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Okay, so I ran a small game for 3 players all at level 1 with a GM PC Gunslinger Way of the Drifter and an Armor Innovation Inventor
The party was tasked with investigating a recently inherited estate called "Haffnowe Manor" by the heir of the estate. None of the townsfolk will enter because they believe it to still be haunted by the late William Haffnowe.
The party consisted:
Versatile Human Armor Innovation Inventor with Metallic Alacrity, Exploding Leap, and Tamper (Natural Ambition)
Versatile Human Gunslinger Way of the Drifter with Sword and Pistol, Firearm Ace (Natural Ambition)
Aasimar Elf Witch of Fervor that served as main healer
Ancient Elf Investigator MCD Witch that served as the "skill monkey" of the group
There were 4 total combat encounters and several non-combat based interactions/encounters.
Encounter 1 was simply two giant rats. It occurred in the pantry when the house caretaker (recently fired, but with no memory of being fired) was attacked by the rats.
The party raced to help, and the Inventor and Gunslinger both slayed a rat each. Nothing particularly eventful about the encounter, as it was a basic.
Encounter 2 was actually a "Haunt" of sorts, as I took the Summoning Rune Hazard and repurposed it as a Ghostly manifestation.
But in essence, I simply used a Bandit for this encounter with the exception of allowing things like the Disrupt Undead of the Witch to work against the entity (since it was themed as a ghost).
During this encounter, the Inventor used a Maul to make decent impact against the enemy, but nothing particularly "Inventor-y" occurred.
Gunslinger did land a critical, which did really solid damage.
In this encounter, both the Gunslinger and Inventor did the most damage, as would be expected of a party with this consistency
Encounter 3 was 2 Humonculous enemies that were discovered in the concealed lab of the late William Haffnowe.
The Inventor, who went first, was able to position himself so that both Humonculai were on opposite sides and was finally able to use Explode. Both enemies critically failed the saving throw, but unfortunately the Inventor rolled minimum damage.
One of the Homonculous flew to the ceiling in an attempt to escape, while the other was destroyed by the Gunslinger/Investigator with follow up attacks.
At one point the Inventor wanted to use Exploding Leap to reach the Humonculous on the ceiling, but decided not to for fear of the consequences (the Feat itself states "30ft" without option of up to 30ft and for that reason decided against). I did offer a "call" on this that I thought was more than fair, but the player decided to try drawing their loaded Heavy Crossbow to try to finish it off (and ultimately missed).
The Humonculous then chose to flee, where it made it pretty extensively from the party, but within range of a move, reload, and fire from the Gunslinger.
The Gunslinger downed the Humonculous with the blow, which was really satisfying.
This encounter almost didn't happen, but the party grabbed it at the tail end.
Originally, the party was going to attempt to flee, as most of their healing resources were expunged at this point, so the Witch cast Animate Dead in hopes to slow the creature down for a turn.
The Gunslinger then moved in to attempt an attack, the Inventor moved in to fire with their Heavy Crossbow once more (and considered Exploding Leap away, but then committed to the fight).
The Investigator did manage to Trip the Zombie, which prolonged the encounter and lead to favorable outcomes for the Inventor and Gunslinger (as well as an action tax).
The Inventor landed a few strikes with their Maul, but was taken down by a critical from the Zombie.
The Gunslinger crit with the Dueling pistol twice during this encounter, and then I believe the Witch dealt the killing blow with Disrupt Undead.
Overall, outside of combat, the Inventor felt like an Inventor of sorts in what Skills it was able to bring to the table, but outside its level of expertise on Skills, didn't offer much else in terms of "Inventor" feel.
Gunslinger felt almost identical to how I'd expect a Fighter to play outside of combat. The high perception was nice, but ultimately with an Investigator in the party, did not amount to much difference in total contribution.
Both felt okay, but definitely not distinct in terms of their Class. This is level 1, so not altogether surprising on that front (Skills/background take most of this), but it felt like there could be more there
The Player said the following things:
- Exploding Leap - cool and great, but the 30ft or else restriction was not liked and felt "less than ideal".
- Tamper - "A miss, but I like the attempt" for the Player. They understood the premise, but felt like it was "too complicated" and in the encounters we ran (albeit kinda my fault) not altogether applicable. It didn't feel like a good use of a turn and the player stated it "feels like something I should be doing outside of combat".
- Overdrive - Player did not like this ability at all. Never got used and they felt it was lacking in terms of feel and with clear direction on why they would want to use it.
- Explode - Player liked this a lot and the tactical use of it during a combat that paid off well felt really good to them.
- Unstable - Not a fan (who would be) and ultimately kinda confusing to the point where the player never attempted another Unstable action once they attempted one. I even houseruled this to add INT to the Flat check, but they still wouldn't even bite on the attempt.
My personal takes on the above are: Unstable needs work both for flatcheck and incentive to attempt Unstable actions. Explode is great. Overdrive is absolutely falling flat on its desired outcome. Tamper could use an outside of combat application or even a direct tie in to an action that already exists. Exploding Leap should, IMO, work like the Jump spell (and allow the next action stipulation that Jump does as well) so that players can reliably use it in encounters to better effect.
I went ham on the flavor of this character, as they were primarily a "hired gun/guide" for the group going to the mansion.
The Class, IMO, plays identically to a weaker fighter at level 1 IMO. The Way of the Drifter didn't make much of a difference (as I was playing an Unarmed Drifter and I always had my weapon out). I also felt the "free stride" was almost never what I wanted to do.
There were multiple times in combat where I landed a Strike with the Dueling Pistol as my first action and instead of making a Melee Strike or moving to attempt one, I just decided to reload and fire again.
That's with having Sword and Pistol as an incentive. I was like "well I could attack with a melee weapon, but I'd do less damage, my hit is effectively the same, and then I'm in melee where I don't really have any incentives to be anyways".
Now maybe that's because, once again, I was level 1 and I hadn't built up enough incentives to do that, but I digress.
It was a fun Class to play and critting with guns is insanely strong (at times I honestly felt bad since I was the GM doing the most damage when I did) but I think the "fun part" was critting and not exactly the Gunslinger portion.
I didn't feel like a Gunslinger other than I was using a Gun. If I was a Fighter that happened to have a Dueling Pistol, I think there's a high chance I would have felt exactly the same because neither the Way of the Drifter or Sword and Pistol changed the way I ultimately played (and they felt inferior to just attacking with my gun again).
Also the lower HP made me feel more reserved (the Inventor was the tankiest of us, and like I said, they went down in the 4th Encounter), so as a Drifter it almost felt like a bad idea to even attempt melee with so little protection (no armor or shield to fall back on).
Overall Conclusion
Both Classes are certainly effective. They had some logistical issues both in combat and out of combat in terms of "exemplifying" their Class IMO, but they were definitely capable of filling their roles.
Both were also extremely fun to actuall play, despite their issues. There were rewarding moments (Gunslinger pop-shotting a fleeing enemy and crits, Explode crit failure on two enemies) that really made them the "stars" but they didn't invalidate other roles at the table.
Most importantly, the scenario I ran was an absolute blast for all involved. They ended up solving (90% at least) the adventure and reaching a satisfying conclusion (they want to maybe go at it again in March when we can all get together again).
Thanks again Paizo for putting these two together. Some touchups and maybe a little more nuance being added to them would go a long way. It was a fun game and the Classes contributed to that even in their current form.
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Thanks for the playtest! I made a note to be sure to include "up to" on Exploding Leap.
Thanks for the playtest! I made a note to be sure to include "up to" on Exploding Leap.
Player wanted me to emphasize he plans to take the survey and he loves the class (it’s actually my dad and he’s a HUGE old school iron man fan). I don’t get to see him often these days, so this was basically perfect.
I’ll have another Playtest post for level 7s next weekend.
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I'm not surprised you couldn't get him to take a risk on unstable. As mentioned in the welcome thread, the version that's in the file was a mistake and will not be the final version; you won't have to gamble your turn like that during an encounter. If there's a gamble, it'll be for the consequences that happen to you after.
That sounds awesome!
Just sent him the survey.