I haven’t had chance to read in detail or playtest but do solo enemies still get curb stomped due to action economy? Or if made more powerful curb stomp the PCs with no middle ground ?
I can’t see how they wouldn’t if they have to stick to 3 actions vs 12
What experiences have people had? This is arguably one of the biggest flaws with the 1E system...
Good question, I would also love to get feedback for that. I'm not sure that the 1st level playtest adventure will give enough of an answer, though.
From my using of Unchained RAE I can attest that this action system is not very promising. Most of the time I'll have to track on an extra turn from the mythic ability, but with the way initiative works it usually ends up at the top and bottom, resulting in two turns in a row.
Haste is nigh necessary.
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So far, we've only one run game (the 1st level adventure) and while the final encounter wasn't truly a solo monster, the minion did not play a significant role. The boss was the real threat and felt like a true threat (knocking 1 PC unconscious, seriously threatening the others).
That said, I think the primary reason for the threat was the party had already expended most of their resources before the fight, so they were running on their last bit of resources (1 spell, 1 potion, roughly 90% max HP). Higher levels with more resources or solo encounters earlier in the adventuring day will probably feel pretty different. The lower level solo monster at the beginning of the adventure didn't feel like a threat at all.
So far, we've only one run game (the 1st level adventure) and while the final encounter wasn't truly a solo monster, the minion did not play a significant role. The boss was the real threat and felt like a true threat (knocking 1 PC unconscious, seriously threatening the others).
That said, I think the primary reason for the threat was the party had already expended most of their resources before the fight, so they were running on their last bit of resources (1 spell, 1 potion, roughly 90% max HP). Higher levels with more resources or solo encounters earlier in the adventuring day will probably feel pretty different. The lower level solo monster at the beginning of the adventure didn't feel like a threat at all.
I am pretty sure that is part of the intent. Not all fights should be truly threatening, but if they A) make your players feel bad ass and B) drain some resources so they can't completely nova the boss, then they have done their job.
The solo ooze came very close to killing one of my players, by the way.
Enemies are a LOT stornger thid edition. The Boss doesn't need too many actions if they have like 30%+ crit chance and nearly oneshot party members. I don't want to spoil, but the boss from the first Doomsday Dawn adventure already proves you don't need numbers of bodies if you have the big advantage in the numbers that matter (Attack, AC).
Also, most of the SoS and SoD spells have gone, so there's much less chance of a caster shutting the monster down in one shot. Even Trip has been massively nerfed.
Enemies are a LOT stornger thid edition. The Boss doesn't need too many actions if they have like 30%+ crit chance and nearly oneshot party members. I don't want to spoil, but the boss from the first Doomsday Dawn adventure already proves you don't need numbers of bodies if you have the big advantage in the numbers that matter (Attack, AC).
Except when your party hits him reliably and/or they keep their best attacks just for him, he goes down like a chump just as much as solo bosses often do in PF1E.
Tarkus was an easier fight than the five goblins preceding him for my party. It helps that the fighter hit him very solidly him while under the effect of magic weapon and the wizard used a three action magic missile and then drained his arcane focus next round to do that one more time. Tarkus brought the fighter down to single digits (without raise shield the fighter would have gone down), but since we had a cleric the fighter was back up to 4/5's of his HP without a problem.