Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-17: Stranded on Yesterday's Tide (2024)

Excellent theme, shaky scaling

RedOrca (Archives of Nethys) — Yesterday, 09:05 am

Disclosure: I received this for free to run for PaizoCon@.

I ran this twice: once at the bottom of high tier, and once at the top of low tier. A not-exactly-ghost ship with time shenanigans is a great hook! Overall, this is a great adventure with two issues: poor influence scaling and high rank spells vs low level characters.

In my first run (bottom of high tier), the players were intrigued through the introduction and into the second round of influence. I initially handled the influence behind the screen, but ultimately had to reveal it during the second round as the crew interactions slowed down.

My second run (top of low tier) was with more mechanically-inclined players, so I revealed the influence from the start. I also heavily encouraged certain Discover actions, since the scaling would have made success (and the associated treasure bundles) impossible.

The first combat was pretty tough when I had low level PCs in high tier and a complete cakewalk in low tier. That's fine, though - this is a warmup round.

The second combat has thematic, unique, and challenging foes. At the top of low tier, they did hit-and-run attacks from the corners, using their spells to their advantage. Their spell selection could lead to issues, however:

I think it would have been better to give the creatures a special ability that has a similar flavor without such a harsh crit fail condition. My tables were lucky enough not to experience this, so the combat was easily the most engaging one with the Reposition action coming in clutch.

The final fight was fun, but not particularly challenging. I do wonder if it would work better with only one round of the victory point system followed by more usage of the custom Accelerate action during the combat. Both of my tables easily hit the max threshold before the combat even started.

Overall, an enjoyable scenario with some mechanical issues that could lead to a less enjoyable experience at certain tables.

An interesting scenario, but the scaling feels wonky

SpykeMH — Wednesday, 08:01 pm

Precursor, expect spoilers for me to fully get my thoughts out here.

Played through the scenario today at near max low tier, 5 players. I did like the setting of the story, and it led to a nice precursor to a future adventure I look forward to playing as well. GM did a good job roleplaying the NPCs, though I was surprised there was no diplomatic option with one of the villains. Reading the scenario after the fact I can kinda see the rationale, but moving from interacting with the crew...to ambushing someone we knew little about being the best option felt out of place. Nonetheless plotwise I didn't have any major complaints with the story.

The combat felt somewhat easy. Non-severe encounters broken up so the PCs have a round before more threats arrive made cleanup a bit of a breeze, and the enemy options at least in low tier didn't have many options to hinder the party. In fact they felt more hindered by their own passives, having to reposition to attack, then reposition again to not suffer penalties.(I did like having an excuse to use reposition though.) Part of it may have been having a bard and a level 4 frontliner to render the enemy offensive mostly pointless, but even when they got to the backline it rarely seemed dire. Easy combat isn't a huge deal as I like simpler scenarios in lower level missions. And maybe high tier is more exciting, I don't exactly know yet.

The real issue comes to the scaling of the influences. I can understand why the one near the end was made easier, it basically determines success of the entire mission. The first one however, hoo boy. Please in the future be careful about allowing an Influence encounter to literally double the amount of influence points needed to hit the max threshold, and QUINTUPLE the amount for the first one. Even 6 PCs will struggle to earn 20 influence points in the span of 4 rounds to hit 1st threshold on everyone. For our 5 it was basically impossible. There also isn't much clarification on when an NPC's "trust" is earned. Is it max threshold? Or 2nd where they actually give useful intel? Or perhaps even one is enough? We got one to max and another to 2nd, and basically had to cut our losses on the other two after a few failed discovery and influence checks ruined any hope of getting anywhere on them.

The initial influence encounter somewhat spoiled the mood early on, especially since it's tied to treasure bundles. But otherwise I liked this scenario. So I'll only dock it down to a 3.