Characters:
- Half-Elf Fighter (Guisarme) Laborer
- Elf Rogue (Bludgeoner) Street Urchin
- Dwarf Druid (Plant) Farmhand
- Gnome Bard (Polymath) Gladiator
I told the players the gist of the scenario, so they all wanted to be PCs that were ex-slaves, and were good at solving mysteries. It turns out that they should have been more combat-orientated. . .
The players were given the opening spiel, and I decided to give them the chapters one at a time, as I felt that "Snippets" felt the most logically one to start with, and "Dragons" worked into the flow of the investigation at the time ("we've got no leads, so we might get something here."). Because the time sensitivity of the investigation was vague (people were dying, but no deadline to solve it), I let the party take a long rest between each chapter, especially since they were level 1.
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Each PC took to finding the Barbers well, using their Lore or Charisma to investigate their location. Each player got a success, and quickly got to the shop. The Rogue and Bard decided to enter alone, asking the others to watch the front. They got all the information they needed, and when the rest of the party joined them, the Druid caught onto the ambush that was being planned. The Bard talked down the boy, but the rest of the party was so choked at the idea of being set up, they just walked out the back door, and called the Barbers out for a brawl!
The Rogue rushed into combat to get Sneak Attack, but quickly became surrounded and dropped to unconsciousness by the thugs. The Druid sent his familiar to Stabilize the Rogue, and the Fighter cleaned up the gang. He had killed one thug with an Attack of Opportunity on their turn. Then on his turn, he killed another with one hit, moved up to the two others, killed another with one swing, and then glared at the survivor. The Bard strolls behind the last Thug, makes a Demoralize action against him, telling him to drop his weapon or the Fighter will drop him. The Barber quickly talked. The party was disappointed that it was a dead end, but let the Barber go anyways. The player running the Bard asked if anyone wanted to hire Snips as a hireling, but no-one could justify associating with him.
(One thing I forget to convey to the party was the clue Snips drops about 'the death of the Half-Elf Cleric'. I never had the living Barber share that fact, which would be problematic later).
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In "Dragons", the PCs had no problem working with kobolds, or being taught how to look for traps. It was the mechanics that humiliated the Rogue. I asked her to roll an Underworld Lore Check to know more about their opposition, but she failed. Then everyone else rolled, and everyone beat the minimum DC, even with the -2 penalty. Then when the group found the first Pit Trap, it was the Druid that disarmed it. Later, the Druid found the next trap, and the Rogue failed to disarm the Slashing Blade Launcher. So they just avoided the trigger and moved on. The player of the Rogue wasn't pleased.
When the party reached the T-crossing, the 2nd Slashing Blade Launcher was not found, and the Fighter got hit by it. The party heard a much larger number of kobolds than expected coming down the tunnel (Ghost Sound), with two of them running around the corner. The Bard and Druid stayed behind the trap, while the Fighter and Rogue planned to rush in. The Druid critically succeeded at tangling a kobold, then healed the hurt Fighter. The Bard began summoning a Bloodsucker. The Martials began fighting through the kobolds, when they saw the Kobold Sorcerer around the corner. Now with a target to hit, he unleashed 3 magic missiles, all at the Fighter... and the Fighter still stood. As the Martials finished off the kobold spellcaster and the Bloodsucker finished off another, the remaining kobold fled down the sewers, never to be seen again. Since the Bard and Druid didn't have decent offensive spells, they let him get away.
Finding the journal, the PCs made the connection to their investigation, but didn't realize that the person who made the list was involved in the crime.
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For "Puddles", the group took the bribe money, and proceeded to sweet talk their way into an introduction, and kept the money. When they entered the house and saw the structural instability, they liked the idea of Crafting some supports, with the Druid giving Guidance to everyone. Well, pretty much everyone failed their DC 15 checks, which sprayed them with acid, and upset the bats. Everyone got bit by the bats, and when they realized how hard it is to get rid of persistent damage, they ran out the front door.
The Druid managed a good enough Diplomacy check to ask the bats to stay put. The party planned to move as quickly as possible up the stairs, in hopes that the upstairs wouldn't fall down on them. They rushed the stairs, taking damage from the crumbling steps, found the ooze and killed it.
(I was confused by the lay-out of the map, thinking that the front door was where C1 was. It was only when the party went upstairs did I realize that the map *was* the second floor.)
The party did well, succeeding at every investigative check, except one. The Rogue, trained in Religion, critically failed her Recall Knowledge Check on the Holy Symbol, so I gave her false information. Because they had identified a connection to the crimes with the Deity of Undeath, I said that it was a Holy Symbol of Urgathoa. Once again, I failed to convey a connection to Wennel, which wasn't helped by the cryptic "W" in the note that they did find.
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So for the final chapter, the party was theorizing that some undead cleric of Urgathoa obtained a list of ex-slaves, and was hunting them down. The curious phrasing of their mission ("Find Zor", assuming that the serial killer had kidnapped her while he killed everyone else) made the party suspicious that there was some conspiracy going on. An evil church had accessed the Church of Milari, and perhaps Zor was in on it! What else wasn't Ambrus telling them? I did my best to remain non-commital.
The party found the location, and was able to repel down the cliff to the ruins. They had a plan of circling the ruin while the spellcasters sent their familair within. However, when the Fighter came across the front step, he sunk into the quicksand at H1, and the undead all charged into the area, which sent all the PCs charging after them, or to get near the Fighter. We spent the entire combat in the northwest corner of the map.
The Rogue did an upstanding job of going toe-to-toe with Wennel. Her use of a mace helped her get past his resistances. The Druid, when he unleashed his Heal against Wennel, also did some amazing amounts of damage. But I played Wennel to the hilt, and it was lethal. I cast Ray of Enfeeblement on the Rogue first turn, used Harm on Wennel to heal himself, stood my ground and raise shield instead of jumping the quicksand to engage with the Fighter. Wennel just kept removing the damage that he got hit with: two times, he was less than 5 HP away from dying!
As I said, the party wasn't well-made for battle. The Bard had Telekinetic Projectile and the Druid had Tanglefoot, but that was it. Though he never used it, The Bard insisted on always preparing Illusory Disguise, in hopes of tricking someone. Having another Summon Monster might have prevented him and the Druid being ripped apart by zombies. The Fighter probably could have killed Wennel if he crawled out of the quicksand towards the Cleric instead of towards the party; I feel that one move cost the party their lives. Eventually, Wennel wore the party out of healing spells, and killed them all.
Because they never made the connection that Wennel was the 'W' and the writer of the list, they never employed any of the clues they gathered. In fact, they didn't even have the items there with them! They assumed that because this was an investigation, they had to turn it all over to their Venture-Captain.
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As a GM, I felt this adventure was a good teaching module, that brought a lot of the gameplay of the new system to light. Its layout wasn't a big selling point. The maps were often confusing, with important monster and terrain features running over to new pages or different columns. I wish that the authors had made their own maps, instead of repurposing old flip-mats.
And I wish that the adventure was as much about investigation as it sold itself on. It felt like four good combats, with the investigation surrounding it somewhat prefunctory. I confess that much of the plot obfuscation was my own fault, but it feels like the party didn't miss too much from that. Wennel's threat wasn't the secret of his identity, but that he was an absolute beast in a fight!
Besides the TPK, here's how the players did, starting with the PCs I think did best, and ending with the underperformers.
Fighter: Like in "The Lost Star", the Fighter was a monster. Many enemies' HP was equal to or less than the Fighter's damage on 1 hit. He demolished any combat he could participate in, and surprised me how well he survived attacks. He did reasonably well in the Lore department, succeeding at least once in each chapter. His player was happy that he managed to extricate himself from the quicksand.
Bard: His Charimsa was useful in several spots, especially how Versatile Performance allowed him to be Diplomatic/Demoralizing/Impersonate with Performance. He felt that he was like an actor trying to act his way through real life, and he enjoyed the roleplaying he got from that. He liked the versatility of his Summon Monster, although he was disappointed that he didn't get to use all of his Utility spells.
Rogue: As mentioned above, the Rogue's player wasn't happy that she wasn't better at her skills than other people. She was planning on a more combat-heavy Rogue, but she still expected her training in Stealth and Thievery to matter more than it did.
She was happy that she managed to create some Alchemical items beforehand. I let her perform some Downtime checks before the adventure, and in conjunction with the Ancestry Feat Ageless Patience, she managed to spend all her starting money to buy an Alchemist's Tools and start with 4 Bottled Lightnings and 4 Minor Elixirs of Life. Unfortunately, she usually leapt into battle instead of tossing in the bombs, and got caught behind enemy lines trying to take full advantage of Surprise Attack.
Druid: He was the Healer, and was a great Healer. He must have used his Familiar to fly in a Stabilize spell 4 times, and helped give the Martial PCs many second chances to finish Wennel. If he wasn't the party's default healer, he may have chosen spells that weren't Heal. Goodberry really didn't do it for the party, especially since food wasn't a concern. The lack of damaging spells really hurt in the final encounter. His assurance in Athletics was useful in going down the ropes in "Haven", but I told him ahead of time that DC10 was enough to go down. The player did enjoy having a "Groot" as a familiar.
Yeah clerics or other unchecked dedicated healers are extremely good with touch heal being a single action. Especially if you compare their healing to blasting by wizards/sorcerers it puts the latter to shame.
I only tested a single wizard so far and that in a mock up fight against an adult white dragen alongside 4 other 7 lvl characters. And everybody had their fair share of the fight, the wizard hit with enervate and an arrow for 15 damage that was about it.
Just two quick remarks.
The bard does not prepare spells as such, he is still a spontaneous caster, so I do not really get how he prepared Illusionary Apperance instead of Summon Monster?
And the wording on Stabilize is confusing - it is a range spell, so no need for little groot to fly in and stabilise People ;)
Yeah, I think our group got those wrong.
Curious how the 'extreme efficacy of healing' thing is impacted by rational counter-measures i.e. Disruption (either Readied/Reaction) vs. something predictable to occur once it's known enemy is caster (all the more with all magic being 'spells'). If ability is "so good" that it becomes automatic tactic, then counter-tactic should be automatic, altering balance of ability.
Sounds like Rogue could have done well 'lending' some of her Alchemical items to other players like Druid/Bard, hoarding them all for personal use unlikely to be most effective usage of resources in given encounter, and she can ask for them to be returned to replace ones she does use.
About you telling player the DC of rope was sufficient for their Assurance, that begs question what RAW should be on that. While some skill DCs/modifiers should be secret, others should reasonably be recognizable by trained characters before they attempt them, like climbing the rope in this case. Otherwise would seem to undercut usage of Assurance in first place, if it's a gamble whether using Assurance risks ensuring a failure... And even without Assurance it seems reasonable for characters to competently assess difficulty of challenges to the degree all factors are observable to them.
Curious how the 'extreme efficacy of healing' thing is impacted by rational counter-measures i.e. Disruption (either Readied/Reaction) vs. something predictable to occur once it's known enemy is caster (all the more with all magic being 'spells'). If ability is "so good" that it becomes automatic tactic, then counter-tactic should be automatic, altering balance of ability.
On one hand, spending two actions to disrupt a spell with a readied action is a good use of your actions, since you're giving up a 3rd attack at -10 in lieu of possibly stopping a spell from happening. OTOH, if the readying PC isn't a Fighter, a spellcaster can just Step away from them and cast the spell, wasting two of the PC's actions.
Sounds like Rogue could have done well 'lending' some of her Alchemical items to other players like Druid/Bard, hoarding them all for personal use unlikely to be most effective usage of resources in given encounter, and she can ask for them to be returned to replace ones she does use.
As I recall, the Bard had his hands full with his instrument, and the Druid was carrying a shield and mistletoe. Plus, both of them already had ranged attacks, so there wasn't a big motivation for them to ask for it.
About you telling player the DC of rope was sufficient for their Assurance, that begs question what RAW should be on that. While some skill DCs/modifiers should be secret, others should reasonably be recognizable by trained characters before they attempt them, like climbing the rope in this case. Otherwise would seem to undercut usage of Assurance in first place, if it's a gamble whether using Assurance risks ensuring a failure... And even without Assurance it seems reasonable for characters to competently assess difficulty of challenges to the degree all factors are observable to them.
Honestly, I hope Assurance as we know it gets changed, or just plain removed.