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Prior to the NPC Codex, Harsk did not have rapid reload. When that book came out and the Organized Play team spent time getting all the pregens from that book all whipped up for play, they did a remake of Harsk. I don't recall all the changes made, but rapid reload was added at that time.I finally work up the intestinal fortitude to read the "lousy pregen" thread and it's complaining about YOON??
Yoon's pretty darn good. I think the spell penetration feat's just there to keep her from being too optimized relative to what a player's unique character might have. One of the goals of the pregens, I thought, was to be competent but to still give players an incentive to create and customize their own players.
Likewise with Amiri, the Large bastard sword isn't optimal and she suffers for it, but she's still a two-handed-weapon barbarian.
Harsk, on the other hand... sure, if people want to play a round of Harsktoberfest that's fine, but I've seen too many new players give up on Pathfinder because they picked a bad pregen and couldn't directly apply damage to their enemies and feel useless. Harsk is one of those pregens. At least he has rapid reload now.
"At least he has rapid reload now." ???
Is there a version out there where he didn't have rapid reload? My printed pregen copies are kind of old and he has it in those... was he updated after he was first released to give him rapid reload? Did he have something else before? What?
NPC Codex was published in October 2012 and that version of Harsk has Rapid Reload.
The NPC Codex only had level 1, 7, and 12 pregens, and I believe they were built on the 15 point buy. For several months, we were allowed to use the level 1 and 7 pregens from the NPC Codex for PFS Play. I don't recall if it was the new Guide release in January of 2013 or Gen Con of 2013 when we got the level 4 pregens and the 20 point buy versions of the NPC Codex pregens.
My records of my pregen downloads (my Old Pregens folder) only shows Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard pregens. But I played a level 7 Harsk in Song of the Sea Witch on 2/9/13 and I do not recall him having Rapid Reload at the time.
Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville
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I would agree with the notion of steering new players away from some of the pregens that are not up to par. This would include Harsk (Heavy Crossbow, as mentioned), Reiko (Con 10 for a mainly melee character trying to get sneak? Really?), Hayato (Weapons that are unusual and no explaination of the Reach quality... Oh, wait, I have a horse?) and The Red Raven (more due to the class and secret id's rather than build).
The Ninja is my bane for new players, more of them have died playing her than any other.
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Well, that's because more than one ninja has been played.
Haven't had a chance to look at Aric yet.
Hayato seemed pretty solid.
I haven't seen a lot of the other pregens, but Valeros with that TWF 'build' is more painful imo than Harsk. I've run him once, and I used the loose change to buy him a shield. It ended up saving the party.
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I would agree with the notion of steering new players away from some of the pregens that are not up to par. This would include Harsk (Heavy Crossbow, as mentioned), Reiko (Con 10 for a mainly melee character trying to get sneak? Really?), Hayato (Weapons that are unusual and no explaination of the Reach quality... Oh, wait, I have a horse?) and The Red Raven (more due to the class and secret id's rather than build).
The Ninja is my bane for new players, more of them have died playing her than any other.
Having run over 200 quests that use pregens only over 4 years at PAX East.... Hayato is fine, as long as you mention the horse to the player at the begining of the scenario. The lvl 1 shaman is the only pregen we don't even put on the table. (We have copies in case people ask for them, and I even ran a group of 5x lvl 1 shamans last year because they wanted 'hard mode').
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Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville
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To me, Valeros is merely sub par rather than outright "lousy." I think he is playable and solid enough for the newbie to use, and a veteran can forgo the TWF to get a better chance to hit.
The thing about the horse, a lot of the time PFS goes into areas where the Horse is left behind when going into tight spaces. I also had a rough experience when we had a late night ambush and the pregen was spending ten rounds putting on armor.
Haven't taken a real hard look at the Shaman, she hardly ever gets looked at when choosing.
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From what I've gathered with the 1st level Shaman pregen, she's pretty weak. Her spells per day are limted because she's balanced around having hexes. However, Hexes don't kick in until level 2. Her default setup of prepped spells are situational utility. Also, unlike most 3/4 BAB casters, both her strength AND her dexterity are low, meaning she has no fallback option in combat.
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From what I've gathered with the 1st level Shaman pregen, she's pretty weak. Her spells per day are limted because she's balanced around having hexes. However, Hexes don't kick in until level 2. Her default setup of prepped spells are situational utility. Also, unlike most 3/4 BAB casters, both her strength AND her dexterity are low, meaning she has no fallback option in combat.
Shaman gets the same spells as a cleric though. The list is balanced around having hexes not the amount of spells you can cast. Its exactly the same.
Generally as a DM I will leave at home any pregens that take up more than one side of the page. The last thing I need is a new player who decides to take the 'coolest' PC who also happens to have the most complicated rules system.
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From what I've gathered with the 1st level Shaman pregen, she's pretty weak. Her spells per day are limted because she's balanced around having hexes. However, Hexes don't kick in until level 2. Her default setup of prepped spells are situational utility. Also, unlike most 3/4 BAB casters, both her strength AND her dexterity are low, meaning she has no fallback option in combat.Shaman gets the same spells as a cleric though. The list is balanced around having hexes not the amount of spells you can cast. Its exactly the same.
Well Shaman, Clerics, and Wizards all have the same spells per day. However, Clerics get an extra domain slot for every spell level and Wizards get a school specialization slot for every level.
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Well Shaman, Clerics, and Wizards all have the same spells per day. However, Clerics get an extra domain slot for every spell level and Wizards get a school specialization slot for every level.From what I've gathered with the 1st level Shaman pregen, she's pretty weak. Her spells per day are limted because she's balanced around having hexes. However, Hexes don't kick in until level 2. Her default setup of prepped spells are situational utility. Also, unlike most 3/4 BAB casters, both her strength AND her dexterity are low, meaning she has no fallback option in combat.Shaman gets the same spells as a cleric though. The list is balanced around having hexes not the amount of spells you can cast. Its exactly the same.
and shamans get a spirit magic slot every spell level.