Thanks for all the input everyone!! I had my second pathfinder game session today and it was great (and nice and DEADLY!!) Nobody died but it was rough.
Voice in the Void 3-4 (played with my level 2 paladin)
And i'm excited/nervous about
The Icebound Outpost
Severing Ties
I'm signed up for both of these events later this month....should be fun!
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Funny thing about the Palid Plauge.
I did fairly well at the low tier of people getting <redacted> (except for the ranged ranger and the one druid who sent his dino in while standing way the heck back.)
Of course I ended up with 7 players (including two newbies) and of the 7 I had 3 druids and a cavalier. 11 on 3 odds make for quick brutal fights.
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Just got TPKed yesterday playing Shades of Ice Part I: Written in Blood. Most of the module was a blast, but the CR 7 encounter at the end was a bit much for our 6 level 2 PCs on tier 3-4.Well there's your problem.
Yeah, it's sub-tier 4-5, and no one in the group was actually of level to fall into it normally. That's pretty much always going to be deadly with a good chance of TPK.
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Isn't it mandated to bump up the groups level by 1 if you have six people?
For seasons 0-3, you increase the APL by 1 if you have a 6 or 7 person table, yes. This would have made his group APL 3, after the mandate bump, which put them in between sub-tiers.
It's perfectly fine to play up at that point, but the results are more likely to be painful for the party.
A rule of thumb I like to use is that if there's not even a single player, who's level falls into the actual sub-tier, don't play up if you have that option. I find it to be a more enjoyable experience.
However, that's just my personal preference, and others prefer a much more difficult scenario, to each their own.
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A rule of thumb I like to use is that if there's not even a single player, who's level falls into the actual sub-tier, don't play up if you have that option. I find it to be a more enjoyable experience.
Our unwritten rule of thumb here for "in between" parties is we only play up if it's a unanimous decision. If just 1 person wants to play down, we play down.
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A rule of thumb I like to use is that if there's not even a single player, who's level falls into the actual sub-tier, don't play up if you have that option. I find it to be a more enjoyable experience.Our unwritten rule of thumb here for "in between" parties is we only play up if it's a unanimous decision. If just 1 person wants to play down, we play down.
I generally run by that rule too.
However, when I actually get to play, I generally determine if I'm willing to play up by mine. If there's no one in sub-tier I'll vote down, otherwise, I'm generally ambivalent to the desires of the group in terms of playing up or down.
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... We received a vote, which I didn't think we should have, but were told the next tier up was 3-4, not 4-5. Wouldn't have played up if I had known it was 4-5. That's incredibly frustrating.
Technically you still could have played at the 4-5 subtier since you were APL 3 and because you were inbetween you had a choice. But yes, it's subtier 1-2 or 4-5 for that one. Just so you know the numbering system, it's:
Tier 1-5 = Subtier 1-2, Subtier 4-5
Tier 1-7 = Subtier 1-2, Subtier 3-4, Subtier 6-7
Tier 3-7 = Subtier 3-4, Subtier 6-7
Tier 5-9 = Subtier 5-6, Subtier 8-9
Tier 7-11 = Subtier 7-8, Subtier 10-11
Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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Thanks for all the input everyone!! I had my second pathfinder game session today and it was great (and nice and DEADLY!!) Nobody died but it was rough.
Voice in the Void 3-4 (played with my level 2 paladin)
How did you get a level 2 character after only one game session? Unless you played a whole module during your first session, It takes three game sessions to go from Level 1 to Level 2.
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DR? You mean DC?
I'm all in favor of having some skill checks (especially knowledges) having a "ultra high" option for additional reward. If you're playing someone with a +million to a skill check, a) you've sacrificed something else, probably combat ability and/or b) it feels awesome as a player to get to use something so obscure or unique.
Kyle I agree, but unless I am missing something, PC's are limited to skill count based upon level, so some of these DC's are simply impossible! Am I missing something easy like take 20?
Apologies for the digression, but it seems that this topic touches on the difficulty of some of these modules. If I have hijacked the thread, I apologize.
It's possible.
** spoiler omitted **
Or you could just explore the secrets of the cosmos without stooping to such silly bardish tricks. A true Oracle of Lore in a focused trance can know such things from the beginning of his career.
My first session was first steps 1 2 3 It was a day event so I count it as one session :P
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Just got TPKed yesterday playing Shades of Ice Part I: Written in Blood. Most of the module was a blast, but the CR 7 encounter at the end was a bit much for our 6 level 2 PCs on tier 3-4.
Almost the same thing happened to us. We were warned not to, but we voted to play up.
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I am by no means an old expert at PFS. I will agree with most of what I’ve read in this thread.
Poor tactics can definitely make things riskier.
Had one where our biggest martial guy kept trying to use unarmed strikes and grappling. But didn’t have the feats so kept taking AoO’s. He eventually died and was very upset about it.
Many people at our local won’t take the online advice (for example, still don’t have any healing or swarm stuff). Then are upset when their choices smack them.
Also, a few were rough because of noobs, but I don’t hold that against them. We’ve all been there (or like me are still kinda there).
Party composition can make things tough.
All last fall I noticed that my local seems to have a very high proportion of max dps martial killing machines. It was making the scenarios that required skill checks or investigation very difficult. Yes, we would breeze through the fights. But we wouldn’t have anyone that could make a knowledge, linguistics, diplomacy, appraise, bluff, sense motive, etc… There were starting to be a lot (well maybe not a lot, but a noticeable number) of times where everyone would survive, but the primary mission was blown. Or if not the primary, at least few of the faction missions were completed.
Oddly enough, last week was exactly the opposite. Others have also noticed the plenitude of martial PC’s and are trying to bring up other characters. So now I was in a group with no one all that good at fighting with a weapon. The cleric was ok, but was mostly a caster and negative channeler. The inquisitor wasn’t bad, but only 1st level. So the few skill checks were a breeze and we got killed.
{sigh}
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At subtier 1-2, Shipyard Rats is brutal. This is because one of the big enemies has exactly the same stats in subtier 1-2 and subtier 3-4. That encounter is perfectly normal for subtier 3-4, but it can be devestating for a group of level 1 PCs.
I just ran this, played up...only killed one PC
Had a table of 7, 2 3rd levels 1 4th and 4 6th. In act 3 the wizard hasted everyone, the rogue and the inquisitor charged the cleric and the (4th level) aasimar fighter cast daylight (dispelling the deeper darkness the cleric cast) and walked toward the cleric, then the specter attacked. He got a 12 on his save vs the level drain. On his next action he ran down into the hold, the specter sank into the deck and attacked again where he rolled a 2 on his save. He used a reroll and rolled another 2....I rolled 1d4 to see when he would become a spawn....1 round later his specter spawn appeared.
Asked players to clean the map while I talked to VC, who looked up that the player needed a resurrection to come back, player didn't want to stay for the rest of the adventure and left before getting a cert.
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Intro to Season 3 part 1, Halfling Barbarian. I saw two whole groups brought to their knees off that guy. It made a few of them rethink their characters to become more optimized towards combat, rather than concept. My local DM said that encounter wiped out a whole party once.
Fear Ledford, FEAR HIM!!!
Weirdly, a table I ran for was able to down the Halfling Barb in the first turn with a crit arrow shot and proceeded to drop the rest of the NPCs, WITHOUT KILLING anyone of them.... The PC Party even healed the Barb up and then Diplomacy the NPCs to join the Pathfinders... I was kinda stunned...... but happy at the outcome.
In any case, for a deadly scenario.... try Wraith's Shadow a Season 4, lvls 3-7.
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Intro to Season 3 part 1, Halfling Barbarian. I saw two whole groups brought to their knees off that guy. It made a few of them rethink their characters to become more optimized towards combat, rather than concept. My local DM said that encounter wiped out a whole party once.
Fear Ledford, FEAR HIM!!!
He's a pushover...fear the mage...learn from shadowrun...geek the mage first.
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Hello, I just started PFS and was wondering if there are modules/scenarios that are more deadly? The group I played with wasn't exactly optimized for combat (Alot of Concept characters, which are fine) But in the 3.5 D&D games im used to, my DM would PUNISH us hard if someone couldn't pull their "weight"
So I tend to build powerhouses (Ill try and make some skill monkeys for more fun times)
Limit yourself to 4 person parties before season 4, to help enhance the difficulty.
Echos of Everwar Part 2 was particularlly nasty for the party of 4 we had.
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The 1-2 level of Thornkeep, The Accursed Halls, is the most potentially deadly scenario or module that I've run. You could give that one a try if your players are the type to come prepared for situations that 1-2's don't usually have to worry about.
My group was made up of funny min-max combos that they all planned to rebuild after the game (I told them all up front that it would be unusually deadly), and I STILL ended up killing a PC.
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At subtier 1-2, Shipyard Rats is brutal. This is because one of the big enemies has exactly the same stats in subtier 1-2 and subtier 3-4. That encounter is perfectly normal for subtier 3-4, but it can be devestating for a group of level 1 PCs.
I just ran this, played up...only killed one PC
** spoiler omitted **
You can add Elven Entanglement to the list.Dang, I just signed up to play this in about a week. *gulp*
I'm signed up for this as well with my level 10 Ranger. Will be my first 5th season scenario.
But if I die, I'm pretty set with prestige and gold.
One of the most difficult scenarios I've been in was my last one. We almost had a TPK (two died, two went negative one dragged us out). I was one of the ones who went negative. That scenario was part II of Round Mountain.
Well, I died. And first encounter, as well.
But as I said, I am well set with prestige and gold.
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As a PFS GM with about a year and almost 2 stars under my belt, I've yet to TPK and have only killed 2 PCs. Once was a a fluke, a flurrying/extra attacking monk took a Paladin PC from full health to death in a boss fight but had multiple crits in the flurry.
The other one was King of the Storval Stairs, which if run as directed nearly insures a PC death if not a TPK imnsho.
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Sniper in the Deep at tier 8-9. If your party is used to breezing through scenarios, this one will rock their world and might kill some beyond recovery if not a TPK.
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I ran Elven Entanglement 2 weeks ago. I am certain there would have been at least 1 fatality on the first combat if it hadn't been for the Samurai critting with his 4x naginata on the AoO. Their cleric was dropped to negatives in the first round. With the crit doing like 75% of the damage on the creature, the second round they were able to kill it with a single bowshot. I really do dislike crits in general (both as a player and a GM). It can too easily completely change the outcome of a fight (this same Samurai crit on the first round in the first combat of Waking Rune as well). There was a fatality in the final combat though.
Speaking of Waking Rune, that is another in the very deadly pot. It takes a ton of prep work to run it properly though. The first time I ran it (at GenCon), I was not prepped enough, so the party got through it pretty handily. The second time I ran it however, I was much more prepared for all of the abilities that all of the creatures had available to them. And it resulted in my first TPK (as a GM..I had already caused my first TPK as a player on Bone Keep part 2).
Sniper in the Deep at tier 8-9. If your party is used to breezing through scenarios, this one will rock their world and might kill some beyond recovery if not a TPK.
** spoiler omitted **
Also:
I ran Elven Entanglement 2 weeks ago. I am certain there would have been at least 1 fatality on the first combat if it hadn't been for the Samurai critting with his 4x naginata on the AoO.
We didn't have that luck. Trampling for 56 damage and then beating my character on initiative to attack again. A failed Acrobatics provoked and killed me.
But fortunately everyone else made it through the combat. However, since the party was down to three members (we started with four), they elected to bug out.
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Waking RuneTrue statement. Hard Mode is almost a guaranteed TPK if the BBEG is played to fullest capability (as the tactics are written, in other words).
Even in Easy Mode players need to be told that this scenario should have a warning label.
Hard mode is winnable, but you need to come in with heavily anti-that-BBEG tactics. We were in serious danger of being screwed every round for the first 6 or so rounds, but we actually didn't wind up taking more than 9 points of damage (and a whole bunch of ability damage).
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Sniper in the Deep at tier 8-9. If your party is used to breezing through scenarios, this one will rock their world and might kill some beyond recovery if not a TPK.
** spoiler omitted **Also:
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
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Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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EDIT: Also, if you run it as written, there's not as big of a chance of killing a character with the spectres as you think. They're supposed to attack random characters each round. Really bad luck might kill a character, but dice can be fickle.