Party Composition for the Playtest

[Lord Fyre]

What kinds of characters are people running in the playtest? (Just to get a feel of which options are popular, and which are being ignored by the player base.)

[Laik]

We used a combo of
- human paladin of Iomedae (with shield, rather tanky),
- wild order dwarf druid (at 1st level, it is primarily a cantrip caster hiding behind a shield in most cases)
- elven alchemist (counts as the group's archer, since alchemy is not a sustanable thing to use in coimbat every round)
- goblin dragon-bloodlined fire sorcerer (seemed thematically good with ancestry feats, proved to be surprisingly weak except for the very useful magic missiles)

[schattenstern]

We had:
-Animal companion focussed druid (halfling)
-Archer Fighter (Elf)
-"Battle" Cleric (dwarf)
-Rogue (goblin)

[Talutah]

Human Ranger with Wolf Companion and Double Slice (rapier, short sword)
Half-Elf Cleric of Shelyn
Dwarf Druid with Bear Companion from Animal Order (ray of frost all star)
Gnome Sorceress (Brass Dragon Blood) (2x burning hands, lots of produce flame)

[Ngai M'katu]

Chapter 1, we had:

Dwarven Wizard (Dwarven waraxe and Rays of Frost, Hooooooooooooooo!)
Human Bard
Human Ranger (Crossbow Ace)
Goblin Alchemist (Who used no bombs until the last two encounters)

Chapter 2 is looking like:

??? Druid
Half-Orc Barbarian
Half-Elf Cleric
??? Rogue

[Freagarthach]

There are at least 4 Animal Companion Druids in the feedback posted here so far, so it looks like people are interested in trying out that concept and the mechanics involved.

As one of those 4, I have to say that Druids, Gnomes, and Animal Companions are all incredibly fun and mechanically sound. I am really enjoying both the concepts and their instantiation so far.

[Talutah]

we learned that you have to be very careful with your animal companion. they have a very low AC and with most level 0 creatures having a +6 to attack, they seem to get crit quite a lot. That in conjunction with slightly lower hitpoints lead to a large amount of healing the animals.

my players started leaving their animal companions back for the first round of combat so that the enemies would be engaged and not focus on them. once the enemies are occupied, the animal companions could get in for flanking and triggering the Work Together state.

[Freagarthach]

On the other hand, as an Animal Order Druid, I can Heal Animal my Animal Companion twice as much at first level (4 times) as I have Heal for party members (2 slots devoted).

With more non-animal team members to worry about with fewer healing resources available, I feel like the incoming damage being greater for the companions is offset somewhat by the Spell points ability built in from the start.

How teams deploy and their expectations for fight dynamics will affect player perceptions on this by a significant degree, I suspect.

[dragonhunterq]

Chapter 1 with me as GM I have
Goblin barbarian
Goblin alchemist
dwarf cleric
1/2 elf fighter
human storm druid

The game I get to play I will be playing a dwarf animal druid (test both ACs and resonance). The only other player I'm sure of in that will be playing a primal sorceror.

[Symar]

My party for chapter one consists of two sorcerers, a bard, and a druid. Despite my urgings to the contrary. They've struggled with more encounters than I see other groups struggling with, but haven't died yet.

[Lord Fyre]

Symar wrote:

My party for chapter one consists of two sorcerers, a bard, and a druid. Despite my urgings to the contrary. They've struggled with more encounters than I see other groups struggling with, but haven't died yet.

They lack a proper "tank" and, while it helps, under PF II rules, the animal companion doesn't quite fill in.

[ENHenry]

Our “Lost Star” party:
- Dwarf Universalist Wizard (me)
- human fighter (great-weapon power attacking)
- elf rogue (merisiel playtest with serial numbers filed off)
- elf ranger with hawk pet
- dwarf cleric

Everyone enjoyed their characters immensely. The only complain anyone really had was that we were all in amazement with the ranger’s hawk buddy - the thing did a 1d6 damage with its beak (or as one player put it, “the damned thing has a SHORT SWORD for a BEAK!”) we found between that and his bow attacks he got pretty amazing results.

[Sarxs]

We had:

Human Cleric of Saranrae (me)
Goblin Barbarian (Giant Totem, which is hilarious in concept)
Human Wizard (Enchanter)
Elf Rogue

Our enchanter felt a little bit useless since they were more focused on social encounters and part 1 is mostly a dungeon crawl, but I believe everyone had fun.

[EberronHoward]

For TLS, I gave out Dwarf Fighter (2 handed weapon), Goblin Rogue (crossbow and teeth), Elf Wizard (Universalist), and Human Cleric (Reach weapon) pre-gens.

For the upcoming Rose Street Revenge, I'm giving out Human Fighter (Reach), Elf Rogue (Bludgeon), Dwarf Druid (Animal), and Gnome Bard (Polymath).

[Thebazilly]

I'm the GM, but here's what my players have whipped up so far. I'll list the characters in the same player order every time.

Part 1:
Dwarf Fighter (two weapon)
Half-Elf Paladin (Shelyn)
Halfling Bard (Polymath)
Human Cleric (Sarenrae)

Part 2:
Goblin Barbarian (Animal Totem, bear)
Goblin Monk (Tiger Stance)
Gnome Druid (Storm Order)
Gnome Druid (Animal Order, badger companion)

[DoomedDruid]

I'll follow Thebazilly's formatting of player order staying the same.

For part 1 my players had:
Human Fighter (Sword & Shield)
Dwarf Cleric (melee, Torag)
Half-Elf Rogue (Short Sword / Shortbow depending on circumstances)
Gnome Sorcerer (fey bloodline with familiar ancestry)

For part 2 my players have:
Dwarf Ranger (Crossbow & Animal Companion (Cat))
Half-Orc Barbarian (Fury Totem, Glaive, Intimidation)
Gnome Bard (Maestro)
Elf Druid (Storm Order, Savage Slice (Scimitar), no companion)

[CharlieIAm]

Lost Star party of five:

Burnie Cinders, Goblin Sorcerer (Primal)
Clive Aethelwolf, Human Paladin of Erastil (Sword & Board)
Kento, Human Fighter (Ranseur)
Lanxim Greenglass, Gnome Cleric of Cayden Cailean
Voydra, Goblin Sorcerer (Arcane, Draconic)

[Shisumo]

Lost Star party:

Dwarf imperial sorcerer
Dwarf bard
Human cleric of Gorum
Dwarf paladin of Shelyn (first session only)
Half-elf ranger (second session only)

[Hugolinus]

Our Lost Star group consisted of:

• A strong goblin barbarian of the dragon totem

• A wolf-stance gnome monk who loved animals

• A well-armored dwarf cleric of Torag

• An unarmored sleazy gnome rogue

• A lightly armored Irissen halfling ranger with a polar bear cub and a longbow

[Ngai M'katu]

Finishing up Chapter 2 and starting Chapter 3 on Sunday.

Chapter 2:
Half-Orc Barbarian
Half-Elf Cleric
Dwarven Druid
Human Rogue

Chapter 3:
Human Cleric
Dwarven Cleric
Human Paladin
Human Fighter/Cleric multi-class

[Shinigami02]

Our Act 1 party
- Elf Monk, Strength-based with Dragon Totem, very fast (me)
- Human Barbarian, Spirit Totem
- Halfling Cleric of Desna, Travel Domain, Primary Healer (mostly through Channels, doesn't actually Prepare Heal)
- Human Bard, Maestro, Secondary Healer and spends most of his time spamming Inspire Courage and Telekinetic Projectile

To date I've gone down twice, the Bard once, and the Cleric once, all of which were negated with Hero Points (we're using a checkpoint system for "sessions" since it's PbP). We're still in the middle of Act 1, but our GM wants us to have our Act 2 characters ready before we get there so what we know so far of that:

- Gnome Druid of the Storm, strong Blasting and a minor in Healing (1 prepped in each spell level and a Staff of Healing,) also has a Panther companion (me again)
- Dwarf Ranger. Don't know much about it but I think it has a Badger companion (the Act 1 Cleric's player)

[breithauptclan]

We have a paladin, a ranger, a rogue, and a bard.

[Thebazilly]

Thebazilly wrote:

I'm the GM, but here's what my players have whipped up so far. I'll list the characters in the same player order every time.

Part 1:
Dwarf Fighter (two weapon)
Half-Elf Paladin (Shelyn)
Halfling Bard (Polymath)
Human Cleric (Sarenrae)

Part 2:
Goblin Barbarian (Animal Totem, bear)
Goblin Monk (Tiger Stance)
Gnome Druid (Storm Order)
Gnome Druid (Animal Order, badger companion)

We're on to Part 3!

Human Cleric (Abadar)
Human Sorcerer (Angelic bloodline)
Human Fighter (bastard sword, Intimidation)
Elf Paladin (Irori)

[Laik]

Thebazilly wrote:

We're on to Part 3!
Human Cleric (Abadar)
Human Sorcerer (Angelic bloodline)
Human Fighter (bastard sword, Intimidation)
Elf Paladin (Irori)

For part 3:

"All other characters should be of classes
capable of healing to some extent, such
as bard, druid, paladin, or a sorcerer that
uses divine spells." (p.35)

How does your fighter fit into it?

[vestris]

Part 1:

- Halfling Rogue
- Halfling Paldin of Desna with a starknife
- Human Alchemist
- Human Rogue (player left after the quasits due to lack of time)
- Dwarfen Ranger with badger animal companion and a dwarfen battle axe

Part 2:

- Gnome Druid Wildshape
- Half Orc Dragon Totem Barbarian
- Elf Divine Sorceror
- Halfling Ranger two weapon fighting

[Lyee]

Cleric, Cleric, Cleric, and Wildshape Druid that uses all their spell slots on healing.

Due to the power of healing and clerics especially, it is a very easy playtest.

[vestris]

Part 3:

I only ran the encounters with a group controlled by myself to get a feeling for the difficulty.

- Half Elven Paladin of Shelyn with a Glaive
- Human Cleric of Iomedae
- Human Druid Wild Order
- Dwarfen Ranger Two weapon fighting

I broke the party creation rules on purpose to see if less healers can work. Obviously I knew that multiple encounters would happen without rest and how they were structured I tried to mostly ignore it but bias was certainly there.

However the group defeated all the encounters with relative ease.

[Balsamic Dragon]

The groups I have run for (so far) have been:

Goblin Sorcerer (Abyssal)
Goblin Monk
Human Cleric (Sarenrae)
Halfling Rogue

Human Fighter
Half-Elven Druid
Elven Rogue
Goblin Barbarian
Human Sorcerer (Fey)

The next group is looking like:

Halfling Wizard
Goblin Rogue
some sort of Bard
some sort of Cleric or Paladin

[Travis Enright]

Lord Fyre wrote:

What kinds of characters are people running in the playtest? (Just to get a feel of which options are popular, and which are being ignored by the player base.)

Four Sorcerers,

Two Arcane (Imperial, Draconic),
Two Divine (Angelic, Demonic)

All take Fighter Dedication 2nd level
Arcane use Bastard Swords, two-handed, with True Strike and Magical Striker.
Divine use Composite Shortbows with Heal and Magical Striker.

With Crafting, and selling two staffs from starting 3rd level treasure everyone can afford a +1 Magical weapon.

The party one-rounded Henah, on top of having up to 16 castings of Heal available, not all of which were used.

[Snickersnax]

Part 1:

Dwarven Alchemist
Goblin Bard
Half-orc Fighter
Half-elven Sorcerer

Part 2:

Human warhorse-mounted Paladin of Iomedae
Elven divination Wizard
Half-elven leaf Druid
Halfling intimidation/dread striker Rogue

Part 3:

Human Cleric of Iomedae with fighter Archetype
Elven angelic Sorcerer archer
Human Cleric of Desna
Human Cleric of Serenrae

[arrnfaern]

Part 1: all level 1

Half Elf Fey Sorcerer
Gnome Arcane Wizard
Halfing Rogue
Human Fighter
Elf Monk
Human Cleric NPC

3rd encounter: getting wiped out by level 0 creatures

[Damanta]

Part 1: (level 1)
Human Fighter, Half-elf Rogue, Gnome Bard, Gnome Cleric of Shelyn

Part 2: (level 4)
Dwarf Ranger, Dwarf Druid, Human Barbarian, Human Cleric of Erastil

Part 3: (level 7)
Human Cleric of Sarenrae, Cleric, Paladin of Iomedea, Divine Sorcerer (don't know the races of the other players yet, we're playing it next week).

Part 4: (level 9, upgraded level 1 party)
Human Grey Maiden Fighter, Half-elf Rogue Wizard MC, Gnome Bard, Gnome Cleric of Shelyn

The party composition for part 5 (level 12) and part 6 (level 14) hasn't been decided yet.

[Synashi]

For Part 1, the party is level 1, and human

Two-Handed Fighter

Sword and Board Cleric of Sarenrae

Evocation Wizard

Archer Rogue

Almost wiping to every single encounter because it seems like attack bonuses are too low. Fighter has a +5 to hit (Str +3 and Prof +2). Does that seem correct? If so, then perhaps my dice are just cursed or the level 0 creatures are too difficult to hit.

[Laik]

Synashi wrote:

Almost wiping to every single encounter because it seems like attack bonuses are too low. Fighter has a +5 to hit (Str +3 and Prof +2). Does that seem correct? If so, then perhaps my dice are just cursed or the level 0 creatures are too difficult to hit.

Str+3 looks suspicious because the game is balanced about every character having 18 (mod +4) in their main class stat after ability generation process. While it is technically possible to make a character with a lower main stat, with the current game mechanics it is strongly unadvisable.

[Shisumo]

Synashi wrote:

For Part 1, the party is level 1, and human

Two-Handed Fighter

Sword and Board Cleric of Sarenrae

Evocation Wizard

Archer Rogue

Almost wiping to every single encounter because it seems like attack bonuses are too low. Fighter has a +5 to hit (Str +3 and Prof +2). Does that seem correct? If so, then perhaps my dice are just cursed or the level 0 creatures are too difficult to hit.

Fighters are the only class that can even have an attack bonus higher than +5 at 1st level, so yeah, that's about correct.

For comparison, only three enemies and the dungeon boss in "The Lost Star" have ACs higher than 14, so I am guessing that it's an issue of not rolling great.