My Wed night group decided to try the new Hi-Bred classes and we began last night. We had a Bloodrager, Slayer, Investigator, and 2 Arcanists.
I should note my Wed nite group has played together for some time, supports and backs up each other, and usually melds tactics to make themselves more effective. They play quite a bit better than the casual groups assembled at Game stores, conventions, and the like.
We ran through Slave Pits of Absalom, which took us from about 7:10 PM to about 9:50 PM that night. After giving out chronicles we sat around discussion the new classes. Everyone enjoyed the class they made up and were looking for feats and other ways to tweak it to improve it. They may post their individual opinions on the forums, their choice, but for the GM's overall assessment is as follows:
Both Arcanists and the Investigator held their own and once or twice the Investigator's skills came in real handy.
The Slayer was a real dynamo as an Archer, pulling 2 or 3 times his weight.
The
Bloodrager operated more like a Barbarian than anything else, using a great sword, and when he hit ended fights quickly. He got a Crit in the last battle on Captain Gnarl doing over 20 points in damage and ending the battle very quickly.
The only real problem I saw was a lack of healing. The player who ran the Slayer originally wanted to run a Warpriest, but was not able to sort through the rules for that class properly and decided to try the Slayer instead. One of the Arcanists has decided switch to a Cleric, or the Warpriest, if she can figure the new class out, so we'll have healing when we begin Murder's Mark next Wednesday.