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Sadly, this was supposed to be 3 Inventors + Gunslinger party, but the other Inventor Player (who was going Construct) was not able to make it due to some pretty awful tragedies.
The party consistency:
- Universalist Human Wizard with a Familiar Master archetype
- Weapon Inventor with a giant scalpel Ancient Elf Witch with one feat on Dedication
- Armor Inventor with a stealth focus for Jungle (where the scenario takes place) with a Sword cane as main combat and Rogue MCD with 2 Feats
- Gunslinger Drifter Catfolk with MCD into Martial Artist and then taking Tiger Stance
Okay, so this build involved the following:
- Ancient Elf MCD into Witch, grabbing Basic Casting at 4th level
- Built-in Tools for Medicine Tools
- Dual Form Weapon to a ranged heavy crossbow
- Vallet Familiar with Manual Dexterity (Aiden the monkey)
- Searing Restoration
- Every single Medicine feat I could afford with Skill Feats and General Feats
This was basically SCP-049 (The Plague Doctor) as close as I could come and is one of the most fun builds I've ever had the pleasure of making. It was effectively supposed to be the party healer, and not going to lie it was difficult to pull off with Inventor alone but Divine Witch made it absolutely possible with the extra Heal spells in my pocket (as well as the familiar).
Build revolved around the following:
- Terrain Stalker, Wild Elf Ancestry Feats for hiding/taking cover, and maxed Stealth and Stealth feats. This allowed Take Cover in the right environment as a single action ability to gain stealth. Overly focused to the environment sure, but considering the circumstances, lots of fun.
- Rogue MCD for Sneak Attack and general benefits (Surprise Attack) as well bonus Skill Feats
- Swordcane + Suit made for a really flavorful character and Megaton Strike made for really big singular hits once setup
Build revolved around the following:
- Skill Feats and General Feats basically all went to Intimidation and acrobatics, with the exception of Toughness (this one was played by my wife, and she said she'd have preferred Fleet in hindsight)
- Offense was basically pretty consistent: Tiger Stance, Shoot, Reloading Strike with Sword and Pistol was a SOLID first turn if they could pull it off (sometimes they'd use stance on turn 2)
This scenario actually didn't finish unfortunately, as it was rather long, but we're unlikely to pick the session back up again during the playtest window. It went 3 encounters, so I felt it was worth a report.
There were more difficult encounters in the zone, but ultimately, those were not encountered.
Operation H45-h4
Operatives: OWL squad H007 code named ‘Twisted Metal’
Mission Briefing: “Suto Raikan government officials have accepted proposal for Eastwing operatives to enter the Yeong Canton with strict drop off procedures to zone-1337 for entry into known Childland ‘Hasha’.”
Primary Objective: “Retrieve known asset ‘Jutai Parrot’. Bird is believed to be harmless but highly elusive. Species native to the Hasha are known to defend the bird as if compelled. Treat all species when in sight of the bird as hostile.”
Secondary Objective: “Document landscape of zone-1337 and retrieve biomedical information on species present in the Hasha.”
Assets: “Twisted Metal is afforded all assets of the EWO up to and in accordance of level 7 clearance. This includes any and all known entities of the common classification with the exception of the noted requirements for TMs respective standard hardware.
Additional classifications can be provided based on clearance of General Military approval.”
Civilian Engagement: “Operatives are to avoid civilian engagement unless forced. In the event that the Primary Objective is compromised, retreat to the extraction point in zone-C0 site-W4R25.”
This encounter I expected to go smoother, but the Drifter Cat got absolutely WALLOPED on turn 1 by 3 attacks and was grabbed (took 3/4 HP).
That said the rest of the encounter did go better. Catfolk escaped Grapple, and basically solo'd one of the Owlbears, with the exception of the Weapon Inventor running up and using a quick Searing Restoration on the Drifter to get them some breathing room.
The other one was taken down by the Wizard (who got a failure/critical failure on Electric Arc across both) and the Armor Inventor who was able to get a solid Megaton Strike Sneak Attack off.
Overall, this fight actually (despite being a CL-2) was pretty tough in terms of resources. After battle, the Surgeon managed to Treat Wounds across the whole party (maxed Medicine and Medic Ward) but left the Catfolk about 20ish HP down off their max (with everyone else at full). Lasted about 4 rounds.
This encounter the party rolled really low with Quiet Allies on the Gentleman (lowest stealth was +12 at this level) which allowed them to open with a pretty formiddable turn.
Overall, this encounter opened with a decent amount of damage, but the creature was still fine. I had thought it might become way more challenging since the Lizard landed a Bite/Grab on the Armor Inventor (who failed the first poison save), but then the creature rolled a 1 on its Swallow Whole attempt.
I made a call here, since Swallow Whole is an Athletics check and requires a Grabbed opponent, that rolling a 1 is the same as rolling a 1 on any Athletics check with a grappled opponent (and the Gentleman got free).
From there, the Lizard had a terrible next turn and the party was able to bring it down before it got another turn (3 rounds)
The party played this encounter perfectly, as they all rolled not only well on initiative (lowest one was actually healer) and they immediately spread out to avoid getting trampled by the rampaging elephant.
The Wizard actually managed to get a Grease spell off on the Elephant (who critically failed, but apaprently that doesn't do anything special, still just prone) which took Trample off the table.
From there this is where the Drifter finally got a couple of big moments. On round 2, they got a critical (39 damage on a Dueling Pistol felt nice. The turn after that the Catfolk had Haste, and while they didn't get any criticals they did manage to hit 3 attacks (Fire, Reloading Strike Tiger Claw, Fire, Miss) which despite not being "a lot of damage" per strike, collectively, it amounted to a pretty great turn.
Armor Inventor finished the Elephant off with a Critical Sneak Attack, which was where we decided to end the session (not enough time/gas to go for another).
Weapon Inventor - This one is the one I ran as a GM PC, and it played exactly as I wanted it to play and I had a lot of fun. Wasn't trying to be the star of the show, but was effective at being the party healer. Dripping in flavor and one of my favorite builds, so personally was happy.
Armor Inventor - My buddy and I actually build characters together for this stuff usually, and we tried to make "Stealth Armor" operative work as well as we could. A little disappointing we had to go into STR to cover the heavier version of the armor, and we went out of Class for Rogue-like options. Ultimatley the Class played really well with Rogue despite this, but if there were in class options for light armor that would have probably have helped a lot.
Drifter Gunslinger - My Wife loved her character and whooped butt. Her rotation, despite being slightly more complicated than I guess a normal Gunslinegr, was pretty intuitive and she got the hang of it really quick. Reloading Strike felt absolutely essential and easily the highest value Feat she had. Criticals felt great, but low damage pistol shots weren't exactly cutting the mustard (funnily her unarmed strikes sometimes did more), but her overall damage with her Unarmed strikes and firearm (since they shared proficiency with Martial Artist) were decent.
Unstable - Still no bites on Unstable even with my house rule, so Unstable was effectively a "one and done" ability use.
Into the Fray - This did actually get used in the Owlbear encounter, which was both a good and bad thing (action wise great, but also got walloped).
Reloading Strike - Gold standard of Gunslinger Feats right now. Can't be beat.
MCDs Galore - Both Classes we ended up taking a LOT of MCDs. The original 3rd Inventor in the party was full Inventor (Companion), but that may have been a product of the fact that they had a Companion (the most feat intensive path). For the weapon Inventor, I needed more healing as the main healing person (even with Searing Restoration and all the medicine feats I didn't feel like I had us covered at 7 without it). The Gentleman was one of those "we stumbled down this path and it rocks" type builds, so not intentional. The Gunslinger naturally gravitated to Martial Artist on Drifter and the Tiger Stance Catfolk was juicy so we went that way. This may or may not be a testament to the options of Feats in the class, but I wouldn't necessarily say that's a guarantee.
Gunslinger damage - Gunslingers turn-to-turn damage with no criticals is not exactly earth shattering. They do deal consistent damage, so that is nice, but considering that all of the creatures they fought were CL or below, I would have expected more criticals (Gunslinger only had 1 Firearm critical) during the fights. The proficiency was great since you were basically always hitting, but when your average damage on hit is 10 at level 7, you're not exactly hooting and hollering.
Overdrive - I did try to use this and then after that the Armor Inventor (who had forgotten the ability entirely) also used it. Not a particularly engaging ability and it doesn't feel cool at all to use IMO (same feelings as last playtest).
Rules I allowed -
Doubling Rings do not by RAW work with Unarmed Strikes and a Firearm, but I allowed it for the Catfolk (though I actually think they still had the wealth to just outright buy +1 Striking for both).
I ran Unstable with +INT to Flat check but no one did it so it was moot. I also allowed the Wizard a special small phoenix familiar (since they had an insanely high amount of points) but this ultimately didn't factor in to many of the encounters.
I, probably shouldn't have, but allowed Tamper to work on Animals. The ability if only against Armor/Weapons feels pretty constrained, but the benefits are indeed too good if they can be done on anyone (IMO).
This was a fun session and I think all the characters had moments to shine, but in hindsight, the way things played out was a tad "milquetoast". Now that's mostly on me as the GM (and a little on luck since they could have encountered less "meh" encounters in other portions of the map) but overall as a baseline the Classes I think played fine.
Probably my last playtest in the window, but might get to squeeze in another (honestly I ran two different sessions this weekend so I'm GMd out for a bit LOL).
Happy Gaming!