Just completed my first PF game with my long time and experienced group. Below are some impressions and experiences of both the PF rules and the Haunting of Harrowstone adventure:
PF Rules:
1. Channel energy is fun. Really nice new experience for the players.
2. Combat maneuvers didn't play a huge part yet but the two times they did it was very streamlined.
3. Using Perception as a combined skill seemed to simplify things but it was a noted change from doing spots, listens, and searches. It was definitely strange to be making so many Perception checks since it now covers so many bases.
4. We seem to have gotten through many more actual combat encounters in this session than any other 1st level 3.5 session we have had. I believe we got through at least twice as many combat encounters than we typically do at this level (1st). I'm sure the party make up contributed to this since they are focused on taking and doing damage but this could not have accounted for all of it. I think PF 1st level characters are able to withstand a lot more combat then their 3.5 predecessors. New PF GMs take note of this in your adventure planning and design. In this first session my players cleared the entire outside, balcony, and 2nd floor of Harrowstone in addition to the crypt and graveyard encounters as well as an encounter I added to kick off the adventure with some severed heads, a sanguine ooze and spring-heeled Jack.
5. The new poison rules and effects are deadly and to be feared by players. Nice change here.
Haunting of Harrowstone:
1. I found the trust point system awkward to handle from the GM side. Keeping track of trust points just seemed unnatural and tacked on. It would have been nice to have a single page (like on one of the inside covers) dedicated to tracking trust point opportunities (to both lose and gain) and the effects of them.
2. After doing only a little research my players made a bee-line to Harrowstone on day 2. I wish the adventure did not make it so obvious that the prison is the source of the towns’ woes. In hindsight I wish I would have added a few red-herring locations around town as well. Although naming the adventure "The Haunting of Harrowstone" is a complete giveaway to the players. The name of the prison and the name of the town should have been swapped. Again future GMs take note.
3. My players loved getting awarded XPs immediately upon successful research (Knowledge checks). Neat idea that worked well.
4. The Father Charlton haunt I find to be unplayable. I’m glad my players have not reached it yet. I will definitely be removing it.
5. I believe the adventure gives out way too much treasure (specifically magic items) too soon. I cut back on it drastically.
A general question:
Is the Carrion Crown AP, or at least specifically HoH, purposefully designed to play faster than previous APs? From what I see we have made a significant amount of progress through the adventure in just one session and I'm wondering if this was the intention of the design or just happenstance.
Nice observations... curious why you find Father Charlatan unusable?
On the Magic item thing, I largely agree - that said lots of the finds are scrolls, potions and buff or heal wands. It could use some trimming. Others have remarked they found the treasure to be a bit light.
Your game or pacing of play speed has a lot to do with it. More than a few posters here did a combination of in town play and then adventuring in the prison... find some excuse to hold the players in town for a day or two, whether it be investigation (be a pity if they killed all the baddies and never knew the backgrounds or the whys), due to Kendra having bad dreams (and you can run the episode with the return of the prof) and the dead town dog.
Helaman wrote: Nice observations... curious why you find Father Charlatan unusable? 1. The whole "take a player aside and have a mini quest with them" aspect of it. We just don't do things like that, it's not really the spirit or mentality of our group.
2. The theme of the haunt where a PC "thinks" he's dead and his companions have moved on is not something we do. When your character dies you toss it in the can and roll up a new one. We don't deal with PC companions moving on and such so it would be very goofy for me to try to play this out with one of my players, I wouldn't subject them to it.
3. The mechanical nature of the haunt requires too much secret bookkeeping on the part of the GM. I don't do this as a GM. Everything is out in the open so I wouldn't track which PC was affected without the player knowing as well.
BTW, anyone else notice that the Animated Straight Jacket can't constrict medium PCs? Takes a lot of the edge off it. Seems way under-powered for a CR4 without the constrict.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
cibet44 wrote: BTW, anyone else notice that the Animated Straight Jacket can't constrict medium PCs? Takes a lot of the edge off it. Seems way under-powered for a CR4 without the constrict. I think that was an oversight, just like with the Giant Tick in Stolen Lands ( from Kingmaker ). Just assume that it can grab a medium creature and should be okay.
cibet44 wrote: 5. I believe the adventure gives out way too much treasure (specifically magic items) too soon. I cut back on it drastically. Quite a different opinion here. My group has so far collected every bit of loot from book 1 except the "Hidden Cache at the Boneyard" and everything in book 2 before Schloss Caromarc except "Vorkstag and Grine", and they are on average over 1 level behind on WBL. Did a wealth audit yesterday, and had to give the party between 250 and 4000 gp each to get them caught up to 5.33 and they're level 6, not far from 7.
HoH has probably only 2 items worth a lot of money (the warden's sword and the 'manual' at the library), with a smackling of 2-5K items. By the time they're level 4 and finishing the book, they'll already be behind the WBL curve.
archmagi1 wrote: cibet44 wrote: 5. I believe the adventure gives out way too much treasure (specifically magic items) too soon. I cut back on it drastically. Quite a different opinion here. My group has so far collected every bit of loot from book 1 except the "Hidden Cache at the Boneyard" and everything in book 2 before Schloss Caromarc except "Vorkstag and Grine", and they are on average over 1 level behind on WBL. Did a wealth audit yesterday, and had to give the party between 250 and 4000 gp each to get them caught up to 5.33 and they're level 6, not far from 7.
HoH has probably only 2 items worth a lot of money (the warden's sword and the 'manual' at the library), with a smackling of 2-5K items. By the time they're level 4 and finishing the book, they'll already be behind the WBL curve. I don't use WBL. The treasure in "The False Crypt" alone is about equivalent to what I would give out in 3 levels let alone one location at first level.
Here is what the PCs would get RAW from just the crypt:
- four sunrods
- six flasks of holy water
- 10 +1 arrows
- five +1 ghosttouch arrows
- two +1 undead bane arrows
- five potions of cure light wounds
- two potions of lesser restoration
- a scroll of detect undead
- two scrolls of hide from undead
- a scroll of protection from evil
- darkwood case decorated worth 50 gp
- a spirit board
- four haunt siphons
That, to me, is a tremendous haul for 1st level PCs.
I cut it down to:
- two sunrods
- four flasks of holy water
- darkwood case decorated worth 50 gp
- a spirit board
- one haunt siphon
- two +1 arrows
- two potions of cure light wounds
cibet44 wrote: 5. I believe the adventure gives out way too much treasure (specifically magic items) too soon. I cut back on it drastically. I thought that too in the bginning, but basically its a lot of consumabels and they come in handy later on, as there arnt that much in TotB.
There isnt a lot of sources for Haunt Siphons in the game - I'd have left them all in myself but thats just me.
cibet44 wrote: Helaman wrote: Nice observations... curious why you find Father Charlatan unusable? 1. The whole "take a player aside and have a mini quest with them" aspect of it. We just don't do things like that, it's not really the spirit or mentality of our group.
2. The theme of the haunt where a PC "thinks" he's dead and his companions have moved on is not something we do. When your character dies you toss it in the can and roll up a new one. We don't deal with PC companions moving on and such so it would be very goofy for me to try to play this out with one of my players, I wouldn't subject them to it.
3. The mechanical nature of the haunt requires too much secret bookkeeping on the part of the GM. I don't do this as a GM. Everything is out in the open so I wouldn't track which PC was affected without the player knowing as well. As my group works basically 180degrees differently than yours most of my input would not work well for you, but here comes anyway ;)
1 + 2: I was lucky enough that my most experienced player was hit by the curse, and he was more than ready for this little side adventure of his. It did not actually take long, and I ended up going back and forth between him and three other players who were fighting the skeletons and the piper at the time. It was dramatic, mysterious to both groups and fun for me :)
3: In my book - and my players - you lose out a fair bit on suspense and thus the mystery of roleplaying by having all the numbers out in the open. I roll behind my screen, I track enemies HP in secret and I loved the chance to have this damocles sword over the barbarians head that he did not even know about! When his char just dropped "dead" it was quite a surprise to everyone and again a lot of fun to me :)
Just my 2 cent
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
archmagi1 wrote: cibet44 wrote: 5. I believe the adventure gives out way too much treasure (specifically magic items) too soon. I cut back on it drastically. Quite a different opinion here. My group has so far collected every bit of loot from book 1 except the "Hidden Cache at the Boneyard" and everything in book 2 before Schloss Caromarc except "Vorkstag and Grine", and they are on average over 1 level behind on WBL. Did a wealth audit yesterday, and had to give the party between 250 and 4000 gp each to get them caught up to 5.33 and they're level 6, not far from 7.
HoH has probably only 2 items worth a lot of money (the warden's sword and the 'manual' at the library), with a smackling of 2-5K items. By the time they're level 4 and finishing the book, they'll already be behind the WBL curve. There's actually enough treasure for a five men group in the first two modules... the "problem" is that much of it is in consumables, which many times don't really get counted into treasure totals by many players.
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