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Link to the YouTube VOD
My post of the stream on the PF2 subreddit, which will probably elicit discussion there
We had six Level 7 PCs:
Ariel (fighter)
Dunbar (redeemer champion)
Ack (frontline guardian)
Alesha (commander)
Redwall (ranged guardian)
Virgash the Wardancer (warrior-muse bard)
Google Doc showing all the builds of our 6 characters
GM's character "cheat sheet"
There were some deliberate pairings:
-The Guardians, who made sure to pick none of the same options, could be compared to the Champion
-The Commander, as a "leader," could be compared to the Bard in this respect
-We wanted to see how the Commander pairs with the Fighter, with its high accuracy
I asked the group to optimize, to test the balance of the playtest classes and various options. It ended up being a melee-heavy party, with even the Bard focusing on melee. When building the characters, the players wanted to make sure the party dealt damage since the Guardians weren't strong offensively and the Commander was focused on commanding others.
The post-discussion was great, with people talking about their thoughts from the playtest and making suggestions for the final Commander and Guardian. (Redwall, one of our guardians, also had a lot of fun RP moments and says he was inspired by Face McShooty of Borderlands fame lol.)
The three fights were:
-Six L5 elementals, one of each element (Moderate)
-Party split in half, each facing L8 Weak Grappling Spirit, two L4 Weak Redcaps (each half is Severe)
-L10 Weak Young Diabolic Dragon (Severe-threat boss)
Timestamps for the stream:
0:00 Intro
6:06 Choices we made for this playtest
11:58 Our very serious adventure premise
14:01 Breaking into Paizo's Game Balance Division
19:43 COMBAT 1: 6 elementals (moderate)
56:16 Redwall's first of many fun Guardian RP moments
1:50:27 Calling forth the Spirit of Wrestling
1:55:32 COMBAT 2: The Spirit of Wrestling (severe)
3:32:14 The quest to Mount Remaster
3:45:50 COMBAT 3: Young Diabolic Dragon (severe-threat boss)
5:17:55 Coda
5:19:38 Post-discussion on Commander
5:40:21 Post-discussion on Guardian
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I love the use of "victim" as nickname for guardian class kkkkk!
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The guardian feedback was incredibly revealing. You have an insightful bunch of players there.
The first comment re: Guardian from one of the Guardian players was that Shielded Recovery should be a Guardian feat, not a Commander feat.
The next comment (from Rules Lawyer?) is that the Commander feat that lets you “swap places and be the target.”
This has been identified from very early on in the playtest, and it seemed there was consensus on that from these playtesters.
I really liked the player of Ack’s (the frontline guardian) comments (around 5:43:40??) re: theme and scope - particularly the “bodyguard” concept (no armor/Dex based); meat shield vs steelshield concepts (the vagaries of more HP vs. more resistances); having Perception to actually perceive danger and Initiative and Exploation mode buffs; and Downtime and social “defense” concepts.
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I also found Swingripper’s discussion at 5:46:50 comparing the balance between Champion (damage mitigation plus off-heal plus debuff) vs Guardian (meatshield only) very useful. The Guardian needs more to fill it out conceptually - and echoed by Alesha’s player commenting that the lack of “proactive action” is antithetical to the three action economy of Pathfinder 2.
This has been my experience. The Guardian doesn’t seem to want you to “get at guarding” or be in the act of getting to guard but to “accept guard duty” if that makes sense.
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Redwall’s comment that the “ranged Guardian is a meme that doesn’t work” because you throw out 3/4 of your kit to do it was insightful too. Redwall’s 7 bullet points discussion 5:47:50ish and Ack’s points about “shoving/tripping and grappling” are definitely worth watching.
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I love the use of "victim" as nickname for guardian class kkkkk!
Also loved Ack’s “nanner nanner nanner” disparaging of Taunt. I’ve come to see there are lots of ways to flavor Taunt, but am firmly of the opinion that Taunt a) shouldn’t be an auto assumption for Guardians, and b) should be…different.