The Lost Star Playtest Feedback on Character Creation by MrCoffeeCup


Doomsday Dawn Player Feedback


Due to the schedules of my playtest group, we decided to play online and each player made their character on their own. In the end, I believe this was problematic, especially with two players new to table top role playing games. If we all got around the table and made them together, something my groups typically do at the start of a new campaign, it would have been smoother.

After running through the process a couple times, I started to get the hang of it and it felt like something I could do more quickly than PF1E. Below are a list of the problems our players had creating their first characters.

- Ability Boosts: The explanation of boosts being in multiple locations did not help players who felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of the rule book. The example given with the fighters helps, but my players weren't even looking there. As a result, some players began by giving themselves a +1 for each boost, instead of +2. One player completely left off the ability boost from his class. I would recommend integrating the example with the numbered character creation process where ability boosts begin on page 14.

- Mixed-Race Feats: A new player was confused by the wording of the Half-Elf feat. He kept thinking that he would immediately get one of the listed Half-Elf ancestry feats. I made a post on the Ancestry forum earlier about my concern here. This is a layer of complexity to character building that I feel is unnecessary, doesn’t “feel” right that players grow into their ancestry, and makes early characters feel bland. Original post is here: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs428n7?The-Lost-Star-Playtest-Feedback-on-Ancest ries

- Total Number of First Level Feats: Having different classes get different numbers of first level feats confused some new players. Aside from the mixed ancestry feat confusion above, classes get first level feats differently from others. It seems that primary spellcasting classes get a first level class feat based on options they choose, such as a Druid Order or a Bard Muse. Non-spellcasting classes, such as Fighters and Alchemists, select it outright from a given list. Some new players looked through the classes and got options mixed up. It also felt natural to them that they would just get to choose whichever first level feat they wanted, in addition to the other options. The result was a paladin with too many first level feats.

- Other Paladin Creation Comments: The paladin player got a deific weapon ability which sounded great. He used a longsword and shield; iconic for a paladin, right? Having an exception to the rule for this ability added some unnecessary complexity to his character and a slap to his face for showing him a cookie but keeping it out of reach. He selected the Deity’s Domain feat. However, he then had to balance looking at the paladin section of the book, looking at the cleric section of the book, and looking at the spell selection of the book simultaneously to build his character. It was overwhelming for him. With the way table 3-9 and 3-10 are constructed, he was confused about what he was getting as well. Having spells listed by deity in 3-9 and powers listed by domain in 3-10 really got him mixed up. I don’t have a suggestion for this except to streamline this somehow. Having separate spells by deity and powers by domain seems counter to one of the playtest’s objectives (as I understand it) of simplifying the various resource pools for players.

- Players not like organization of character sheet indicating proficiency rank mixed in with all the modifiers, including proficiency modifier

The questions and feedback above came out as a result of running The Lost Star adventure.
GM Playtest Post: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs428mg?The-Lost-Star-Playtest-Notes-by-MrCoffeeC up

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