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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fieari" data-source="post: 3536204" data-attributes="member: 16221">So I had a playtest of the rules today.  Started on Alabaster's Tournament, just as an excuse to pit the guys against some foes and see how it turned out.  Only went through three combats, two as Hero-Deities (20 HD), one as Quasi-Deities (30 HD).Three players.  The first was a Bard 20(/Rogue 10) with the Moon and War domains.  The second was a Sorcerer 20(/30) with the War and Thunder domains.  The third was a Barbarian 20(/30) with the Swords and Luck domains.First thing I pitted them against was a standard Ioun Golem.  CR 21.  These guys are ECL 35 right now, with full equipment, so it should be no problem for them, right?  WRONG.  I don't know where exactly the CR breaks down, but the Ioun Golem is WELL above CR 21.  I mean none of my players had even a remote chance against it, even after learning the shatter weakness.  They could only hit on a nat 20, it decimated them with hypnosis and just plain attacks, and so forth.  Maybe it was because the sorcerer didn't take any conjuration attack spells?  But the AC is just absurdly high.  The fighters didn't have a chance, and golems are where fighters are supposed to shine, given that the magic users can't use most of their stuff!As ECL 50 Quasi-Deities, we looked back at the stats, and they'd have a chance at that point.  But Not at 35!So I called that one a wash and set them against the CR 25 Garm.   That was a fun little battle where they ran around trading hits, dealing with the fire breath and trips, and experimenting with their abilities.  Not difficult, but a fun encounter.  Afterwards, I gave 'em ten more levels and another DvR.The last fight of the evening was a lot of fun, even though I goofed horribly when it came to running it properly.  It was the Demon Prince of Secrets, but I forgot to use the Touch attack AND the Artifact Crown!  Ah well.  The Six Shadows Ability made for a fascinating fight as they used delays and readied actions to keep popping the images every round so the damage dealers could actually hit.  His AC is high enough that only the first one or two iterative attacks had any real chance of hitting, and while his attack bonus is nicely high so he hits a lot, his damage output isn't actually all that high, so barring criticals it wasn't too bad.Demise Unseen is nasty and fun.  Sure, it turns a player into a mere ghoul, but it's a ghoul still wearing artifacts!  Whee!  It wasn't until the combat was over that they figured out that the Sorcerer hadn't been mind controlled or enchanted, but rather KILLED and replaced.The Demon Prince's SR effectively made him magic immune, like a golem, unfortunately, but by this time he'd picked up Melf's Acid Arrow.Which leads me to comment: I let him put a full set of Automatic Metamagic Capacity in one of his four artifacts, on a +1 equivalent basis per feat, and I'm worried that this may have been a little too powerful.  He had +23 levels of metamagic at Hero-Deity level.  That's quite a bit.  Granted, the foes were making their saves for halves well enough, but still... half of 800 damage is still nasty!Another thought.  I let the Barbarian have his artifact weapon be very "Ability" heavy, beyond the halfway mark.  This doesn't work.  It makes him suck.  His attack roll was LESS than the Bard's (who admitably had the war domain, but still!).  He could barely hit the Demon Prince on a good roll on his first attack!  I would say hardcode in the rule that at least half the total + on the weapon MUST go to enhancement, so that players don't shoot themselves in the foot like that anymore.All in all, they enjoyed it, but found the character creation process both too long, and too rushed-- I was trying to get to the actual combat, so I was pushing them to finish up, and so they only had three hours to build.  Three hours though... that's not insignificant.  Leveling up was a lot faster though... only about 15 minutes.  So that was reasonable.Any questions about our playtest?</blockquote>

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