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Hi everyone :)
Two weeks ago, we finally got the chance to play Lost Star. I will post about Doomsday Dawn from now on, with a breakdown of the characters, how the sessions went on, and some afterthoughts.
At the end there will be a section named "GM's questions". To keep this thread clean, I will link each question to a thread on those forums, so you don't have to post the answers here and they can be available for everybody :)
Before we start : all future characters' sheets created for this playtest will be available here :D You will find my player's sheets and some extra experiments.
GM and reporter : Almarane : experienced PF1 GM and player
Players :
• Littlerogue : experienced PF1 and various tabletop RPGs GM and player
• MM : novice PF1 and various tabletop RPGs player
• Damann Lorem : novice tabletop RPGs player, has never played PF1
• Zukma : experienced PF1 and various tabletop RPGs GM and player
• Deoda : experienced PF1 and various tabletop RPGs GM and player
Players were given copies of their class and race’s chapters, as well as copies of the equipment, the feats, the skills and the actions’ chapters to use during play.
All players created their characters at the same time.
Chiros
Played by Zukma
Dwarf (m) Cleric of Thorag 1 [Esoteric Scion]
• Critical Success : 4
• Success : 17
• Failure : 10
• Critical Failure : 0
• Remaining Hero Points : 2
• Used Hero Points : 0
• Starting Resonance Points : 1
• Remaining Resonance Points : 1
• Starting Spell Points : 4
• Remaining Spell Points : 4
• Remaining 1st level spell slots : 1
Siri
Played by MM
Goblin (f) Alchemist 1 [Goblin Renegade]
• Critical Success : 2
• Success : 9
• Failure : 8
• Critical Failure : 2
• Remaining Hero Points : 2
• Used Hero Points : 0
• Starting Resonance Points : 4
• Used Resonance Points : 4
Lorem Ipsum
Played by Littlerogue
Human (m) Fighter 1 [Pathfinder Hopefull]
• Critical Success : 4
• Success : 11
• Failure : 11
• Critical Failure : 1
• Remaining Hero Points : 0
• Used Hero Points : 2
• Starting Resonance Points : 2
• Used Resonance Points : 2
Archibold
Played by Deoda
Gnome (m) Sorcerer (imperial) 1 [Family Friend]
• Critical Success : 3
IMPORTANT NOTE : Two critical successes were made on Perception checks (natural 20) when there was nothing to find, and the last critical success was an Electric Arc on the Mindfog Fungus which did 0 damages.
• Success : 2
• Failure : 9
• Critical Failure : 1
• Remaining Hero Points : 2
• Used Hero Points : 0
• Starting Resonance Points : 5
• Used Resonance Points : 0
• Remaining 1st level spell slots : 0
Eau-pâle
Played by Damann Lorem
Half-orc (f) Monk 1 [Mind Quake Survivor]
• Critical Success : 1
• Success : 12
• Failure : 17
• Critical Failure : 3
• Remaining Hero Points : 2
• Used Hero Points : 0
• Starting Resonance Points : 1
• Used Resonance Points : 0
• Starting Spell Points : 3
• Remaining Spell Points : 2
The monsters
• Critical Success : 5
• Success : 17
• Failure : 27
• Critical Failure : 7
A full summary of the game (with actions and rolls breakdown until the bossfight) is available here.
• Preparation time : 8 hours (4 hours to read twice, 3 hours and a half to print and redraw maps, 15 minutes to screenshot and print the player survey, 15 minutes to make a document for an Assistant GM)
• Character creation : 3 hours
• Actual play : 5 hours (1 session)
• Number of Hero Points given : 5 points
• Number of Hero Points used : 2 (used for a reroll)
• Number of times a PC was reduced to 0 Hit Points : 2
• Number of PC characters killed : 0
• Number of rests : 0
• Days taken : 1
• Update document used : 1.1
Encounters (in order) :
1. Sewer Ooze : defeated
2. Goblins in the crypt : defeated (one killed, three unconscious)
3. Skeletons : defeated
4. Drakus the Taker : defeated (Lorem fell to 0 HP)
5. Goblins in the crypt : Diplomacy check to stop the encounter succeeded, goblins fled the dungeon
6. Minfog fungus : destroyed
7. Giant centipedes : defeated (Lorem poisoned and fell to 0 HP because of it)
The Quasits were not encountered.
Other :
• The group did not find the owlbear claw but found every other hidden loot
• The fountain was not purified
• The Boneyard trap has been triggered and damaged 3 characters (another succeeded their Fortitude save)
• The group found the magic dagger but did not take it, thinking it was a trap
• The group received the blessing of Pharasma
• The group did not trigger the Poison Lock (used the master key)
• The group recovered the Star of Desna and the Notes on the Last Theorem
• The group talked about the Notes on the Last Theorem to Keleri
• Rests and resilience: The group was gladly surprised they did not use any rest to complete the scenario. (GM note : It was probably due to the monsters making low rolls and combats taking 1 to 2 turns, except for Drakus and the Giant Centipedes)
• Shields: The players liked the new shield mechanics, but they said they found the shields fragile and were disturbed that Raise a Shield cost an action.
• Fighter: The players found the Fighter interesting compared to PF1.
• Level of difficulty: The group found Drakus too hard for a tutorial (especially because of his bludgeoning resistance), and the other encounters too easy. They felt like killing Drakus without having a dead character is somewhat of a miracle, and they were not surprised when the GM announced other parties had TPK at this battle.
• Dying: With the presence of a positive energy channeling Cleric, an Alchemist who could make healing elixirs and a Gnome who could cast Stabilize as an innate cantrip, the group felt like it was impossible to die and never felt in danger.
• Poison: They found the poison quite strong.
• Characters’ usefulness: the group found that Chiros and Lorem were the two most useful party members. On the opposite, the other players felt useless most of the time. We talked about that, and it seems it was mainly due to the fact that Chiros and Lorem were good melee fighters with good tanking and could take hits, for the rest of the party, and could pack a punch during fights, while the rest of the group lagged behind in term of damages and utility: Archibold failed his two 1st level spells and most of his cantrips while using every Arcane Surge he could and being an optimized caster ; Siri had to be weary of not hitting her allies and felt like her bombs were useful, but nothing else from her character was ; and Eau-Pâle did less damages since she was unarmed and was a Dex-based Monk. Someone said it may also be because they were 5 players instead of 4.
• Arcane Surge vs Ki Strike: Arcane Surge needs one action and Ki Strike is a free action, while they seem to have the same effect. This was frustrating for the Sorcerer. Even so, the Monk hesitated to use her Ki Strike multiple times, but ended up deciding it was not worth it, except once.
• Alchemist’s bombs: bombs being a limited resource while still being the main damage option for the Alchemist was frustrating, forcing Siri to use her Hand Crossbow more often than her bombs. Unlimited bombs (like unlimited cantrips and unlimited representations) would have greatly helped enjoy the Alchemist’s flavor, even if they were less powerful than normal bombs or than a crossbow.
• The Cleric became a Paladin: The Cleric was probably the most useful character from the party, with good damages, training from his deity, good tanking thanks to heavy armors and shields, and healing. In the end, he felt more like a Fighter with healing abilities or a Paladin than an actual spellcaster on par with the Sorcerer, or other spellcasters who have a hard time competing in terms of weapons and armors.
• The rules are hard to understand for everyone: The group stated that the rules were horribly hard for new players to understand, and horribly hard for old players because of the change rules.
• Door-Monster-Loot: The group felt quickly bored with the Door-Monster-Loot dungeon. Most of the players accepted that because it was a playtest scenario, but some expressed disappointment about it, feeling like most Pathfinder adventures were like that.
• Player knowledge vs character knowledge, and Take 20: The group was frustrated about the polluted fountain’s enigma. They knew there was something in the fountain, but since they all failed their Perception checks, their characters could not know it. The GM decided to play this scenario RAW and did not allow another search check until the context changed (which never happened). During the session’s recap, someone said nobody tried to Take 20 in the fountain. When the GM announced that Take 10 and Take 20 were removed from the game and talked about the Assurance feat, the players expressed disappointment and did not understand why it was removed.
• Action/Reaction system: The system is interesting, but the players found that what you could do was not flexible enough, depending on your character’s class (3 out of 5 characters did not have reactions, while the remaining 2 had two reactions) (GM note : it may be because they were only lvl 1 characters. We will need to play at higher level to find out more). It felt like PF2 was aiming at being more and more simulationist (and it was not necessarily a bad thing, but it was not making the game easy to understand). Nonetheless, they were pleased with this new system and found that having 3 actions allowed more modularity than the old system.
• Magic system: The spellcasters liked that you could modulate your actions for some spells (in this instance, heal) to make them more or less powerful, and that your spellcaster bonus would add to the spells’ efficiency. The Cleric liked that you could cast spells at higher level, while the Sorcerer did not like that. We are waiting to see how this plays out at higher level.
• Aid/Assist: It took the group a long time to understand how Aid worked, and they felt like it was too hard and not useful enough to use. Assist was hard to use for spellcasters too because they had to go next to the enemy and hit them with an attack, which was unlikely for the Sorcerer.
• Focus action: Someone suggested to add an action to focus on your next action, giving you a bonus on your next action. This would help to make hard actions during combat at the cost of an action.
• Monk not trained with weapon: The Monk would have liked to use some basic weapons against bludgeoning-resistant enemies. Using weapons untrained felt too inefficient. The players missed that monk weapons were behind a feat. Maybe add a limited range of weapons available as trained for every monk to be able to attack bludgeoning-resistant ennemies.
• Recall Knowledge takes too much time: Recall Knowledge as an action felt too taxing for players, who said they felt like it was not useful enough for its cost. They would like it to go back being a free action, or a reaction to take the time to think about what it is and tell other characters.
• Confusing character sheet: The character sheet was confusing. Players were surprised it was a landscape format. (GM note: Luckily the new character sheet seems to resolve most of those problems. We will see next session)
• Hero points: The group felt that they were useless. Only one character used it to reroll. There was also a small debate over morale implications of giving out Hero points for out-of-game actions, especially since they are limited in online games.
• Monster capacities in damage blocs and Drakus’s grab: I thought for the whole fight against Drakus that the grab after his claw attack was a free action, while it was in fact an action. I am used to PF1, where this way of writing means this is a free maneuver, while in PF2 this means it costs actions and is an automatic success. The confusion in PF2 is even legitimate when those maneuvers are written in the same way as poison, which are not automatic. An action symbol was missing, and maybe it should have something like “automatic grab” written instead. That would have cleared that for me.
• Recall Knowledge: It was hard to adjudicate which skill was the good skill to use for Recall Knowledge and Identify Magic Item. In the end, I made the Sewer Ooze be a Nature check and Drakus an Occultism check. I also ruled that you could identify a magic item mimicking a spell (like scrolls and wands) only if you had the skill linked to the spell’s magic tradition, and other magic items could be identified with any skill.
• Bite: Unlike Fist for the Monk, the Bite from the Goblins’ feat is not listed anywhere. What its stats are supposed to be ? I ruled them as doing piercing damages, and having no trait.
• Special senses: There was nowhere to write down special senses in the first character sheet. The new character sheet has not corrected this issue.
• Pouches: Do Backpacks and pouches add bulk you are able to carry to your encumbered and maximum limit ? Or do they just store bulk with no changes to your limits ?
• Thrown and ranged weapons: Are thrown weapons such as shurikens retrievable, or are they lost after use? Same questions about ranged weapons with arrows and bolts.
• Attack spells and multiple attacks penalty: Is it intended that spells with the Attack trait (and particularly ones with no attack rolls) count toward multiple attacks penalty? => Yes, they count toward MAP, this has been answered here.