Whew! Just playtested a group of four at lv8 through the Pathfinder Society Module, Echoes of the Everwar I:Prisoner of Skull Hill.
The characters were;
Taius Afare male human, Order of Lion Cavalier, full-plate and heavy shield wearing, longsword or lance wielding, hores mount: Harstandir
Pasara Collion female human, Inquistor of Abadar, mithral chain wearing, longbow wielding
Ariadne Seren female human, Oracle of Waves, breatplate wearing, trident wielding
Ranaedlara female elf, Witch with raven familiar, necromancy specialised
Overall: I found the classes played at the same level of capability as the core classes, I can quite happily report. I took details, so I will be postinf more, but two extenuating details should be taken into accaount. The cavalier had awful luck. Just terrible, everything went against him. The witch's spells were muted by the fact that
More to come.
All of the following contain spoilers for Prisoner of Skull Hill.
Battle 1
Two orcs rush from the abandoned inn. One corners the witch but the Oracle casts divine favour and intercepts. The other goes for the inquisitor, who keeps backing off and using Deadly Aim. The cavalier starts awkwardly, but uses a free action to mount up and uses his lance's reach to finish off the combat. Fairly even straghtforward fight.
The Inquisitor makes a very good archer, especially against foes with such very low AC. The Oracle plays similar to a cleric, more fleixibility as expected. The revelations unfortunately largely didn't come into play, but the free Dodge feat from fluid nature was appreciated. Cavalier didn't get much use of class features. Witch played pretty much exactly like a wizard becasue hexes didn't come into play and she used lightning bolt and mage armor, etc.
It took three rounds, which is fairly average.
Battle 2
Two skelton champion orcs, rush from a corn field and catch the cavalier in abad way, the party eventually wear them down. The oracle getting all cure spells for free really helped, and that boost has made them much mor eenjoyable to play.
The inquisitor can pump out the damage with Deadly Aim, Judgement of Justice and Bane.
Battle 3
One skeletal champion, the cavalier finally got into play seriously in this battle, and with challenge, flanking and good rolls absolutely demolished the skeletal champion.
Showed how the cavalier worked when he was able to get into battle.
The witch's ward and fortune/misfortune hexes proved especially useful.
Battle 4
The moonflower really balls up tha cavalier, and its grapple was inescapable until the last round where the cavalier broke free and beat the last life out of the moonflower. The Oracle and Inquisitor were able to chip away but do nothing impressive, and the Witch's spell-list meant that she had to mostly use hexes, and ray of enfeeblement. She unfortunately spent half the battle blind aswell. All in all the battle took 7 rounds, but eventually the party prevailed.
[Rules Question] Can a witch use a hex on a creature she doesn't have line of sight for? I ruled yes for ward and fortune, but no for misfortune.