|
After running all three UC playtest classes through their paces in Arenas of Doom I wanted to collect all my thoughts in one place.
A Note to Developers:
If you have any constructive criticism as to how I can better the Arenas I'd love to hear it. Any improvement I can make in design, presentation, or analysis to improve the end value of the work input would be awesome.
Gunslinger
Lets forget about guns and whatnot. I have issue with them but it was made clear that this playtest isn't about them so we'll leave off that subject.
Roland's biggest problem in his time in the Arena was reloading time and provoking attacks of opportunity. If we're meant to use guns nearly exclusively it would be really nice to have the ability to reload faster and provoke less. On the other hand, if they're meant to switch to melee like the classic musketeer, they should have some abilities which benefit that.
Guns and ammo are cost prohibitive. This is a good thing. It provides a goos barrier to entry so that not every PC in the game has a gun. That's cool. But a crafting and engineering aspect to the class could make each Gunslinger more unique and remove the barrier to entry that shouldn't exist for the class these guns are meant to most benefit.
In the next version of the playtest I hope to see some additional guns but I'd also like to see two essential questions answered. First, do guns within their first range increment, the touch increment bypass DR? This line "Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks" leads to some confusion. Second, are pistols, like hand crossbows, considered light in the off hand? It's somewhat hard to give accurate testing.
Ninja
I like the ninja. In my opinion, the problem that martial classes most have as a campaign goes on is keeping up with the magical effects of their opponents. Even when those enemies aren't wizards, they often have spell like abilities. Thus when enemies are spider climbing, flying, in magical darkness or what have you, the melee class must switch to a back up weapon or wait for a caster ally to even the playing field.
But the Ninja says "Screw you!" to that paradigm and walks on water, walls, and air in his search for asses to kick. That's pretty awesome. I see a lot of people with balance concerns, particularly about Invisible Blade. While it may need to be toned down in duration to 1/2 level, I don't want it to be too watered down. It's really pretty balanced against classes like the Inquisitor and Bard, even its better than the Rogue. That last bit isn't saying much since the Rogue is kind of anemic.
Kato did a ton of damage and could use a ki point in clutch situations to do even more. His defenses were nothing special but once he got to be invisible every bloody fight it didn't matter much.
I got Shadow Clone for him and never used it. I think that was mainly a function of the Arena style, though. In actual play, I can imagine plenty of times when Kato would have a spare standard action. I do, however, find it interesting that it is a standard action instead of the swift action for invisibility. Seems odd in retrospect though I didn't think of it until now.
In any case, Shadow Clone seems to kind of go out the window once the Ninja can use Greater Invisibility. Perhaps make it a swift action? Or add an extra benefit after 10th level to keep it worth its ki point cost. Maybe it could confuse the targeting of spell casters causing a 50% chance that the spell has no effect against the Ninja. This would cause all the duplicates to fizzle as well.
In conclusion, please don't beat the Ninja too much with the nerf stick. Some may call this power creep but I just consider it redressing the balance.
Samurai
The Samurai is a funny beast. I wasn't even going to playtest it but I felt that the Ninja needed a flanking buddy. But I really liked playing Sam and Horace. The Cavalier basis is surprising and has some advantages and some...well thematic oddities.
1. 4 skills per level is nice. One thing that I've noticed recently is how much more well rounded a character is with more skills. You get to participate more out of combat with knowledge and social skills and can be the party's go to guy for swimming or climbing or what have you.
2. The challenge mechanic works really well for my idea of a Samurai with duels and honorable combat and whatnot. I dig it. However, the Ronin's challenge is really weak compared to other Orders. I don't think that's appropriate. Just because they have a bit more roleplaying flexibility doesn't necessitate a mechanical penalty. The Wizard is arguably the most powerful class in the game but has no roleplaying restrictions at all.
3. The horse. Huh. So, I don't really picture Samurai on horses much. Or ever. But this too can be an advantage. One thing I do picture is anime characters on straight ridiculous mounts. Chocobo's, dinosaurs, and all that crap. That could be cool. Plus, it's a different way to play and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I really liked Resolve and felt it added a valuable bit of toughness to the class. So often, the only classes you really feel can survive the nasty magic being thrown at them are those with silly good saves like the Monk and Paladin and, to a lesser extent, the classes with two good saves especially when the bad save is bolstered by a key stat as it is with Rangers. But Resolve is a big help making the class durable. Especially in conjunction with the Ronin abilities Without Master and Self-Reliant (that hyphen is there on purpose and should be in the document, too).
Finally, I hear some talk about trying to remove the shield proficiency from the Samurai. I think that's trying too hard at a historical context that doesn't exist in Golarion. If you don't think your Samurai should use a shield don't. But don't take options away from everyone else.
Folks, we appreciate the feedback, but this forum is specifically for actual playtest results. If you have comments on a specific area of the playtest, please post in the appropriate forum. (Even if this means you need to make three threads, one for each class.)
This thread is locked.