This Sunday I sat down with my 5 players to run a playtest homebrew game in our shared setting (incidentally, it's the PC's kingdom from Kingmaker).
The character rules follow:
- 20 point-buy
- 2 traits (one of them a campaign trait from a list - the benefits are similar to some regular traits)
- Average equipment.
Generally, I worked with the players to build their character; since I follow most playtest class threads, I could point out perceived flaws in the classes and suggest ways to fix them with feat or trait choices (such as pointing out that the Swashbuckler needs Combat Reflexes to perform his ripostes). They decided to build the following party (I feel the need to point out that they didn't necessarily built for DPR optimization):
-Khashnar, Half-orc Slayer (Power Attack feat)
-Thausk, Half-orc Bloodrager (built to be tanky - Ferocious Resolve feat)
-Galius, Human Swashbuckler
-Ralf, Human Warpriest of Erastil (built as an archer, Good blessing)
-Kotrak, Dwarf Warpriest of Torage (Good and Protection blessings)
I will post their impressions on character building and perceived qualities and problems during play in the following posts, but first I'll provide descriptions on the encounters they faced (all encounters used a battlemat, miniatures and some hand-drawn obstacles to make it interesting):
- 3 goblins (CR 1/3 each) in a forest environment (lots of trees, rocks and some difficult terrain)
- 1 Skulk (CR 1) and 6 Dogs (CR 1/3 each) also in a forest environment. The skulk started hidden, and then moved up to melee when the dogs arrived.
- 3 separate fights against 1 ogrekin (CR 2) each
- On the first and second fights there was a fence (move action to cross) that delayed the PCs in getting into melee and gave the ogrekins cover against ranged attacks. On the last one, the ogrekin was backed against a wall, preventing flanking.
- Finally, a lone ogre (CR 3!) in a forest setting
All that ocurred in a single day (even though they could have retreated and rest at any spot; their mission was time-sensitive and they felt they needed to rush). To any that care enough, I'll the story hooks later (I find that having at least a cursory plot made my players become more invested in the game).
First off: Great name. Neither I nor the player (my girlfriend) could stop thinking about the eponymous thrash metal band and when her round came up we would always air guitar a trashy solo that finished in a guitar-smashing power attack.
The player designed the character (Khashnar) as a half-orc bounty hunter in the River Kingdoms, so she had to be versatile enough to deal with different situations (also skills were really important to her character, specially considering the party didn't really have a skill monkey).
Building the Slayer: The constraints of being a melee class in 20 point-buy (and wanting to be good at skills) made her struggle a little on abilities. She ended up with this spread (sacrificing some combat effectiveness for skill points and bonuses): Str 17, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 10. We have also commented that the Slayer feels like a lot less MAD ranger, since its class abilities doesn't require Wisdom or Charisma.
Through racial traits, she also knew how to wield a whip (to use maneuvers at range, avoiding AoOs) and had good saving throws (Sacred Tattoo). Her trained skills were Acrobatics, Intimidate, Knowledge (local), Perception, Sense Motive, Stealth and Survival. She took the Bred for War trait, gaining a +1 trait bonus to CMB (for a total of +5 at first level).
Combat Stats: AC 16, HP 11, Greataxe +4 (1d12+4) or +3 (1d12+7), shortbow +3 (1d6).
Playing the Slayer: In play, the 1st-level Slayer was very similar to a ranger. She managed to track really really well (getting a 25 in a crucial check to follow hidden tracks), and notice hidden clues (using Perception).
The player designed the character as a tank first and foremost (instead of the two-handed damage dealer that appeals to most people), looking to protect his "cousin" (the half-orc Slayer) and generally stay alive to fight another day.
Building the Tank Bloodrager: Focusing on Constitution made the other players go "wtf?" a couple times, but we found during play that even a single one-handed weapon with Strenght 18 is enough for 1st level. Here are his stats (number in parenthesis refers to raging bonuses: Str 14 (18), Dex 14, Con 16 (20), Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 14. He felt he HAD to dump something to get the physical stats, Charisma and not have a +0 Will saving throw.
He took the Reactionary trait and Ferocious Resolve feat, and so could fight well enough until -19 HP. That gave the party a lot of wiggle room to heal him during and after fights. He had Perception and Survival skills (using the latter more to aid another the Slayer).
Combat Stats (raging): AC 17 (he uses a shield), HP 15, Battleaxe +5 (1d8+4).
Playing the Bloodrager: Following a theme here, the 1st-level Bloodrager is almost equal to a Barbarian. The only difference was 2 less HP and Destined Strike (3/day, +1 insight on melee attack), both completely unnoticed by the rest of the group. Enemies failed to hit him repeatedly (generally moving out to find a softer target), and he had really good luck with attacks (managing to land and confirm 2 different crits in the same session). The class looks promising, but at low-levels it is indistinguishable from a barbarian. The errata making third level a dead level was also disappointing for the player (he feels he's enduring 3 levels before he finally gets to be a Bloodrager).
Suggestion: Remove the legacy abilities (such as Uncanny Dodge) and substitute for a more arcane-flavored defensive ability. The bloodrage brings all the barbarian flavor necessary, honestly. Other class abilities should bring out the sorcerer. Bring the Bloodline power back to 3rd level so it's not that dreadful dead level before you finally get to do what you want. Also please rebalance the bloodline abilities against each other (Celestial gets 2 resistances, Draconic gets one and a natural armor, Elemental gets only one at 5; meanwhile Aberrant gets reach!).
Full disclaimer: The player meant to roll a shaman, but couldn't find any build he liked ("nature shaman is too useless, battle is too MAD, etc") so switched to warpriest at the last moment. He tried for a somewhat balanced character (good AC, HP, attack and spells) instead of focusing too much on one aspect (such as the DPR monsters out there).
Building the Warpriest of Torag: The player chose a dwarf for both theme and mechanics (he planned on using a heavier armor and wanted a resiliente melleer). Ability distribution: Str 16, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 8.
The lack of +1 BAB prohibiting Power Attack made him look for defense (Shield Focus feat). The blessings were a no-brainer (Good is simply too good to pass up and Protection makes him even more tanky). He managed to grab both a chainmail and a heavy wooden shield with the allotted equipment budget. Skills were almost an afterthought (Knowledge [religion] and Heal).
Combat Stats: AC 19, HP 12, Warhammer +4 (1d8+3).
Playing the Warpriest of Torag: In combat, the biggest factor was movement. Most combats saw him walking to the enemy and have it run away or be killed by another character (I believe counting the 6 combats he made five attacks). The Bloodrager had fast movement and everyone else used light armor. He started making a bigger difference when he used his Good blessing on the Slayer's and Bloodrager's weapons. Still, he managed to deal a nasty crit (3d8+1d6+9 makes short change of a 25 HP ogrekin). At this level he had to convert all of his spells (BOTH OF THEM!) to cure spells. He was never hit (mostly because he couldn't reach the combat before targets had been picked). Out of combat, he had no use whatsoever since his skills were too poor and all of his spells were either combat buffs or had been converted to healing spells.
First things first: There is little support for a ranged warpriest among the Blessings (even then, the gods that do get it have other favored weapons). Also, this class is WAY too front-loaded. I find it really confusing that there's this whole worry about holding Weapon Finesse until second level so people don't dip Swashbuckler, but you get 2 bonus feats (not counting a possible Exotic Weapon Proficiency) and a LOT of stuff (blessings and spells) for only one level of this. You'll see what I'm saying:
Building the Archer Warpriest: The player wanted simply to make a military archer that has a deep personal faith in Erastil (also a big defender of natural plants such as marijuana). He actually wanted to make a more woodsy scout, but the lack of class personalization precluded him. The player complained that skill-wise all warpriests are basically the exact same when a warpriest of Erastil and a Warpriest of Calistria should have somewhat different skill-sets. Ability Distribution: Str 13, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 10.
And again, the Good blessing is simply too good, even if this character itself almost wouldn't use it (since it requires a melee weapon). The front load of feats coupled with the human bonus feat enabled Ralf to have Weapon Focus, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Rapid Shot at 1st level. He took a trait to get Perception as a class skill (something I believe will become commonplace with this class).
Combat Stats: AC 18, HP 8, longbow +5 (1d8) or +4/+4 (1d8+1 each, using Point-Blank Shot and Rapid Short).
Playing the Archerpriest of Erastil: This character played exactly as any archer in the game. Due to terrain and somewhat intelligent enemies, though, most fights he couldn't just sit down and make full attacks (the goblins would take cover in the trees, the skulk sniped and moved to cover, the ogrekin had cover, etc.). It was somewhat rare for him to hit with both attacks. Using his Good blessing to bless the weapons of the other characters proved a noticeable improvement in damage.
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Boy, this was rough. The player almost gave up on building a Swashbuckler when he realized the big holes in its mechanic (parry/riposte requiring a feat to work, Weapon Finesse at second level). The 3rd level abilities convinced him to hang in there for a terrible first level and a mediocre second.
Building the Swashbuckler: The player wanted to play a half-elf due to background reasons, but ended up playing a human simply because he felt he had to because of the bonus feat. He also wanted to use any other sort of weapon and it really broke my heart to have to explain to him it simply doesn't work (a scimitar needs 2 feats - including one that's redundant due to a class ability - and waiting 2 levels, a shortsword is worse in almost every way, there's the ridiculous pick and morningstar, etc). Ability Distribution: Str 13 (to get Power Attack down the line), Dex 18, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14.
"Galius" picked the Extra Grit/Panache feat to have more wiggle room to parry/recovery and Combat Reflexes for the same reason (he really felt that both feats were almost mandatory for the Swashbuckler's mechanics). Combat-wise, he ended up with a good AC, but terrible in every other aspect possible. Out of combat, he could be the party face easily enough (with Acrobatics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Perception as trained skills) but didn't make enough use of his skills. He managed to buy a chain shirt on the starting equipment budget.
Combat Stats: AC 19, HP 12, rapier +2 (1d6+1), thrown dagger +5 (1d4+1).
Playing the Swashbuckler: Of all the classes tested in this session, this honestly felt the most wonky and unpolished. He tried using Opportune Parry 5 times during the course of the session - 3 times it outright failed due to his abysmal to hit bonus, other two times it "succeeded" but the attack wouldn't hit him anyway. He even tries using Riposte those couple times, but missed by a mile. He did manage to get a few hits in (even two unconfirmed crits), dealing pitiful damage. It got so bad that the two Good blessing warpriests decided not to buff him (since the other guys' chances were so much better).
Suggestions: I know it's been said time and time again, but I feel I need to reiterate:
- Swashbuckler Finesse REALLY needs to be there at first level.
- Opportune Parry NEEDS to trigger off a hit instead of an attack (as it stands it is a really frustrating mechanic).
- Riposte could stand to be moved to second level to reduce front-loading. It should have this very small secondary benefit to enable its use:
The shaman can make an extra attack of opportunity each round. This ability stacks with the number of attacks of opportunity granted by the Combat Reflexes feat.
- It's a really simple fix. That way, you CAN make a build focusing on parry and ripostes (buying Combat Reflexes) but you DON'T have to. Moving it to an Immediate Action would be terrible, preventing it from working with Recovery and blocking a LOT of the Swashbuckler's later abilities.
Ooof, that was a lot to type. Sorry about the multitude of posts and the big wall of text, but I felt it was necessary to convey both the hard facts of bonuses, hit points and skill ranks, but also the thought process behind them and the general intangible "feeling" we got from these classes. Later tonight I'll post a better, more detailed description of the fights.
edit: Also sorry for any grammar mistakes. I'm Brazillian and English is a distant second language.
There were a total of 6 fights on the first session, though 3 of them were ran back-to-back (the 3 ogrekin fight) in more an endurance stress-test.
The party missed a lot (a LOT) of attacks due to bad rolls. They also had to spend many move action first moving in to the goblins, then chasing two of them that were retreating (both took some damage and tried withdrawing from combat). Because of that, the Slayer didn't use Favored Target and the dwarf warpriest spent almost all of the fight running around with his tiny, tiny legs. The archerpriest had to move around to avoid cover and didn't use his Rapid Shot feat for most of the combat.
The Bloodrager managed to win initiative, get into goblin A's face and tank its attacks with AC and big HP pool. When the dwarf finally managed to get adjacent to it, though, the bloodrager critted with his battleaxe. Goblin B was sniped by the archerpriest and Goblin C was cornered by the Slayer and Swashbuckler. The Slayer missed a lot of attacks (due to bad rolls) and even a trip attempt (+5 against CMD 12!), while the Swashbuckler went on to spend 3 panache points trying to dodge attacks that wouldn't have hit him in the first place (he even got one riposte on but didn't hit because of terrible bonus). Honestly, that goblin lasted a couple rounds, then tried running away. In a lucky shot, the Slayer hit him with a shortbow attack and dropped him.
Skulking the Woods fight (6 dogs and one skulk in a forest)
Again, some bad rolls made the combat longer than it should. The skulk started combat hidden and blowing on a dog whistle. The dogs spent the first round approaching, while the skulk threw a Sneak-Attack-powered dagger into the archerpriest (leaving him with only 1 HP left).
The Swashbuckler got in first (high initiative from high Dex), missed a dog and got swarmed by 3 of them (again spending panache to try and parry a missed attack). The Battlerager moved in with his 30 ft speed, and missed one of the dogs while the Slayer also approached one and missed the attack. Meanwhile the archerpriest is at 1 HP but at a superior position, trying to kill the skulk before it goes. He notices the skulk trying to hide (he has a trait that provides Perception as a class skill) and hits, but does not kill it.
The Slayer finally got to use Favored Target during the fight, but it actually made no noticeable difference (she never missed by 1 and the extra damage wouldn't matter). Nevertheless, she proceeded to kill two dogs easily. The Dwarf warpriest finally got to land his first blow - an warhammer crit! That is one dead, bad dog.
The skulk, his stealth plan failed, approached the only one on reach that provided a flanking opportunity (the Bloodrager), but missed his attack (can this guy tank or what?). The Slayer came around to kill it, but the archerpriest finished it first (Rapid Shot for the win!). Finally, the dwarfpriest converts his two 1st-level spells into cure to heal the Bloodrager and the other warpriest.
In the woods, the PCs met some friendly skinwalkers that warned the PCs that a family of degenerate ogrekin dwelt deep in the forest - and there went the PCs searching for their mission: to find a group of kidnapped workers. They were informed that the Jakrart family consisted of Papa Jakrart and his three daughter-wives.
They approached a creepy oversized house in the woods, and heard some muffled cries. I won't get too graphic, but they approached the ogrekin somewhat entertained by a bound hobgoblin. A 5 ft. fence surrounded the house so anyone crossing had to spend an entire move action to pass through it.
The Slayer won initiative and approached the ogrekin quickly, but was held back by the fence. She used Favored Enemy as her second move action, gaining bonuses while waiting for the enemy to get there. The ogrekin approached and missed with its shortspear attack. The archer missed due to the fence providing cover, while the dwarfpriest spent his entire round to even approach the fence. The Bloodrager approached and jumped the fence.
On the next round the Slayer finally gave back with a Power Attack (dealing 14 damage on the hit), enabling the Bloodrager to quickly finish it after that.
One round later, when they were approaching the abused hobgoblin, the second daughter left the house, mistaking her sister's death-throes with something else and wanting a piece of that. What she found were five people armed to the teeth.
Initiative goes down. The archerpriest is still on the other side of the fence and suffers with cover, and the Bloodrager engages her first, taking her counterattack in the face (and still standing after that). The dwarfpriest approaches provoking an AoO (that missed due to his AC becoming 23 against giants), and hits dealing good damage (1d8+1d6+3 for 12 damage). The Swashbuckler approaches, and miraculously hits for 5 damage. The Slayer's turn comes around, she hits (1d12+8 for 11 damage) and finishes the second "ogress".
Then the group carelessly enters the house, the bloodrager having dropped the rage starts the battle fatigued. The Swashbuckler decides to enter first, succeeds at a Perception check but only notices the ogrekin hiding behind the wall at the last moment. He goes first, misses her and tries holding the line, she goes right after him and attacks with shortspear and a bite attack. Already noticing parry is a waste of panache points, he uses recovery on her first attack. She misses, and, unwilling to leave her corner spot to get flanked by all sides, doesn't follow through with the bite attack. The Bloodrager gets in, attacks her and eats an AoO (that she misses due to his AC being 18 even if he's fatigued) so as to let the other members of the party cross safely. They do just that, and the Slayer and the Warpriest kill it easily (this was the only fight where he managed to move and attack on the first round).
Oh boy, the party decided to track the ogre-sized footsteps without resting. Most of them already had a few points of damage (mostly the barbarian) and the two warpriests were out of spells (each and every one of them was converted to a cure spell). They spend a couple hours tracking him through the woods, and hear him from far away (this was the only fight where they bothered to prebuff, and they had only the priests' Blessings left). They also never bothered trying to hide (both the dwarfpriest and the bloodrager had high armor penalties), but I at least expected them to. They had been basically stomping each previous encounter, so this was the stress test to see if they finally break.
Before the first round of combat, I asked for Knowledge (local) checks. A couple characters succeeded and I was brutally honest saying: "If this guy hits you, you're down".
The fight started with the ogre on one side, 40 ft. away from the party. The party got real lucky on Initiative and almost everyone beat the ogre. The Slayer approached and used her Favored Enemy ability and the Bloodrager charged in (both didn't take AoOs because the ogre was flat-footed since he hadn't acted yet), hitting the ogre and dealing good damage (1d8+1d6+4 for 16 damage). The dwarfpriest only moved towards the ogre, and the archerpriest managed to get one hit (dealing low damage).
Then it was the ogre's turn. The Bloodrager was confident - he had 10 HP and could act normally until -19. Then the ogre proceeded to confirm a crit on the Bloodrager (20 followed by a 19), killing him instantly. The rest of the party panicked for a bit but decided to stick around since the ogre was under half his HP (I also told them that if they could reach the Bloodrager before his next round, they might save him). The warpriest finally got around, didn't get hit by the ogre's AoO (his AC was 24 for that fight), dealt some (8) damage. The archerpriest also hit with another arrow (leaving the ogre at around 3 HP). The group knew that another attack from the ogre would mean another dead character, so when the Slayer hit the ogre dealing 18 damage there were cheers, followed by frantically searching the ogre's giant bag for a cure potion. I, being a softy, decided that the ogre's deal with the hobgoblins netted him a cache of potions along with some weapons for his daughters. The bloodrager was walking on wheat fields under a blue sky, but then was brought back to life.
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So I finally finish the report of our playtest's first session and can answer any questions. But I'd like to know if this is providing any help at all, or if I should be more or less detail-oriented. Any suggestions?
You're providing all the necessary info plus it's entertaining to read! Keep it up.
Thank you guys, good to know someone is reading :)
Maybe this weekend we'll have the second session and it's hobgoblin time! If anyone has a suggestion of a good benchmark low-level monster I can throw on my PCs, let me know!
I'm reading every single playtest posted because I don't have the time to do them myself and they are very useful for me to learn about the current class designs.
On the first post I promised to post the story hooks sometime in the future. First, you'll probably want a map. Here we go:
The kingdom (Eveningstar, the PCs kingdom from my Kingmaker campaign, situated just north of the River Kingdoms) needed a strong foothold in its southern border, since its adjacent to a heavily militarized nation (Mivon). At first it allowed devotees of Gorum to set up some watchtowers to offer the local inhabitants some sort of defense and an early warning system in case of an invasion. Recently, the kingdom's consolidation into a sovereign nation with a robust economy provided both the means and the need to establish a stronger presence in the frontier.
In a political move, the queen presented the land as a wedding gift to one of her most trusted councilors: the now-lord Akiros Ismort, former Warden of the Kingdom. He moved immediately with his newly-wed wife (Tamary Numesti, herself a good swordswoman) to the new land and a few followers, understanding that the gift is also a major duty being placed on his shoulders. There he started the construction of Vanguard Keep, within the protection of the already established Gorumite watchtowers.
News from the opening of this frontier town ran the River Kingdoms, and former associates, friends and contacts of both Akiros, his wife and the warpriest of Gorum (a man named Isidor Storlich) flocked to the place, seeking to repay or collect debts to those within.
Before Vanguard Keep was established, there was a weak balance of forces on the region. The human inhabitants (most predated the kingdom of Eveningstar itself) kept to the east side of the Little Sellen River, hunting and foraging at the Lover's Woods and trading goods up and down the river.
The west side of the river, among the Forest of Thorns, is another matter completely. To the north there is Green Haven, a small community of nine skinwalkers under the leadership of Granny Laffaete, a priestess of Desna (and a werepanther herself). Chased from most societies, the skinwalkers found in Green Haven religious guidance, companionship and safety in numbers. They had numerous falling outs with the humans living on the other side of the river, because at least a couple of times people vanish in the woods. The humans blame the skinwalkers, but they know the truth: something far more sinister lurks in the deep woods.
Papa Jakrart and his family of three sister-wives have been traditional enemies of the skinwalkers for a long time. They generally respect each others territories out of caution from both sides (Papa has seen Lafaette kill one of his daughters in her hybrid form when they first clashed), but each side wants to annihilate the other. Papa is severely limited because he doesn't have access to any silver weapons (or any manufactured product at all), while the skinwalkers don't dare trying to storm house Jakrart because they know they would lose too many people.
The southern limits of the woods are a generalized anarchy. Small groups come and go, fight for dominion over space only to have it taken from them months later. At the moment, the king of the hill is Temur, the chief of a small hobgoblin tribe (composed of around 40 of them, including some noncombatants). One month ago, his warband moved on a goblin territory, capturing many as slaves and discovering they've been sitting at a proverbial gold mine! He kept on sitting on it, trying to come up with a way to turn this soft ore into complete domination of the area. The answer almost fell to his lap only a couple weeks ago as a prospecting group from Pitax arrived on the mine, following an old map that supposedly led to gold. The group was quickly overwhelmed, but the quick-witted leader of the expedition managed to parlay his way into an audience with Temur. When he offered strong steel and good weapons from Mivon and Pitax in trade for this "worthless" ore, Temur cautiously complied. Only when the first shipment arrived he truly believed on the bard's words. Now he just needs more slaves to mine the gold and work on the poisonous smelting forge he set up. The first crude gold bars have already arrived at Pitax, and a big shipment of assorted weapons and siege weapon parts is being prepared.
When Evils Unite
Temur approached Papa Jakrart, offering him a way to finally destroy Green Haven. He would supply weapons for Jakrart and his daughters, including some spearpoints covered in silver. When Jakrart finally kills Laffaete, any survivors will be sent to Temur to work in the mines. That was the deal accepted by both. They both also plan to break it.
Papa Jakrart wouldn't waste new toys to play or delicious meat to sup on. He plans to take all the prisoners and make Temur come to his house to get them. There he plans to murder the hobgoblin and eat him for dinner, then take his stuff, go back to his tribe and proceed with a orgy of violence on the "little people".
Temur is intelligent and suspects Jakrart will try to betray him at some point (although he's underestimating the ogre and believes he only means to keep the prisoners to himself). He means to take a couple dozen warriors to house Jakrart, retrieve the prisoners and enslave the family to work in the mines.
Finally, the hook!
The Troublesome Bridge
At the moment Vanguard Keep needs to feed a LOT of people and has little in store. The neighboring area has very few and very small farms, and the Lover's Woods, despite offering a good supply of small game and fruit, is a couple miles away. Having such a bountiful unexplored forest just on the other side of the river proved too tempting for Lord Akiros, so he started construction of a large bridge spanning the Little Sellen river east-to-west.
The project started simultaneously on both sides to hasten the construction process. On the morning hours, a group of works escorted by two guards crosses by boat to the west side and carries on with their work, returning by nightfall, and has been that way for the first twelve days. On the thirteenth, the boatman found the camp empty and signs of a battle but no bodies whatsoever. On the next day, Lord Akiros, his wife and the warpriest Isidor examined the scene and were on the process of picking names for a rescue mission when the PCs arrived and made the process much, much easier.
Temur, fearing that the human expansion to the other side of the river might reveal his plans too soon, sent his best warrior leading a group of goblins to capture the workers. The battle proceeded as expected (the humans weren't killed, and some goblin cannon fodder was lost, but no hobgoblins). The hobgoblins returned (trying their best to hide their trail, carrying the bodies on simple water skiffs) with their prisoners to a watchtower in the southern limits of the woods, from where they will be taken to work in the mine in a couple days. The goblins, though, were provided a second mission: to create a false trail leading to Green Haven, in an effort to make the humans from the keep and the skinwalkers from the woods fight one another.
Being goblins, though, they managed to almost make it. But then it was getting late, the sun was rising, and they just snuggled up to take only a small nap... When they woke, they proceeded to return walking backwards, trying to step into their own footprints.
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Interestingly enough, Khashnar the Slayer managed to find both trails in the battlesite (even though the hobgoblin one had a DC of 24!). The group still decided to follow the way west entering the woods instead of the one south skirting the river.
They fought the goblins, making some real loud noises near Green Haven. A skinwalker patrol was sent to the place, where they found the group of heavily-armed bloodsoaked PCs. Fearing the humans had finally sent a deathsquad, they kept their distance, working on a surprise attack, but the party managed to see them (both the archerpriest of Erastil and the Slayer have mad Perception bonuses!). The priest of Erastil dropped his weapons and approached the group, managing to gain their trust (with some good RP and a reasonable Diplomacy check). The skinwalkers still demanded that the group came with them to Green Haven (they are still skittish that the PCs now know the vicinities of their place and could point the way to others).
In Green Haven, the PCs drink soup and meet Granny Lafaette, apparently the only non-skinwalker in the group. They manage to identify her holy symbol (a butterfly with moon phases as the markings on her wings) as similar to Desna, and she has no compunctions about admitting to worship "Mother Moon", who has "shown us the middle way". She clears PCs misconceptions about the skinwalkers, but fears she doesn't know about the missing workers. What she does know is that people go missing in the woods, certainly taken by the Jakrart ogrekin family down south. If the party wants to investigate, the least she could do is provide them with a guide to their manor.
The guide is called Zavran, a skulk that found a place among the community of shapechangers and the only one that ever survived being captured by the Jakrart family. What she doesn't know is that he did so by promising to help Papa Jakrart in taking down Green Haven. Initially he just said it to survive, but recently he's been daydreaming about becoming "king of Green Haven" and having the area all to himself. So as he accompanies the PCs to the Jakrart manor, he's nervous and skittish (the PCs notice that but attribute it to him returning to his place of captivity). When the group approaches the house, Zavran takes out a dog whistle given to him by Papa Jakrart. Three short blows signal the guard dogs on the area that the newcomer is friendly, one long one means "invaders!". Guess which one he used.
Jumping down a ravine and camouflaging himself in the surroundings, Zavran just had to wait for the dogs to arrive to defeat the humans and present them to Papa as a gift (he has come to view the brutish ogre as a somewhat father figure as the result of some unresolved Stockholm's syndrome). He almost managed to kill that bothersome archer, but the group just scythed through the small horde of dogs and the slinking skulk.
The group approached the house and found one of Jakrart's daughters enjoying the company of a lone hobgoblin tied into a fence (one of Temur's envoys that stayed in the house to instruct the sisters into using the weapons). They somewhat easily killed the three sisters, and discovered some weapon of good quality displayed on the table. The hobgoblin provided almost no information whatsoever, trying to escape and almost getting killed.
Khashnar the Slayer found some large footprints leading out of the house, accompanied by booted feet. The party followed the trail of Papa Jakrart, finally finding him returning from his deal with the hobgoblins (carrying a big sack full of interesting stuff he saw around the hobgoblin encampment and demanded for his cooperation). In the vicious fight that followed, the Bloodrager fell over almost dead.
Tired and alarmed, the party regrouped and decided to return to the ogre's house and rest. They were puzzled by finding on the ogre's sack a couple of well-made (masterwork) weapons, a crate of healing potions and recently-forged gold bar. They plan to follow the ogre's trail the next day (oddly enough it hasn't occurred to them to return to the first battlesite and try following the other, older trail). Both trails do lead to the same spot - a watchtower manned by a couple hobgoblins, where the prisoners are being temporarily held. If they delay too much, the prisoners will be taken to the mine, and getting them out will be a much tougher charge.
Next session: Storming the watchtower!
Anything you people would like to see thrown at my party? I'm thinking some traps on the way over, but they have no way of dealing with them.
Minor note that a Warpriest can't get weapon focus at level 1 because of the requirement to have a BAB of +1. I appreciate the write up though, gives me something to peruse at work.
Wow, my name is Mark Griffin 6? I've never posted before and I made this account ages ago so I'd forgotten. What a terrible name, I think I'll never post again.
You can change the name of any alias in 'My Account'.
What he said. Warpriests get it for free regardless of requisites on their god's favored weapon.
Analyzing the results of the first session, I feel I have to ask myself: How much of the Slayer's combat efficiency came from actual class abilities and how much came from the lopsided mechanics of two-handed fighting? I feel it's like 10-90.
At level 1 ability scores and weapon tends to have a strong effect on the way the character plays out, then as you level up class features, feats and spells all add up and become more significant.
Would it be possible for you to run another playtest with the same group and characters but at a higher level - say level 5? It would be really interesting to see how people feel about the classes as they mature, so to say.
I'll try running it through my players. I meant to give them levels really quickly (one per session or maybe more) to do just that, but I think I'll have to wait until round 2 of the playtest document. As of now they find the classes pretty underwhelming and are not motivated enough to continue.
The thing is it's not necessarily the ability score part that's overwhelming (the Slayer has only a +3 where she could easily have a +4); it's the combination of a higher damage die (if she picked a greatsword, the average roll would get even higher), extra damage from Power Attack and two-handing. The bloodrager deals 1d8+4 (granted he's focused towards survival, not damage-dealing, but he has 18 Strength) damage while the Slayer deals 1d12+8.
Really, the point I'm trying to make is almost the same as yours: the choice of combat style (two-handed vs one-hand) influences way more than class abilities at these low-levels. A regular 1st level warrior with Str 15 will deal more damage (2d6+6) two-handed than a Str 18 Slayer attacking a Favored Target with an one-handed weapon (1d8+7). This feels really wrong for me, but it's more of a pet peeve with the Pathfinder focus on two-handed Strength combat as king of the hill with such a large disparity with the second place.