For the playtest, I went with 20 pt buy, level 4 adventure. Hit points are 2/3 max after start.
The Cast:
Human Samurai (S:20 D:12 C:14 I:10 W:10 Ch:10 Feats: WF:Katana, Power Attack, Cleave Gear: Fullplate, Katana+1, Masterwork composite longbow, Cloak of Resistance)
Elven Ninja - Silent Hunter option (S:16 D:18 C:10 I:13 W:10 Ch: 10 Feats: Two Weapon fighting, Point Blank shot, ninja talents Weapon trick (wf: wakisashsi), combat trick (precise shot) Gear: Chain shirt +1, two masterwork wakisashi, Handy Haversack, Shurikin - some with poison, more poison)
Human Gunslinger (S:12 D:20 C:10 I:10 W:14 Ch:10 Feats: Weapon Finesse, Rapid Reload, extra grit, Lightning Reload Gear: Studded leather +1, Musket +1, Rapier +1)
Human Starsoul Sorcerer (S:8 D:13 C:12 I:12 W:12 Ch:20 Feats: Spell Focus: Evocation, Extend spell Spells Known: 1st: Mage armor, enlarge person, burning hands, unseen servant, Magic Missile 2nd: Flaming Sphere Gear: Ring of Sustenance, Handy Haversack, Pearl of Power level 1, L. Crossbow, some scrolls)
Halfling Oracle of life (S:5 D:14 C:16 I:10 W:11 Ch:20 Class: Clouded vision, Channel Energy, Life link Feats: Selective Channeling, extra channeling Spells Known: 1st - Cure Light Wounds, Bless, Detect Undead, Shield of Faith, Summon Monster I 2nd level: Cure Monderate Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Sound Burst Gear: Handy Haversack, Mithril Chain shirt, Cloak of Resistance +1, Wand of CLW, alchemical items.
Adventure: The team is sent to investigate reports that a ruined keep has been taken over and is being used as a lair for monsters. The team sets out to stop them. Sorcerer casts extended mage armor at beginning of day, Oracle has life links up for everyone.
Encounter 1 - Ogres: On the way to the ruined keep, the team comes across 3 Ogres who are picking over the remains of a cart and horse. The cart's driver is laying dead in the road.
Round one: No one is surprised, players win initiative. Oracle Casts Bless. Sorcerer casts 2 magic missiles, 1 at each ogre. 1 fails its reflex save, is dazzled. Samurai moves forward, fires his bow, hitting for 8 damage. Gunslinger moves forward to 40' fires at same ogre, easily hitting and doing max damage. Ninja moves to 30', throwing poisoned shurikin at undamaged ogre, but misses. Ogres charge, one going after gunslinger, the other two after samurai. One of the ogres on the samurai hits.
Round 2: 5 pts of damage from Samurai gets transferred to Oracle. Oracle moves close enough that she can see, fires sound burst to hit two targets. The badly injured ogre drops, the second ogre is stunned for 1 round. The samurai drops his bow, pulls his katana and attacks the stunned ogre, but somehow misses (rolls a 1). The ninja moves to flanking position, pulling his wakisashi. but also misses (rolled a 3). The gunslinger pulls back, burns a grit point to lightning reload and fires the musket, hitting but not doing a lot of damage. The sorcerer drops a flaming sphere between the ogre and the gunslinger. The ogre saves, so isn't dazzled, and takes no damage. Ogre 1 is still stunned until next turn, Ogre two goes after gunslinger, but can't charge this time. Still managed to tag the gunslinger.
Round 3: 5 pts from both samurai and gunslinger tranfers to the oracle. Oracle uses cure moderate on herself, taking her back up to full. Samurai swings at ogre and hits but for low damage. Ninja tries to hit with both weapons, hits with off-hand wakisashi, ogre is barely up. gunslinger moves away from his friend, burns another grit point and fires at badly injured ogre, hitting an taking him down.. regaining a grit point. Sorcerer uses move to move flaming sphere to last ogre. He also fires 2 magic missiles. Ogre, badly injured, dazzled and his two friends dead, decides to run away... lots. There is not much treasure to be found, just some silver coins.
Comments: We weren't sure if magic missile can starsoul dazzle, but I decided to allow it, since it is only a -1 on a failed save. The samurai forgot his power attack, which with the way he was rolling was a good thing. He also was wondering if there was some way to trade in his mount for another ability. (He doesn't like mounted combat). The gunslinger was fairly happy, although a little worried about where extra damage was going to come from. Being able to lightning reload the musket for a grit point will be done fairly often, he feels. He is also happy that I'm not worrying about ammo costs for the playtest. The ninja is fairly okay, although he feels that he maybe should have gone with far shot over precise shot, as 10' range increments sucks. He also really wants trapfinding to be a ninja trick.
Encounter 2 - Hobgoblins
The next day, the group approaches the ruined keep, and discovers a warband has taken it over. Just inside the front gate is with 8 level 1 hobgoblin fighters, slightly better armored with scale mail and heavy shields. The ninja scouts first, comes back and a plan is made. The team closes to as far as they can before discovered, then attacks.
Surprise round: Sorcerer casts flaming sphere to block escape route so they can't warn comrades. oracle casts bless. Samurai and ninja close, drawing weapons, Gunslinger fires at hobgoblin, hitting but not dropping him.
Round 1: Hobgoblins lose initiative to everyone but Oracle. Samurai and Ninja charge, gunslinger lightning reloads and fires at hobgoblins. Samurai remembers power attack this time, hits and drops a hobgoblin. The ninja misses, Gunslinger hits injured hobgoblin, dropping him and getting the grit point back. Sorcerer decides to not waste any more spells on a bunch of low level hobgoblins, fires his crossbow and barely hits. hobs go after samurai and ninja 3 and 3. 2 hit the samurai, one hits the ninja. Oracle closes to sight of fight, absorbs damage from samurai and ninja
Round 2: Samurai and ninja move to flank on a hobgoblin, ninja hits with both wakisashi, turning hobgoblin into paste. Samurai swings at different target, dropping it easily. Gunslinger decides to not waste any more grit, pulls his rapier and moves in, but misses. The sorcerer dazes one of the hobgoblins. 3 hobgoblins act, each taking a different target. Rolling well, they hit the samurai and gets a possible crit on the ninja, but does not confirm. Oracle transfers 10 more points. moves close and fires on a channeling.
Round 3: Ninja flanks again, but only hits with the off-hand wakisashi, injuring the hobgoblin. Samurai turns another hobgoblin into chum. Gunslinger stabs his target, and manages to crit, killing his. Sorcerer dazes the hobgoblin again, and moves the flaming sphere to the last hobgoblin to act, who fails his reflex, killing him. Next round, they finish off the remaining hobgoblin. Oracle burns 2 charges of her wand.
Comments: The gunslinger kinda wished he could get grit back when using the rapier, but understood why not. This was more of a speed-bump, but could have turned nasty if they weren't prepared. The ninja has decided that using the poisoned shurikin is a waste of time, and will likely retrain those feats if we keep playing.
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Encounter 3 - Seargent
Moving quickly, not bothering to search beyond a quick detect magic, the team enters the keep. They easily avoid the pit trap with weakened boards and encounters a hobgoblin leader armed with a greatsword and breastplate, plus four regular hobgoblins. Neither group is surprised. By moving quickly, the bless is still active from the first battle.
Round 1: Seargent is a level 3 fighter, armed with a masterwork greatsword. Initiative order is ninja, oracle, sargent, rest of team, hobgoblins. Ninja goes after closest hobgoblin, criting him, and dropping him. Oracle drops shield of faith on Samurai. Sargent attacks ninja, hitting for a fair amount of damage. Gunslinger fires at another hobgoblin, hitting but almost minned damage. Sorcerer steps up, casts burning hands, making sure to not hit the ninja, catching the 3 remaining hobgoblins, but not able to get the seargent. One makes the saving throw, one is dazzled, the one the gunslinger hit goes down. Samurai issues a challenge to the sargent, charges and power attacks, hitting the seargent and dropping him from uninjured to nearly dead. Hobgoblins go after sorcerer, one of which hits for max damage.
Round 2. Oracle absorbs hp from ninja and sorcerer, fires a cure light on self. Ninja flanks sargent, hitting once and dropping him. Samurai chooses to try to cleave, but misses. Gunslinger lightning reloads, blasts badly injured hobgoblin into dust, and gets the grit point back. Sorcerer tries to daze last hobgoblin, but it makes the saving throw. It decides it isn't worth it try try to run, takes another swing at the sorcerer, but misses. Next round, the last hobgoblin is easily dispatched. Oracle burns a channel to top everyone off, plus a couple of clw wand charges to to herself off.
Comments: Samurai's challenge turned a somewhat dangerous fight into a cakewalk. Burning a challenge early may come back to haunt him, if he isn't careful. Gunslinger is getting a little annoyed on the low damage rolls, would prefer the musket to be 2d6 instead of 1d12.
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Encounter 4: The Shaman
While the sorcerer detected magic and found the breastplate to be +1, decides to not worry about it for now and they move on. At a T section, they see a door with 2 hobgoblins in front of it. Both easily spot each other, no surprise.
Round 1: Group wins initiative (or so they think), and samurai and ninja charge. Samurai power attacks, and hits hobgoblin killing it. Ninja also hits, taking him down. The group hears a voice through the door, which the sorcerer thinks is infernal.
Round 2: The door opens, group sees a skeleton plus another hobgoblin inside. The hobgoblin is a level 4 oracle of bones, who just called his skeleton friend. The oracle won initiative. The 4 HD skeleton attacks the samurai, but misses. Oracle casts cause fear on the ninja, who fails the save. ninja flees for the next two rounds. Gunslinger shoots at skeleton, hitting, but not doing a lot of damage. Samurai moves past skeleton, who misses on the attack of opportunity (Bless has worn off, but the shield of faith is still up) and attacks the oracle, hurting him. The sorcerer fires a couple of magic missiles at the skeleton, while the oracle fires a channel. The ninja flees.
Round 3: The skeleton flanks the samurai, but still misses. The oracle casts defensively, succeeding, and attempts to touch the samurai, also succeeding, hitting him with an inflict moderate wounds. The wound also starts bleeding. The oracle absorbs 5 damage, stopping the bleeding. Samurai steps out of flank, swinging at oracle. easily hitting him, and droppping him. The sorcerer fires off two more magic missiles, and the gunslinger lightning reloads, hit the skeleton, and finishing him off, regaining the grit. the ninja flees for one more round, but then starts heading back next round.
Comments: We weren't sure whether the skeleton's DR counted, but as the musket claims both blugeeoning and piercing, GM stated the DR didn't count. There was a bit of discussion about whether it should or not, but went with the rules. GM also decided to allow life link to stop bleeding, although there was a bit of discussion about that.
Encounter 5: The boss.
After gathering up the ninja, and another charge of the wand for the oracle, the team moved on feeling pretty confident. The oracle fires off another bless right before they enter the main area, where the hobgoblin leader, his lieutenant, and 4 more hobgoblins were located. Neither side was surprised:
Round 1: The boss was a level 5 samurai (Ronin) and the lieutenant was a level 3 ninja. The initiatve order is Sorcerer, Gunslinger, ninja, boss, samurai, rest of hobgoblins, oracle. Sorcerer casts enlarge on the samurai. Gunslinger takes shot at one of the hobgoblins, hits but does not drop him. The ninja charges another one of the hobgoblins, hits but rolls lousy on damage, hobgoblin is still up. Boss fires at the (now really big) samurai but misses. Samurai issues challenge to boss, and steps forward to do battle. Hits, taking a big chunk out of the samurai. lieutenant moves to flank samurai, other hobgoblins goes after ninja. One of the hobgoblins hits the ninja, Lieutenant hits samurai, hitting and using pressure secrets to drop samurai a point of strength. Oracle absorbs damage, moves forwards and drops a sound burst catching 3 of the four hobgoblins. 1 saves, so 2 are stunned next round.
Round 2: Sorcerer gets brilliant idea, casts enlarge person on the gunslinger. Gunslinger lightning reloads shoots at unstunned hobgoblin, easily killing him with his new 3d6 musket. Ninja moves into flanking position for lieutenant, burns a ki point to attack twice, hitting both times and dropping him. Boss counter-challenges, hits for a heck of a lot of damage, nearly taking samurai out, although the two points of DR helps. Samurai counterstrikes, crits, boss goe into negative points, but uses resolve to stay up. 1 Hobgoblin able to act charges the samurai but misses. Oracle absorbs damage, moves next to samurai and does a CMW, but mins the heal.
Round 3. Sorcerer waits. Gunslinger lightning reloads, shoots at hobgoblin, but misfires (rolls a 2). Ninja moves to flank hobgoblin next to samurai, hits and kills him. Sorcerer fires two magic missiles at boss. Boss falls. Samurai moves to take out hobgoblin, but misses. Last two hobgoblins focus on samurai, one of which crits him, but Samurai is still up. Oracles absorbs 5, casts a CLW on Samurai. Next round, they wrap of the two remaining hobgoblins.
Comments: This was supposed to be the big, nasty battle, and it was. The samurai would have dropped a couple of times if it wasn't for the hp battery of the oracle. The gunslinger was really happy about being able to do real damage with his weapon via enlarge, but nearly through the gun down in disgust with the misfire. Burning that ki point to take out the enemy ninja really saved the day, as the combo of the samurai and ninja flanking the team's samurai would have put an end to him pretty quickly. It was kinda anti-climatic for the boss to finally be dropped by the sorcerer's magic missiles, but so such things go. The crit came at really the perfect time.
Final comments: The samurai was mostly happy with his character, his main comment was he wanted something to replace mount, and was curious what Katana would end up looking like. The ninja was also fairly happy, although he wanted trapfinding as a ninja trick, and the poisoned shurikin turned out to be a bad, bad idea. Applying poison to his blades would have been more effective, although he isn't sure how much. The gunslinger was the least happy, although with lightning reload he was doing mostly ok. He is also concerned that most musket builds are going to look really similar (Rapid Reload, lightning reload, extra grit, vital strike chain). He also wanted an easier way to regain grit. With a 20x4 crit, he was having to target nearly dead opponents to regain grit. The enlarge spell was really nice, going from 1d12 to 3d6 damage, and the -2 to hit was mostly ignorable when targeting touch. Final comment was about ammo cost. He jokingly asked that instead of paying 1 gp per bullet could he instead use sling bullets, which were 10 per silver piece.
Interesting test, the only problem I see is that the Gunslinger can only regain Grit by killing an enemy once per day. You had the Gunslinger regain a Grit point for dropping an enemy in encounters 2, 3, and 4 in the same day, when he should only have gotten Grit back for the first kill.