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I had different players rotate through this one session to session.
Overall comments:
- The barbarian and monk felt like they wanted more interesting actions to take, though the more accessible combat maneuver rules helped somewhat once we gave those a second look between sessions.
- Third actions seemed to matter more for characters that had more options, such as spellcasters or Drakus. Mooks with just attacks tended to end up spending these on mostly pointless third attacks.
- Identifying magic items is hard.
- Monk seemed a little weak in general compared to the barbarian.
- Alchemist also seems a little underwhelming. He did fairly well in most of the encounters but never really shone mechanically compared to other classes. In particular:
- Thievery is really difficult, at least at level one! The alchemist had 16 Dex and was trained in Thievery for a +4. The easiest lock required three successes at DC 15 (which the alchemist eventually made) and the other two required three successes at DC 20 and 22. Add high "break DCs" and the biggest frustration in this dungeon crawl was possibly opening the locks.
- Healing without a cleric is difficult, thanks largely to resonance limits and the fact that non-alchemists have to spend resonance to use an alchemist's stuff.
Session 1: Goblin alchemist, half-elf barbarian (wild), elven cleric (Erastil)
A1 (Sewer Ooze): Opened with the special attack to no effect, did a little damage, and died entertainingly.
A2 (goblins): 3 goblins for 3 players. I had these guys alerted to the players by the noise from the ooze, so there was a brief taunting match through the hall followed by the goblins charging through the passage into A1. The barbarian was heavily injured due to crits and the alchemist somewhat injured, but the barbarian tore through them pretty quickly with some help from alchemist.
A5 (Mind Fungus): barbarian tripped this one and crit failed vs the spores. The party retreated.
A3 (centipedes): I used 4 half-elite centipedes for 3 players instead of 6. Barbarian charged in and got almost killed in the first two rounds for her trouble. Had to re-check rules for multiple doses of poison, which got a little confusing. Retreated and we got into a mostly ineffective swinging match between the centipedes and the tanky support cleric who was blocking the passage. Out of healing and alchemical supplies, the group then decided to rest.
Session 2: Goblin alchemist, half-elf barbarian (wild), elven cleric (Erastil), human paladin, dwarven monk.
A6 (fountain): I slightly beefed up the quasits for 5 players. The cleric picked up the idol, releasing the quasits. They did a bit of damage, mostly to the cleric. The paladin did quite well here and enjoyed retributive strike. The party spent a large amount of time trying to open the locked door, and the alchemist broke his tools before giving up.
A7 (goblin headquarters): Added two extra goblin warriors for 5 players. This one was pretty entertaining and felt well-balanced between PCs. The party surprised the goblins so they didn't have weapons drawn and only caught two PCs in the rock trap. We had our first KO when the barbarian rushed in, got surrounded, retreated into the hallway, and got stabbed by a fleeing goblin. This was probably the alchemist's best encounter with a good use of bombs and a crit bite attack on the pyro. Party captured the commando, found the secret door, and went home to rest.
Session 3: Goblin alchemist, half-elf barbarian (wild), dwarven monk, dwarven druid, human wizard.
A12 (Drakus' lair): party failed to open the locked chest, but triggered the trap and failed save vs poison.
A10 (befouled shrine): I used the rat for the 5-party adjustment. Found the stealth rules particularly confusing here. Since the party made a lot of noise literally throwing the chest around I assumed Drakus wouldn't be surprised, but he botched his Stealth check (10 total) so I ruled he would be Seen by all the players at the beginning of combat, despite rolling stealth for initiative. This time the monk closed first and got beat on pretty bad. He did take out the rat, but was completely unable to affect Drakus with his bludgeoning weakness, and Drakus knocked him out - the subsequent action to blood drain was mechanically unimportant but a really fun moment. Druid ate the night's only AoO trying to heal the monk. Wizard was the MVP here between a summoned dog and a high roll with a three-action cast Magic Missile that finished the fight with both barbarian and druid down to single-digit HP. Alchemist unfortunately felt a bit lost, unable to realistically hit Drakus with weapons but feeling inhibited from using splash weapons in close quarters with multiple melee party members swarming Drakus.
A11 (sanctum): party pretty quickly figured out how to purify the shrine here and had a nice moment with the bowl.
Party opted not to try and take out the skeletons since they were low on HP and out of all but one non-cantrip spell. Since I wanted to move on but didn't want them to feel they hadn't completed the dungeon, I ruled that they could assume their characters went back later, killed the skeletons, and found the body of the pathfinder.