Feedback: Custom Arena Playest(2x4th Level)


General Discussion


Sunday I was able to run the custom playtest arena with my friend Mike in person. We are set to do the official playtest this upcoming weekend with a couple of other people. If anyone is interested in giving the arena a go, I am offering it as Play By Post over on giantitp.

I constructed it as a way to learn the mechanics and test different aspects like skill checks, complex hazards, and different monster power levels etc. I also designed it to test Bound(no +lvl) and Unbound(P2 as written). The whole thing takes place in encounter mode and is timed.

Players get a team of two level 4 characters with +1 Magic Weapon and +1 Armor and WBL 30gp.

Mike brought an Elven Wizard and Dwarven Fighter. Not really optimized towards the challenge.

Order of the Challenges.

Hallway of Arrows
Grand Chamber
The Stubborn Door
Pitted Hallway
Hall of Ice
Hallway of Statues
Hall of Sand
The Wall of Many Faces

Spoiler Descriptions:

Hallway of Arrows: This is a semicustom lvl 4 complex trap.

Grand Chamber: Large room with a variety of challenges:
4 lvl0 Skeleton Archers located on separate platforms. Platforms are difficult to reach via a narrow beam ie Balance Check. Alternatively you can drop the drawbridges to walk over. There is a 10' drop from the platforms.

Drawbridges: There is a center wheel that can be turned to drop the bridges(Three bridges. Two to the Skeletons, one forward). The wheel is "stuck" and requires three successful break open checks or one critical success, the DC gets lower with each success. Aid DC is low, set at 10. Once complete, the wheel free spins requiring a save or d6 bludgeoning damage and knocked prone. Each individual bridge can alternatively have its chain broke and dropped individually.

Potions. Set out on two seperate 15' columns are Lesser Potions of Healing. Two total.

The Stubborn Door: Reinforced Iron Door with an Expert Lock
Pitted Hallway: A series of 3 pits, just 10' drops. One 9', one 14', one 19'. Each has a Balance series to cross them quickly.

Hall of Ice Room with a lvl6 Young White Dragon in it. 10'x10' patch of ice right out of the doorway created by the dragon. This is a Severe challenge for two level four characters.

Hallway of Statues: Hallway with 7 Armor Statues. Two of them at random are lvl 2 Animated Armor.

Hall of Sand: Large sand(Difficult Terrain) filled room. Four 10' columns each have a gem on them, in the center of the room is a pedestal to put the gems. Guarding the room is a lvl 8 Bullete. This is Double Severe, extraordinarily difficult fight.

The Wall of Many Faces: Set on the wall of three faces. One requires a Diplomacy Series. One requires an Intimidation Series. One requires a Deception Series. Each face requires three successes. One attempt takes three actions. When all three are complete, the dungeon is complete.

Spoilers: What Happened.:

Hallway of Arrows: Spotted the Trap. Spend an action to examine its construction with Crafting and determiend there was a 2' safe zone from the floor. Party slowly crawls down the hallway safely.

Grand Chamber: Bust into the room, Wizard tries to cantrip the skeletons and struggles with the skeletons. Fighter tried the wheel and fails repeatedly. Wizard abandons the attack and starts helping on the wheel, but not before a skeleton gets two lucky criticals on a -5 and -10 attack and makes him fear for his life. Bridges are eventually dropped. Fighter starts crushing the skeletons and the Wizard uses Magehand to retrieve the potions.

The Stubborn Door: Fighter Critically fails the breakdown attempt raising the DC. The Thievery trained Wizard tries to pick the locks and fails alot thank to the Fighter's blunder. Would have succeeded in a couple of turns otherwise. Fighter eventually Hacks down the door. The Wizard prepared knock, somehow we both forgot about that, would have made the challenge much easier.

Pitted Hallway: Elven Wizard could jump the first two and critically succeeded on the third. Fighter could jump the first, and had to climb down and through the other two.

Hall of Ice: The Dragon was nasty. First two times the fighter hits the dragon it deal 6 cold damage back. Ouch. WIzard opened with a True Strike Acid Arrow. Persistant damgae is nasty. Fighter was eventually downed, but the Dragon needed to take a turn to try and get the acid to stop. Fighter managed to get back up and thanks to blowing the Wizard's spells they made it though. Potion Dumped and moved on.

Hallway of Statues: Easy fight. Nothing spectacular. Hardness made the wizard's spells pretty much useless.

Hall of Sand: The fighter was still in rough shape and this wasn't looking good from the start. The Bulette was just too strong for them. The Wizard managed to get one gem in hand, and the Fighter stood up after the use of his last hero point just to get put down again. The Invisible Wizard conceded as the Bulette was sniffing him out and the writing was on the wall on round 35. Of course, in the opening round the Wizards last Acid Arrow missed.

The Wall of Many Faces: This would have been a struggle and would have taken a long time. The party wasn't very well setup for it. Fighter could only meaningful contribute to the Intimidate. Wizard would have needed to do the Decpetion and Diplomacy. Lots of dice and lots of time would be required.

What were my big take aways after 34 rounds of P2?

Persistent Damage: Damn. This is super strong. This will kill players. Spending all three actions does give you like a 76% chance to end the effect.

Action Economy: Love love love it. Takes a bit to get used to, but I am a huge fan of the action economy and the PAL for subsequent attacks. No AoO(mostly) takes a bit to get used to, but definitely changes how combats move, and IMO for the better. They felt more granular.

Armor Check Penalty: Man, it was rough. Most especially against the dragon. His AoE knockdown vs acrobatics put the Dwarf on his back twice. And when he hit, he got slowed. So his turn was get up, swing, get slowed.

Detailed Skills: For things like Leap, etc, it was nice to know exactly what you could do. For Climb, knowing you needed two hands free and had to expend your action putting your sword away was kind of nice. It sucks, but makes sense, and IMO it works. So much better than the finicky problems of other systems.

Character Building: That book needs to be better organized, and way too many references to things not located on your page. You need more page reference links, or sidebars telling us where to go. Characters are kind of a pain to build etc.

Rsonance: Needs to be more clear. Pretty sure no investment for +1 sword or +1 armor, but it was tough to figure out. Less tough to spend 1 per potion used. The 8 Cha lvl 4 fighter character definitely doesn't get to abuse potions, haha. If he would have had to invest armor and or weapons, it would have been crippling and would have required a different build.

Power Swings: With +lvl things below your level are easy. Things above your level are very hard. The different of +/-2 is pretty significant. This kind of confirms my fear about how narrow the viable monster range is compared to the character's level. The animated armor were pretty outclassed, and the +2 dragon definitely outclassed the party. The +4 Bulette was just leagues above for only a four level difference. I can see how a party of four will take it out, but it seems swingy. All the combat ranges felt swingy as well. The -4 skeletons felt ignorable... they just rolled for 20s... esepcailly with MAP, and when they did get super lucky, it hurt.
Haven't gotten to run the Arena Bound yet, but look forward to seeing how it plays differently.

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