Playtest Characters breaking scenarios


Character Operations Manual Playtest General Discussion

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I got a request from my regular in-person Organized Play group to start a thread about how Playtest characters are breaking scenarios. They all wanted to post about their experiences in the same place. We just had a really interesting experience with a Playtest ability (those no-save biohacker confusions) totally upsetting a boss fight.

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1) If you are a Society GM, what's been your experience with Playtest characters in your scenarios?

2) If you are a Society player, have you broken scenarios? What sorts of shenanigans did you use and how did they effect the outcome? (Please mention your type of character and relevant build choices.)

Take it away, guys! I promise to post my own thoughts on all of this after you've had a chance to talk about it.

Hmm

Dataphiles

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Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

This is from a thread I posted, but it seems more appropriate to post it here. This past Saturday I ran SFS Scenario 1-23 Return to Sender in which we had a few players testing out some classes, specifically the Vanguard (a literal walking terrain piece) and the Witchwarper both at level 8, and the rest of the party making it push to tier 7-8. So far the party is doing pretty well, curb stomping everything in their path when:

Adventure Spoilers::

They reached the door for area A-2 Weapons Storage which requires a key card that can be fished out of A-5 Cleaning Pit when the witchwarper decided to use their Infinite Worlds ability (level 7 specific) to lower the floor under the door to get into the room a little earlier then planned. Since the scenario didn't explicitly say that the room was sealed, just very secure, it seemed to reason that such action would work no issues.

I mention this in the case of scenarios and adventures that require going to places in sequence might end up having good ol speed runner style sequence breaks happening with Infinite Worlds.


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Doesn't infinite worlds also expand barriers? There's a case for the door being extended into the lower area too.


Agreed. I think this is already disallowed.


Hmm wrote:
We just had a really interesting experience with a Playtest ability (those no-save biohacker confusions) totally upsetting a boss fight.

Is confused really that bad? Seems the worst it can do is keep the bad guy focused on a single target, unless the party confuses him and does nothing. Still, big chance he'll attack a PC.

Maybe people are confusing this with some berserk state, where the character can only do melee attacks, even if he's a magic user. Which is not the case with Confused at all.

Confused
You are mentally befuddled and can’t act normally. You can’t tell the difference between ally and foe, and thus you treat all creatures as enemies, even your closest friends and family, if applicable. An ally who wishes to cast a beneficial spell on you with a range of touch must succeed at an attack roll against your Energy Armor Class, since you cannot be considered a willing target. If you are attacked while you’re confused, you always attack the creature that last attacked you until that creature is dead or out of sight, unless it is otherwise impossible for you to attack it that round. While confused, you can’t make attacks of opportunity against any creature or thing that you aren’t already committed to attacking.

If you are not devoted to attacking a target, roll on the following table at the beginning of your turn each round to see what you do in that round.

D% Behavior
1–25 Act normally.
26–50 Do nothing but babble incoherently.
51–75 Deal 1d8 + Str modifier damage to self with item in hand.
76–100 Attack nearest creature.

If you can’t carry out the indicated action, you do nothing but babble incoherently. Attackers are not at any special advantage when attacking you.


SirShua wrote:
Doesn't infinite worlds also expand barriers? There's a case for the door being extended into the lower area too.

A door isn't a solid barrier. In this case the Witchwarper lowered the floor under the door by 10 feet. Since the door and the floor are not the same contiguous object, the door didn't extend down.


Dracomicron wrote:
SirShua wrote:
Doesn't infinite worlds also expand barriers? There's a case for the door being extended into the lower area too.
A door isn't a solid barrier. In this case the Witchwarper lowered the floor under the door by 10 feet. Since the door and the floor are not the same contiguous object, the door didn't extend down.

A wall with a closed and locked door is a solid barrier. Is a fence held together by nails not a solid barrier? Chain link fence held together by woven strands? Concrete held together by molecular bonds?

I don't even accept that a wall with an open door isn't a barrier. The wall/foundation exists below the door jamb, and it would extend below ground if Infinite Worlds was used to sink the area around it. I'd make you climb up to the door to pass through it.


Xenocrat wrote:
Dracomicron wrote:
SirShua wrote:
Doesn't infinite worlds also expand barriers? There's a case for the door being extended into the lower area too.
A door isn't a solid barrier. In this case the Witchwarper lowered the floor under the door by 10 feet. Since the door and the floor are not the same contiguous object, the door didn't extend down.

A wall with a closed and locked door is a solid barrier. Is a fence held together by nails not a solid barrier? Chain link fence held together by woven strands? Concrete held together by molecular bonds?

I don't even accept that a wall with an open door isn't a barrier. The wall/foundation exists below the door jamb, and it would extend below ground if Infinite Worlds was used to sink the area around it. I'd make you climb up to the door to pass through it.

I'd like to see that clarified by the devs, since that both parties have specific interpretations.

Scarab Sages Starfinder Design Lead

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A door is a solid barrier.
It's not an immobile barrier, but that isn't required.
it is a solid barrier, and you can't use infinite worlds to bypass it.

Paizo Employee Starfinder Society Developer

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Also, watching this (thanks Owen for pointing it out!)


Hmm. Make a wall of unprocessed UPBs (or some valuable material). Drop a hole under it. You have a minute to mine unprocessed UPBs from the otherworldly extension before repeating?

(That’s got plenty of GM room for a balanced solution.)


Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

A door is a solid barrier.

It's not an immobile barrier, but that isn't required.
it is a solid barrier, and you can't use infinite worlds to bypass it.

Okay, good.

Luckily it would not have changed our game much, thanks to the Witchwarper.

Return to Sender Spoiler

Spoiler:
The keycard was on a body in a pool of acid. The witchwarper simply raised the corpse out of the acid with Infinite Worlds, making the keycard easily available at no risk.


Dracomicron wrote:
Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

A door is a solid barrier.

It's not an immobile barrier, but that isn't required.
it is a solid barrier, and you can't use infinite worlds to bypass it.

Okay, good.

Luckily it would not have changed our game much, thanks to the Witchwarper.

Return to Sender Spoiler
** spoiler omitted **

That's still a daily limited resource, compared to say mage hand. Doesn't sound too breaking.

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