My "Savage" Experience

[Reynard]

All of them if I am remembering correctly. Some stopped around level 14 and others around level 16 or so. The final module often had an entire "continuing the campaign" section with ideas on how to get to 20. The reason for this is what I hinted at as how difficult it was to write high level adventures in 3E/PF1.

Huh. I could have sworn they all went to 20 but I guess I am misremembering.

 

[payn]

Huh. I could have sworn they all went to 20 but I guess I am misremembering.

I know one of the biggest design goals for PF2 was making a game that is easier to run and write adventures for all the way to 20.

 

[Staffan]

Ok... but do the modules go from being balanced across encounter types to combat heavy as they rise in number?

Can't really say. We've been playing up to level 12 in the Age of Ashes path and while it's been mostly combat, there have been a few occasions of "get to new location, make friends with some of the locals, then go fight other locals/evildoers on their behalf". The "make friends" section of each has had a good bit of roleplay – though I don't know how much of that has been in the module itself and how much has been something the GM added. But once we've been off violencing, there has usually been a lot of it.

 

[payn]

Can't really say. We've been playing up to level 12 in the Age of Ashes path and while it's been mostly combat, there have been a few occasions of "get to new location, make friends with some of the locals, then go fight other locals/evildoers on their behalf". The "make friends" section of each has had a good bit of roleplay – though I don't know how much of that has been in the module itself and how much has been something the GM added. But once we've been off violencing, there has usually been a lot of it.

Sounds good be interesting to hear how thing progress as you get going. I ran almost all the PF1 APs so got pretty familiar with them. The only PF2 one I played for a short while was Abomination Vaults which was designed to be combat heavy, so I dont have a good experience with the PF2 era.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Ok... but do the modules go from being balanced across encounter types to combat heavy as they rise in number?

The two I played in still had a fair bit of social encounters at the higher end; I'm not sure I'd call them balanced, but if not it wasn't a level issue, since it was pretty much as true at the bottom as top. (I can't speak of the investigative part since I tend to tune out during that if its at all extensive anyway).

 

[Thomas Shey]

All of them if I am remembering correctly. Some stopped around level 14 and others around level 16 or so. The final module often had an entire "continuing the campaign" section with ideas on how to get to 20. The reason for this is what I hinted at as how difficult it was to write high level adventures in 3E/PF1.

Honestly, unless PF1e played significantly differently than 3e (and my reading of the PF1e rules didn't suggest that on the whole it did) running at those levels would probably have been painful anyway.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Can't really say. We've been playing up to level 12 in the Age of Ashes path and while it's been mostly combat, there have been a few occasions of "get to new location, make friends with some of the locals, then go fight other locals/evildoers on their behalf". The "make friends" section of each has had a good bit of roleplay – though I don't know how much of that has been in the module itself and how much has been something the GM added. But once we've been off violencing, there has usually been a lot of it.

I played through that one and most of that was kind of baked in (to the degree you bake roleplaying in in any module, but at least the lead ins to it were certainly there).

 

[payn]

The two I played in still had a fair bit of social encounters at the higher end; I'm not sure I'd call them balanced, but if not it wasn't a level issue, since it was pretty much as true at the bottom as top. (I can't speak of the investigative part since I tend to tune out during that if its at all extensive anyway).

By balanced I meant the amount of space dedicated to specific encounters in the material. Early on, it was pretty much 1/3 dedicated to each. Later on, it was 75% or more combat encounters.

Honestly, unless PF1e played significantly differently than 3e (and my reading of the PF1e rules didn't suggest that on the whole it did) running at those levels would probably have been painful anyway.

For sure. I often ended my PF1 APs at 12-14th level just because I couldn't stand higher level play.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Sounds good be interesting to hear how thing progress as you get going. I ran almost all the PF1 APs so got pretty familiar with them. The only PF2 one I played for a short while was Abomination Vaults which was designed to be combat heavy, so I dont have a good experience with the PF2 era.

As noted, there's some combat bias baked into most PF2e APs by the experience thing, but it doesn't mean there's nothing else, just that it tends to be sometimes abbreviated.

 

[Thomas Shey]

By balanced I meant the amount of space dedicated to specific encounters in the material. Early on, it was pretty much 1/3 dedicated to each. Later on, it was 75% or more combat encounters.

Well, having played rather than run, its hard for me to judge. However see my comment in the post above.

In either case, it didn't seem that level was especially a factor in how much of it there was; I remember a pretty extensive roleplaying opportunity around L15 in AoA.