Silent Tide – The PF2 Conversion
Hi everyone. I converted Silent Tide to PF2 and overall my players were very happy but there were a lot of problems as well. I had to break several rules to prevent PC death. Considering this is a group of players who are new to RPGs in general and this is a playtest, I thought it was the right thing to do.
To convert Silent Tide, I converted the warhounders as level 0 thugs. I converted them with the scenario stats, using PC creation rules, and since they are level 0, with less class options. When I made this, I didn’t know the rules for creating NPCs, but this was my best attempt at merging the NPC HALFLING FOOTPAD found on page 119 of the Bestiary with the stats from the Warhounders in the PFS scenario Silent Tide.
HUMAN THUG CREATURE (Level 0)
Perception +1
Languages Common
Skills –1; Athletics +2, Intimidation +1
Str +1, Dex +0, Con +1, Int -1, Wis -1, Cha +0
Items spiked gauntlet, sap, leather armor, light crossbow with 6 bolts
AC 11, TAC 10; Fort +1, Ref +0, Will -1
HP 7
Speed 25 feet
Melee spiked gauntlet +2 (agile, free-hand), Damage 1d4+1 piercing
Melee sap +2 (agile, non-lethal), Damage 1d6+1 bludgeon
Ranged light crossbow +1 (120 feet, reload 1), Damage 1d8 piercing
Rage The thug gains a +2 conditional bonus to melee damage rolls (+1 for agile weapons), a –1 penalty to AC, and number of temporary Hit Points equal to your level plus your Constitution modifier, for 3 rounds followed by 1 round of fatigue.
As you can see, they are quite a bit weaker than any level 0 creature you will find in the bestiary and you know what, it was *fine*. It was more than fine, it allowed them to win a few battles easily and even through attrition the final battle was almost a TPK (I ended up fudging). Silent Tide was super challenging in PF2, even without the warhounders having typical level 0 stats.
I’ll briefly describe what happened in each section.
The Drowning Depths – Group (Ezren, Fumbus, Merisiel, Valeros)
The combat was easy (which was a GREAT way to start PF2). The prisoners fell into the water because Fumbus had two critical failures pulling them up, almost knocking Valeros into the water while trying to help. Merisiel drowned (death #1: 3 failed swim checks at only DC 10) but I let her use her hero point to stabilize and wake up (which is against the rules) and make it to the surface. Fumbus killed 2 warhounders by mistake when he tried to stabilize them and crit failed. They couldn’t save one prisoner and she drowned, the new drowning rules are much more severe (which is good), she even took the draw a breath action. Lots of crit failure rolls.
Fumbus and Ezren felt ineffective here, both in terms of combat and skills (Athletics).
Guardians of the Grain
The 5 skeletons attacked and flanked Merisiel and Fumbus (who were using Stealth to move 2 rounds ahead), taking them to 0 hp before Valeros and Ezren could arrive. Fumbus couldn’t do anything, his acid flasks did no damage and he ended up using all of his actions for monster lore checks, which helped, but it also left him in flanking position (after they finished Merisiel).
The skeletons then made quick work of Ezren and he did no damage with acid orb. Valeros pretty much soloed the skeletons, although Merisiel did wake up late in the fight. A near TPK but I didn't fudge. Fumbus needed to use his hero point to recover. Everyone was at 1 hp except for Valeros at 8 hp.
I had them come back to the lodge to get channel healed by Kyra to full health (if this were an official game it wouldn’t be allowed). At this point they had effectively failed the mission. If they had gone on, they would have died.
The Safes in the Siphons
Everyone got to participate, this part was great.
The Hymns of Oathday
I used 5 skeletons instead of 9.
Merisiel fell down, prone, while climbing a 15’ foot ladder, twice (DC was only 5 but she rolled two “1”s), making it feel like the Three Stooges.
We started the encounter at full hp and ended the encounter with Merisiel, Fumbus and Ezren at half hp, Valeros at full, and used Fumbus’ remaining resonance to heal.
Fumbus was out of bombs and resonance and not feeling very useful again. I can see that happening to alchemists a lot at low levels, using all of their resonance for elixir of life.
The Pyramid of the Dog
They started at close to full hp.
Even with the weak thugs, this was super challenging, and I needed to softball.
The party was spotted out at 100' and chose a slow but defensive approach that took 3 rounds of free crossbow shots. There were two "20s" so they took some damage.
The dog (+6 attack) was unleashed and did some damage as well.
After the thugs and dog were taken down, I had Nessian approach. I used standard level 2 stats with Nessian (+8 attack). I had him as a fighter with a shield, using Raise Shield and Shield Block, nothing special, not even any fighter feats. Even then he almost wiped them out, with Merisiel at 3 hp and Valeros at 7 hp (Fumbus and Ezren unconscious).
General Comments
I think martial characters are in a great place. The 3 action system is great and made combat very tactical in a fun way, with interesting decisions. The simplified combat maneuvers (trip, shove, disarm) have been easy to implement and fun.
At level 1, the wizard and alchemist felt awful to play. Low AC, low hp, low damage output, limited and weak spells, low mobility, low utility, and their spells were extremely limited at level 1. The players who played Fumbus and Ezren were not impressed.
Not a comment on the system, but I’m not very good (yet) at giving out hero points. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I forget.
Problems
There were two huge problems with this playtest.
The first was that creatures are hitting too often. A single encounter of 5 skeletons almost TPKed the group and basically ended the adventure. The same skeletons later took 3 PCs to 50% health and used all of Fumbus’ resonance just to keep them going.
As I’ve already mentioned, I strongly feel like the baseline for level 0 creatures should be +4 attack. It would have made a huge difference.
Another problem was that there were far too many critical failures and it made the game feel like the Three Stooges.
I really think that critical skill failures on a “1” needs to be taken out of a high fantasy game. I’m OK with crit fails when the roll is 10 less than the DC (at least they are doing something heroic), but removing the “1” would make critical failures a lot less frequent.
I'm not sure what I'm going to convert next.