Pathfinder General

Last character you played.

It is not only that, it is the gun kata discipline that I have wished for in my dreams for many a moon. I am so freaking happy that my DM is letting me playtest it. At higher level I will be the dude jumping through the window dual-wielding pistol and kicking dudes. (For now I'm just the dude who shoots them, backflips then kicks them in the face)

Alrighty then. I am obliged to request information in the interests of better understanding, and possibly suggesting/writing - though this is unlikely as I am lazy - the discipline design process.

>Eternal Guardian
Let's begin here. How does one come up with this? What makes one go "this is what's needed", when one already has Iron Tortoise for defense and plenty of others for counters.

>Sleeping Goddess
Surely "Psionics" is/was not the entire concept of a discipline. That would be no different from going "undead" or "clerics" after all, and those are/were no good. Right? But, there it is, how did it come about?

Or, is perhaps the entire question wrong? Were disciplines designed from an in-character stance first, and developed from there?

If the latter were case I can imagine an 'undead' themed discipline that meets your approval rather than wrath would have been very different indeed; perhaps drawn up as something designed by a particular lich or vampire, thus focusing primarily on what's available to them.

If we follow that line of thinking, then the ones asking for a gun or tech discipline are indeed asking the wrong question entirely, as instead, it should be "If this is what I use, what kind of martial arts might I develop with the basis of having this in my hands".

If high level version then that character can literally create infinite money and infinite intelligent everything every day so there is no economy, everyone gets fat and the animated objects revolt and take over the world. So I dunno, like 3-5 years depending on how smart I make the animated objects?

I would kiss you but I live in south east Asia and probably won't be to your taste anyways.

The society would become pompous with honourable duels and fine dinner parties. In other words, right from day 1.

Being as she's a princess, she already sort of was.

The kingdom's already at war in like four directions, so she couldn't make it much worse, but damn if she wouldn't find a way.

> Immediately ask about Luke's disciplines.

Y u do this.

I'll answer after these dishes.

...Whyever not?

Under that premise, whoever came up with mithral current had to think to himself "oh gods I can't block with this it chips when I hit peasant bones", and developed a combat style almost entirely around the limitations and advantages of his weapon, focusing on fluid movements and minimizing the direct impacts against the edge.

Perhaps the creator originally tried to apply Primal Fury to it, and was immediately met with a series of embarrassing and nearly fatal results.

>le 'Japanese steel was worthless' meme

Can we not

The last character I played is a college student in Superhero Setting America with the superpower of coming back to life when he's killed.

He would fuck up pretty hard pretty fast, but the setting has the infrastructure to handle his panicked screwups.

Imagine Gul'dan "worshipping" Nyarlethotep in charge of all the drow controlled sections of the underdark while demon lords try to drive everybody insane (and he knows and wants to stop them while being paranoid everybody wants to kill him). So who knows.

Unless you mean Pathfinder, then you just have a menhir savant druid who wants nothing more than to eradicate undead running a nomadic tribe of casters in a desert that literally brings everything that died there back to life. Since that's the tribe's ultimate goal, never if you count their current state as ok. Oh and apparently a 20th level druid could just undo the undead causing spell that's been there for millennia.

Why aren't you playing a Magical Girl campaign, /pfg/?
And from what kind of magical girl show?

...Are Symphogears mechas or mahous? We're playing that.

Because I'm playing in an Evil campaign, and on a different day of the week running a campaign that starts as an investigation and mutates into something vaguely resembling Steel Ball Run.

user didn't. S/he only pointed out they need to be handled differently.

You don't slam a rapier down on an enemy from 500ft in the air with 200 tons of machine behind the impact, and you don't aim for a sidestep and riposte to the opponent's clavicle with a colossal dadao.

Different strokes, different folks.

Funny, I'm about to play as an avant guard kineticist in a party with a summoner, I guess we'll be the villains though since I'm going to have time powers (especially if I can find a copy of kineticists of porphyra). We'll also have a one directional kiznaiver (zealot), traditional protagonist (warder), and an explosion mage (grenadier). We kind of are just anime.

>Are Symphogears mechas or mahous?
Yes

The line between the two is very thin.

I mean, Nanoha is based on a Gundam and Super Robot Wars Mecha mooks were used as Golems by the boss of the first season. On the other side we have Mecha that are powered by magic, hope and courage and a recently come out series about girls with the healing power of song using it to banish negative emotions.

That and Belka has turned up in both Magical Girl AND Mecha form.

Likely because a lot of Mecha and Magical Girl shows have a similar theme. Hope and Courage are powerful and can get you through trouble.

Well, someone's about to get arrested for Unauthorized Use of Magic.

>And from what kind of magical girl show?

Symphogays.
Is everyone ready for 2 more seasons?

Jokes about 'oh no my blade is so very easy to chip I can't even kill a peasant with it' sure read like meme shit.

But maybe I'm wrong.

The themes of the girls themselves as well.
Subaru's based on GGG, Nanoha's a Weissritter with added Fin-Funnels, Vita's the Alteisen...

You would be wrong; you don't NOT kill a peasant when you cut into the bone. Chipping a blade is bad in the long run, but it doesn't mean you've broken your fucking weapon.

The amount of force required for even the shittiest blade means you've dealt some major fucking trauma to the victim in the process, and the bone itself is probably at least cracked too.

Villain family in Nanoha Force is fucking Huckbeins.

Huckbeins, powered by "eclipse reactors".

Nanoha is actually based on a Gundam originally. Though she got a lot of Weissritter later on with Excellion mode and such.

Signum, now Signum there is no way to hide who she's supposed to be.

Hmm...Busty tall artificial human with a serious demeanor, bow and sword attacks and their final attack both having a Phoenix theme.

I am so disappointed with Force.

>Sleeping Goddess
>Surely "Psionics" is/was not the entire concept of a discipline. That would be no different from going "undead" or "clerics" after all, and those are/were no good. Right? But, there it is, how did it come about?

While I didn't invent the discipline from the start (it had already been written and rewritten twice by the time I was handed the disc), I was the one put in charge of its final incarnation.

So I guess I can answer that.

You're entirely correct. "Psionics" /is/ untenable as a concept for a discipline. It has so much stuff, even within a couple psionic disciplines, that it's unworkable if you try to make it do all of psionics. The first two things that got changed for its final incarnation was the power point augments and their scaling (because initiators have incredibly small power point reserves), and its fluff.

Sleeping Goddess, in its release form, focuses a lot on Psychometabolism and Telepathy, with a side-helping of Psychoportation. The fluff itself got changed to give it a concept that a discipline could be written around, rather than "generic psionic discipline with some dream stuff," which was proving to be too broad for the discipline; it was trying to cover too many bases at once.

The fluff that was written for it and formed the core of the revisions of the discipline was inspired by the Ardent from 3.5 and some fanwank about psionicists and Planescape gods I'd read years ago. Rather than being the broad concept of "psionics," Sleeping Goddess' concept is a fairly specific implementation of it: empowering yourself to something close to "godhood" through psionic power. You reject the reality of your body and substitute a better one, where you're in control of yourself and your blade. It was also given a secondary focus of being able to strike at others' beliefs and realities; just as you are in control of your version of the world, you can yank the control of others away.

The biggest way this is expressed is in the stances. Sleeping Goddess' stances are one of two things: (a) "my psionics makes my body BetterTM" or (b) "you cannot deny me." Sometimes both. Level 1 has "my psionics makes me fight better" and "I walk where I want." Level 3 has "my body is my temple, which means your magic ain't doing shit." Level 5 is "you can't ignore me. Ever." Level 6 is "you can't hide from me," and level 8 is "you're in the presence of a god. Know your place."

The line of alliterative boosts, likewise, are about denying something and asserting your own version. At level 2, you've got "I'm not afraid of you." Level 6 has "out of gas? Hah no." Level 8 has "no, I'm actually not dead." The core idea being that you are a boundless source of power because you've tempered your psionic abilities with your belief that you will succeed.

Now, with this stated, the discipline is still a little awkward. Many of the maneuvers kept similar names or mechanics, reworked to be more in keeping with the new fluff. While a decent amount of maneuvers got cut/altered/replaced, its origin as "the psionics discipline" is still very visible. A lot of what was originally in the discipline ended up needing to stay, even if it was slightly altered in scope. That's where the psychoportation stuff in the disc comes from, really. The end result is a discipline that I am happy with, but wish I could have done a little more with.

Okay, so, I'ma let Forrest answer about Sleeping Goddess because she and Anthony were responsible for its modern form. Actually, they were also largely responsible for bringing Eternal Guardian into line, but let's talk about that. So:

> Eternal Guardian
Pic. Fucking. Related.

So once upon a time, Luke floated not one, not two, but /three/ "undead" disciplines at us on our forums, back before they changed over to their modern incarnation. One was for "feeding" undead (vampires, shadows), one was for "avenging" undead (revenants, graveknights), and one was for "warding" undead (mummies, liches). The bossman asked me to take a look at them, and I gave an honest critique, to which Luke replied by whining, complaining that they were all valid discipline ideas, and generally ignoring me.

He was added to my team about four months later. If you think I'm still angry about that, congratulations, you are fucking correct.

Luke was given the chance to cut his teeth on a psionic initiator class. He pitched us a concept of a psionic swordsman who used his power points to make 'meta-maneuvers', augmenting his disciplines and altering them on fundamental levels. It would include the PoW rework of Sleeping Goddess, graciously donated to us by its original author, and he also wanted Eternal Guardian in, retooled in its fluff to not be an undead discipline.

We got Zealot instead. If you think I'm still angry about that, congratulations again. You are fucking correct.

Guardian was ultimately kept for three reasons. The first is we already showed it and it got popular, which is part of the reason we're careful about what we show these days; there's been too many cases on us having to go back on something that turns out to be stupid, unworkable, or both, and then eating the hit for it. However, that's honestly the /smallest/ reason.

The second reason for Eternal Guardian being kept was the existence of a niche for a kind of punishment tank. The core theme of EG is the idea of 'bad choices'. Enemies can eat your debuff, or they can eat a different penalty to get rid of it. It forms a more active kind of tanking than Iron Tortoise, in which you protect your allies both by presenting a threat and by constraining what your enemies will, won't, and even /can/ do.

The third reason was to have a discipline that also used the curse condition but in a different way than Cursed Razor, both so they'd have synergy and to experiment with curses for later products down the line.

Did you have further questions, or questions on other discs?

Forrest. Plz make judo choke grasp discipline. Status debuffs, fatigues, nauseau. Even grasp manuevers that function like poisons. Please.

Please.

plz

Nanoha's team as well as maybe Sailormoon's is probably the hardest to stat in Pathfinder, but go ahead and prove me wrong, /pfg/

Is there a chance we'll ever see a draconic themed (if not in how it acts then in the fluff via being from lizardfolk or others who wanted to emulate the power of a dragon) discipline or archetype?

Youve been told why its a terrible idea.

Stop.

user, leaving aside every rational response I have to that: we need to finish the errata, get Medic, Fool's Errand, and [Sekrit] finished, and then take a long, long break from Path of War, during which we write literally anything else.

Hands-down, this set of projects has been the single-most frustrating, stressful, discouraging, depressing, and enraging for the writers and entire team.

We ain't doin' anything that's not already a spinning plate for it, not for a very long time.

Please understand.

Sounds rough, buddy.

Discipline? Probably not. Archetype? Not outside the realms of possibility.

Just grab the Greater Grapple feat, grapple the shit out of your foes, and hit them with standard action strikes of the appropriate discipline, refluffed as appropriate.

Thank you all for your noble sacrifice!

Actually no. I've had a person say "why don't you just full attack dude", and I've explained my position... and no discussion beyond that has happened. I feel there's a niche for it and it's another interesting way of using the grasp condition. Do you actually have a counterargument to that?

You declaring 'victory' on a disagreement doesn't actually make you right.

:(

I was honestly just expecting you to either say no or maybe. Today was a good day, now to pass out since it's 3AM and I have to be up in six hours.

It's been explained as too narrow a focus.

How many natural attack can you put onto a humanoid PC?

Starting: Claw/Claw/Bite
Helm of the Mammoth Lord : Gore
Fleshwarped Scorpion's Tail : Sting

anything else?

How can you miss the point this hard. It's been repeated practically ad nauseum that the goal is using grasp to apply status debuffs. Not using grasp to then perform full attacks (or strike equivalents).

That has literally never come up until just fucking now, and while it may be true the narrow initial focus can be broadened.

Fool's Errand was written to fill a specific need and niche, and grasp was intended as a way to get the fluff and feel of melee control and grabbing without tangling with extra complexities of emulating specific parts of holds and wrestling and grappling. The discipline /would not exist at all/ without the issues Broken Blade has been having in the PoW errata project, and adding more disciplines that overlap isn't something that we want to do.

And really, Fool's Errand is already shaky on that front. Another unarmed discipline that both overlaps with FE AND Broken Blade would have problems of its own, on top of the idea being something that probably couldn't hold up an entire discipline even if you stretched it. A discipline is BIG, especially for a concept that's relatively simple ("apply conditions to people you've grabbed in some way").

I think that it would fit much better in the design space of a feat or two, or maybe an archetype for something. Fool's Errand Style already does something similar, though not on the scale you're looking for. Quick Dirty Trick can apply debuffs in the same way, though it's feat hungry.

It may happen that the concept of holds and locks gets expanded with Fool's Errand, but it's not going to happen as a discipline. Overall, I wouldn't quite count the concept itself out, but as Gareth said, right now what's happening is getting the current projects out, then a break for sanity.

I hate the disappearing storefront captchas so much.

It sure is a good thing force got cancelled and more or less expelled from canon, fuck that noise.

if you're looking for something draconic themed, why not just pick up Chimera Soul and fluff all the natural weapon stuffs as draconic abilities?

Fool's Errand is shit.

SHIIIIIIIT

user, you misspelled your waifu's name.

Wow. Rude.

I'm sorry you feel that way. If you could expand on that, I'm always happy to take feedback.

Can you maybe do a few boosts or something that [apply condition]. Even something that allows you apply a pre-made poison or a stunning blow effect to something grasped would work.

What do you expect him to drop? The discipline is full of super cool things that I wouldn't want to give up, and it's already very controlly.

>What do you expect him to drop?

You on your goddamn head, and then follow that up with dropping the peoples elbow on your head. Shut up. I can ask goddamnit.

Okay that was good, given the context. Worth the concussion.

Actually it's been talked about a lot in here. My big ones are the following:

>Grasp is too strong as a combat maneuver in it's ability to move around creatures, especially with how bonuses to the climb skill work (racial bonuses)
>Duplicating maneuvers, such as using the 9th level maneuver, is imbalanced as it invalidates most choices for readying maneuvers (particularity for classes with cheap recovery mechanics, i.e. the zealot)
>the one counter that everyone mentions, which seems to have actually been buffed because you can do it in response to failing a save
>massive overlap with other disciplines (looking at broken blade)
>the one stance everyone always mentions (thematically bad and overly complex for what it does)

>Duplicating maneuvers
is the huge one for me.

There's a reason so many wizards prepare Shadow illusions, and I really didn't want that shit to make it into PoW. When your capstone is basically "martial Wish", you're committing the same sins PoW was created to avoid.

Except
>Grasp doesn't even work off Climb bonus anymore
>The anti-magic counter is just IHS, except not worded in a broken way
>Fool's Errand literally exists to present an alternative to Broken Blade, which is getting heavily reworked anyway
>Some of us really fucking like The Ladder, and there's just as many people who have no issue with it as the whiners

I'll cede 'duplicating maneuvers' because while it doesn't bother me, I can see how it could be an issue.

The "sins PoW was created to avoid" was boring martials, and I don't see this being boring.

Additionally, this is the equivalent of a fucking wish - it's level 17 minimum. At that point you have access to such a ridiculous array of shenanigans that it ceases to be a meaningful problem. The game has long since broken down - revel in it.

For the rest, see 's post.

>this is the equivalent of a fucking wish

Really? Must've missed the part where a single use costs a 16th of your entire WBL. Oh, no, that's right, it costs nothing, you can just do it. Multiple times per combat.

Actually, that's... not a _terrible_ thought? Make it less like Wish, and more like Shades? "Replicate any maneuver at full effectiveness" is, let's be real here, one of the best, if not the best, capstones in the system.

"Replicate any maneuver at partial effectiveness, because you're not actually trained in that style, but you're still Just That Good"? I'm totally down for that.

>Grasp is too strong as a combat maneuver in it's ability to move around creatures, especially with how bonuses to the climb skill work (racial bonuses)
Grasp works on a Reflex save. It's worked that way for about two weeks.

>Duplicating maneuvers, such as using the 9th level maneuver, is imbalanced as it invalidates most choices for readying maneuvers (particularity for classes with cheap recovery mechanics, i.e. the zealot)
While Proof of Victory is strong and versatile, the things it's comparing to at 9ths are just as strong if not stronger. The balance on the maneuver is something we're keeping a close eye on (just like several of the other big splashy maneuvers). For the other duplicator, it recently got nerfed, and also doesn't care about recovery at all (you can only use the thing once before you have to find another person to copy from).

To some of the other posters here, I would like to object to the comparisons to Wish. It's nowhere /near/ as flexible as that spell (or Miracle, which does not cost money to use, making it a closer but still flawed comparison). Maneuvers are good, yes, but they're very limited in their overall scope. Proof of Victory lets you pull some variety of "I hit him" or "he doesn't hit me" out of your hat, but the power of Miracle- and Wish-emulated spells is that you can pull from a wide, ever-increasing list of campaign-changing effects, silver bullets, and instant solutions to problems. I would say that a better analogy for it would be the Shadow Evocation line of spells. It's possible that the maneuver will be tweaked down the line. I can't say anything for sure at 4am though.

christ, the walls of text today. 1/2.

On the other hand, no 7th or 8th level maneuver is not capable of:
Reviving the dead, permanently increasing stats, removing otherwise irremovable status conditions/effects on the world, reshaping vast swathes of terrain...

It's an incredible amount of versatility in the scope of 'hit folks good', but it definitely doesn't have the impact on a campaign of a Wish.

The capstone maneuver can only imitate the 8th-level-or-lower maneuvers of disciplines you know, or the 7th-and-below maneuvers of those that you don't. It STILL can't imitate things perfectly, and as was mentioned earlier doing so still fails in an antimagic field if the maneuver is supernatural (so no, you can't use an (Ex)-version of a 9th-level maneuver).

>the one counter that everyone mentions, which seems to have actually been buffed because you can do it in response to failing a save
Assert Existence was rather heavily nerfed from its original incarnation. It could always be used in response to failing a save (on account of immunity just hard-noping things), only now it only makes you a golem instead of protecting you from everything. It may be changed further. We're keeping an eye on this one too.

>massive overlap with other disciplines (looking at broken blade)
As has been noted (in this very thread, in fact), Fool's Errand was written to fill a niche that Broken Blade /tried/ to fill and failed to. It was created in response to the fact that we cannot make Broken Blade fill that niche in the PoW 1 errata project.

>the one stance everyone always mentions (thematically bad and overly complex for what it does)
While I cannot agree with you thematically (The Ladder is based on a fairly common concept in fiction), could you elaborate on the complexity aspect? From what I can tell, it actually makes your movement a bit /less/ complex than flight, thanks to how Fly checks and maneuvering works. It's basically a fly speed + a better Flyby Attack, except it has a unique twist to make it feel different in practice. We've gotten a lot of comments about it being slightly complex, but not that it's overly so.

Thank you for taking the time to expand your feedback from "SHIIIIIIIT," in any case. I find these discussions quite helpful for taking a step back and giving the material another look.

So I'm the idiot from a few threads back who wanted to convert Noble Scion into a decent Base Class. This is a very rough draft of what I want to do, I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions.

pastebin.com/PXRBdzad

Post more of this

>Well the idea is to set it in the here and now, but draw from multiple sources ranging from Supernatural, the Dresden Files, the Laundry Files, Night's Black Agents to name a few

In view, the players represent a counter-occult/counter-supernatural agency with directives to ensure the brutal put-down of any unsanctioned occult/paranormal/supernatural threat; they are wetworkers, troubleshooters and hazard specialists.
The masses must be kept ignorant

And thus these agents use the very tools that the general public have very little or no idea about; currency in the form of gold pieces exists to ensure the upgradibility of magic items and objects

Combat is meant to be brutal, so I may actually look at FantasyCraft for ideas

The players are supposed to be starting at 1st level, with all 1pp supplements and PoW and psionics available to them

I'm 7th level psion-shaper.
Which feats you can offer for this levelup, outside of metapsionics and additional psifocus?
Feats that I already have: Advanced Construct, Boost Construct, Overchannel, Psicrystal Affinity, Psionic Meditation, Talented

2x Hooves from rage power, beastmorph or ragebred skinwalker
Alchemist can get tentacles I think.

So under the leadership of the Dread Queen of the Worldwound, armies of demons pour out of the portal with one goal in mind; making as many good friends as they can.

Once cruel Balors stop slaughtering mortals and instead end up as enormous adorkable bros, Succubi end up losing their sexual focus and learn to sap the souls of many good friends in ways that do not harm them and Mariliths go around not as bloodthirsty reavers but aspiring warriors looking for strong allies to spar and drink alongside.

Well, this until her Psicrystal gets destroyed or something, in which case one of the worst incursions of nightmarish horrors comes to pass.

Liz is not a mentally healthy girl; going from 'so good it would make a paladin blush' to 'sociopathic murderer' at the flick of a switch under the right circumstances.
She does loath herself for this though.

If anyone (Forrest or otherwise) could elaborate on the issues with broken blade, I'd be grateful.

I'm going to spend a feat or two trying out Experimental Word Caster feat as a sorcerer.

Any recommend effect word? What are some cool combo I can do?

Sorry, read it but was unable to answer on the bus - attempting so gives a giant pink/red screen with *website banned: pornography* written all over it.

I actually *like* Guardian, by the way.

How about two simpler (hopefully less anger inducing?) ones then: Elemental Flux and the ever-popular Tempest Gale (or Riven Hourglass if you'd prefer)... or was that the other way around?

How/where does one start so as to get to those? Also how did "this one does all four elements" come about in relation to the existence of Solar Wind, and how were those reconciled?

>We need something for spellcraft?
>There should be a discipline that handles the four elements better than how we did Solar Wind given its resist/immunity drawbacks?
>I want Avatar?

Where did the process start.

That depends on how well the crust can handle so many city-sized hyperspace vessels being smelted and turned to a new fleet.

And uh, also whether the atmosphere on golarion can handle the energy bleeding out when they fire.

The main reason it's so hard is that the only charge-shot mechanics are the kineticist and 3.5 touhou fan-written martial discipline "divine flame".

Otherwise they're all rather Aegis.

Nanoha is a straight up blaster wizard.
Fate is a PoW Zwei Sent

Very good. It was really a terrible, edgy direction to take it.

I thought I was in /srwg/ for awhile there..

Damage values are generally way too high when you use it with two handed weapons. For all of these, assume 18 Str and a greatsword. None of these factor in stat increases, feats, stances, or gear. Just 18 Str, a greatsword, and strike/boosts
Level 1: Flurry Strike: net damage 4d6+12 as a standard
Level 3: Bronze Knuckle+Flurry Strike: net damage 8d6+12 as a swift+standard. And ignore DR
Level 5: Bronze Knuckle+Steel Flurry Strike: -2 to hit, but 21d6+18 on swift+standard. And ignore DR
Level 7: Iron Knuckle+Steel Flurry Strike: -2 to hit, 27d6+18 on swift+standard. This one requires Weapon Group Adaptation due to restrictions on Iron Knuckle

Sup pfg!

I decided, since I'm in a port city that has a big fishing industry, that I want to make a robe of infinite twine and open up a rope store.

Good idea, bad idea? Any arguments I could use for my GM to let me make this happen?

It can make up to 48,000 feet of rope per (8 hour) day, which means about 960 GP worth. I would say after taxes, wages and whatever else, I'd get maybe a 4th, or a bit less. I have the idea that I'd roll a DC20 to decide what I'd make for each day, using some simple formula.

Is this a dumb idea?

Why a greatsword and not a sansetsukon, saving you from having to take Weapon Group Adaptation?

Because I'm lazy and can't be bothered to go to a new page of the PFSRD :P

Players are supposed to be investigating/lost Innawoods

I want to give some inbred hillbillies bloodrager and initiator levels. Is this too cruel?

Level is pretty relevant here

aberrant bloodragers could make for some fitting degenerates

for initiators, I'd avoid damage boosters. Focus on mobility or debuff, and counters

You mad man, you'll crash the rope market.

Their levels are to fuck shit up, so dunno probably 4th as the players are 1st level. I told to prepare multiple back ups just in case

Each of them is given a candle which represents their lifeline

...so basically you're planning to meatgrinder the players unless they go full cheesy casters with high DC color sprays and shit?

It's a horror scenario, so up to them what they bring to the table

Pow shenanigans is advised

not really a horror scenario. PF does horror pretty badly. This is "throw new PCs at the enemies until we get enough crits to drop them". That or optimize for level 1 move speed and gtfo

I'll be honest, if you stat them out, your NPC-form-bad-ends will probably manage to find a way to die horribly. 4th isn't totally out of reach for cheese and crits ruining an encounter, but if you WANT the PCs to just body your hillbillies that's probably fine.

...

>Hobgoblins
>Union Health and Safety
-20 to Bluff check, lie is impossible.

Ambush Hunter Rangers with pig and goat companions.
Have their leader be a Hussar with a giant boar, and have a few old men as Banjo/Clay-Jug/Harmonica Rubatos