Barely got the playtest in under the wire.
Level 12 adventure: 20 pt buld, standard gold, 2/3 hp. GM also allowed players who took item creation feats to buy anything they could make themselves at crafting cost.
Level 12 Human Samurai (Str 26, Dex 12 Con 14 Int 10 wis 10 Cha 10 Feats: WF: Katana, Power Attack, Imp. Sunder, WS: Katana, Vital Strike Greater Sunder Improved Critical, Critical Focus, GWF: Katana Gear: Adamantine Katana+3 Adamantine Full Plate +3, Belt of giant strengh +4, Ring of Sustenance, Haversack, Cloak of resistance +3, Ring of Protection +2, Amulet of natural armor +2, winged boots)
Level 12 Elven Ninja -Silent hunter option (Str 24, Dex 17 Con 10 Int 10 wis 10 Cha 10 Feats: Two-Weapon Fighting, WF: Wakisashi, Double Slice, Two weapon defense, dodge, Imp. Two weapon fighting, Imp Crit: Wakisashi Ninja Talents: Weapon Training, Pressure secrets, Vanishing trick, shadow clone, Evasion, Invisible Blade Gear:Paired Wakisashi+3 Ring of Sustenance, haversack, winged boots, mithril Chain shirt+3, Cloak of resistance+3, Ring of protection+2, Amulet of Natural armor +2, Belt of giant strength+4 )
Level 12 Human Gunslinger (Str 10, Dex 26 Con 10 Int 10 wis 16 Cha 12 Feats: Weapon Finesse, Rapid Reload, WF: Musket, Lightning Reload deed, Extra Grit, Vital Strike, Improved Crit: Musket, Skill Focus (Use Magic Device), Improved Vital Strike, Signature Deed (Lightning Reload deed) Gear: Musket +1, Steadfast ammo: 50 shots (5 holy, 10 fire, 5 frost, 5 shock, 10 merciful, 5 ghost touch, 10 bane(3 Undead, 4 outsider, 3 dragon)) 50 special material (25 silver, 10 adamantine, 15 cold iron) +50 normal bullets, Haversack, Ring of sustenance, Ring of protection +1 Mithril Chain Shirt+3 Amulet of natural armor+1, Cloak of resistance+2, Rapier+1, Belt of Dex+4, Headband of wisdom+2, wand of enlarge person (cl 2)) Note: Gunslinger has maxed Use Magic Device Skill
Level 12 Elven Wizard (Conjurer) (Str 8, Dex 16 Con 14 Int 28 wis 12 Cha 10 Feats: Combat Casting, Scribe Scroll, spell focus conjuration, augment summoning, craft wonderous items, extend spell, quicken spell, Spell penetration, Greater spell penetration Gear: Haversack, Blessed Book, Headband of intellect +6 Bonded item (Ring of protection +3) ring of sustenance, cloak of resistance+4, bracers of armor +6, Peripet of proof against poison+adaption, Belt of Con+4, pearls of power (3 1st, 1 3rd) Scrolls (1st detect secret doors, feather fall 2nd: Knock, Arcane lock, see invisibility 3rd tongues, water breathing 4th Scrying, stone shape 5th break enchantment, teleport 6th stone to flesh, true seeing) )
Level 12 Gnome Oracle of Life (Str 5, Dex 12 Con 20 Int 12 wis 12 Cha 28 Feats: Selective Channeling, Toughness, craft wand Reach spell, Expanded arcana (2 3rd) expanded arcana (2 4th) Gear:)
Adventure: The team's Daiymo is asked by an ally to assist with a problem in the ally's city, located at the edge of a desert. The team teleports out, talks to various people, and discover that the city is plagued by night attacks every few weeks to months. The creatures attack from the sky, but are rarely if ever seen. A divination from the oracle says to head into the desert until they encounter the pillar of stone. The locals also mention that they have lost some caravans in the desert, but they don't know if it is the winged creatures or something else.
The team rent some camels, and head out. A few days out, they encounter their first cause of missing carvans, a purple worm:
Encounter 1: Purple Worm
suprise Round: Purple Worm emerges from the sand, attacking the Samurai's Camel. The camel is easily hit, grabbed and killed. The Samurai is thrown Clear, easily making his soft fall roll.
Round 1: Team wins initiative, goes first. Samurai Closes, Gunslinger fast dismounts, move away from worm. the other team members dismount as their move. Gunslinger uses enlarge wand to enlarge himself (autosuccess with wands for use magic device), Samurai power attacks and uses vital strike and ninja attack, Wizard uses his standard action to move away from the worm, firing a quickened magic missile while doing so. Oracle tries a sound burst, but it is not stunned. worm drops the camel from its mouth, attacks the samurai, biting him and easily grabbing him. It also stings the ninja, who fails the fort save, and can feel himself getting weaker.
Round 2: Gunslinger fires at the big worm using vital strike and a fire bullet, (Doing 10 dice of damage), and takes off nearly a quarter of the worm's hit points. Oracle absorbs damage, burns a 5th level slot to cast freedom of movement at close range, Samurai drops from the mouth of the worm with his standard, challenges the worm and moves to flank with the ninja, taking the attack of opportunity. The ninja, weakened by the poison, burns a ki point to take an additional attack and hits 3 times, (once because of the samurai's challenge). Killing the worm. Oracle casts neutralze poison, then restoration on the ninja. They cut the worm open, and find some treasure. The ninja also milks the purple worm for its poison. They continue on, with the samurai riding with the oracle.
Comments: Bit of a scare with the purple worm grabbing and nearly swallowing the samurai, but ended up a fairly easy fight. The ninja was the big star, doing 21d6+27 damage. The gunslinger feels he is at least competent now, what with the signature deed (lightning reload), the steadfast gun, the two levels of vital strike and the ability to enlarge himself means he is doing 9d6 (not counting the special bullets)+9 every round after the first without fail. A crit (19-20) wound do another 9 dice plus 27. He is looking forward to his first crit. (note, from here on out, assume lightning reload and vital strike each round.)
Encounter 2: Scorpions
The team travels for a few more days, when they hear a noise over the next dune. Moving to check, they encounter a pair of gargantuan scorpions, looking like they are getting ready to mate. Needless to say, they do not appreciate the interuption.
Round 1: No surprise round. Initiative is Ninja, Samurai, Gunslinger, scorpions, Oracle, Wizard. Ninja, gunslinger and samurai dismount the camels, with only the ninja failing the fast dismount. Samurai moves forward, challenging one of the scorpions. ninja is a little annoyed at facing more creatures with tremor sense, so he can't turn invisible. instead he moves right, trying to stealthy. Gunslinger enlarges himself. Scorpions charge and both attack the samurai (stopping 15' away) 1 hitting with a claw, the other with a stinger. The samurai is grabbed. He uses a resolve point to roll twice on the poison save., making it. Oracle sighs, absorbs damage from the samurai and casts a reached freedom of movement on the samurai. (making the combat casting check for casting on a camel.) Wizard hops off of camel, fires a quickend magic missile at one scorpion, and dropping a wall of force between them and the 2nd scorpion 60' long, 20' high.
Round 2: Samurai auto escapes, but can't attack this round. Ninja moves to flanking position, scorpion tries an AOO, but misses. Rolls to hit with 1 wakisashi, crits. Gunslinger moves to within 40' fires a shock round, easily hitting. Injured scorpion goes after the ninja. Both claw and stinger hits, ninja fails the poison save, and is grabbed. Other scorpion wastes its turn attacking the force wall. Oracle dismounts, absorbs damage and hits the scorpion with a flame strike, scorpion fails to save.Wizard fires off a quickened scorching ray, hitting with two rays. following up with a magic missle spread, dropping the scorpion (and the ninja).
Round 3. Ninja moves next to Oracle. Samurai moves next to Wizard, Gunslinger lightning reloads, readies on a clear shot on scorpion. Scorpion moves around wall, but it takes a double move to do so, and it cannot charge. Gunslinger fires a frost bullet, hitting. Oracle casts neutralize poison on Ninja. absorbing damage. Wizard casts haste on samurai.
Round 4: Samurai moves next to scorpion, challenges it, attacks twice with power attack, hitting both times and doing a ton of damage. NInja moves forward, burning a ki point to attack twice. One hit crits, but he doesn't get sneak attack. Scorpion attacks samurai, hits with 1 claw, and crits the sting. Samurai is still up, makes the fort save. Gunslinger lightning reloads, fires another shock bullet and crits, doing over 100 points of damage to a scorpion with 5 hit point left.
Comments: A power attacking, challenging samurai is way dangerous. His damage was 1d10+41 per hit, with a 17-20 crit range. The +12 bonus damage may be a bit much, especially since there is no end time beyond killing it or the combat ending in some way. The gunslinger is wondering whether using the first round to enlarge is always the best choice of an action. Granted, 9d6 is better than 3d12. It depends on how long the fight is going to go on, probably. The ninja is getting tired of the poisoning creatures, and the samurai is thinking about investing in a freedom of movmenent ring.
Encounter 3: Naga
The team travels for another day, and spots a mesa in the distance. (Most likely the pillar of stone mentioned in the divination.) At the base of the mesa are several caves. Searching the caves, they happen upon a nest of 5 Spirit Naga.
Round 1: Neither side is surprised. Initiative is Gunslinger, Samurai, Ninja, Naga, Wizard, Oracle. Gunslinger fires off enlarge. Samurai and ninja both charges a naga. Samurai power attacks, hitting. ninja hits the same one, critting. Naga is barely alive. Nagas go. All 5 naga focus on the ninja, with magic missiles. 20 magic missiles rain down on the ninja, dropping him to single digit hp. Wizard closes enough to see, drops a fireball, hitting 4 of the 5 naga. 2 save 4 half damage, but one of the ones that saved was the badly injured one, which is still enough to take it down. Oracle moves forward a bit, casts a reached cure critical on the ninja, healing him out of the danger zone. (Hopefully.)
Round 2: Gunslinger moves forward. Burns a grit point to use deadeye. Shoots at naga, using a shock round. hits, but doesn't kill it. Samurai moves to uninjured naga, power attacks. hits, cutting a big gouge in it. Ninja using vanishing blade, makes a 5' step, attacks.hits 4 times, 1 of which is a crit. Naga goes down hard. Nags turn. 2 Nagas cast fireballs, catching everyone but the ninja. gunslinger makes both saves, everyone else only makes 1 save. The other tries a charming gaze on the samurai. The samurai burns a resolve, but still fails. The wizard fires a scorching ray, all 3 hit, killing another naga. Oracle absorbs a bunch of damage, channels energy.
Round 3: The gunslinger moves forward, shooting at the naga the charmed the samurai, using a holy round hitting, but not dropping. The samurai wastes a round trying to get his teammate to not fight each the nagas. Ninja stabs the charming naga, stilll invisible, easily killing it and breaking the charm. The last naga, deciding to try to get out of here alive, turns invisible. The wizard drops a glitterdust in the area where the naga was, outlining it, but it makes its save. Oracle fires a holy smite, fails the save and is blinded for 1 round.
Round 4. Gunslinger fires at last remaining naga, killing it.
Comments: While not a terribly hard fight, the ninja almost bit it right off the bat with that 20 magic missile spread, dropping him from full hp to nearly dead in one wave. Just a little better on the damage roll and down he would have went. He did finally get to use invisible blade to make up for it though. Gunslinger is doing okay on damage, but isn't doing anywhere near max damage like when the samurai and ninja go all out. Haste doesn't really help him either. Since deadly aim doesn't count for touch attacks, I'm not sure what else to do to increase his damage potential.
Encounter 4: Minotaur
The team rests the night, then continues searching. They find one cave that leads into the mesa, becoming a maze of twisty passages, all alike. While searching the tunnels, they happen upon a very angry minotaur. Neither side is surprised.
Round 1: This is a level 9 ftr minotaur, out for blood. Initiative is players then minotaur. Gunslinger decides not to enlarge this time, just shoots with a normal round, easily hitting. Samurai and Ninja charge, samurai power attacking. Samurai hit, ninja misses. Oracle drops a holy smite, blinding him for a round. Wizard moves next to samurai and hastes him. The minotaur, blinded, swings at where he thinks the samurai is, and full attacks 3 times. all 3 hits, but one doesn't overcome the concealment, so he its twice.
Round 2: The gunslinger fires again, hitting. The samurai full attacks, power attacks hitting twice. The ninja also hits twice, killing the minotaur. A quick use of a few clw from the wand, and they are ready to go. They check the gear, and the gunslinger swaps out his cloak+2 for the minotaur's cloak+3
Comments: Initiative is the big winner this time. They pretty much rolled over the minotaur, with the oracle's blinding spell taking 2nd place. The battle was so quick, the gunslinger did more damage not enlarging this time.
Encounter 5: Dragon Team
They continue on, searching the tunnels until they come across a large chamber containing the force that had been terrorizing the city, a group of 4 half-dragons! There is a half-dragon lizardfolk samurai, a half-dragon tiefling ninja, a halfdragon drow noble sorcerer and a half-dragon duergar cleric. All the half-dragons are blue.
Round 1: No surprise round. Initiative is Wizard, Lizardfolk, Ninja, Tiefling, gunslinger, drow, samurai, duergar, oracle. The ceiling is approximately 30' high. The wizard drops an acid fog, centered on the lizardman 15' high. The duergar is immune to the damage, but every else take some acid damage. The lizardfolk bursts out of the acid fog, and uses his lightning breath. The samurai fails his save, everyone else succeeds. The ninja uses invisible blade and triggers his winged boots, make a 5' step to get in range of the lizardman, and burns a ki point to gain an extra attack. Unfortunately, the lizardfolk's AC is really high (Something to do with the +11 natural armor), and misses all 5 times. The Tiefling emerges from the acid cloud, and goes after the flatfooted samurai, but barely misses. The gunslinger loads a dragonbane shot, and shoots the lizardfolk, critting the hit. Lizardfolk is badly hurt. The drow flies out of the acid fog, flies up next to the lizardfolk, and hastes him. The samurai challenges the tiefling, and swings back, choosing not to power attack. He hits all 3 times, badly injuring the tiefling. The duergar pops out of the acid cloud, and tries a hold person on the samurai. The samurai uses resolve, and shakes it off. The oracle absorbs damage, and tries a holy smite. The lizardfolk uses a resolve point to only take half damage, along with the drow and the duergar. The tielfling, however, failed and drops.
Round 2: The wizard fires a quicked magic missile at the lizardfolk following by a searing light (two of which hits), dropping the lizardfolk. The ninja attacks the drow, but only hits once. The Gunslinger loads another dragonbane bullet, and shoots at the drow, dropping her into single digits. The drow drops next to the lizardman, and puts up a wall of force blocking the gunslinger, the oracle and the wizard. The samurai steps forward and swings at the drow, not power attacking, and hits twice, killing the drow. The duergar decides they have had enough, pulls a scroll, drops next to the pile of bodies, and plane shifts everyone away.
Comments: Interesting fight. Ninja is a bit worried that he may need more of a bonus to hit those high ACs, but it was pointed out that he went after the highest AC of the enemy party, and rolled fairly badly. The fact that the wizard went first, and disrupted the attack plan, really helped. If this was a full campaign, they just earned themselves a fairly powerful team of enemies (Once the Duergar raises everybody, that is.)
Encounter 6: Dragon
The team waits out the wall of force, heals up and keeps going. (The team took most of their treasure with them.) The cave of the half-dragons leads to the interior of the mesa, which is hollow. At the center is a mature blue dragon, the mother of the half-dragons, and she does NOT look happy.
Round 1: No surprise round: Initiative is Gunslinger, Oracle, Dragon, Samurai, Ninja, Wizard. Gunslinger moves out from the cave entrance and enlarges himself. Oracle moves, casts prayer. Dragon takes to the air, activates frightful presence, breathes lightning at the cave entrance. Wizard fails breathe weapon, ninja fails frightful presence. Samurai activates flight boots, challenges dragon, takes to the air. Power attacks, but misses. Ninja runs away, burning a ki point to run faster. Wizard fires a quickened scorching ray, plus a disintegrate. All hit, but dragon makes save on disintegrate.
Round 2: Gunslinger fires dragonbane at dragon, hitting easily. Oracle drops a flame strike on the dragon, but fails the spell resistance roll. dragon blows by the samurai (taking an AoO from him) and goes after the wizard doing a deadly stroke, easily biting and killing him. Samurai Full attacks, power attacks. Ninja keeps running, wizards slowly bleeds into the desert sands.
Round 3: Gunslinger uses a holy bullet on the dragon, killing it. Oracle runs over, casts breath of life on the wizard, bringing him back. Eventually ninja comes back. Treasure searching begins.
Comments: Brutal fight. Wizard dropping, ninja running away without ever getting to attack, spell resistance (although the +6 spell pen from the wizard made that less a big deal than it should have.). All in all, a good wrap up to the adventure.
Final comments: Both the samurai and ninja were pretty pleased about their performance. Freedom of movement is going to be a priority for the samurai if we kept the campaign going, while upping the fort and will saves will be for the ninja. The gunslinger was happier with his performance, but wished that he had some ability he could use when things are going badly. He considered going pistol instead of musket this time, but the 20' range increment was way too close for his liking. The ranged touch may be too good, as often he only missed on a 1. (His to hit with the musket was +22. Very few things have a touch attack higher than a 23.)