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My method of playtesting new classes is by including a temporary character in my ongoing Pathfinder campaign. I converted the adept NPC Rhyna into an oracle for the Advanced Player's Guide playtest, and converted ranger NPC Cirieo Thessaddin to summoner for the Secrets of Magic playtest. In the Summoner playtest my newest player played Cirieo, which I thought was a better way to test the class.
Therefore, this time, I asked my players if anyone wanted to build and play an Inventor. My new newest player, my 33-year-old younger daughter, volunteered with, "Me, me! I'll do it! *starts scheming*" She created Arkus.
Arkus Inventor 7
CN, Medium, Orc, Humanoid
Perception +9 (trained), darkvision
Languages Common, Orcish, Goblin, Jotun, Undercommon
Skills Acrobatics +11, Athletics +17 (expert), Crafting +14 (expert), Diplomacy +10, Medicine +9, Society +12, Stealth +11, Survival +9, Warfare Lore +12.
Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 12
Items innovation weapon, composite longbow (20 arrows), +1 scale armor, adventurer's pack, compass, climbing kit, healer's tools, repair kit.
Inventor, Terrain Expertise (Underground)
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AC 21; Fort +14, Ref +13, Will +11
HP 87
Orc Ferocity [Reaction] Once per day your health drops to 1 hp rather than 0 hp, and you gain wounded 1.
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Speed 30 feet, due to Fleet
Athletic Might, Combat Climber, Powerful Leap, Quick Jump, Rapid Mantel
Dual-form Weapon Ranseur or Scythe. 2 Interact actions to switch
Melee +1 wounding striking entangling ranseur +16 (two-handed, disarm, reach, grapple, trip) Damage 2d10+6 piercing and 1d6 fire and 1d6 persistent bleed Polearm Critical Spec The target is moved 5 feet in a direction of your choice. 1d12 bleed instead.
Melee +1 wounding striking hefty scythe +16 (two-handed, deadly d10, trip, shove, versatile B) Damage 2d10+6 slashing and 1d6 fire and 1d6 persistent bleed Polearm Critical Spec The target is moved 5 feet in a direction of your choice. 1d12 bleed instead.
Ranged composite longbow +13 (Range increment 100 ft, Deadly d10, Propulsive, Volley 30 ft.) Damage 1d8+2 piercing Bow Critical Spec Pin to adjacent surface.
Titan Wrestler Disarm, Grapple, Shove, or Trip up to 2 sizes bigger.
Inventor Abilities: Explode, Innovation [Weapon], Overdrive, Reconfigure, Critical Specialization effects with Innovation, Offensive Boost (Fire), Weapon Specialization
Other Inventor Feats: Prototype Companion, Kickback Strike, Clockwork Celerity
Build Choices
Ancestry Deep Orc Ancestry Feats Orc Ferocity, Athletic Might
Background Martial Disciple
Class Feats Prototype Companion, Kickback Strike, Dual-form Weapon, Clockwork Celerity
General Feats Fleet
Skill feats Titan Wrestler, Powerful Leap, Rapid Mantel
Niktu Prototype Companion
N, Small, Construct
Trained in its unarmed attacks, unarmored defense, all saving throws, Perception, Acrobatics, and Athletics
Unarmed: 1d8B or 1d6 P/S agile finesse
Str +3, Dex +1, Con +2, Int –4, Wis +1, Cha +0
HP 66
Immune to bleed, death effects, disease, doomed, drained, fatigued, healing, necromancy, nonlethal attacks, paralyzed, poison, sickened, and unconscious
Healed via Repair, broken if dropped to dying, destroyed if damaged while broken
Speed 25 ft
Arkus comes from the Darklands near the dwarven Sky Citadel of Kraggodan. He follows the orcish philosophy that orcs are shaped by the challenges they survive, and the most worthy survive the most hardships. The challenge he chose was exploration. He discovered his innovative weapon during an expedition in his youth and spent the next seven years exploring its capabilities. He constructed Niktu from parts found during later expeditions.
When hobgoblin General Azaersi and her guide dark naga Zanathura wrecked havoc deep below Kraggodan, the chaos eventually spread to Arkus's home. He decided to visit the surface to investigate, not through Kraggodan since they are hostile to the dwarves, but by a more northern tunnel. He encountered the Ironfang Legion, who tried to recruit him, possibly as a captain. Arkus was not interested in joining and he had figured out that General Azaersi was responsible for the mess, so he continued wandering to see the other side of this war. And thus, he found himself at the gates of Radya's Hollow, a human and dwarven town where the party was resting after destroying a hobgoblin army.
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Game Session, Friday, January 8, 2021
Standing a good 40 feet away from the closed gate of Radya's Hollow, Arkus shouted to the guards on the 10-foot-high wall, "What is this place?"
The eldest guard, a civilian recently trained, yelled back the town's name, paused, and asked, "What are you?"
Arkus replied that he was a Deep Orc and made a good Diplomatic roll to persuade the guard that he was not affiliated with the hobgoblin Ironfang Legion. She decided to find someone more competent to deal with the issue, such as the heroes who had saved the town. She left the other guards at the gate and found the nearest four party members: a hermit gnome druid, a stealthy gnome rogue, a friendly catfolk monk, and a beast eidolon (from the summoner playtest). The party members with social skills were farther away (I like to stretch my players' roles in roleplaying). The monk Ren'zar-jo talked with Arkus and decided to invite him in. The guard, still wary, asked that a party member always stay near the strange orc.
Ren'zar-jo led Arkus and the other party members to the local tavern. The gnome rogue Binny decided she liked the octopoid clockwork construct Niktu. The townsfolk in the tavern warmed up to Arkus because they falsely assumed he was a party member they had not seem before. He explained he has investigating the war for his people.
After the eidolon fetched the other party members, the party invited Arkus along on their next mission, so that he could take a look at the conflict. They were going to Fort Trevalay, a Chernasardo Ranger fortress that the party suspected had been conquered by the Ironfang Legion working with a black dragon.
But first, the party was having some downtime. During the three weeks following the fall of the village Phaendar at the beginning of Trail of the Hunted, the party has taken only 2 days of downtime in order to transfer runes from looted weapons to their favorite weapons. Finally, with Radya's Hollow providing a workshop and raw materials, they could transfer other runes they found in a treasure trove. And the goblin champion wanted to make an exotic saddle for her velociraptor because the Loyal Warhorse feat 6 had grown it into a mature animal companion big enough to ride.
They lacked a formula for a velociraptor saddle, so this is where Arkus got to shine with his Inventor feat. He made the formula and made the saddle, while the other two crafters in the party worked with runes. The other two crafters were master in Crafting, but though Arkus was only an expert in Crafting, he had the best feat.
The party also rolled Recall Knowledge (Arcana) about black dragons, planned, and prepared to take on a black dragon. They tried to invent a sodium bicarbonate solution to neutralize persistent acid damage (the dragon does not inflict persistent acid damage but they didn't know that), and had to acquire the aid of a local alchemist. Cirieo Thessadin, a crippled rescued Chernasardo ranger (and playtest summoner), drew a map of Fort Trevalay and explained the buildings. The fort was built on a river island surrounded by a 50-foot deep gorge on each side and reachable only by three trapped bridges or maybe a tunnel ending at a riverside cave. Cirieo and his eidolon were remaining behind in Radya's Hollow.
After the downtime, the party traveled 30 miles in a day and a half to Fort Trevalay. The fey-blooded leshy sorcerer turned into a bird and scouted the island. The dragon was not present but she did spot other Ironfang Legion forces and some human slaves.
With Cirieo's map and the sorcerer's survey, halfling rogue/sorcerer Sam realized that the lookout balcony on the Fort Trevalay's main tower was a blind spot from the rest of the fort. They could string a rope to it over the gorge and climb up. (Ignoring the routes planned in the module is common for this party.) The rogue asked Arkus whether he could rig a zip line pulley to zip down the rope quickly from a tall tree, because the rope over the gorge was visible from a few locations in the fort. Arkus would need at least a day to make it, so they decided to climb the rope hand over hand instead.
The party needed to be on the east side of the fort to reach the balcony, and they were on the west side, so they traveled a few miles upstream to find a narrowing in the gorge, 20 feet across. Both Ren'zar-jo and Arkus decided to jump it with ropes for others to follow. Ren'zar-jo succeeded at the DC 25 Athletics check, but Arkus rolled a 22. I set the Grab an Edge DC to 25, and he failed that, too. I allowed Ren'zar-jo a reaction to grab Arkus, also DC 25, and he succeeded.
The others in the party climbed over, a DC 15 climb check with everyone trained in Athletics. Arkus returned to the west side to fetch the velocirapter, which lacked proper hands for climbing rope. His many-armed construct Niktu held on both Arkus and the velociraptor. That arrangement must have been awkward, because Arkus rolled a natural 1. However, with Arkus's Athletics +17, that was only a regular failure (don't move) rather than a fall, so he continued on the next action.
Sam (only arcane caster in the party) used his Wand of Jump to jump the 30 feet to the balcony, trailing a rope. The balcony's edge was weakened from acid damage, so Sam had to tie the rope to the repaired door. The party climbed up the rope (no reason to use a tall tree without a zip line pulley) without being spotted. The gnome thief rogue Binny easily and silently unlocked the door.
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Game Session, Friday, January 15, 2021
On the balcony, still in exploration mode, Zinfandel, a whisper elf, listened at the door. She heard someone speaking in a language that she thought was Jotun. Fortunately, Arkus spoke Jotun. He listened and heard someone praising some dogs and promising them meaty treats, this time pork instead of human.
Both Sam the rogue/sorcerer and Tikti the champion rolled natural 20s for the same high initiative. Sam opened the door, hiding behind it, and Tikti strode in. The room was scattered with small ramps, hurdles, and dog toys and occupied by the 8th-level troll oracle Parthuk and two 1st-level goblin dogs. Parthuk was surprised at Tikti entering from the balcony but he assumed that she was with the Ironfang Legion because she was a goblin in armor. Tikti's Strike on him barely scratched him with just 4 damage. Others rushed in, some taking advantage of his surprise to rush behind him without provoking his attack of opportunity (I denied him a reaction before his first turn).
Parthuk on his turn cast Message to warn his friend Jang on the 3rd floor. Then he critically hit Ren'zar-jo the catfolk monk with his claws.
At 5th level during the summoner playtest, the party had trouble against 3 trolls. All three spellcasters, including the playtest summoner Cirieo, threw Produce Flame every turn to keep the trolls from regenerating. They spent hero points to reroll misses. This time, the combat was one sided. One of the new runes on the ranger's weapon was a Flame Rune, taken off hobgoblin Captain Dargg's weapon. Arkus's innovation weapon dealt fire damage, too. The druid cast Produce Flame. Parthuk's hit points were evaporating quickly due to weakness fire 10.
In addition, Arkus's first turn was Stride, Strike, Trip against Parthuk. The trip let the rogue Binny deal her sneak attack damage, because her initiative was too low to use Suprise Attack.
Sam, the other spellcaster, did not fight on his 2nd turn. Instead, he jammed open the door, ran inside, and commanded the Tikti's velociraptor Liklik to follow. Both Tikti and Arkus had left their companions outside and Sam was worried that the black dragon would spot them if he flew back soon. Arkus was reminded to call in Niktu on his 2nd turn, by which time Parthuk was dead and the party was fighting the two goblin dogs. His turn was Stride, Strike, Command Construct. Niktu was roleplayed as handy enough to close the door behind itself.
Ren'zar-jo caught goblin pox by punching a goblin dog.
The 6th-level hobgoblin monks Hessel and Kensa came down the stairs, send by the druid Jang. Tikti and Ren'zar-jo engaged them. Arkus followd and decided to trip Hessel after his first Strike, because Ren'zar-jo had tripped Kensa. The two rogues Sam and Binny took advantage of the prone monks by making ranged attacks with sneak attack damage. The healing leshy sorcerer Honey patched up Ren'zar-jo, rather beaten up from Parthuk and monks.
The 8th-level hobgoblin druid Jang and her nimble mature cougar Ruanni finally made their way downstairs, too, Jang buffed with Barkskin and Runanni with Magic Fang. Jang opened up with Swarming Wasp Stingers, a poisonous area effect. To include the most PCs, she also included Hessel in the area. She disliked Hessel, anyway. Ren'zar-jo had recovered from goblin pox in time to get poisoned by wasp stings.
Ironically, when I converted Hessel and Kensa from the PF1 module Fangs of War, I had made them Wolf Stance trip specialists. I gave them Kip Up in case of a critical failure in trip, so they both bounced to their feet on their turns. And they both beat on the champion Tikti, unfortunately positioned between the two. Honey used her last 4th-level slot to heal Tikti. Arkus Strode to be in reach of both Kensa and Jang, Struck at Kensa, and attempted to disarm Jang of her +1 striking longspear. He failed on the disarm.
Hessel died and Jang cast Aqueous Orb, sweeping Tikti, Ren'zar-jo, Arkus, and Hessel's body a quarter way down the other stairway to the 1st floor. The three living targets easily broke free and Kensa fell.
Sam moved past them to block Jang and Ruanni's route up her stairway. She and her animal companion were surrounded, though both were still unhurt. Her next spell was Hydraulic Push on Sam to open an escape path upstairs (and deal 22 damage to Sam), but Tikti was 15 feet way for Liberating Step, which reduced the damage and let Sam step to block the escape path again. Sam taunted Jang, and Honey joined in, "The only escape is surrender." To the party's shock Jang surrendered. The party insisted that she drop her weapon, and since it was still her turn, she released it.
Jang started giving away information before the game session ended, such as the location of the imprisoned Chernasardo Rangers on the 1st floor of the tower.
The battle earned the party enough experience points to reach 8th level. I was going to ask them to wait until they freed the rangers for the level up, but since that will be at the beginning of next week's session, leveling between game sessions is more convenient. Thus, next week we will see an 8th-level inventor in action.
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Thoughts so far
The Inventor is definitely a melee martial class. My daughter had tried to build a ratfolk inventor with a ranged weapon, but that character ended up so lackluster that she set the ratfolk aside and made Arkus. Strength appears more valuable than intelligence in the class.
My daughter prefers Pathfinder 1st Edition to Pathfinder 2nd Edition because PF1 characters are more epic. She acknowledges that the PF2 inventor will be balanced like all PF2 characters, but the introductory paragraph irritates her: "Any tinkerer can follow directions to construct a device, but you invent the impossible! Every contraption you dream up challenges the definition of possibility, even if it only works for you. Driven by innovation, you’re always on the verge of the next great breakthrough." Claiming inventors can achieve the impossible is a lie in balanced PF2.
In combat, the inventor Arkus feels as dangerous as the monk Ren'zar-jo, the party's other dedicated melee character. Arkus could deal more damage due to Strength 18 and more runes on his weapon. The party has been starved for magical gear due to the nature of the adventure path. Arkus has not yet used the Overdrive or Explode actions.
During downtimes and exploration time, Arkus had three chances to demonstrate his skills as an inventor: making the velociraptor saddle, devising the anti-acid liquid, and making a zip line pulley. He was capable only of the saddle. He lacked the Alchemical Crafting feat for the anti-acid and he could not craft fast enough for the pulley.
How does he have strength 18 when the Inventor's key stat is Int? If you're using a houserule for stat generation you should probably mention that.
How does he have strength 18 when the Inventor's key stat is Int? If you're using a houserule for stat generation you should probably mention that.Because they're over level 5.
Dubious Scholar is correct.
This is the second time this question has come up. I had mentioned Arkus's stats in the Intelligence as Key Ability Score thread and gotten the same response.
You can if you random roll for stats instead.While I'd enjoy int to hit.
I seriously doubt we'd get it without big but's attached.
Also, you cannot start with 18str (in response to the one poster mentioning a player in his campaign)
I mentioned that that playtest inventor character was 7th level. His starting stats were Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 12. After the 5th-level ability score boosts, his stats became Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 12.
That inventor, Arkus, was in his first game session today. This session had no combat, but Arkus did use his Inventor feat. I hope to post a full report in its own thread tomorrow.
Due to illness, posting a full report took 10 days.
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The Inventor is definitely a melee martial class. My daughter had tried to build a ratfolk inventor with a ranged weapon, but that character ended up so lackluster that she set the ratfolk aside and made Arkus. Strength appears more valuable than intelligence in the class.
I think I literally built the character your daughter was considering for my own playtesting. I think the tools to make it work are there, but its very barebones with limited options as is until more Ranged Innovations get added (like Reload -1, or earlier range+ and Sniper trait, etc). Not exactly the most interesting playstyle for sure- lot of standing around and playing turret. As for the intro paragraph, yeah that's an accurate response. Giving them more out of combat gadgets or making them a more combat-equipped alchemist in terms of giving them a pool of one-shot combat consumables would help them to better meet that standard, imo. Just make them Combat Inspector Gadget.
Just wanted to mention that I really liked this writeup! Do you regularly post your sessions somewhere?
No. I tried regularly posting sessions of my Iron Gods campaign 5 years ago, Iron Gods among Scientists, but that lasted for only one module. Once I had to create more material for the game sessions, because the party chose an unusual approach to the 2nd module, I no longer had time to chronicle regularly. My Ironfang Invasion campaign almost always requires new material, because I am converting it from PF1 to PF2.
However, I do post some of the more amusing stories from the campaign, such as silly mishaps in rescuing a lumberjack at How are your APs doing? comment #80. And I often use events in my campaigns in discussions about GMing Pathfinder, such as Unintended side effects when using low level enemies, comment #47. I used the events with Jang in a recent discussion, Anyone Else Not Like the AP Format?, comment #63, where I explained how I used flavorful material from the module in deciding Jang's actions.
Game Session for Friday, January 22
This session had very little combat. During conversations my daughter acted mostly as her high-Charisma character Honey rather than as Arkus.
The party interrogated the hobgoblin druid Jang. They got her life story. They got the complete description of the inhabitants of buildings at Fort Trevalay, including ones that would have been a nasty surprise. They got the reasons why she, Parthuk, and Ibzairiak joined up with the Ironfang Invasion and took over the forts. They got a description of the blighted region in Fangwood where Ibzairiak was wooing the ancient black dragon Nathexi.
Jang did not like the Ironfang Legion. However, she had assumed that the Chernasardo Rangers were 99% humans and that humans were worse. Ibziariak wanted to rule a territory to impress Nathexi. They saw a chance to rule over the Chernasardo section of Southern Fangwood and turn it into a paradise for non-humanoid creatures. The Ironfang Legion did not want to rule a fey-infested forest; instead, they attacked the forts to destroy the hidden defenses of southwestern Nirmathis. Jang's moral quandary was that the leshy Honey and the catfolk Ren'zar-jo were more like the people she wanted in her new territory. The ranger Zinfandel described how the party had teamed up with the wood giant Henge to heal a part of the forest that hobgoblins had burnt.
Sam wanted to persuade Ibzairiak to not attack. The party was willing to abandon Fort Trevalay to him and Jang, just like they had abandoned Fort Ristin and Fort Nunder, but they would kill the Ironfang Legion. Jang said she would try to speak with Ibzairiak, but dragons are very stubborn.
The 14 surviving Chernasardo Rangers of Fort Trevalay where imprisoned in a room on the 1st floor, guarded by a hobgoblin warpriest of Hadregash, hobgoblin god of slavery, and several hobgoblin guards. However, some of the prisoners where working outside the tower at kitchen and cleaning duties, to make them accustomed to slavery.
The party waited until sundown when all the slaves were returned to the prison room. The night guards were only a 4th-level Hobgoblin Elite Infantry and a 5th-level Hobgoblin Troop. I had invented both of those creature types. The Hobgoblin Elite Infantry was a fusion of several individual hobgoblin military variants from the 2nd and 3rd module, pretty much a Hobgoblin Soldier raised to 4th level. The troop is a Large creature built to act like 4 Hobgoblin Soldiers. It has 5th-level attack bonuses, but I scaled its damage to be the same on average as 4 hobgoblin soldiers attacking the average 5th-level AC. It has 80 hp (4 times the hp of one hobgoblin soldier) and AC 19 (AC of 4 hobgoblin soldiers in formation). And it has weakness 10 to area damage, so the party learned to use area attacks against them.
The party left Jang tied up in a comfortable spot on the top floor, with Ruanni nearby (Ruanni could have cut Jang free, but Jang was not trying to escape). Then they rushed down from the 2nd floor to catch the guards by surprise.
Binny rolled highest initiative and Arkus rolled second highest. Binny got two suprise shots from the stairwell against the Hobgoblin Elite Infantry, 21 damage from the 1st Strike and a miss on the 2nd Strike. Arkus had to travel further and had only one action left to Strike to Hobgoblin Troop. His attack roll with his innovation weapon (1d20+16) was 30, a critical hit. He rolled 47 damage for that crit and the wounding rune on his weapon dealt 9 bleed damage. Everyone was impressed.
Sam was next, spending a hero point for an extra Stride action (we use modified Pathfinder 1st Edition rules for hero points) so that he could hit both the Hobgoblin Elite Infantry and Hobgoblin Troop with a wand of Burning Hands, due to the troop's weakness to area damage. The other spellcasters did no damage, because they had started further back and two Stride actions left them without enough actions to cast spells. Thus, only the other two martial characters, Zinfandel and Ren'zar-jo, dealt more damage. The troop died before it could bleed or attack. The Hobgoblin Elite Guard hit Sam.
On the next turn, Binny and Arkus finished off the Hobgoblin Elite Guard, with 13 damage from Binny (no longer surprise attack so no sneak attack damage) and 23 damage from Arkus. Arkus rolled better to hit this time, 33, but the Hobgoblin Elite Guard had raised his shield so his AC was 24.
Binny used her master Thievery skill to pick the average lock on the door to the prison room.
The party spend the rest of the session talking with the Chernasardo Rangers, 9 0th-level Chernasardo Recuits, 4 Trackers, and 6th-level Cobb Greenleaf. Honey Treated Wounds on many with her Ward Medic feat and Tikti used Lay on Hands repeatedly on the heavily injured Cobb Greenleaf. One of the trackers, Alice, knew Aubrin the Green who had trained Zinfandel, so that the human Chernasardo Rangers could verify the Chernasardo Ranger status of the strange-looking rescuers. Arkus failed the group Diplomacy check to persuade the humans to abandon Fort Trevalay if necessary, but enough of the party succeeded.
Game Session for Friday, January 29
The information from Jang was that the hobgoblins outside the town would not visit again until 2 hours before dawn, when they would fetch some Chernasardo Ranger recruits to prepare breakfast for the next shift. The party decided to lie low until then. They set up more comfortable sleeping arrangements for the rescued prisoners on the upper floors.
Though this was slightly less than 8 hours, I let it count as a night's rest for the party with time for daily preparations. The Chernasardo Rangers were still fatigued, since their fatigue was from starvation and they needed more full meals to recover. Nevertheless, they helped the party haul some crates to the first floor for hiding places. The party was planning an ambush. Zinfandel hid four 8th-level Striking Snares.
Salokut the 4th-level hobgoblin warpriest arrived at the tower on schedule with one Hobgoblin Elite Infantry and two Hobgoblin Troops. He rolled higher than his troops, so he went around the corner from the entrance, saw Tikti and her velociraptor and Arkus and his prototype construct, and declared, "Bandit raid!" He was dead before Arkus had a turn. Ren-zar-jo hauled the body out of sight.
The other hobgoblins had heard Salokut's declaration and maybe a scream, so the Elite Infantry took charge and sent one Hobgoblin Troop out of the tower to report trouble. The he and the other troop advanced. The Hobgoblin Troop stepped on a Striking Snare and critically failed their reflex save. They took 76 damage! However, Hobgoblin Troops have 80 hp, so they survived until the first attack against them. The Elite Infantry died, too. Arkus once again had no-one to attack when his turn arrived.
Then the party waited. They had heard the orders to the second Hobgoblin Troop and hid anew for another ambush. 8th-level Lieutenant Eygara put all the hobgoblins on alert. She kept the night shift on duty, had the day shift armor up without breakfast, sent the roc-riders to their rocs, and pulled the guard from the Northern Bridge. She had them collapse the bridge just in case the bandits were a diversion. Only the guards on the other two bridges and the barghest Marrowcrack were left alone.
Eygara and three Hobgoblin Troops entered the tower together in tight formation. Two more snares were sprung, I forget on who. The party focused on Eygara, so she did stay conscious to attack. This time Arkus got to attack, a solid hit for 19 damage and 2 bleed.
One Hobgoblin Troop stablized Eygara, picked her up, and retreated. The other two troops fought to the death. The party chased the troop with Eygara outside just as two more Hobgoblin Troops and two Hobgoblin Elite Infantries reached the tower. Finally, an enemy managed to hit a party member, injuring Sam.
One infantry, seeing that Eygara was down, ran off to tell Marrowcrack. The druid Stormdancer followed, but Ren'zer-jo, hasted by Honey, was faster. He took down the Elite Infantry before he reached the forge building where Marrowcrack resided. However, the three roc-riders saw that fight. One rider sent his roc to grapple Ren'zar-jo (it failed), one mounted her roc, and one ran over to the forge and alerted Marrowcrack.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party fought three Hobgoblin Troops and a Hobgoblin Elite Infantry. Unconscious Eygara lost her stabilization to an area effect and soon died--the troops have Weakness 10 to area damage so a lot was thrown. Stormdancer was cut off from the rest of the party and took a little damage from the infantry. Arkus killed the troop that had carried Eygara with a critical hit. The others killed another troop.
Ren'zar-jo knocked out the fledgling roc (this Large-size bird had the stats of a 6th-level mature animal companion) and ran up to the roof of the barracks building. The roc-rider riding her roc attacked him and missed. The East Bridge guards saw the battle and abandoned their post to run toward it.
Then Honey the leshy sorcerer cast Spike Stones between the barracks and another building cutting the courtyard into north and south parts. Stormdancer was caught in the Spike Stones, but she said she planned on flying the next turn so it wasn't a problem. Marrowcrack, his pet basilisk, and the East Bridge guards are on the far side of the Spike Stones. The roc-riders are on the far side, too, but that won't matter for them.
More Thoughts
Arkus performed well in combat, but he felt like a high-damage martial rather than an inventor. My daughter commented that the ranger Zinfandel in planting his new 8th-level snares that he had recently learned upon becoming a master in Crafting felt more like an inventor than Arkus.
My daughter and I filled out the surveys, both on my account. We worked together on the main multiple-choice survey from her point of view as a player, and I filled out the response survey alone from my point of view as a GM.
One question related strongly to the martial vs inventor conflict in the class:
8. In the playtest, the inventor is a solid martial character. For the final version, we currently plan to add a light feat-based option for the inventor to create a few temporary clockwork devices each day, akin to the alchemist's advanced alchemy items but much more limited in scope and quantity. Which of the following do you prefer?
- I prefer you stick with the solid martial abilities of the playtest version with a light feat-based option to make some clockwork devices for inventors who want to focus on that.
- I prefer to moderately reduce the inventor’s martial abilities to make the small number of daily clockwork devices a non-optional built-in class feature
- I prefer to significantly reduce the inventor's martial abilities to strongly focus the class on creating the daily clockwork devices with an expanded scope and quantity, akin to the alchemist.
- Other (please specify)
I wrote a compromise that during the day the inventor would weaken the martial abilities of their innovation to make clockwork devices. My daughter agreed with that idea.