Playtest last monday

[James Risner]

Playtest Report 15th Level "Recovering the Ceremonial Sword" and 3 sample encounters

I created a simple one off adventure, an item was stolen and it's the PC's job to recover it. The owner of the item has divined the name of who is responsible and hired the party to recover his item by any means necessary.

After some Gather Info (Diplomacy check) they learn the name is that of an Auction house owner, that there is an auction tonight, and that the auction is a private auction requiring tickets. After the ghost step ninja did a bit of invisible/ghost step scouting, they learned of a number of guards (both creatures and npc humans) and decide to try to get inside without combat. They set out to find a way into the auction by forging tickets, quickly locating a team of 5 people drinking in an Inn with a ticket. They bluffed (many many many times vs a +20 Sense Motive NPC) their way into his guard duty by convincing him that the item the buyer came to purchase (the sword) was in fact a replica of their sword and they wished to examine the replica. The ticket has the name of the attendee, but only lists the number of guards. They replace his guards with the party by offering up a Cube of Force for the guards to hold as insurance. Getting into the chamber to view the items before the auction, the ghost step ninja used Ghost Step to reach through a custom wall of force to grab the item and the cleric casted plane shift to go to the ethereal plane. When leaving the plane, the Lawful Evil Forbiddance dealt damage to everyone.

Arriving on the ethereal plane, they are pursued by the Devil, Immolation CR 19 (B2 p87) who had a Wish put upon him by the Auction owner to "never be more than 200 ft from anyone stealing from the Auction house" (so he was pulled into the ethereal plane by the wish.) The battle was an Post-Epic (APL+4) encounter, and should have been a TPK. This was adverted by the ghost step ninja's use of a wish from a luckblade to successfully suggestion (the devil failed his save) that they had not stolen the item but rather had only recovered a stolen item (the truth.) They then returned to the prime material with another plane shift from the cleric, then a greater teleport from the devil to return to the auction house (again dealing damage to everyone except the Devil.)

On arrival, two (2) CR 14 Master Monk's (GMG p275) which was a Challenging (APL+1; 2x CR14=CR16) but in fact the encounter was trivial due to the high damage output of the gunslinger and the combined ninjas. The devil tried to convince his former "allies" the PC's were not bad people, but the monk's ignored the clearly confused devil ;-) The gunslinger misfired on a 2, and used his gun as a broken weapon for the rest of the encounter. The PC's survived the event, returned the item, and got their pay. The way the PC's solved the problem was not expected by me.

As we completed the encounter early, I decided to run three encounters (trivial APL-5, Easy APL-1, and Post-Epic APL+4). Both the trivial and Easy were as named, but the Post-Epic was also interesting. I had expected a TPK as well, especially after the first round the gunslinger deals only 8 points after DR using his touch attack Deadeye ability. But he had a successful second round despite missing twice with Deadly Aim. He delivered a 224 (pre-DR; two confirmed crates) round of attacks and another 177 (pre-DR; one confirmed crate) round. At one point it looked to be a trivial encounter with the Cleric spamming Heal/4th level Cures, but then I decided to try sundering provoking AoO. The damage destroyed the +5 (hardness 15 HP 40) Musket in one round leaving the Gunslinger weaponless (he withdrew from combat the next round.) I then sundered the ninja, leaving the ghost step ninja and the cleric alone. Eventually they do manage to knock it to negative hp, but due to Indestructible (Ex) they couldn't kill it (no one had an adamantine vorpal blade.) So they plane shift away.

Interesting points

• No one picked Samurai.
  
• Two people built two very different Ninjas.
  
• The gunslinger couldn't have built a more powerful character using straight Gunslinger (all paizo material was allowed.)
  
• The party of four got 10,000 gp (2,500 gp each) for their efforts in these encounters.
  
• The Gunslinger used at least 450 gp of bullets/powder.
  
• The Gunslinger went first every encounter (+11 to Init.)
  
• Deadeye is about useless against high DR opponents, as you need to crit to deal any significant damage.
  
• The Gunslinger consistently out damaged everyone else, to the point of frustrating the two straight Ninjas.
  
• The Gunslinger max damage in one round was 224 (two crits, pre-DR) and his second highest was 177 (one crit.)
  
• The Gunslinger rarely ever missed, while the Ninja's usually missed the high AC enemies (30+) but everyone had no trouble on the low AC enemies (25.)
  
• The Ninjas maximum damage in a round was 92.

GM comments:

• Can you use normal/greater Weapon Specialization/Greater Weapon Focus with this "alternate Fighter"? I assumed you could not.
  
• I really don't like the Ghost Step ability during the game, but in reflection it isn't much of a problem for a 10th+ level game.
  
• I didn't like having to look up the broken condition for a weapon and it's effects when the Gunslinger broke his Musket by rolling a 2. It also makes a number of changes to the math (Improved Critical/Killer Trait all change in how they interact with the weapon when it becomes broken and takes 20x2 threat/multiplier.)
  
• Ninja's can't disarm Magical Traps because they don't have the class feature Trap Finding. I find this strange (in my ongoing game I allow swap of Poison Use for Trapfinding)
  
• I really don't like the complex web of rules associated with guns. Both the touch attacks are forced in the first increment and the misfire rules. No other weapons have this complex of a decision tree.
  
• I had to repetitively remind the Gunslinger to mark off his bullets, as he frequently (most of the time) didn't check off each one. Forgetting to check off a 1 sp arrow is one thing, but bullets cost 110 times as much, and as such their cost demands to be accounted. It is a frustrating paperwork consequence of making them so costly.
  
• Everyone said they had fun.

Rules mistakes made by me the GM:

• I didn't realize that ghosts are ethereal creatures. The ghost step ninja should not have been able to reach through the wall of force and that would have added another round to their exit.
  
• No one understood that muskets force touch attacks in the first increment. The gunslinger used a lot of Deadly Aim in the first 30' combined with Point Blank Shot vs Normal AC instead of losing PBS and taking a -2 to hit. Since his bonuses to hit were so high, I don't think it would have mattered. He missed only twice the whole night and misfired once (a total of 3 misses.)

If you want more info on the high damage potential of the Gunslinger, check out this thread:
HERE

I also include a HL .por for the gunslinger and a comparable archer/longbow.

[James Risner]

Another rules mistake I just discovered (my home games typically don't have rogues, so I don't have a lot of Sneak Attacking players.)

Apparently splash weapons are not allowed to be used with precision damage (so the invisible Ninja throwing acid flash to get sneak attack was invalid.