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So I decided to speed-run through as much of RotRL as I could get through before the playtest ends using two groups of ACG-only characters. I divided the ten classes into two groups, Group A and Group B; Group A was, to a certain extent, the "civilized" classes - arcanist, hunter, investigator, swashbuckler and warpriest - while Group B was the "savage" classes - bloodrager, brawler, shaman, skald and slayer. (I know it's a fuzzy set of categories at best; work with me here.) This thread deals with Group A.
The PCs are all 15 point buy, using core-only races and no special char-gen rules, including the absence of traits. Each PC had the class' average amount of gold to start with, and received PFS-standard hit points at each level. Here's how they looked before the game began:
Alice
Female elf arcanist 1
Init +6; Senses low-light; Perception +4
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DEFENSE
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AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10
(Dex +2)
hp 8 (1d6+2)
Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +3; +2 vs enchantments
Immune magic sleep
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee rapier -1 (1d6-1, 18-20/x2)
Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8, 19-20/x2)
Special Attacks blood focus 3/day, elemental ray 6/day (+1)
Spells Prepared (CL 1st, touch -1, ranged touch +2, concentration +4):
1st (3/day) - color spray (DC 14), mage armor
0 - acid splash, daze (DC 13), detect magic, read magic
Bloodline Elemental (Air)
Focus School Illusion
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STATISTICS
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Str 8 (-1), Dex 15 (+2), Con 12 (+1), Int 17 (+3), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 10 (+0)
Base Atk +0; CMB -1; CMD 11
Feats Improved Initiative
Skills Appraise +7, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (planes) +7, Perception +4, Spellcraft +7 (+9 to identify magic items); Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Sylvan
SQ elven magic
Combat Gear none; Other Gear rapier, light crossbow and 10 bolts, backpack, bedroll, flint and steel, rations (x3), spellbook, spell component pouch, torch (x2), waterskin, 1 gp
Spellbook 0 – all; 1st – color spray, enlarge person, expeditious retreat, mage armor, magic missile, sleep
Helen
Female half-orc hunter 1
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6
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DEFENSE
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AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 15
(armor +4, Dex +1, shield +1)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +2
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee scimitar +3 (1d6+3, 18-20/x2)
Ranged javelin +1 (1d6+3, 20/x2)
Special Attacks animal focus 1/day
Spells Prepared (CL 1st, touch +3, ranged touch +1, concentration +3):
1st - faerie fire, magic fang
0 - detect magic, read magic, stabilize
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STATISTICS
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Str 17 (+3), Dex 12 (+1), Con 13 (+1), Int 10 (+0), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 8 (-1)
Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 14
Feats Endurance, Nature Soul
Skills Handle Animal +5 (+9 companion), Knowledge (nature) +6, Perception +6, Survival +8; Racial Modifiers +2 Handle Animal
Languages Common, Orc
SQ animal companion (large cat), beastmaster, shaman’s apprentice
Combat Gear flask of acid, flask of alchemist’s fire; Other Gear scimitar, javelin (x3), klar, leather lamellar armor, druid’s kit, 16 gp
Mountain Lion (Big Cat) Animal Companion
N Medium animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +2
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DEFENSE
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AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 11
(Dex +3, natural +1)
hp 14 (2d8+5)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +2
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OFFENSE
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Spd 40 ft.
Melee bite +2 (1d6+1, 20/x2) and 2 claws +2 (1d4+1, 20/x2)
Special Attacks rake (1d4+1)
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STATISTICS
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Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Toughness
Skills Stealth +7, Survival +6
SQ link, share spells, tricks (hunting general purpose, attack all enemies)
Ivan
Male half-elf investigator 1
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +10
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DEFENSE
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AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12
(armor +2, Dex +2)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +3; +2 vs enchantments
Immune magical sleep
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee rapier +2 (1d6, 18-20/x2)
Ranged sling +2 (1d4, 20/x2)
Extracts Prepared (CL 1st):
1st - cure light wounds, shield
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STATISTICS
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Str 10 (+0), Dex 14 (+2), Con 13 (+1), Int 17 (+3), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 8 (-1)
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 12
Feats Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse
Skills Craft (alchemy) +7 (+8 crafting alchemical items), Disable Device +7, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (local) +7, Knowledge (nature) +7, Perception +10 (+11 finding traps), Sense Motive +5, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +7; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Orc
SQ inspiration 3/day, trapfinding +1
Combat Gear sunrod (x2); Other Gear rapier, sling and 10 bullets, lamellar cuirass, alchemy crafting kit, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, ink, inkpen, iron pot, mess kit, soap, trail rations (x2), waterskin, thieves’ tools, formula book, 6 gp
Formula Book comprehend languages, cure light wounds, disguise self, identify, shield
Sarah
Female human swashbuckler 1
Init +3; Senses Perception +4
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DEFENSE
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AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13
(armor +3, Dex +3)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +0
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee rapier +2 (1d6+1, 18-20/x2)
Ranged shortbow +4 (1d6, 20/x3)
Special Attacks deeds (derring-do, opportune parry, recovery, riposte)
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STATISTICS
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Str 13 (+1), Dex 17 (+3), Con 12 (+1), Int 10 (+0), Wis 10 (+0), Cha 15 (+2)
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Combat Reflexes
Skills Acrobatics +6, Climb +4, Diplomacy +6, Perception +4; armor check penalty -1
Languages Common
SQ dual talented, panache (2 pts)
Combat Gear flask of acid, flask of alchemist’s fire, potion of cure light wounds; Other Gear rapier, shortbow and 20 arrows, studded leather armor, fighter’s kit, 10 gp
Warren
Male human warpriest of Gorum 1
Init +5; Senses Perception +2
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DEFENSE
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AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 15
(armor +5, Dex +1)
hp 13 (1d8+5)
Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +4
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OFFENSE
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Spd 20 ft.
Melee greatsword +4 (2d6+4, 19-20/x2)
Ranged shortbow +1 (1d6, 20/x3)
Special Attacks minor blessings 3/day (strength surge +1, war mind)
Spells Prepared (CL 1st, touch +3, ranged touch +1, concentration +3):
1st - bless, divine favor
0 - detect magic, read magic, stabilize
Blessings Strength, War
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STATISTICS
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Str 17 (+3), Dex 12 (+1), Con 13 (+1), Int 10 (+0), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 8 (-1)
Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 14
Feats Improved Initiative, Quick Draw, Toughness, Weapon Focus (greatsword)
Skills Heal +6, Knowledge (religion) +4, Spellcraft +4; armor check penalty -4
Languages Common, Shoanti
SQ spontaneous casting
Combat Gear scroll of cure light wounds; Other Gear greatsword, shortbow and 20 arrows, scale mail, cleric’s kit, 4 gp
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Part One: Festival and Fire
During the entire series of goblin fights, none of the PCs took any damage until the battle against the commando and his allies. The first combat was won by Alice with a first-turn color spray enhanced (unnecessarily as it turned out) by blood focus – all three goblins failed their saves, and that was that. [Note: Alice won initiative all three combats, rolling 19, 20 and 20 on the dice.] In the Pyros fight, the only successful attack roll from the goblins was a trip attack (another natural 20) against Sarah from the warchanter; a second color spray dropped two of the regular goblins, while Helen and her mountain lion dropped the third. Warren’s greatsword finished off the warchanter. For the commando fight, only Alice won initiative over the goblins, which could been a problem if it weren’t for the free surprise round given by the encounter set-up; as it was, Warren charged one goblin and dropped it, Alice charged a second one and missed, Ivan used his sling on the commando while Helen used animal focus (+2 Strength) and she and her cat attacked the goblin dog. Well, Helen did, with a partial charge – the mountain lion had to wait until the next round. On the next round, the commando went full defense and attempted to ride clear of melee range, but even with his increased AC, Helen hit (thanks to bless, Warren’s war mind blessing and her animal focus) exactly the number she needed, and she dropped him. The mountain lion then savaged the dog and killed it as well, thanks to a solid crit. The remaining regular goblins managed a few good hits on Warren (he took a total of 8 damage in this fight, while only Sarah took even 1 out of the rest of the party), but they were mopped up fairly quickly.
Specific comments:
* Alice the arcanist – color spray still wins fights. But hey, we already knew that. Going first really helps too, but we knew that also. Once she was out of spells and out of blood focus, though, well… at least bless helps acid splash attack rolls, right?
* Helen the hunter – having two combatants for the price of one remains a strong option, but her spells were so limited they might as well have not even been there. (I could have had her cast magic fang on the cat, I suppose.) Animal focus might be only a +1 to hit and damage, but it turned out to be exactly what she needed against the commando. We’ll see how it lasts.
* Ivan the investigator – sadly, Ivan’s contribution to these fights could have been equaled by a commoner. Only good rolls allowed him even his total of 3d4 damage (equaling 7 hit points altogether) to be dealt to the enemies, including one instance of a nat 20 allowing him to ignore penalties for shooting into melee. This was not a good moment for him.
* Sarah the swashbuckler – on the other hand, at least Ivan wasn’t Sarah. She managed only one successful attack roll in the entire set of encounters: a parry attempt against an attack that would have missed anyway and that set up a riposte that ran her out of panache and missed entirely. Dice luck played a huge role in that loss, but it wasn’t fun to be her.
* Warren the warpriest – MVP for the whole battle series as to go to Warren and his war mind blessing. He used all three of his uses (on himself, Sarah and Helen) in the pause between encounters 1 and 2 and it lasted until about halfway through encounter 3, making a huge difference. Even when Sarah was missing on her attacks, which was all the time, the increased mobility allowed her to draw attacks that might have gone to squishier target otherwise, while Helen and Warren made very good use of the increased speed to get into position and the attack bonus to swing away once they were there. Bless was helpful too. On the other hand, the only healing he had left by the time they reached the commando fight was his scroll of cure light wounds, and he took the biggest hits in that fight thanks to his reckless charges into melee.
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Part Two: Local Heroes
The encounters are something of a mixed bag, but they were mostly pretty easy for the party. The skeletons proved little challenge; while Sarah tried and failed to grapple one, she was able to use recovery to both prevent a charge from one skeleton and set up the other for a flank. (Ivan’s trusty sling failed him, and he didn’t go back to it.) Warren used the flank to crush one skeleton with his greatsword (2d6+4 doesn’t care about puny DR 5), while Helen’s cat took advantage of the fact that bites do bludgeoning as well as piercing and slashing damage to take out the other. Shayliss picked Sarah for her “target,” based on Sarah’s Charisma and dashing flair; although Sarah didn’t pick up on Shayliss’ reputation beforehand, she did hear Ven coming down the stairs fast enough to get on the other side of the room from his half-naked daughter before he walked in. It wasn’t enough to spare her his wrath, but she won initiative and used his shock as a chance to dive past him (Acrobatics with derring-do and an excellent roll to move through his space in the doorway) and run up the stairs. No XP gained, but she didn’t have to try going toe-to-toe with Ven either.
The boar hunt was by far the hardest encounter: most of the party beat the boar’s initiative, allowing Warren to cast bless and Sarah to ready an attack on the boar before it charged. Alice likewise readied a color spray for when it got into range, but something finally made the save, so that was wasted. Sarah’s attack hit – it was a measly 2 damage, but she finally hit! Warren, however, took the brunt of the attack, and only his Toughness kept him on his feet (the boar did 11 damage in that charge). Helen had won initiative as well, but didn’t feel she could “push” her mountain lion into readying an action, so she delayed until after it got into range, and then they moved up on either side of Sarah to attack the boar after Helen used animal focus for +2 Strength. Helen hit for moderate damage, while the cat only managed one hit out of three attacks. The next round Warren used the potion of cure moderate wounds he’d claimed from the goblin commando, while Sarah used her Acrobatics to move into a flanking position opposite the mountain lion and attack for 2 more damage. Alice fired a elemental ray and missed wildly, and the boar turned to attack Sarah – she tried to parry and failed, but the boar missed anyway. (Sidebar: she almost succeeded on the parry despite rolling terribly, because the boar rolled badly too. Even a 5 on the die doesn’t automatically mean you can’t riposte…) Helen and the mountain lion attacked again, and again Helen hit solidly and the mountain lion only managed one hit for minimum damage. Finally Ivan drank his extract of shield and moved into flank with Helen. The next round, Warren tried to hit the boar and missed, while Alice successfully dazed it; Sarah stabbed for maximum damage, enough to drop the boar below 0 hit points and thus get her panache point back. Too bad boars have ferocity. Helen and the mountain lion hit the boar some more and Ivan missed it; finally Warren used his strength surge and missed again, Alice missed with an acid splash and Sarah stabbed for max damage again. The boar tried to attack her, she parried, riposted, and finally killed it.
The fight against Gresgurt was over quickly; Alice won initiative (like always) and dazed him, then Warren hammered him with a greatsword and Helen finished him off.
Specific comments:
* Alice the arcanist – with so many melee specialists in her group, color spray can be hard to use without friendly fire, but daze has proved a surprisingly effective substitute when needed. She’s still pretty much one-note in combat, though, and I can’t wait to see how she looks after the new arcanist rules release.
* Helen the hunter – Helen isn’t flashy, but she and her mountain lion get the job done. She’s been the most consistent damage dealer throughout the fights so far, and even when she lacked the mountain lion (for the Gresgurt fight) she handled herself just fine. She still has yet to cast a spell, however.
* Ivan the investigator – all right, I admit that I forgot Ivan on the first turn of the boar fight. But still, he might as well not even be here so far. The investigator is a skills class, and so far, he’s had precisely jack-all to do to stand out.
* Sarah the swashbuckler – Sarah really, finally came into her own a bit during the boar fight. Her attacks and damage still aren’t great, but she actually hit things, hurt them, and used her panache to actual effect. Her Acrobatics-based mobility helped some with the boar fight to get herself a flank; that offset some of her attack bonus problems, and contributed to her general effectiveness in this fight in ways she didn’t before.
* Warren the warpriest – Warren’s strength surge blessing hasn’t helped him nearly as much as his war mind blessing did against the goblins, but he remains pretty effective with that greatsword of his. Bless has been useful too, but so far the party is healing entirely out of items.
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Part Three: Glass and Wrath
The fight against the goblins and Tsuto was pretty straightforward. Sarah and Ivan handled the skill checks (Diplomacy to calm the crowd, Disable Device to unlock the doors) pretty easily – it took Ivan three tries to get it, which wasn’t too bad. The surprise round dropped two goblins outright, one from a charging mountain lion and one from Alice’s crossbow. Warren also cast bless and Ivan (with his sling) and Sarah (with her bow) also took shots, but both missed. Helen, however, finally cast magic fang on the mountain lion before it attacked, justifying casting levels at last. She also used animal focus for the Strength bonus again, since the swift action could be done on the surprise round. Once it got to melee on the following rounds, the combat wasn’t particularly threatening to the party – the goblins managed 1 point of damage to Warren, 2 points to Helen and 2 to the mountain lion, but that’s it. Warren, Helen and her mountain lion all dropped their targets pretty much in one hit each time; Ivan never landed a blow and Sarah only hit once, not actually managing to drop her target (she did 3 damage). That had more to do with the speed of the other PCs in dropping their foes than her bad dice, though. Alice didn’t do much of anything, with her spells being largely unhelpful and her dice pretty cold for her elemental ray and her crossbow alike.
Two of the goblins survived to flee down to Tsuto – one provoked three AoOs on its way (from Warren, Helen and the mountain lion) and was missed every time. Tsuto had one round’s warning before Warren, his movement boosted by war mind, showed up and killed the goblin that warned him, and Sarah likewise chased down the other goblin and killed it too. (It was the same one she’d done 3 damage to already.) Tsuto, seeing his goblin allies were gone, attempted to circle the party and reach the tunnels, not wanting to risk failing an Acrobatics check to get past Warren and Sarah both (he would have needed a 22 and had a +10, but failure would have been fatal). Instead, though, he met Alice coming down the stairs, and a well-timed daze stopped him in his tracks. (Even a +7 against enchantments won’t save you when you roll a 3.) This allowed the rest of the party to circle him and cut off his escape. He managed to successfully stun Warren and do some damage to the mountain lion as well, but Sarah and Helen pretty much eviscerated him after Warren and the mountain lion softened him up. At this point, the party leveled up (the AP is on Fast Track, and even dividing the XP by 5 they still hit 1370 XP at this juncture).
Level Up Notes:
* Alice the arcanist - +6 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Will, +1 rank in Appraise, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (planes), Perception, Spellcraft, added identify and protection from evil to spellbook.
* Helen the hunter - +7 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Fort, +1 Ref, +1 rank in Handle Animal, Knowledge (nature), Perception and Survival, track, and wild empathy. The mountain lion gains +5 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Will, +1 rank in Perception, and Weapon Focus (claw).
* Ivan the investigator - +7 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Ref, +1 Will, +1 rank in Craft (alchemy), Disable Device, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Perception, Sense Motive, Spellcraft and Stealth, poison use, and poison resistance +2, added expeditious retreat to formula book.
* Sarah the swashbuckler - +8 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Ref, +1 rank in Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Perception and Swim, swashbuckler finesse and bravery.
* Warren the warpriest - +7 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Fort, +1 Will, +1 rank in Heal, Knowledge (religion) and Spellcraft, channel positive energy.
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The Catacombs of Wrath were extremely challenging, as is usually the case. If anything, the distinction between the characters that are good at combat and the ones that aren’t has become much more apparent now even than it was at level 1. The first sinspawn fight went fairly quickly; Sarah won initiative, moving up next to the sinspawn and waiting for a chance to parry/riposte. She got to do so, dealing about 4 damage in the process but running herself out of panache at the same time. Warren and Helen moved into the room but couldn’t attack, so Sarah stabbed again, doing about the same amount of damage. Out of panache, though, she couldn’t stop the next attack, so she took 4 points herself – but made the Fort save against sickening. Helen and her mountain lion moved in and, with Ivan’s help, finished it off. Warren moved too slow and Alice couldn’t get a clear shot, and they did almost nothing in this fight.
The next fight was against the vargouille, and it was over almost before it began. The vargouille lost initiative to almost everyone except Helen, so it died before its turn even arrived. The battle against the two sinspawn was trickier, as they were holed up in a corner that was too tight to move in easily. Winning initiative allowed Sarah to move up and attack, but everyone else had to use the walkway to circle the fight and then drop down before they could attack. Warren suffered some bad dice luck this time around – it took him till almost the end of the fight before he managed to land a blow (although it was a crit and flattened the sinspawn pretty thoroughly). Once the mountain lion and Helen managed to pin down one of the ‘spawn they made short work of it, and Sarah managed to crit the other one and get a point of panache back in the process – she did get bitten a second time, but again made the save. The panache came in handy when they faced Koruvus. Seeing his careful movements around the pits, the party knew not to step on them – but they still lost initiative and thus got a stream of acid in their faces. Likewise, the tight passage and need to stay off the covers of the pits forced a lot of unusual movements. Warren’s high AC kept Korovus off him, and Sarah managed to tumble into a spot behind the mutant so the rest of the party could actually move in to attack. Helen, still pinned by the narrow passage, used her just-acquired scroll of flaming sphere, causing Koruvus quite a lot of hotfoot. Stepping away from the sphere meant he stepped away from his opponents, and the party took advantage. When he 5-foot-stepped up to Sarah, she used recovery to step away again; not only did the +2 AC keep her from harm (pushed her AC to 20, and he rolled a 19), but it also broke his full-attack sequence. Luring him away from the entrance corridor allowed the rest of the group to move in and make their attacks and the mutant was dropped quickly. At that point, the party was pretty beat up – only Ivan hadn’t taken any damage – and Warren had already used both of his channels after the double sinspawn fight. They decided to retreat to town and seek help from Father Zantus; they still had enough daily resources to continue, they just didn’t have the hit points.
The final fight of the Catacombs was, of course, against Erylium, and it was as painful as you might expect. The first round, Alice got off a color spray that Erylium did not save against, stunning her for a round; Alice also made her Knowledge (planes) roll to recognize the quasit for what she was, and she shouted, “we need blessed or silver weapons to harm it!” Taking this to heart, Sarah ran up and grappled the stunned demon, trying to drown her in the pool of water. Erylium was able to break free, fly to the runewell and create the sinspawn. The party killed it – Sarah (with a crit), Helen, and Warren each taking a chunk – before it could take an action, but Ivan did spot Erylium’s worry over the dimming runewell. Alice fired off another color spray, and again Erylium was stunned for a round, and this time the whole party worked together, using Aid actions to keep the quasit from escaping before she could be drowned in the mundane water of the larger pool.
Specific Notes:
* Alice the arcanist – more spells a day but still no more spells prepped makes for a very one-note character. Still, getting another daily use of blood focus did give her more access to her bloodline ability, and she pretty much felt like a sorcerer this time. She never had to shoot her crossbow (although she never actually hit Erylium or Koruvus with her acid splashes or elemental rays, so she didn’t realize how useless they would have been against their immunities). Color spray remains a very strong spell if you can get it off without hitting your party.
* Helen the hunter – Helen plays at 2nd level much like she did at 1st, although she got better about using magic fang every now and then. The narrow spaces of the dungeon, though, largely kept her from working as effectively with her mountain lion as she had before; they spent a lot of time “waiting in line” trying to find some way to get into the fight past higher-initiative characters like Sarah and Warren.
* Ivan the investigator – Ivan can hit things in melee now sometimes, thanks to +1 BAB and a masterwork sword cane, but he still does the least amount of damage of anyone except Alice. The big change for the Catacombs was that he actually got to use his skills some. Stealth-scouting became an option, and he successfully snuck up on all of the enemies except Erylium and the first sinspawn. Unfortunately, without sneak attack or any meaningful amount of damage he could deal, he had no reason to start fights from surprise, preferring instead to retreat to the rest of the party and tell them what he saw. This allowed them to recognize the vargouille (they couldn’t really do anything about it, though) and to change up their marching order when facing Koruvus, which kept Ivan from getting burned by acid, but otherwise didn’t have a whole lot of impact.
* Sarah the swashbuckler – Sarah has successfully used every deed she has to actual effect (using recovery to break a three-attack full attack sequence was particularly nice), and her attack bonus literally tripled, thanks to BAB increase, swashbuckler finesse and a masterwork rapier. She still doesn’t hit all that hard, but at least she doesn’t miss that much anymore either. She also has better armor and a masterwork buckler, greatly helping her AC. Scoring a couple crits during the dungeon helped as well, making Sarah much less annoying to play at this level than she was at 1st, but there’s still a definite sense of waiting for 3rd level so she can actually start kicking butt.
* Warren the warpriest – Warren got channeling, but Warren’s Charisma is terrible, so it didn’t help the party all that much, especially since 1d6 doesn’t go all that far at 2nd level. He used both channels in one go to heal 9 hit points from the party; that allowed them to face Koruvus, but took them no further. Warren’s going to have to decide if he’s going to pick up Furious Focus next level like he was planning to, or wait until 5th for that and grab Extra Channeling instead. Warren’s dice also stabbed him in the back this time around – despite having the exact same attack bonus as Sarah, he hit only about half as often, even when he used war mind to boost his attacks. War mind continues to be a go-to move for him; on the first round of a combat, he can double-move 40 feet in his armor, or use war mind on himself and move 30 feet. So far it’s been a no brainer.
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Part Four: Thistletop
Helen and her mountain lion together had no difficulty locating the proper trail to Thistletop, and although everyone except Helen stumbled into a goblinberry patch, only Alice took a point of Strength damage from it, and she didn’t exactly care all that much. Ivan couldn’t fail to spot the “hidden” door into the hedge maze, and Helen easily spotted the tracks leading toward the bridge. (That meant that they bypassed the goblin refugees, a point that came back to matter later.) Instead, the first fight was against the goblin dogs. Alice beat their initiative and used her brand-new scroll of burning hands (CL 3rd) – she rolled 8 damage, three of the four dogs failed their saves, but the spell also burned through the ropes holding the dogs in. (To be fair, the dogs were going to start making Strength checks to break free anyway, since there were intruders about.) The dogs got off a round of attacks that hit Warren for a decent amount and accomplished nothing else (he made his allergy save), and then the group slaughtered them. Three of the four only had 1 hit point left after the burning hands anyway.
One round later (during which Warren used a scroll of cure light wounds), Tangletooth appeared from the southeast and Gogmurt walked out of the maze and attacked from the southwest. This fight was incredibly ugly. Ivan, Warren and Sarah all suffered from terrible dice luck – Warren and Sarah needed a 12 on the die to hit Gogmurt, and I rolled more 11s for them than I can count – and Tangletooth almost killed the mountain lion before Gogmurt managed to charm the lion instead, at which point Alice dropped a color spray on both cats before something bad happened. (They both failed, taking them out of the fight for 3 rounds.) But it’s indicative of how badly the fight was going that, with only Gogmurt to worry about for three full rounds, the group wasn’t able to drop the druid. Although Alice started using her wand of shocking grasp on Tangletooth instead of dealing with Gogmurt, because she didn’t know how long the spell would last and she couldn’t really get to Gogmurt anyway. Finally, just as the color spray wore off, Helen killed Tangletooth, and managed to get her mountain lion to go into Guard despite the charm animal effect. That was something of a turning point, because while Gogmurt dove into the brambles again to circle around, hoping to get revenge on Helen for killing Tangletooth, that allowed Warren to cast bless and Alice and Sarah to ready ranged attacks (elemental ray and a flask of alchemist’s fire, respectively). When he popped back out again, both attacks hit him, and he was so focused on revenge against Helen that he didn’t put out the fire before Sarah’s turn came round again. The fire and the ray did 15 points themselves, and Sarah finally managed to score a decent hit with her rapier as well (Warren tried, but his dice luck remained terrible). In the end, though, it was Warren’s greatsword that finally ended him, taking him from 11 hit points to -3 in a single swipe. It was Warren’s only solid hit in the whole fight, but it certainly did the trick.
Finally, the group headed toward the rope bridge, where Ivan easily found and disabled the trap. Unfortunately, the goblins in the stockade were on alert, and the party didn’t feel good about trying to cross the bridge under fire from the goblins’ bows (there were a total of 8 shortbows pointed their direction). Instead, they decided to search the recent of the hedge maze, where they finally came across the goblin refugees – Sarah was the only one to beat them in initiative, but she killed one and tanked the rest, taking one crit for 7 damage and another lucky shot for 2, but otherwise going unscathed while the whole group tried to jump her. The rest of the party helped her methodically wipe them out, and after that first couple of hits on Sarah no one took any damage. Taking care of the refugees was enough to put the group to 3446 XP, which was enough for level 3.
Level Up Notes:
* Alice the arcanist – +6 hp, +1 Ref, +1 rank in Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (planes), Perception, and Spellcraft, Scribe Scroll and Weapon Finesse, added endure elements and shield to spellbook.
* Helen the hunter - +7 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Will, +1 rank in Climb, Knowledge (nature), Perception, and Survival, Diehard and Precise Strike, and hunter tactics. The mountain lion got +1 Str, +1 Dex, +2 natural armor, the flank trick, and evasion.
* Ivan the investigator - +7 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Fort, +1 rank in Craft (alchemy), Disable Device, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Perception, Sense Motive, Spellcraft and Stealth, Improved Initiative, keen recollection, trap sense, and underworld inspiration, added true strike to formula book.
* Sarah the swashbuckler - +8 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Fort, +1 Will, +1 rank in Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Perception, Power Attack, menacing swordplay, precise strike and swashbuckler initiative.
* Warren the warpriest - +7 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Ref, +1 rank in Heal, Knowledge (religion) and Spellcraft, Extra Channeling and Power Attack.
More!
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Once the group retreated to Sandpoint, healed up with Father Zantus’ help, and returned to Thistletop the following day, they found that the scatterbrained goblins had lost track of the alarm, and had gone back to goofing off. This allowed them to cross the bridge unhindered, and then ambush the guards and their goblin dogs in the middle of their game of killgull. Ivan snuck around, spotted them, then took a shot with his shiny new crossbow for a few points of damage, enough to provoke the goblins and their dogs. Warren took the opportunity to cast bless, Helen cast magic fang and Alice put up her shield, while Sarah just waited for the attack. Only Alice actually beat the goblin dogs in initiative, and she fired an elemental ray to drop the already-injured goblin, leaving the goblin dogs to charge in. Everyone except Alice and the cat got an attack, but none of them hit, and the party’s response was swift and brutal. Warren and Sarah both dropped their attackers in a single swing, while Helen and her mountain lion took advantage of their new teamwork feat (and the lion’s just-learned “Flank” trick) to utterly demolish a third one. Ivan dropped his crossbow and used the swift action to draw his sword cane, hitting his target as well but not nearly enough to kill it. The goblins double-moved to get into position for next round, while elsewhere the commandos and the pickle thieves heard the ruckus and began moving toward the fight. The surviving goblin dog attacks Ivan and wounds him slightly, while the rest of the party begins focusing on the newly-arrived goblins. (Well, everyone but Helen and the mountain lion do. They team up against Ivan’s goblin dog and tear it to shreds.) Thanks to the goblins’ reasonably high ACs and some not-impressive rolls from the party, only one of the goblins goes down this round. (Warren and Sarah both missed by 1 several times in this combat. It’s enough to make you reconsider that always-on Power Attack thing…) Likewise, though, the goblins hit no one, because everyone has decent AC at this point and, well, goblins suck. At the end of the round the pickle thief and commando goblins show up, reinforcing the others and setting themselves up to participate in the following round. The commandos go after the mountain lion (that favored enemy: animals is just too tasty) and one hits for about half the lion’s hit points, while the other misses completely. Helen and the lion kill the commando that hit, while Sarah hits and Warren misses against the regular goblins. Alice decides to stop making attack rolls and just uses magic missile, dropping another goblin, while Ivan keeps stabbing for about half a goblin’s worth of health each time. He’s able to move around and give flanks pretty effectively, although the bad dice of the two frontliners doesn’t help them actually make use of it.
One more round later, and all the enemies are dead. Likewise, when the PCs enter the stockade to find 6 more goblins, that fight goes really fast too. (Frankly, goblin fights at 3rd level are not terribly interesting. Lucky dice means the PCs take a few points of damage, and then everyone on the other side is dead. Repeat ad nauseam.) The fight against the goblin dogs in the courtyard was a little more interesting, because the PCs dropped all four dogs before they took actions – two went down from color spray, one from Helen and the lion and one from a crit off of Sarah’s rapier (she’d spent a point earlier to try to drop a goblin commando and missed, but critting and dropping the dog meant she got two points back and could only keep one of them). Ivan was also able to easily find and disable the trap on the goblins’ treasure chest; with his free +1d6 on the Disable check he was feeling pretty good about it, but the 18 on the die meant it didn’t really matter. Helen also used the animal feed in her druid’s kit to help calm Shadowmist down - with the +10 bonus from the food, she hit the DC 25 exactly on her Handle Animal check.
Eventually, the PCs found themselves in front of the double doors that lead into the throne room. Having explored everywhere else and figuring the double doors meant the room was Somewhere Important, the party spent two rounds buffing (Ivan only spent one, drinking his extract of shield, before applying himself to the lock on the doors) before entering. Combat proceeded almost at once. Sarah won initiative, crossed the room in a single move action and spent a panache point to double her precise strike bonus. She then proceeded to confirm a crit, getting the point back and dealing a total of 20 damage to Ripnugget before he’d even had a chance to move. Not bad. Still, Ripnugget mounted Stickfoot as a free action, attacked Sarah – the warchanter hadn’t started singing yet, so his attack was “only” +9 for 1d4+4, but he still easily hit – and then rode off across the room. The move provoked – he was too close to her to use Ride-By Attack – but she missed with her AoO. Then warchanter started singing and the commandos jumped out, two attacking the mountain lion again while the third went after Ivan. Ivan was missed, but one of the two attacking the lion hit, leaving her with only 4 hit points left. Helen and her lion killed that one again, though, while Alice used her last spell slot to fire a couple of magic missiles at Ripnugget and Warren cut one of the commandos in half. Ivan, no longer threatened, fired his crossbow at Ripnugget and missed. Still, the chief wasn’t doing so hot. Sarah spent another panache to double her precise strike and attacked the warchanter, but missed; Ripnugget rode back and stabbed her again, while Stickfoot tried to bite her and failed. The warchanter healed Ripnugget for 5, casting defensively to do it. Sarah attacked Ripnugget again and missed, but Ivan critted against the warchanter, killing her, and Warren killed the last commando. Helen and the mountain lion couldn’t flank Ripnugget due to his positioning, but they both managed to hit him, and Helen’s shot actually dropped him. Sarah tried to kill Stickfoot but missed; Warren had no such issues, though, and that was that.
They camped in the throne room to recover, since Helen and Ivan were the only ones with spells left above cantrips. Because most everyone on the lower levels has no real reason to head up top, I made the percentile roll to see whether Bruthazamus was keeping the goblin wives “occupied” and, as it happened, he wasn’t. The two on watch – Alice and Warren – utterly failed to hear the goblin when she came upstairs, found the carnage, then snuck around to find out what happened. They couldn’t fail to hear Bruthazamus breaking down the door with his heavy flail, though. Still, the timing wasn’t ideal for the bugbear – any other watch, and Warren wouldn’t have been in his armor. Instead, he had two rounds to prepare, which was basically using war mind on himself and Sarah, while everyone else stood up and grabbed weapons. This basically meant the Bruthazamus died before his initiative came up, and the rest of the fight against the wives was as uninteresting as the other all-goblin-warrior fights have been. Sarah dropped one in a single stab, and as disappointed when panache failed to flow to her as a result.
The next morning, the party headed down to the first level of the dungeon. They turned left (always my assumption, to keep my knowledge of the adventure from impacting the playtest) and wound up in facing off against the tentamort. The aberration’s all-around vision was obnoxious for Helen and her mountain lion, but good rolls from both of them meant it still took a pretty decent amount of damage. It stabbed the lion twice with its stinger but the lion made its saves against the poison, and its attempts to slam and grab always missed. A solo encounter against 5 PCs needs to go fairly well for the monster to begin with, and that didn’t happen here – the party mobbed and killed it in two rounds. Moving on, they found the double doors to the chapel, but headed left and wound up in the “residential” wing, where a single color spray stunned/blinded Orik and Sarah and Warren murdered him before he could do more than say, “Hey!”
From there, they went around the corner and into the “jail,” and wound up more or less blundering into the chapel from the side entrance. This turned out to be a very, very bad thing. Warren, Sarah and Helen all failed their saves against the yeth hound’s bay during the surprise round (only Alice, Helen and Ivan even spotted the hounds to begin with), sending half the party running before combat even began. As the two party members who made the save were the most fragile, they started running too. However, only one member of the party had a 20 foot move speed: Warren. With the narrow corridors of the dungeon, the yeth hounds couldn’t move past Warren to attack the rest of the group, but they had no difficulty catching up to him and attacking even when he double-moved. His good AC protected him for three rounds, but on the fourth the yeth hound landed a bite, and the trip attempt was a nat 20. With Warren prone, the trailing yeth hound could fly past and land to flank him. Alice and Ivan saw Warren fall and stopped to try to help – Ivan hit with a crossbow shot, and Alice with two magic missiles – but it wasn’t enough. Warren could only survive two bites from the yeth hounds, and he couldn’t get away from them. As soon as Warren dropped again, this time for good, Alice and Ivan started running again, and the yeth hounds let them go in order to enjoy their meal.
Saddened and chastened, the group returned once more to Sandpoint. Alice and Ivan had both made the Knowledge roll to recognize the yeth hounds, so they sold a bit of their loot and spent some of the proceeds for some specialized equipment (nothing that they probably shouldn’t have had anyway, truth be told): Ivan loaned Sarah his sword cane and she bought some silversheen to put on it, while he picked up a set of silver crossbow bolts and Helen bought a masterwork silver heavy mace. Alice, for her part, bought an oil of silence to help against the will-shattering bays. Thus resupplied, they returned to Thistletop the next day and launched their assault on the yeth hounds. With the oil of silence, the yeth hounds couldn’t bay, but Alice made sure to stay far enough back that she could cast her spells unhindered, allowing her to nail both yeth hounds with a glitterdust from a scroll on the first round. Unfortunately, the warriors didn’t have a lot of success actually hitting with their newly-enhanced weapons, including Helen and her mountain lion, despite the activation of animal focus and the casting of a pre-combat magic fang on the lion’s bite. Only one of the yeth hounds was down by the time the oil of silence ran out, and Alice was by that time fleeing the combat because the surviving hound had charged her, getting outside the range of the silence and provoking a Will save that this time she did not succeed on. Fortunately, though, everyone else did succeed at their saves this time, and they were able to drop the second hound before it could chase down Alice.
Once Alice recovered from her panic and reunited with the group, they celebrated their victory, but Ivan pointed out that they still did not have their lost gear, and there was no sign of Warren’s body, so they decided to press onward. Having only one direction to head, they proceeded down the last corridor. Thanks to the bays of the yeth hounds, Lyrie in her lab had realized the group was in the building, and had pushed her worktable against the door. This availed her little, though, as Helen pushed it open with a natural 20 on the Strength check, and Lyrie proceeded to lose initiative to everyone in the party. Alice opened up with a color spray, but Lyrie saved; Ivan, though, shot her for 6 with his crossbow, and Sarah jumped across the room to stab her for 12 more with Ivan’s sword cane. Helen threw a javelin, but Sarah being in melee spoiled the shot; the mountain lion, however, clambered over the table and made it across the room to bite for 3 more. Lyrie, suddenly down to only three hit points and backed into a corner, tried to cast mirror image defensively, but blew the roll, and the PCs proceeded to tear her into little bitty pieces.
Poking around, the PCs realized there is someone tied to the worktable they had jumped over: a man named Warner, also coincidentally a warpriest of Gorum, and 4th level to boot. Killing Lyrie earned the party enough XP to reach 4th level as well, and not only were they pleased to discover Lyrie had their gear, but they were also thrilled when they realized Warren’s stuff all fit Warner as though it were made for him! What a happy coincidence!
The party once more retreated to Sandpoint, to level up and integrate Warner into their group. Now, however, they suffered a second loss, as Alice confessed she and Warren had been a couple, and his death – now avenged – meant she did not want to continue adventuring. Before she left, though, she put the group in contact with Arcadia, a fellow elf and arcanist who was less interested focusing on her sorcerous blood and more interested in mastering ways to exploit the very fundamentals of magic itself. She was happy to join the group, and the party set out the next day for Thistletop for the final time.
Level Up Notes:
* Arcadia the Arcanist – obviously, Arcadia is Alice post-arcanist-revision. In the transition, Arcadia lost Weapon Finesse (she wasn’t especially attached to it to begin with) and picked up two exploits: consume magic items and potent magic. (We’ll see if the consume magic items thing is a problem, as some on the forums have suggested, or not.) She also swapped her Dex, Wisdom and Charisma, ending up (after racial modifiers) with Dex 14, Wis 10 and Cha 13. Going from level 3 to 4, she also got +6 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Intelligence, +1 Will, +1 rank in Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (planes), Perception, and Spellcraft, +2 ranks in Appraise, +3 ranks in Knowledge (dungeoneering), Goblin, added glitterdust and false life to spellbook.
* Helen the Hunter - +7 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Strength, +1 Fort, +1 Ref, +1 rank in Knowledge (nature), Perception, Survival, and Swim. The mountain lion gained +11 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Constitution, +1 Fort, +1 Ref, and +1 rank in Acrobatics.
* Ivan the Investigator - +7 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Intelligence, +1 Ref, +1 Will, +1 rank in Acrobatics, Craft (alchemy), Disable Device, Disguise, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Perception, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft and Stealth, gained sneak attack swift alchemy.
* Sarah the swashbuckler - +8 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Dexterity, +1 Ref, +1 rank in Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Perception, Weapon Focus (rapier).
* Warner the warpriest - +8 hp, +1 BAB, +1 Strength, +1 Fort, +1 Will, +1 rank in Heal, Knowledge (religion), and Spellcraft, sacred weapon +1.
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Ivan had no trouble locating the hidden door in Lyrie’s room and they carefully proceeded down the stairs. When they reached the trapped hallway, Ivan spotted the polished area and examined it suspiciously; his suspicions were rewarded when he spotted the trap (he only needed a 5+ to see it), and a few moments later it was not only disarmed, it was actually bypassed, in case the party wanted to use it later for something (hit the DC 30 exactly, thanks to his free inspiration). This prevented Nualia from hearing them as they approach, and it’s not until they got into range of the yeth hound’s scent that she realized they’re there. That was the same time that the mountain lion smelled Nualia and the yeth hound, meaning no one was really surprised.
Everyone except Helen beat Nualia and her yeth hound’s initiative. Ivan, sneaking along in the lead, recognized the potential threat that the yeth hound represents even over Nualia and grabbed his crossbow, firing one of his remaining silver bolts. He hit solidly. (In the bad old days before he got sneak attack, he’d’ve done less than half of the damage he managed on that shot.) Arcadia, realizing the room is about to be filled with melee specialists, used a point of arcane reservoir to boost the DC on a glitterdust as she fills the room with it. Unfortunately, thanks to good rolls, neither of the enemy combatants were blinded. Warner cast weapon of awe on Sarah’s rapier, and she jumped forward to try to drop the yeth hound before it could scream at her. A natural 1 shot a hole right through that plan, though, and the yeth hound bayed. Arcadia and Warner failed their saves, basically taking them out of the fight (Warner’s dice luck is no better than Warren’s was – he rolled a 2 on the die), and Nualia cast divine favor on herself. Deciding the damage from the yeth hound was largely done, Helen cast magic fang on her lion and sent it to attack Nualia, following along and activating animal focus for +2 Strength as she did so. The lion didn’t roll too hot either, though, leaving Nualia unharmed. Ivan drank his extract of invisibility, stowed his crossbow and drew his sword cane, while Sarah took another stab at the yeth hound, this time spending a point of panache to double her precise strike damage (she forgot the previous round, but since she didn’t hit, she figured that might not have been a bad thing). This time the hit was solid, chewing through more than half the yeth hound’s hit points in one shot. The yeth hound tried to bite back, and she spent a second point of panache to parry. The yeth hound rolled a 19 on the die, though, and Sarah only came up with a 14 total, so she took 11 damage and was tripped to boot. She managed to just squeak out a save against the sinister bite, though (thanks bravery! You mattered!) . Nualia went after the mountain lion with sword and claw, and although she only hit with the blade, it still took almost half the lion’s hit points. She also shifted to try to keep the lion from being able to flank her with Helen, stepping up behind the yeth hound instead.
Helen stepped right along with her, even though she couldn’t flank, and she and her lion hammered the aasimar. Helen didn’t hit, but the mountain lion caught her with both claws, returning almost as much damage as it had taken. Ivan slipped up next to the last empty space that could threaten Nualia and stabbed her, dropping out of invisibility as he did so; unfortunately, the same string of terrible dice that hampered his allies hampered him as well, as he rolled a 2 on the die and missed by a mile. Sarah went into full defense and tried to stand up – that provoked an AoO from the yeth hound, but it rolled badly and she’s hard to hit at the best of times, as it found out again a moment later on its own attack, which also missed. Nualia attacked again, keeping her blade on the mountain lion but attacking Ivan with her claw; her dice were as bad as the party’s though, and neither strike made contact. Helen and the lion kept up the pressure, adding another 19 damage to the total Nualia had taken. Ivan, chastened, stepped back and drank his extract of shield, and Sarah made one last attempt to finish off the yeth hound. This time, she succeeded, dropping it and recovering one of her spent panache. Nualia decided that the half-orc controlling the mountain lion was more dangerous than the lion itself, and turned both her attacks on Helen instead. The claw missed but the sword did not, dropping Helen by almost half her hit points. (Had Nualia kept up the attack on the mountain lion, she’d’ve killed it that round, because the claw would have hit too.) Unfortunately for her, the yeth hound’s death opened Nualia up to a flank, and that’s precisely what Helen and the mountain lion did. Not killing the lion turned out to be a fatal mistake, as Helen and her lion took murderous advantage of their Precise Strike feat, knocking Nualia from 30 hp to -4 in a single set of attacks.
Eventually, Arcadia and Warner returned, and the party once again celebrated their victory before healing (Warner used two channels to heal 7 damage) and moving on to explore the rest of the dungeon. Ivan, the only member of the party with a prayer of spotting the method of bypassing the portal of greed utterly failed to do so (he rolled a 5 on the dice, for a total of 18 against a DC 28), so the party was spared dealing with Malfeshnekor. Heading south they instead encountered the three shadows. Warner, Sarah and Ivan beat their initiative; Warner made his Knowledge (religion) roll to recognize them and realize that magic weapons were needed against them. He activated his spiffy new sacred weapon ability to make his greatsword magical and charged forward, hitting quite solidly, but not quite hard enough to actually destroy his target. Sarah tossed her oil of magic weapon to Ivan, then drew Nualia’s bastard sword and took a step toward one of them. Ivan readied his weapon and applied the oil to it, then the shadows swarmed forward. Warner was hit for 3 Strength damage, while Ivan took 5 damage; Sarah attempted to parry, rolled terribly, and took 2 Strength damage. Helen cast magic fang on her lion’s bite and used her second animal focus, then sent the lion over to bite. This it did, almost finishing off the one Warner had already hit. Arcadia used a reservoir point to boost her caster level on magic missile, sending one missile at the badly damaged one and two more at the one threatening Ivan. The damaged one was destroyed, and the second lost 3/5 of its hit points as well. Warner, knowing his channel was pretty weak, cast bull’s strength on Ivan to try to shore up some of the damage, while Sarah swung the bastard sword at hers and got a big fat natural 1 for her trouble. Ivan stabbed at his, hitting for max damage but still leaving the shadow undead. It struck back for 3 more Strength damage, while Sarah’s nimbleness just saved her from more damage, although she wasted a panache point on a failed and unnecessary parry attempt. Seeing that one of the shadows was torn and tattered, Helen cast cure light wounds and made a touch attempt against it, but a natural 1 foiled her as well. Her lion’s bite fared no better, leaving Arcadia to use her last reservoir point to fire off three more magic missiles. Again, one went to the damaged one and killed it, while the other two went into the last target and tore it up as well (again, 9 damage, just like last time). Warner cast shield of faith on Ivan, and Sarah made another attempt to drop the shadow; the horrible luck continued, though, with yet another natural 1. Ivan tried stabbing it, even moving to a flank opposite Sarah to do so; the flank allowed him to hit, but even with the bull’s strength his damage was too weak. The shadow swiped at Sarah and she was out of panache to do anything about it, but the bad dice infected it too, and it missed badly. Helen, still holding the charge on her spell, tried another touch attack, and this time hit – the shadow made the save to halve the damage, meaning it took only 3 points and was still undefeated. The same could not be said after the lion used its bite attack again, though – the last of the shadow’s hit points were gone, and so was it. Realizing that Ivan was close to death and not seeing the point of further exploration, the party returned to Sandpoint, declaring the Burnt Offerings adventure done.
For those keeping track at home, they ended at 7009 XP (5th level on the fast track is at 10,000).
Specific Notes:
* Alice and Arcadia the arcanists – to a certain extent, 3rd level really was where Alice finally came into her own, but that was mostly just basic class progression rather than anything specific kicking in. She made it all the way through the top level of Thistletop without running out of spells, meaning that she didn’t have to waste time plinking away with her crossbow or, gods forefend, actually drawing her rapier. (She did once. Critted with it too. Killed a goblin.) If she’d actually saved more than one time in three against the yeth hounds, she’d’ve probably been a lot more use in those fights too, but it’s hard to say. On the other hand, it’s quite easy to say how much help she was, especially with potent magic, against the shadows – she did about 2/3 of the total damage they took herself. So far she hasn’t really had a chance to come across any magic items to eat for kewl powerz; we’ll see if that changes as we go along. Was struck by dice swinginess too: a DC 18 glitterdust really should have been a solid bonus for the party… instead it turned out to be a completely wasted turn (not to mention wasted reservoir point) just before she ran for the hills. At least she didn’t waste the ones she spent on magic missile. I can’t think of a better reason to completely ignore the blast exploits.
* Helen the hunter - throughout the entire module, Helen and her cat have been the most reliable sources of damage in the entire group. Between them they usually get anywhere from 2 to 4 attacks a round, and if they can flank with each other? Yowza. Now they don’t currently hit all that hard, but I’m not sure I can ever remember a combat round where both of them attacked and neither one hit anything. That kind of sustainability has a value all its own, particularly in this playtest where weird dice rolls have seemed, well, not all that weird, really. (Oh, hey, 5 rolls where nothing is higher than a 3 on the dice! Sure, why not?) I feel as though I left Helen’s spellcasting on the table, but it was just too useful to have her out next to the lion, hitting things alongside – or rather opposite – it. One round to buff, almost always with magic fang on the bite, and then… yeah. Done. At least having 2 uses/day of animal focus when she hit 4th made it a lot easier to decide to use animal focus.
* Ivan the investigator – no joke; this has been a rough ride for Ivan. As a skill monkey, he’s finest-kind, but three complete levels of utter suck in combat made for an achingly frustrating play experience. And frankly, so far his 4th level play experience hasn’t been a lot better, although he did actually manage to land one decent shot on the yeth hound. I feel as though I didn’t use his inspiration to its fullest extent in combat, but knowing that even if I did hit the damage would be miniscule? Not a strong enticement. And as for using inspiration on skills, it’s all well and good, but at the moment, Ivan’s already good enough at the skills he really cares about that he doesn’t really need the swinginess of another 1d6 on top of the 1d20. I can only assume that gap will grow as he goes along.
* Sarah the swashbuckler – wow. The power-level whiplash is pretty intense. From utter suck at level 1 to semi-suck at level 2 to wow-that’s-pretty-decent at level 3 to almost as much DPR as the warpriest using Power Attack on his greatsword at level 4? And it seems only to get moreso as she keeps going along. Right now, though, I’m mostly worried about her terrible, terrible saves. There is also the lesser but very real problem of deeds I can’t use because I refuse to give up precise strike, or they have awkward activation costs, take awkward situations to set up, or more. At the moment, I’m perfectly happy with her damage output, both where it is and where it’s going, but I feel like every resource I have is about to have to go to trying to shore up those terrible saves… and I hope she lives long enough for that to work. It’s also worth noting that any time I feel I have to make a PC human and use dual-talented to make the class work, that’s a sign of some serious MAD.
* Warren and Warner the warpriests – I don’t really hold Warren’s death against the class; anyone can roll a 3 on a save, and the yeth hound fight is notoriously brutal (just search the RotRL Obituaries thread for some examples). Otherwise, Warren was effective at his job, which was swinging a six-foot long piece of metal really hard into things. For pretty much the entirety of the AP so far, he’s been the damage standard I’ve been judging Sarah by, and it’s only since they hit level 4 that it’s even been a decent comparison. Frankly, it’s a good thing he was there, since someone needed to be able to dish out the hurt for those first few levels. The downsides have simply been that he’s not at all great at healing, and he’s frankly pretty boring to play. Bless or war mind on first round, then run in and start swinging. The amount of front-loading the class has is a bit ridiculous – why did Warren need Quick Draw at character creation anyway? – but more obnoxious for me is that it means there’s not a lot for him to do later. 3/4 BAB and no access to fighter-only feats means he’s going to have a lot of bonus feats he’ll be taking just random stuff with to fill the space.
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So here's where the group stands at the end of Burnt Offerings, before they start The Skinsaw Murders.
Arcadia
Female elf arcanist 4
Init +6; Senses low-light; Perception +6
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DEFENSE
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AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 11
(deflection +1, Dex +2)
hp 26 (4d6+8)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +5; +2 vs enchantments
Immune magic sleep
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee rapier +1 (1d6-1, 18-20/x2)
Ranged light crossbow +4 (1d8, 19-20/x2)
Special Attacks arcanist exploits (consume magic items, potent magic), consume spells
Spells Prepared (CL 4th, touch +1, ranged touch +4, concentration +7):
2nd (3/day) – glitterdust (DC 16)
1st (5/day) - color spray (DC 15), magic missile, mage armor
0 - acid splash, daze (DC 14), detect magic, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic
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STATISTICS
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Str 8 (-1), Dex 14 (+2), Con 12 (+1), Int 18 (+4), Wis 10 (+0), Cha 13 (+1)
Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 14
Feats Improved Initiative, Scribe Scroll
Skills Appraise +11, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +11, Knowledge (planes) +11, Perception +6, Spellcraft +11 (+13 to identify magic items); Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Goblin, Sylvan
SQ arcane reservoir (3 pts), elven magic
Combat Gear potion of cure moderate wounds, scroll of glide, scroll of glitterdust, scroll of magic weapon, scroll of resist energy; Other Gear rapier, light crossbow and 10 bolts, cloak of resistance +1, masterwork backpack, bedroll, everburning torch, flint and steel, runestone of power (1st), rations (x3), ring of protection +1, spellbook, spell component pouch, waterskin, 75 gp
Spellbook 0 – all; 1st – color spray, endure elements, enlarge person, expeditious retreat, identify, mage armor, magic missile, protection from evil, shield, sleep; 2nd – false life, glitterdust
Helen
Female half-orc hunter 4
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +8
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DEFENSE
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AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 17
(armor +5, Dex +1, shield +2)
hp 31 (4d8+8)
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +4
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee mw scimitar +8 (1d6+4, 18-20/x2) or
mw whip +8 (1d3+4 nonlethal, 20/x2)
Ranged javelin +4 (1d6+4, 20/x2)
Special Attacks animal focus 2/day, hunter tactics
Spells Prepared (CL 4th, touch +5, ranged touch +3, concentration +5):
2nd – barkskin, slipstream
1st - cure light wounds, magic fang (x2), produce flame
0 - detect magic, purify food and drink, read magic, stabilize
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STATISTICS
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Str 18 (+4), Dex 12 (+1), Con 13 (+1), Int 10 (+0), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 8 (-1)
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 18
Feats Diehard, Endurance, Nature Soul, Precise Strike
Skills Climb +5, Handle Animal +6 (+10 companion), Knowledge (nature) +9, Perception +9, Survival +11 (+13 tracking), Swim +7; armor check penalty -1; Racial Modifiers +2 Handle Animal
Languages Common, Orc
SQ animal companion (large cat), beastmaster, shaman’s apprentice, track +1, wild empathy +2 (-2 magical beasts)
Combat Gear flask of acid, flask of alchemist’s fire, scroll of aspect of the bear, scroll of flame blade; Other Gear masterwork scimitar, javelin (x3), masterwork whip, masterwork net, +1 klar (with masterwork spikes), +1 leather lamellar armor, cloak of resistance +1, druid’s kit, pearl of power (1st), 66 gp
Mountain Lion (Big Cat) Animal Companion
N Medium animal
Init +4; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +6
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DEFENSE
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AC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 13
(Dex +4, natural +3)
hp 30 (4d8+12)
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +3
Defensive Abilities evasion
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OFFENSE
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Spd 40 ft.
Melee bite +5 (1d6+2, 20/x2) and 2 claws +6 (1d4+2, 20/x2)
Special Attacks rake (1d4+2)
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STATISTICS
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Str 14, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 19
Feats Toughness, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Acrobatics +8 (+12 jumping), Perception +6, Stealth +8, Survival +6
SQ link, share spells, tricks (hunting general purpose, attack all enemies, flank)
Ivan
Male half-elf investigator 4
Init +6; Senses low-light vision; Perception +13
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DEFENSE
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AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14
(armor +4, Dex +2)
hp 24 (4d8+8)
Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +6; +2 vs enchantments and poisons
Defensive Abilities trap sense +1; Immune magical sleep
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee +1 sword cane +6 (1d6+1, 20/x2)
Ranged mw light crossbow +6 (1d8, 19-20/x2)
Special Attacks[/i] poison use, sneak attack +1d6
[b]Extracts Prepared (CL 4th):
2nd – invisibility (x2)
1st - cure light wounds, expeditious retreat, shield (x2)
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STATISTICS
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Str 10 (+0), Dex 14 (+2), Con 13 (+1), Int 18 (+4), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 8 (-1)
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 15
Feats Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +6, Craft (alchemy) +11 (+15 crafting alchemical items), Disable Device +12, Disguise +3, Intimidate +3, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Knowledge (local) +11, Knowledge (nature) +11, Knowledge (everything else) +4, Perception +13 (+15 finding traps), Sense Motive +8, Sleight of Hand +6, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +9; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Orc
SQ inspiration 8/day, investigator talents (underworld inspiration), keen recollection, swift alchemy, trapfinding +2
Combat Gear elixir of hiding, elixir of vision, potion of cure moderate wounds, potion of cure light wounds (x2), sunrod (x2); Other Gear +1 sword cane, masterwork light crossbow and 10 bolts, +1 studded leather armor, alchemy crafting kit, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, cloak of resistance +1, flint and steel, ink, inkpen, iron pot, mess kit, soap, trail rations (x2), waterskin, masterwork thieves’ tools, formula book, 106 gp
Formula Book 1st - comprehend languages, cure light wounds, disguise self, expeditious retreat, identify, shield, true strike; 2nd – invisibility
Sarah
Female human swashbuckler 4
Init +6; Senses Perception +7
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DEFENSE
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AC 22, touch 15, flat-footed 17
(armor +5, Dex +4, dodge +1, shield +2)
hp 36 (4d10+8)
Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +2; +1 vs fear
Defensive Abilities bravery +1, nimble +1
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee +1 rapier +10 (1d6+2, 18-20/x2, plus 4 precision) or
mw rapier +8 with Power Attack (1d6+6, 18-20/x2, plus 4 precision)
Ranged composite longbow +8 (1d8+1, 20/x3)
Special Attacks deeds (derring-do, menacing swordplay, opportune parry, precise strike, recovery, riposte, swashbuckler initiative), swashbuckler finesse
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STATISTICS
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Str 13 (+1), Dex 18 (+4), Con 12 (+1), Int 10 (+0), Wis 10 (+0), Cha 15 (+2)
Base Atk +4; CMB +5; CMD 20 (24 vs attacks on her rapier)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Skills Acrobatics +10, Climb +4, Diplomacy +9, Intimidate +7, Perception +7, Swim +4; armor check penalty -1.
Languages Common
SQ dual talented, panache (2 pts)
Combat Gear adamantine weapon blanch, flask of acid, flask of alchemist’s fire, potion of cure light wounds (x2), oil of magic weapon; Other Gear +1 rapier, composite (+1) longbow and 20 arrows, +1 chain shirt, +1 buckler, cloak of resistance +1, fighter’s kit, 20 gp
Warner
Male human warpriest of Gorum 4
Init +5; Senses Perception +2
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DEFENSE
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AC 19, touch 11, flat-footed 18
(armor +8, Dex +1)
hp 34 (4d8+12)
Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +7
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OFFENSE
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Spd 20 ft.
Melee +1 greatsword +9 (2d6+7, 19-20/x2) or
+1 greatsword +8 with Power Attack (2d6+10, 19-20/x2)
Ranged shortbow +4 (1d6, 20/x3)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 4/day (1d6, DC 11), minor blessings 5/day (strength surge +2, war mind), sacred weapon 4 rounds/day (+1)
Spells Prepared (CL 4th, touch +7, ranged touch +4, concentration +6):
2nd – bull’s strength, weapon of awe
1st - bless (x2), divine favor, shield of faith
0 - detect magic, guidance, read magic, stabilize
Blessings Strength, War
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STATISTICS
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Str 18 (+4), Dex 12 (+1), Con 13 (+1), Int 10 (+0), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 8 (-1)
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 18
Feats Extra Channeling, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Toughness, Weapon Focus (greatsword)
Skills Heal +9, Knowledge (religion) +7, Spellcraft +7; armor check penalty -5
Languages Common, Shoanti
SQ spontaneous casting
Combat Gear potion of cure light wounds, scroll of cure light wounds (x3); Other Gear +1 greatsword, shortbow and 20 arrows, +1 banded mail, cleric’s kit, cloak of resistance +1, pearl of power (1st), 4 gp
This was a pretty cool read! My RotRL group is only part way through Skinsaw Murders (with me as a player) so I'm probably not going to read much more of it, but it seems you are doing a pretty awesome job.
My only question I sort of have (as somebody who loves playing my Wizard in RotRL)is why have you had Alice/Arcadia use the scrolls that she has come across throughout the AP instead of inscribing them in her spellbook? Personally I feel that is one of the strengths of the spellbook using classes. Being able to add to their repertoire throughout the adventure. Same with Ivan for that matter and his formulas.
Regardless on my thoughts on that matter I do think this is a pretty great read & playtest. Kudos!
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My only question I sort of have (as somebody who loves playing my Wizard in RotRL)is why have you had Alice/Arcadia use the scrolls that she has come across throughout the AP instead of inscribing them in her spellbook? Personally I feel that is one of the strengths of the spellbook using classes. Being able to add to their repertoire throughout the adventure. Same with Ivan for that matter and his formulas.
Well, she only did it once, with the scroll of burning hands that she used against the goblin dogs. The other scroll that got used was by Helen.
Honestly, though, you're right - I should probably be accounting for that element, particularly since she and Ivan could have added some choice items from Lyrie's spellbook to their respective tomes. But ultimately, I haven't been bothering because both of them are so limited in what they can actually prepare that it almost doesn't matter what they have in their spellbooks. Burning hands is a pretty terrible spell for the most part - although with potent magic Arcadia might have been able to get some decent use out of it at first level (I should keep that in mind for post-revision feedback...); even if she added it to her spellbook, Arcadia's not terribly likely to prepare it at this point, because she has to choose her best three 1st-level spells - and frankly, burning hands doesn't make the cut. Combine that with the fairly wide-ranging supply of spells she's already got, and I haven't been making a big deal out of it. Ivan is in a similar position.
But still, you're right about the impact it could theoretically have, especially since Arcadia might well end up taking Eldritch Heritage to get an arcane bond, at which point it will matter a lot which spells Arcadia has in her book...
More!, when will we have more?