My party was just about to finish the first Kingmaker book, The Stolen Lands, so I took the opportunity to test out some of the new classes. I'm running with 5 well-statted PCs, so I'm using the six player fan conversion.
Auchs
Auchs
Male human brawler 4
CE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +8
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +1 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 38 (4d10+12)
Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +2
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Offense
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Speed 35 ft
Melee unarmed strike +11 | +9/+9 (1d8+10)
Special: Brawler's Flurry
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Statistics
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Str 20, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 3, Wis 13, Cha 4
Base Attack +4; CMB +9 (+10 trip), CMD 20
Feats: Fleet, Great Fortitude, Toughness, Weapon Focus (unarmed strike)
Skills: Perception +8, Swim +12
Languages: Common (illiterate)
Special Qualities: Maneuver Training (trip), Martial Maneuvers
Combat Gear: 2 potions of cure moderate wounds, 1 potion of lesser restoration
Other Gear: masterwork chain shirt, amulet of mighty fists +1, knight and dragon toys (45 gp), silver Stag Lord amulet (20 gp)
Base Stats: Melee unarmed strike +11 | +9/+9 (1d8+6)
Auchs used Martial Maneuvers to give himself Weapon Specialization (unarmed strike) as combat starts, which is already factored in to the damage above.
The Stag Lord
The Stag Lord
Male human slayer 9
CE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +4; Senses Perception +10
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Defense
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AC 20, touch 16, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, +4 Dex, +1 deflection, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 84 (9d8+27)
Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +24
DR 5/cold iron
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft
Melee +1 longsword +12/+7 (1d8+3/19-20)
Ranged +1 composite longbow +12/+7 (1d8+8/x3)
Special: Favored Target +2, Sneak Attack +3d6
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Statistics
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Str 14, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 12
Base Attack +9; CMB +11, CMD 25
Feats: Deadly Aim, Diehard, Dodge, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Toughness, Weapon Focus (composite longbow)
Skills: Acrobatics +13, Appraise +1, Climb +11, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (geography) +4, Perception +10, Stealth +13, Survival +8, Swim +11
Special Qualities: Track (+4), Slayer Talents (combat trick x3, weapon training), Stalker
Combat Gear: 2 potions of cure serious wounds
Other Gear: +1 leather armor, +1 longsword, +1 composite longbow (+2 Str), 20 arrows, amulet of natural armor +1, ring of protection +1, stag's helm, cold iron band, one +1 human-bane arrow
Base Stats: Ranged +1 composite longbow +15/+10 (1d8+2/x3)
The Stag Lord is currently using Deadly Aim to take a -3 on his ranged attacks, and gaining +6 damage.
Auchs performed like a champ, elbow-dropping our cavalier from the upper floor and almost knocking off her mount. He held off the cavalier, her auroch mount, and the cleric of Gorum, dealing scads of damage bare-handed. While that was going on, the Stag Lord made the cleric his favored target (from cover and hidden) and sunk an arrow into the holy warrior's side. Luckily for the cleric, not close enough for sneak attack.
Mobility is incredibly limited due to the party wizard's web, so those engaged stay close. With a quick jab from Auchs, the cleric drops to negatives, and the cavalier responds with a yard of steel through the simpleton's spine effectively ending the brawler playtest. The Stag Lord, still hidden thanks to fantastic dice rolls, switches his favored target to the wizard and lets another arrow fly. Still standing, the wizard dumps a healing potion down the cleric's throat. The cleric, now in the positives, sits bolt-upright and hits the Stag Lord with hold person, turning the villain from threat to statuary, and then statuary to bleeding pile.
Overall, the brawler feels good. Nicely balanced between fighter and monk. The martial maneuvers, for an NPC, only really add a feat. It's nice to be able to swap on the fly, but the average NPC lasts a few rounds at most. It's something that I really want to see a PC use before I pass judgement.
The slayer has a LOT of potential for wrecking faces. Admittedly, I tried keeping him as "canon" as I could, so instead of trying some of the more interesting slayer talents, he just took more feats. I really want to toy with more of the talents. Deadly Range, Slowing Strike, and Sniper's Eye would have drastically changed the shape of the battle (if our wizard hadn't gummed up the battlefield with his web...).
All in all, the brawler and the slayer feel like a lot of fun, I just need more time to play with them.
Thanks for the playtest feedback! And the play-by-play. :)
Oh god why would you do that to a poor level 3 party? You gave the Stag Lord more HP, AC, DR5 Cold Iron, more damage, and all 9 levels in a full BAB class?
A favored targeted player can take from 11-18 damage per arrow! If he uses the Stag helm, favored target, then fires one arrow he will do D8+10+3D6 damage on his first attack.
Oh god why would you do that to a poor level 3 party? You gave the Stag Lord more HP, AC, DR5 Cold Iron, more damage, and all 9 levels in a full BAB class?
A favored targeted player can take from 11-18 damage per arrow! If he uses the Stag helm, favored target, then fires one arrow he will do D8+10+3D6 damage on his first attack.
My PCs are level 4, and were built with a 22 point buy. Granted, if the wizard didn't go all Spiderman, I more than likely would've been dealing with a dead PC. Maybe even two. However, this is the first time they were really worried. They steamrolled bandits and mites, made allies of kobolds, and have obliterated the threats they couldn't convert to their cause using a combination of fantastic teamwork and creative tactics. While I was worried that one of the party would fall, I wouldn't have had them face him at that level. I knew that they could take him, I just didn't know how. The cleric preparing hold person was a surprise to me, though the 3 staring back up at me when he asked for the Will save certainly didn't hurt their chances for survival. All in all, they had a blast. 14 mooks, Brawler Auchs, Dovan, the Stag Lord, AND Beaky the Advanced Owlbear. They wouldn't have had me do a thing different.
In my experience, players get bored if they aren't in a real tangible danger of their characters dying sometimes. They also get quite haappy when they manage to win while cutting it close. Really, I've found they're probably mor robust than you'd think just looking at their character sheets.
My group at least, seems to hrive in an atmosphere, of "you can probably get through this alive and come out winning. But then again, there's a real chance you might not."
They also have a strange tendency of starting to attack everything they meet if I don't kill one of them every once in a while.
Then again, I'm DM'ing for a quite sizeable group. I think things might work differently in a four-man party.
How did a party hit level 4 before the stag lord? Unless you threw a lot a lot of stuff at them with the random encounter table.
How did a party hit level 4 before the stag lord? Unless you threw a lot a lot of stuff at them with the random encounter table.
I'm using this 6-player conversion. Alexander has conversions for all of them here.
I'm doing the same and the party was only around 6000 XP each when they hit the fort, despite a 3 in game week delay before hitting the fort.
Edit: just realized you're using a 5 man party.