Order of the Amber Die—Doomsday Dawn Playtest, Part 2

Excellent read once again. The 3 hour creation time scares me because that's a lot longer than the last one. Will you guys be implementing the new changes for the 3rd part or are you going to be sticking with the original playtest rules?

Excellent read once again. The 3 hour creation time scares me because that's a lot longer than the last one. Will you guys be implementing the new changes for the 3rd part or are you going to be sticking with the original playtest rules?

Thanks Kyle! 3 hours may seem like a lot, but I think some of that may just be due to the fact that it was the first time we were playing characters above first level. I feel like the process is getting smoother as we go forward, but I guess we’ll see though, once the data comes out for part 3 and the rest of Playtest scenarios over the coming weeks.

For me personally, it was a blast getting to recreate the very first 3.5 character I ever made—the barbarian Ithilian Nightfall—using the Playtest rule set! One thing I liked about the barbarian: it felt distinct from the fighter.

As far as updates go, we plan on using the most updated rules at all times. And speaking of part 3, we wrapped it up already (report coming). Can’t wait to see what part 4 has in store!

Interesting post.

Our group managed to beat the Night Heralds (whom actually has a 5th Monk member to compensate for a 5th player) there, with 2-3 days to spare thanks to utilizing the Camels for traversing the 80 mile long trek to the base of the mountain, and getting lucky on several checks that would normally take hours to remake (but didn't since they were successful the first time).

They didn't bother going down the tomb any further (I ruled that the locks on the doors down below were Expert tier quality, and nobody on the group was Expert in Theivery, so it was impossible to open that way). This made it so that the players couldn't open the doors down to the unexplained while also keeping true to the playtest that the Night Heralds wouldn't actually show up there in the time allotted from the adventure, though if they did manage to find a way to open it outside of Thievery, I would have probably had them show up when they succeeded, as the book suggested.

Of course, the only reason I went the route I did was because of what the players did prior; they managed to make "Friends" with Zakfah and his pack, with Zakfah still looking for treasure in the area. The Night Heralds could have probably encountered them after realizing the PCs beat them there, interrogated them for information (one of them could probably speak Gnoll, going in-line with the adventure's suggested language selections), and manage to track the PCs back to the town of Kelmarane, thereby still allowing the encounter to take place (though I would have to effectively homebrew the battle map for which the encounter takes place, since there isn't really one there for that area).

Depending on what we do tomorrow, this encounter could still happen, but this would be well beyond the scope of the playtest's expectations, and as such, the adventurers we had killed the base adventure, as the Countdown Clock is already in the Order's custody by the time the Night Heralds would arrive.

Wow. That’s a brutal way to go down!

I guess that the oft-repeated claims that in PF2 a party with a cleric is impossible to kill aren’t true after all... : P

Interesting post...

Thanks for sharing, it's great to be able to compare stories of how things played out--congrats on getting the clock! I hear you about going outside the scope of the playtest, this adventure was one that I'd love to revisit at some point. The labyrinth seemed like an awesome journey to create, with miles of passageways and traps.

Interesting about making friends with Zakfah, if you do play it out, that might make for a fun encounter in the streets of Kelmarane. In regard to that, I did like that the author gave us suggestions about languages, it was applicable in a few areas and had an impact on the gnoll camp encounter for us. I would have liked to run one last encounter where the PCs got to play a band of gnolls who ambushed the Night Heralds as they were recovering the clock from the elf's body. That final shot fired by Libar was quite a good distance out on Pale Mountain, and so it was safe to say that the Night Heralds would have to gather up and then work their way down to where the body was. In the meantime, perhaps a group of gnolls had taken notice of the skirmish...

Great times, and looking forward to the rest of the playtest!

Wow. That’s a brutal way to go down!

I guess that the oft-repeated claims that in PF2 a party with a cleric is impossible to kill aren’t true after all... : P

You got it Porridge, another awesome TPK story for the Order's archive! Our mantra when it comes to party construction is "There are no absolutes in the world's oldest fantasy role-playing game," and I guess it was proven again here if that's what people are saying about parties with clerics in PF2? The most successful party we ever had (from 1st to 21st level campaign) was actually all martial characters. When it comes to the playtest, I enjoyed just watching the cleric be able to fire off so many shots and still be useful with healing--he was all over the battlefield with that 40ft movement--which essentially saved him actions at times since he rarely had to spend two actions to reposition himself.

While we've already finished up part three, I can't say just yet whether everyone survived. :)

Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

Interesting post...

Thanks for sharing, it's great to be able to compare stories of how things played out--congrats on getting the clock! I hear you about going outside the scope of the playtest, this adventure was one that I'd love to revisit at some point. The labyrinth seemed like an awesome journey to create, with miles of passageways and traps.

Interesting about making friends with Zakfah, if you do play it out, that might make for a fun encounter in the streets of Kelmarane. In regard to that, I did like that the author gave us suggestions about languages, it was applicable in a few areas and had an impact on the gnoll camp encounter for us. I would have liked to run one last encounter where the PCs got to play a band of gnolls who ambushed the Night Heralds as they were recovering the clock from the elf's body. That final shot fired by Libar was quite a good distance out on Pale Mountain, and so it was safe to say that the Night Heralds would have to gather up and then work their way down to where the body was. In the meantime, perhaps a group of gnolls had taken notice of the skirmish...

Great times, and looking forward to the rest of the playtest!

I did say "make friends;" the quotes are important here. It mostly consisted of the Barbarian using his knowledge of Gnoll (which I think meant he had like 14 Intelligence or something) barking his dominance at the lesser pack to coerce them into a ceasefire, whereas the pack leader felt threatened (or in this case, slighted) and demanded proof of combat skill through a duel (that escalated into a brawl), though the PCs still actually spared them and vice-versa. While it did devolve into a more mutual aspect, the point here was that the players did it more aggressive than diplomatic (which is why I made it work; they are still Chaotic Evil), and the gnolls being canine in nature, it made the most sense. (This was also the PC's reasoning, which was in-line with how they viewed them.)

If you want to read a more in-depth analysis of our playthrough, you can read up on this thread I made. (I will also be posting the actual conclusion there shortly, as I haven't had time to do so during this previous week.)

Adam Smith wrote:

Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

Interesting post...

I did say "make friends;" the quotes are important here. It mostly consisted of the Barbarian using his knowledge of Gnoll (which I think meant he had like 14 Intelligence or something) barking his dominance

I just read through your report—really interesting read—very detailed! I liked hearing about the manticore encounter in particular, as it was the most memorable encounter for me personally (other than the final encounter PC vs NPC TPK!), and it sounds like it was a standout encounter for your group as well. Reading about the barbarian using javelins reminded me of Ith throwing javelins at the manticore with his foot pinned to the ground by a manticore spike that critically hit, lol. That image will always stick in my head. Reading about the manticore engaged in both airborne and land based combat was interesting, and I literally laughed out loud at him trying to hide in the rocks, failing with a natural 1, and cursing because he stepped on some rocks he didn’t see, hahaha!

Lastly, decapitating the manticore, and then the barbarian later tossing it at the gnoll Sergeant at their encampment, as part of an Intimidation check, barking at them in gnoll language, was a really nice touch!

It was. I should have let them succeed on the action alone (rule of cool and all that), but I played it by the rules as the playtest required, and rolling a 2 (with all of the circumstance bonuses and aids in place) still made it a failure.

Thanks for reminding me that the Manticore Spikes pin creatures to the ground on a critical hit. I think I critically hit a couple people with those spikes during the encounter (namely the Sorcerer), but forgot to implement that rule. Whoops! I don't think the players were in any major trouble anyway, they had plenty of resources to deal with it.

Thank you sharing again!! I really enjoy your approach to the game and your willingness to share your experiences. Party on!

How did the party spend 31 Hero points ? O_o What are your criterias to hand Hero points ? I don't understand how a party could do so many heroic deeds.

How did the party spend 31 Hero points ? O_o What are your criterias to hand Hero points ? I don't understand how a party could do so many heroic deeds.

Happy to explain! In addition to the standard one point per session and one for contributing (OAD members are expected to carry many out-of-game tasks to help run our game), we threw ourselves at the adventure trying to do something daring or heroic enough to warrant an additional point. Since a session is capped at 4 hours, 4 players x 3 points per session = 12 points per session, x 4 sessions = 48 points. What's interesting about the number 31 is that with a minimum of 2 points per player/per session regardless of any heroic/special actions, our spread was essentially a minimum of 32 and maximum of 48 points. Two of us work in education, and without a definitive rubric to quantify what exactly the criteria are for "when players do something special for the group" or "perform further heroic deeds or tasks," (p. 300, PRB) it's fairly easy to find yourself in a quandary deciding when to award a point in a particular situation. Even "selfless and daring" can be very subjective. On the very first day we saw the section about Hero Points, we agreed that without a rubric that addressed how to earn that final Hero Point per session, we wouldn't waste time at the table debating what doing something special/selfless/daring/heroic for the group meant. We figured we'd leave that one for the forums, and see if things became clearer when 2.0 was released. :)

Here's what the players wanted me to mention: Despite the number of Hero Points, we still ended up with a TPK.

Thank you sharing again!! I really enjoy your approach to the game and your willingness to share your experiences. Party on!

Elorebaen, good to hear from you. Thanks for mentioning the willingness to share, that's been the part for me that took some getting used to (having my game decisions out in front of the community). At least this time there was less pressure playing an animal companion. Sorry team, I did what I could to hold back the Night Heralds!