RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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Objective: Ran a test with 4-09 Blakros Matrimony with a 4 Vigilante party. This was chosen specifically because it is a social adventure that includes a couple interesting combats. All characters were created at level 7 with 23,500 in equipment, and were all Cheliax based characters.
The Tiller (Halfling Avenger 7)
ShadowWalker (Half-elf Stalker 7)
The Mad Bomber(Human Warlock 7)
The Dawnbringer (Human Zealot 7)
I divided the module into 3 parts and the test actually did all 3 parts of that module in both social and vigilante modes. This allowed us to do "what if" scenarios for what would happen if the characters are in the wrong mode for the wrong scene. (We actually played through the whole thing once, then did each part individually in the opposite mode.)
Social/Diplomatic Scenes -
Social - The all social party was almost perfect. You hardly could ask for a party that didn't fit better. Everyone had good diplomacy (not great, since charisma was secondary to all characters) and an array of other skills, so they were able to make friends and influence people well. We had 2 of the four with +4 diplomacy making it even better.
Vigilante - All vigilante was almost as good, with the only real difference being 2 characters not getting +4 diplomacy. Everyone was still very solid at making friends, so it was still very heavy success for this aspect of the module.
Investigation/Combat
Social - This party was good at investigating due to having 4 high skill characters. Most relevant skills were covered, with backups for many key skills. However, combat resulted in 2 PC's in negative HP (but not dead). The party very average in combat. It was a 4v4 fight, with 3 mooks and a boss on the other side. I think the big issue, was that the mooks were all lower level, but hit more often and had more HP than the PC's. (Fortunately the mooks don't hit that hard or it would be uglier.) The boss clearly outclassed the PC's. He easily could have killed on a critical hit, and he almost managed to beat down all four PC's.
Vigilante - This fight went much better, but still was a rough fight. There was still an issue that the enemies hit more often, and the boss was still relatively strong, in spite of his ridiculous build. The stalker went down (died), but nobody else went below half HP in the battle. Before dying, the stalker was absolutely amazing in the first round of combat exploding on one of the mooks.
Final Combat
Social - This was a flat out TPK. The enemies were strong, and the characters really had no answers to compete. The Avenger was the only one hitting consistently, and the other characters were missing their gimiicks to be useful in combat. 3/4 BAB just wasn't enough to contribute.
Vigilante - Much better fight, but was still tough. Had one death again (Zealot this time, due to a nasty pounce), and still came close to another one. Stalker was less impressive this time due to the parties being the ambushies instead of the ambushers in this encounter. Warlock was far less useful due to bombs and bolts being poor damage types for the encounter, but the avenger was able to keep most of the party alive.
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Honest question. (just speculation)
What do you think would have been different if all 4 had instead played Rogues, Bards, or Investigators (or mixed and matched) instead? Particularly in the Social aspects? All three have similar skill options and base proficiencies.
Also, something I have been noticing with a lot of the playtest is that it's very common to have the entire party all be Vigilantes, often with a one of each sort of grouping.
What, do you think might have been different, (better or worse) if it was a more mixed party, or even just one Vigilante?
The reason I ask is I'm also in a PFS Playtest with 6 Vigilantes, but as a PbP it is not over yet, and I'm wondering if (obviously depending on the group) having less Vigilantes would help highlight them or make them feel like a 5th wheel.
If you have time, do you think you could rerun the Social and Vigilante version of one of the encounters with only one or 2 Vigilantes in a 4 or 5 person version?
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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Honest question. (just speculation)
What do you think would have been different if all 4 had instead played Rogues, Bards, or Investigators (or mixed and matched) instead? Particularly in the Social aspects? All three have similar skill options and base proficiencies.
We have done at least a half dozen tables of this module in my area. I never recall any deaths at all. Most parties could do "good enough" in the social aspects. This group had a 20% advantage over anyone with 14 CHA and no investment in diplomacy other than maxing skill points in it. Bards would close the gap, since they likely have higher Charisma, but a +4 bonus is really pretty significant, so the vigilante has an advantage.
The reason I ask is I'm also in a PFS Playtest with 6 Vigilantes, but as a PbP it is not over yet, and I'm wondering if (obviously depending on the group) having less Vigilantes would help highlight them or make them feel like a 5th wheel.
I actually picked this scenario specifically because of the social design. EVERY character in the party needs to contribute to the social aspects. A face can't carry the party, because they can only be in so many places at once. So our 4 vigilantes all got a chance to show off their diplomacy skills. To be honest the end result was that they had succeeded on every single diplomatic goal in the scenario with time to twiddle their thumbs at the end because they simply didn't need more time.)
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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The next possible playtest is something being theorycrafted for an encounter now...with 12th level play. We are considering redoing a couple encounters replacing rogue levels with stalker levels on all NPC's. Just need to figure out how to do it without spoiling things.