So I'm getting ready to start DD next Saturday with my group and I've been reading about all the innocent adventurers' lives claimed by The Lost Star already... and this had me wondering - how ARE you suppose to proceed in case of TPK in the first part?
Not only because of subsequent parts in which the same PCs would be featured, but also because of the feedback. In case of a party that gets TPKd early in the game, we won't be able to answer some parts of the survey. Do we reset the party and go into the fray again in case of TPK?
I did slice down a Bard on my first crit, but as long as the players play vaguely smart I don't see TPK being too likely to happen - my guys handled most of the dungeon rather fine (except for the last massive beating from the trap, the gobs, and the spells - you know what I'm talking about) and then took a break to rest back at Keleri's place before continuing. And the group's only healing is a Dwarf Cleric's 2 channels, none of which went as area.
They'll be fine.
...if anything maybe point out to Bards that they don't have Heal but they have Soothe. We spent a few days lamenting the bard's loss of healing spells before noticing. Spells need a brief description.
HOWEVER.
I just realised I gave that suggestion without noting a very important detail:
The guys got hella lucky and had the non-good Alchemist retrieve the statue. They also backed the hell away from the centipedes, never tried to drink the water, and recognised the mushrooms well enough to not walk into it.
If they skip 70% of the rooms as they should since they contain absolutely nothing but trouble, the adventure gets much easier. There are only 3 encounter that are mandatory to finish the adventure.
Although DD1 doesn't mention if there's a travel time subtracted for the pilgrimage, the party has 7 days before the festival. That's quite a lot of time to rest and return.
If the players think they have to push through in one go, then yes, that could lead to a TPK pretty easily. The PCs do know they have time, so reminding the players of what their PCs know wouldn't be too wonky.
Also, shields.
Huge difference. Don't face weapons w/ the Deadly or Lethal traits without them!
My group was TPKd after deciding to push onward when resting was an obvious choice. We are doing a full restart with new characters and a better understanding of the mechanics and playtest rules.
So basically you ran the dungeon a second time? Did you weave it into the narrative somehow (i.e. Keleri sent a second group of her acquaintances to look for the first) or simply pushed the "reset" button and sent the second group in as if it had been the first?
My thoughts if we were to TPK (which we still might) would be to have the PCs make new characters and have THOSE characters be the ones to thread through the remaining adventures. If they lose those characters in later adventures I'd give them the option of leveling up one of their other one-shot characters and having them show up again, or else roll up new ones. It shouldn't be a huge deal. They need only be members of the secret society in order to proceed. These protagonists aren't the Chosen Ones, they're just the PCs that happen to be doing this adventure.
If they skip 70% of the rooms as they should since they contain absolutely nothing but trouble, the adventure gets much easier. There are only 3 encounter that are mandatory to finish the adventure.
I mean you can say that about a lot of dungeons in APs/modules but how does the team know just what to skip?
Tbh i have the habit of altering dungeons during rest or if characters take downtime activities (anything longer than 10 minutes). I like keeping my players on edge and making my world seem more realistic.
However, doomsday dawn does not do that and for testing purposes it will not happen. I will note how many times players need to recharge batteries and that’s it. I’m going easy on them. For now.
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It sounds like the 15 minute adventuring day might be alive and well, at least at level 1.
Absolutely, and I do not see it going away either. There already is another thread that the only way to avoid it is a positive energy cleric, as nothing else comes even close to the necessary healing power. Resonance made so even dropping extra healing potions don't help.
On that note someone playing a Cleric of Sarenrae who chooses the Healing domain will be the MVP.
On that note someone playing a Cleric of Sarenrae who chooses the Healing domain will be the MVP.
Pharasma's the only other choice for that domain, but a Cleric whose anathema includes grave robbing might have a tough time in your average party of murder hobos. :)
Given how vital healing appears to be in this edition, I hope they expand that domain choice to a few more deities. Please keep those surveys coming!
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My party made it through with one rest, doing so just after the first goblin encounter. They made the right choice then despite not actually taking that much damage because they'd burned nearly all of their resources to execute a sneak attack on the goblins, thanks to some poor rolling on my part it worked but if they'd decided to go on they'd have been brutally murdered by the second goblin encounter.
Actually even with full HP and all their resources they still almost lost two when one of the players newer to Pathfinder decided it would be a good idea to throw bottled lightning at some goblins while blocking the stairway leaving himself, and our crazed scythe wielding Fighter as the only viable targets, him being an alchemist meant he didn't exactly have the armor, or damage, to drop three goblins before they mauled him to zero, thankfully our cleric still had healing left and was able to put out 2d8 with her extra class feat (Human; natural ambition). The party Wizard and Paladin eventually saved they day by managing to get a summoned dog down, smart against goblins, and in the case of the Paladin, actually start hitting the Goblin Pyro so he could stop shooting spells.
Drakus was easy for them, but that's only because they found the door and managed to sneak their way into the last chamber, they failed to pick the lock on the actual tresure chest but did set up an ambush, and we also found out just how strong the spell Magic Weapon is when used on a d10 with Power Attack. They pretty much downed Drakus in one round because they a) got him in a bad spot. b) had the dog to flank with, and c) our Paladin did his thing and killed Drakus on his initiative though closer reading revealed that I played it wrong, it was the Paladin's initiative next turn regardless though so it didn't end up changing anything. I'll just need to remember it next time.
If they skip 70% of the rooms as they should since they contain absolutely nothing but trouble, the adventure gets much easier. There are only 3 encounter that are mandatory to finish the adventure.I mean you can say that about a lot of dungeons in APs/modules but how does the team know just what to skip?
In my experience skipping rooms is something that can happen in a playtest (because the levelling is artificial) but never happens in actual games. My players are out there hunting for XP and every room is potential XP. No stone is left unturned in case there's something to kill, loot, charm or trade with underneath it.
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If they skip 70% of the rooms as they should since they contain absolutely nothing but trouble, the adventure gets much easier. There are only 3 encounter that are mandatory to finish the adventure.I mean you can say that about a lot of dungeons in APs/modules but how does the team know just what to skip?
What usually deters players from skipping rooms is missing out on valuable loot. On oneshots where it doesn't matter how much gold you end up with, technically ALL rooms are skippable as long as you can stumble into the storyline advancement area. Of course, you better hope there wasn't some items that would make a difference in the coming fight...
In my experience skipping rooms is something that can happen in a playtest (because the levelling is artificial) but never happens in actual games. My players are out there hunting for XP and every room is potential XP. No stone is left unturned in case there's something to kill, loot, charm or trade with underneath it.If they skip 70% of the rooms as they should since they contain absolutely nothing but trouble, the adventure gets much easier. There are only 3 encounter that are mandatory to finish the adventure.I mean you can say that about a lot of dungeons in APs/modules but how does the team know just what to skip?
I do completely agree, I wasn't portraing that scenario as plausible nor advisable, just as possible.
I mean yeah, in the playtest I think people might end up going...
Well for lack of a better word "Leeroying". Just rush through, kill the baddies, level up, run into the next dungeon to do the same. PFS was like this in my area so I can believe that a playtest module/campaign to be able to be played roughly the same.
I haven't flipped through the later areas but I wonder how much Social skills get used later.
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I ran one session each for two groups, neither of which finished in one go... one group has a pacifist Cleric of Pharasma, so they're generously stocked with healing. The other group only has some minor healing capability (Alchemist, Bard who doesn't know Soothe AFAIK), but had spent so little of their starting gold that they could afford to buy themselves some healing services in town and return to the dungeon, handily circumventing the Resonance barrier. Resonance did prevent some characters from drinking a potion, though. I was willing to give the Resonance mechanic a try, but I utterly hate it already.
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What usually deters players from skipping rooms is missing out on valuable loot.
Actually, my group regularly bypasses entire sections and levels of dungeons by finding the back door (which exists in a surprising number of dungeons) or correctly guessing where the most important part of the dungeon lies. Then again, my DM doesn't punish us for good tactics and still gives us the XP (and most of the loot) from the bypassed parts.