Rest of write-ups on Chronicles testing

So, I have two full tests on the first adventure of Chronicles.

Smaller one was done with 3 party members again.

This time I wanted to test a full ranged attack party with no adventurer who can survive in melee almost forever.

So, my party was:

Flame Wizard + Improved Fireball

Elf Hunter + Sword Fighter

Cleric + Smiting Words.

First scenario with basic rules:

Flame Wizard used 7 skill points in first scenario and got 26 gold.

Elf Hunter took 1 damage but didn't need to use skill points. Got 25 gold.

Cleric was damaged by 6 and used 7 skill points. Got 25 gold.

Tresure rolled was 30 gold coins. All in all, scenario was rather easy, but still the adventurers took a couple of damage.

First scenario with 1 point archers:

Flame Wizard used 4 skill points, got 15 gold and found potion of strenght.

Elf Hunter used 4 skill points, got 15 gold.

Cleric was damaged by 4 and used 4 skill points. Got 15 gold.

Attack rolls by adventurers were quite good in this game, so they didn't need to use much skill points. The one extra goblin didn't seem to make any actualy difference here.


Second scenario

Flame Wizard: 0 damage, used 5 skill points. Total gold 38, got blue potion and found copper amulet. Didn't use red potion.

Elf Hunter: 5 damage, used 3 skill points. Didn't use red potion. Got gem worth 10 gold. Total gold: 27.

Cleric: 0 damage, used 8 skill points. Didn't use red potion, total gold: 37.

Wasn't much of an effort this time, though Elf Hunter took a couple of nasty hits from goblin shaman. Good healing rolls compensated for that, though.

Second scenario with 1 point goblin archers

Flame Wizard: 1 damage, used 11 skill points. Found 10 gold gem from shaman and didn't use either red potion or potion of strenght. Total gold: 20.

Elf Hunter: 1 damage, used 3 skill points. Used Red Potion. Total gold: 25.

Cleric: 5 damage, used 9 skill points. Didn't use red potion. Found Copper Amulet. Total gold: 25.

Well, otherwise there would have been nothing exceptional here, but during one exceptional turn goblins brought the elf hunter down to only 3 hit points remaining, which was by then the closest call ever of a character death. This required for the elf hunter to run out of sight of goblins with Cleric trying to heal whatever he might.

Third Scenario (with Captain with 0-level gear)

Flame Wizard: 0 damage, used 10 skill points. Red Potion. 45 total gold. Used blue potion. Has Copper Amulet.

Elf Hunter: 6 damage, used 3 skill points. Red Potion. 44 total gold.

Cleric: 2 damage, used 9 skill points. Red Potion. 45 total gold.

Captain took 7 damage. All in all, there was no challenge to speak of even with a party who has no DEF to speak of.

Third Scenario (with Captain with 0-level gear, 1 point archers and goblin leader)

Flame Wizard: 3 damage, used 12 skill points (all!), still has potion of strenght & red potion. Total gold: 38

Elf Hunter: (I seem to have forgotten to mark damage/used skill points to my notes :/) total gold: 33.

Cleric: 7 damage, used 9 skill points. Still has red potion and copper amulet. Total gold: 33.

Captain took a beating this time, losing 12 hit points. Granted, here was a lot bad luck on adventurer's behalf, when against the odds goblins developed a knack of remaining alive with only one hit point. I was too afraid of getting anyone to actually help Captain, so there he was, stranded and alone when adventurers themselves tried to get the remaining few damages in.


Game 2:

Now I wanted to try how the game scales up with more players.

I used a party of 4, and now again without a healer.

Party included:

Flame Wizard + Swordsman of Fire (I wanted to try that, if Swordsman could actually give any bonuses worth anything.) And Very Lucky defining trait.

Elf Hunter + Sword Fighter.

Dwarf Warrior + Ancestral Armor + Very Strong defining trait.

Swordsman + Defensive Stance.

All of these meant a party of 26 points.

Scenario 1 with normal rules:

Flame Wizard: used 4 skill points. Found a gem worth 90 gold and 10 gold.

Elf Hunter: 10 damage, used 4 skill points. Got 18 gold.

Dwarf Warrior: 2 damage, used 6 skill points. Got 18 gold.

Human Swordsman: 2 damage, used 6 skill points. Had to spend 2 SP to run to go and help Elf Hunter! Found 18 gold.

Well, the only excitement here was when the poor Elf Hunter thought he could actually survive in melee when goblins scored a couple of nasty hits on the elf. It was bad choice from me to try and rush with the elf forward, when the melee monsters a little back were lucky enough to miss a couple of hits I had counted on.

I didn't actually play more than first scenario with normal rules, because I felt like I had seen enough game balance there.

Scenario 1 with 1 point goblin archers:

Flame Wizard: 2 damage, used 11 skill points. Gold: 17.

Elf Hunter: 5 damage, used 6 skill points. Found potion of strenght. Gold: 17.

Dwarf Warrior: 3 damage, used 1 skill point. Gold: 16.

Swordsman: 4 damage, used 4 skill points. Gold: 16.

With second try with a 4 member party, it felt that the difficulty raises a bit with more characters. There just isn't enough ranged attacks available to kill enough goblins so they can't effectively swamp. However, it only meant that every adventurer took a couple of damage.

Scenario 2 with 1 point goblin archers:

Flame Wizard: 1 damage, used 5 skill points. 26 gold, 2x red potions (found one extra as a treasure)

Elf Hunter: 7 damage, used 2 skill points. Potion of Strenght. Total gold: 25. Elf Hunter used the red potion.

Dwarf: 6 damage, used 2 skill points. Total gold 24. Skill points were used for running so goblin shaman wouldn't cast yet another devastating fireball!

Swordsman: 4 damage, used 1 skill points. Total gold 16. Still has red potion. Found a gem worth 40 gold, and miraculously got Copper Necklace.

Now, this scenario was a blast. It required a lot more effort now the place was swarming with goblins and it was difficult to carve a path to kill goblin shaman fast enough. This meant that both dwarf and elf had to drink their red potions not to risk anything, especially when there was no chance of rest before next fight. Difficulty seemed to be okayish.

Scenario 3 with... something completely different!

Okay, so I have been in contact with the developer and he told how he just slapped 2 skill points to every and all goblins. So before I started to write these things up I decided to play again the last scenario with this party of 4 and use following rules:

-Captain with no upgrades.
-2 point goblin archers (I thought that adding of 2 SP would make them a lot more powerful)
-Goblin Leader
-2 skill points on every goblin.

And here are the results:

Flame Wizard: 6 damage, used 8 skill points (had to run to get goblin leader into line of sight) Total gold: 34, 2x red potions

Elf Hunter: 11 damage, had to defend a few turns in melee because everyone else was too tied up to help! Used 4 skill points. Potion of Strenght. Total gold: 33.

Dwarf: Took a whopping 12 damage and used 5 skill points. Total gold: 33.

Swordsman: 6 damage, used 5 skill points. Total gold: 64. Red potion, Copper Necklace.

Captain... Captain took 17 damage. With no upgrades he was barely left alive with only 3 hit points remaining. Adding 2 skill points to every goblin had a huge impact on their effectiveness, and I feel this is the way to go, not lowering the point cost of archers. It brings a lot more choices to the game, when you can priorise your targets for example on the fact have they used their skill points or not.

This was also the first time ever I had to resort to using the Defending action in combat not to get elf hunter killed.