Should PCs be level 2 or 3? I keep hearing how everyone has had trouble with that fight and it sounds brutal-but that may be half the point and what makes the fight cool and exciting. My question is, is it better to give the cushion of being level 3? Or does that make it too easy?
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I haven't run It yet.
I have four players, built well and following the wealth from gear drops in the AP.
I will absolutely be making sure they are level 3 before they fight Mr Fighty McGnashyteeth at the end.
At level 2, our toughest character will have 14 stamina and 22 HP. That's not going to last long, especially if they have a fight or two before running into this thing (which is how it looks like playing out in all honesty).
At level three that goes to 21 Stamina and 33 HP. Which is much more likely to survive a few more rounds. That will make it a tough fight as opposed to a TPK.
At level three the parties damage output will not be much higher than level 2 either, so the fight is likely to run just as long.
I haven't run it yet, but I try not to throw anything at my players with a CR greater than APL+2, so I will certainly make sure the party hits level 3 before dealing with the Garaggakal. It should still be fairly challenging.
On a related note, I need to figure out when to take the party from level 1 to 2 (we level by milestone, not by XP), since I want them to be at level 2 before hitting the Acreon's bridge, but I'm not sure what order they'll explore the ship in. I'm thinking right after the starship battle, but I'm not settled on that yet.
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I haven't run it yet, but I try not to throw anything at my players with a CR greater than APL+2,
Note, following is a general comment and not specific to this end boss (haven't read the Adventure Path).
CR is, at best, a VERY vague and imprecise indication of power level. I've run the four SFS scenarios and they all have a CR 3 encounter. One of these is, IMO, markedly harder than the others. I'd have personally put it as at least CR 4, maybe CR5.
Don't just look at the CR of a monster. Look at what it can actually do and whether your party has appropriate ways to deal with its powers.
I've settled on my decision that the PCs are going to be Level 3 right before tackling the big bad boss. At best, I hedge my bets to give them every possible chance to avoid a TPK. Since they will be level 2 upon boarding the Acreon, it will be enough evenly-space between levels to not frustrate the feel of progress for them.
At worst, I can always gift the monster 1 or 2 extra resolve points to make him a more challenging foe if the PCs are having an absolutely cakewalk with it. That way, I don't have to artificially boost AC or hit points and throw him too far out of whack with the published stats. In this way, monster resolve points are an excellent extra dial to control challenge level on a monster without throwing it out of whack.
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I ran it with my PCs at 2, and they haven't had the easiest time with many of the other fights already (no deaths yet, but plenty of times 2 of the 4 have been unconscious). This fight ran a bit more smoothly. The tactics do not have it staying in melee combat 100% of the time, and it will also leave with a decent number of hit points left. It is a tough fight, but they made it through. Probably would have breezed through it pretty easily at level 3 given that a lot of classes get a decent bump in power at that level.
Level 3 Soldier with a Pulsecaster Rifle (level 1 weapon) can hit this thing for 1.5x(1d6+3) or an average of 18-19 per full attack.
Combine that with a team of level 3's and this thing can be burned down so fast.
Example:
18 avg from Soldier Pulsecaster Rifle
21 avg from Shocking Burst (technomancer)Alone this drops the thing by 39 HP in one round. Easily allowing a group of level 3's to kill it in 2 rounds.
If they hit it. a full attack soldier is rolling at +5 to hit at best when making a full attack (assuming highest stat boost and some feat to max hit potential).
That means he only hits 30% of the time.
Which means three rounds of full attacks will hit twice. So it takes three full rounds to do the 18-19 damage you're mentioning above. Unless you're very lucky on the dice.
This thing can drop a player in that time.
You're scenario also assumes electricity damage being thrown at it. This is not very likely given what's dropped in the game and what weapons are cheap to purchase in the early levels of game play.
You're also assuming a technomancer.
So, while it is possible to kill this thing in two rounds, it's highly unlikely.
I suspect the majority of combats against it to last 4 to 6 rounds, just like the rest of the game. And it will be a very arduous 4 to 6 rounds too.
We dropped it with a 2nd level party and nobody unconscious, killing it before it could flee. Envoy, 2 melee, 1 electric-ranged Operative.
Its tactics are that bad, so bad that our GM apologized when moving the pawn. But he ran it as written because he felt it was hardwired into the writing for balance. I agree because we had to hit it a whole lot and 2 hits could drop us (3 with Envoy boost). There were so many opportunity attacks that we nibbled it like piranhas. With the damage boost for being 3rd, I can't imagine the creature threatening the party in any "End Boss of first AP, Book 1" kind of way unless the GM altered the tactics and I'm not sure even then.
If you feel you need to fudge, please don't do it by leveling up the PCs to 3rd. Assuming that they rest because they're leveling, that would make the fight too easy (unless they're new to RPGs or otherwise under average).
I suspect the damage from the trap (added to the strength damage from before) is supposed to encourage the party to rest, which a GM could nudge the party toward doing. We didn't set off the trap, used items to heal the strength damage, and had no spellcasters to recharge so were near full strength other than Resolve.