rolled randomly ahead of time). Each also had a +1 Keen Scimitar
Full Attack : 12 (x2), 12, 7 (1d8+4+1d6 Energy) Longbow
or 14 (x2), 9 (1d8+4+1d6 Energy) Longbow
or 14, 9 1d8+4 (15-20, x2) Scimitar
Both brothers had +2 Breastplate's on, and 40 arrows each.
STR: 20 DEX: 10 CON: 15
INT: 7 WIS: 10 CHA: 8
HP: 111
AC 24 (10 + 10 (Armor) + 5 (Natural) - 1 (Size)
Feats: Great Fortitude, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Vital Strike,
Weapon Focus (Greataxe), Weapon Specialization (Greataxe)
Weapons : +1 Large Greataxe. Gore as a secondary Attack
Full Attack : Greataxe 17, 12 (3d6+6) + Gore 10 (1d6+5)
Both cousins had +2 full plate on.
STR: 11 DEX: 24 CON: 12
INT: 18 WIS: 10 CHA: 13
HP : 64
AC 29 (10 + 6 (Armor) + 1 (Dodge) + 7 (Dex) + 5 (Spells))
Feats: Weapon Finess, Dodge, Mobility, Point Blank Shot, Shot on the Run
Weapons : +1 Rapier of Shock (1d6 + 1d6 Electricity)
Full Attack : 17, 17, 12 (1d6 + 1d6 Electricty)
OR
5d6+4 Bomb (+9 Splash, 10 feet)
Armor : +4 Leather Armor
Discoveries : Sticky Poison, Explosive Bomb
Formulae Prepared that day:
Heroism, Cure Serious, Haste, Gaseous Form, Barkskin, Cat's Grace, Resist Energy, Cure Moderate (2), Enlarge Persion, Expeditious Retreat, Cure Light (4)
Other Equipment : Ring of Invisibility, Wand of Cure Moderate, Wand of Fireball, Wand of Web, Wand of Invisibility
STR: 18 DEX: 16 CON: 22
INT: 10 WIS: 16 CHA: 12
HP : 64
AC 26 (10 + 8 (Armor) + 4 (shield) + 1 (Dodge) + 7 (Dex))
Feats: Exotic Weapon (Bastard Sword), Dodge, Power Attack, Improved Sunder, Greater Sunder
Tactical Feats : Coordinate Manuevers, Coordinated Defense, Outflank
Weapons : +1 Sonic Bastard sword
Full Attack : 10, 5 (1d8 + 1d4 Sonic)
Armor : +2 Breastplate, +2 Heavy Steel Shield
Spells Known : Acid Splash, Bleed, Guidance, Read Magic, Detect Magic, Stabilize, Bless, Divine Favor, Expeditious Retreat, Cure Light, Sanctuary, Aid, Cure Moderate, Invisibility, Zone of Truth, Cure Serious, Keen Edge, Dispel Magic, Searing Light
Other Equipment : Belt of Physical Might (+4 Str, +4 Con)
Fight Details in next post....
Ok,
So the bounty hunters had a good plan, just not a lot of money for hiring hirelings. So they paid the two minotaurs and two centaurs a couple of hundred gold each, and promised them another couple of hundred each to take the two target catfolks. Henara and Fenara have been down on their luck lately, so need a big score, and 10K gold is a big score.
They got ahead of the party (not hard, they were stuck with a mule pulling a wagon with the refugees on it). Waited in the tree-line until they saw them coming.
Then, when the group was close, the alchemist used her invisibility wand to make everyone invisible, and kept it going while they waited for the group.
The centaurs were told to target the dragon and his rider (the Summoner's Eidelon looked like a medium sized green dragon, and the kobold was riding it). The Minotaur's and the Inquisitor were to attack the most dangerous looking enemy on the ground (the dire tiger and it's rider). The alchemist was too chaotic to really follow much of a plan beyond that so she was to race through the battle causing mayhem.
Now, I have to stop and discuss the alchemist. If anyone dislikes 'Nova' people, the Alchemist is the king of Nova. She downed 3-4 elixers right before the fight started, all of them minute durations (9 minutes), like heroism and cat's grace. Then she downed a Haste elixer on the first round of combat. She was cackling like a loon and running around through combat for 9 rounds tossing off bombs (until she ran out) then she started attack with her rapier. But more of that later.
The centaurs started the fight by full attacking the Summoner and Eidelon. Four arrows each on the surprise round. They didn't hit with them all, but they hit with enough to take the eidelon down 80% of his HP, and tag the summoner twice as well (I use a composite AC for mount/rider when using ranged attacks, and then see which get's hit).
The minotaur's charged the dire tiger and both hit with gore attacks. They did light damage to the dire tiger (good damage, really, but he has 125 hps, so only took him down about 18, since one ended up hitting the druid instead of the cat).
The Inquisitor chose Justice and Defense as her two judgements (+AC and +Attack). So her AC went up to 29 over the course of the first 3 rounds and stayed there till the fight ended. She had also cast Bless on everyone before the fight started, while they were all still invisible.
Then the fight started in earnest. The summoner was too far away to get down to the fight the first round, so his eidelon flew lower (he'd been 150 feet up). The Duskblade attacked (and critted!) Frik. Did a third of the poor minotaur's HP's in one hit. Not fun. But Frik was a pro, he just kept attacking his assigned target. Frik and Frak did another 50 pts of damage to the Dire Tiger, then the Inquisitor (who was really pissed, nobody with a weapon was near her) added a few more pts.
The alchemist bounced in and tossed a bomb into the tiger's butt, doing a 'buttload' of HP. The tiger got his turn and hit Frik for a bite and a claw, but missed his second claw and didn't get a rake (rolled a 2). Frik got really bloody really quickly. The Eidelon, puffed into smoke 120 feet off the ground when the centaurs opened up fire on them again. The summoner cast featherfall of course. The Druid cast 'Quench' on her Tiger to put out the flames.
The arcane archer fired at the Alchemist, but with a 29 AC (from spells and such) he missed. The knight tried to charge the alchemist as well, but failed a ride check to jump an obstacle and aborted his charge.
Frik and Frak took another round to slice up the tiger, despite how much damage the Duskblade did to Frik, because he was a pro and was attacking his assigned target. The Duskblade whiffed both his attacks. The tiger took so much damage he was down into the teens on his HP, so he shapeshifted into a hummingbird and flew off. The druid made her relex save to land on her feet, so avoided an AoO. Both their big damage dealers were gone, the tiger and the eidelon. The summoner cast his SLA to summon 3 apes to attack one of the centaurs, but the other fired and hit him 3 times with arrows, doing a nice chunk. The arcane archer whiffed on the Alchemist again (he needed a 20 to hit, but didn't know it). The Knight charged Frak and hit for a nice chunk of damage. Then the alchemist beaned the knight on the head with a bomb.
I'll leave off round by round and give hilights, otherwise this will take forever. The knight ended up getting chopped up by Frak, but held him in place long enough for Frik to get beaten to over 80hp, at which point Frik stepped back and said 'Ok, I done, I go now' and he started walking away from the fight. The PC's wisely allowed him to withdraw. Frak stayed one more round, but got critted by the knight and then he left too. Sadly, the knight went down to another bomb right after that. Saul killed all the apes, but by then the Summoner had cast some more spells at him and damaged him, so he he withdrew. Paul had been having trouble, until he figured out the Arcane Archer had a 17 AC. He put 8 arrows into him in two rounds (used up his last 8) and killed the Arcane Archer (-24 hps).
So, Knight Down, Arcane Archer down, Both Minotaurs gone, 1 Centaur gone, and just a wounded Druid, a wounded summoner, and a wounded Duskblade to fight an Inquisitor, an Alchemist (who had just ran out of bombs) and a Centaur Archer with no arrows.
Needless to say, things ground down at this point. The Alchemist was no longer hasted, but her other spells were up still. The Inquisitor took one nasty hit from the duskblade then sundered his 30K goldpiece dwarven warhammer. The duskblade dropped his weapon rather than chance it getting destroyed on another hit, and then started using gauntleted touch attacks instead. Since he had Adamantine armor, she couldn't sunder that. The summoner summoned a whooly rhino to attack the last centaur (who had moved up to attack the duskblade).
Another 4-5 rounds (including the Druid using all 9 minutes worth of Produce Flame spell to throw flame balls) and the Duskblade ended the battle by getting the Inquisitor with a Touch of Idiocy spell and dropping her Wisdom by 5. She withdrew, cast sanctuary (all she could cast with an 11 wisdom) and called for a general retreat. The alchemist used her ring of invisibility just as the summoner summoned up an owlbear to attack her, and the centaur fled as well.
The knight had 1 hp before he died, but he survived. The next day the Druid cast reincarnation and actually rolled 'Elf' randomly, which I put as Drow since the character was a drow originally.
All in all, the Inquisitor wasn't as good as I'd hoped. She only got the benefit of her tactical feats once, against the duskblade, and her sunder build had the bad luck that the natural attack people were up front, so she couldn't sunder most of the fight. Her judgements seemed a bit underpowered, but, she's not a tank, and she did not show off badly against everyone else.
The alchemist, on the other hand, was way powerful and basically caused massive confusion and general mayhem. And with the time to put on her pants, as we say, she could boost herself massively.
On a side note, I never bothered with the mutagens, there's no worth to them considering the ability damage, and she didn't need them. Nova'ing her potions was more than enough. Honestly, if I'd given her 2 haste elixers instead of one, she'd have been able to kill the surviving PC's herself. She didn't even have to use her cure elixers once, or even her invisibility ring except to escape. Way powerful, way more than the summoner has been.