When I run #4-11: Prisoners of the Electric Castle, the complex hazard in the first encounter (listed as Trivial; solo PL+0 complex hazard) always seems to give my players a lot more trouble than the adventure suggests. When I think about it, the hazard is rather strange.
The trap is unavoidable, but the reaction itself is harmless, and its statistics seem reasonable for its level except for an obvious and easily fixed typo in the high tier version's Broken Threshold.
But it gets weird when it starts its routine. The hazard's facets don't appear to move after the reaction (in which they simply emerge from the wall), but each facet still forces a PC to make a basic Will save vs mental damage. The same effect can also inflict grabbed or unconscious as it tries to snatch the target's soul. Is it actually grabbing PCs from a distance (which doesn't seem too farfetched since it's clearly using magic to grab their souls), or am I supposed to be moving these facets into melee so the PCs can more easily disable them?
Additionally, the unconsciousness states that the PCs can recover from it with a successful skill check as a three-action activity (which they can presumably take despite being unconscious). I've been ruling that it doesn't allow a free Perception check to wake, since that would make the three-action skill check hardly ever come up. But the effect doesn't actually say it prevents the Perception check, so now I'm wondering if I've been making it too powerful by not allowing the Perception check.
Another weird thing is the difficulty scaling. My understanding is that most PFS encounters scale with the PCs' total Challenge Points, using the principle that a creature two levels higher than you is twice as strong as you. But this encounter scales both with the number of PCs and their Challenge Point total, the latter of which already factors in the number of PCs. So a party of six level 9 characters (4+4+4+4+4+4=24 Challenge Points) will encounter 6 facets, each with 10 extra HP, but a party of four level 10 characters (6+6+6+6=24 Challenge Points) will encounter 4 facets, each with 10 extra HP. Both parties are the same strength, but one is facing the harder encounter simply because they have more members.
Lastly, the scaling seems to affect the facets' HP but not their BT. Is this intentional, or should I be increasing the BT to half the facets' new HP?
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I've always read it as the Facets are on the walls, but that the spectral claws can grapple anybody in the room.
As for the action, it's explicitly the soul "Each round on their turn, the soul can attempt a DC 25 Intimidation, Occultism, or Survival check to fortify itself and return to its body as a three-action activity."
This action should be available while the body is unconscious and the soul is ripped from it, otherwise it makes no sense.
I don't think you can wake back up until the soul makes it back so no go on the perception check. Agree that the rules aren't explicitly clear on this, but the intent seems obvious to me at least.
The scaling is certainty a little weird, but the facets per PC make sure that everybody is in danger to start with.
Having run this a couple times is certainty more dangerous than a single "trivial" hazard implies but the HP and DC values are certainty supported by the level presented, it's just that something like 3 facets would be more normal, so the 4-6 is more like 2-3 hazards or a Moderate to Severe Encounter.
As for the break threshold, I've always increased it to half the HP, which I strongly suspect is the intent, but if you came to a different conclusion I wouldn't be bothered.
Having run this a couple times is certainty more dangerous than a single "trivial" hazard implies but the HP and DC values are certainty supported by the level presented, it's just that something like 3 facets would be more normal, so the 4-6 is more like 2-3 hazards or a Moderate to Severe Encounter.
I see. The closer hazard I found to compare to this one is Spirit Cyclone, a level 9 complex hazard which also has a harmless reaction and does the same multitarget damage with its routine. But there's only one thing to disable, requiring three total successes. With In the Witch's Grasp/Clutches, you need 4 to 6 successes, and critical successes can't count as two because all the facets are separate.