A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3–7.
The Iroran monastery of Tar Kuata nestled in Osirion’s Barrier Wall Mountains is famous both for its extensive history and its curious order of dwarven monks known as the Ouat. When the Society uncovers a dusty field report that identifies Tar Kuata as the home of a strange, otherworldly relic, Pathfinders set off to recover it. However the Ouat are strict judges of perfection, and the PCs must prove their worth if they are to win the monks’ trust and treasure.
Content in “Test of Tar Kuata” contributes directly to the Year of the Sky Key metaplot as well as the ongoing storyline of the Scarab Sages faction.
Written by Pedro Coelho.
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I enjoy the first half, full of roleplaying(dwarf monks!) and intersting tasks, we had a happy time, big reward for skill characters as well.
The combats are good, with moderate difficulty. But as many modules, the main problem is that the two parts don't connect to each other, just too easy to think of the final test is to rob someone and capture/kill them all... the storyline is a little thin, and lack of purpose of the evil cult other than they are BAD GUYS!
This is an amazing scenario. The premise is simple, the execution sublime. At least, from a player's point of view. I felt challenged to come up with creative solutions for certain problems, surprising even myself with the flexibility of some spells. Of course you buy spells with an idea in mind of how to use them, but finding myself using them in these tests to great success was a fun surprise.
The tests were varied and offer opportunities for every character to shine at least once. The fights were rough, but challenging and fair. Having the environment influence the battles at the same time, is in this case a nice extra touch as well. Being able to use Knowledge (Engineering) further increases my enthusiasm as I continue to struggle finding things I did not like about this scenario. I honestly can't think of any and am really looking forward running this for other players.
This is a great scenario. Not perfect, but it's pretty close. On the GM side, it was pretty hard to keep the NPCs apart, and keep them interesting. I only get a single sentence to describe each one, and people moved through each other so much I lost track of who said what. I could've used some more handholds to roleplay each one.
The tests themselves were maybe a little on the easy side (I allowed an animal companion to join in on most of them, and it pretty much passed every single test it was capable of performing), but they're an excellent moodsetter. Again, I wished I had more handholds to praise or chide participants other than "his eyes shine with pride" or "he shakes his head disapprovingly."
The final trial was great, with an enemy that uses great tactics, although she got horribly overwhelmed. Action economy simply is against her. One point of complaint on the GM side is that if you make a mechanically complicated character, I'd like to see more explanation. I'm not 100% familiar on what each class can do, and the interaction between class abilities, feats and spells came become quite complex. Season 6 did a great job of including statblocks in the back, but I'd like to see this improved upon by giving shorthand descriptions of more obscure feats. I really like how Paizo's starting to design PC-like enemies (meaning, actually giving good feats and using synergies player characters also abuse) so they actually are a match for parties, rather than copy/paste the same vanilla humans over and over. The only downside is that it greatly increases complexity, but one or two enemies per scenario should be manageable.
Other combats are pretty great as well, but there's not enough room for maneuvering. It simply became a corridor combat where half the people couldn't do anything because they couldn't physically reach the enemy. The final encounter is a bit lacklustre, IMHO, because of their limited capabilities. Again, not enough room for movement leads to uninteresting fights, and though there were some nasty detrimental effects going on, they were simply hoops to jump through, rather than a real challenge.
There were some small mistakes that should've been caught in editing, but those are all described on the GM thread (how some creatures can survive in certain areas without protection, and so on), but that isn't a big issue.
All in all, great scenario that might run a bit long if players take their time. There are some flaws here and there, but that should not prevent anyone from enjoying this.
I've both played and run this scenario, and I enjoyed both. It has a good mix of roleplaying at the start and a dungeon crawl for the second half. The monks are fun, though it takes a little work as a GM to make them stand out from one another.
I want to compliment the NPC design in this one. There are several feats and mechanics employed that make the fights more interesting, and the NPCs more effective. The author did an excellent job in that regard.
My main suggestion for improvement would be
Spoiler:
that having some details or example encounters the PCs could have while exploring the village and monastery on first arrival would help. The monks are observing the PCs as they do this, but it's left entirely to the GM to come up with the encounters. How the PCs behave is important, so having a couple of encounters where the PCs could respond in positive or negative ways would be great.
Overall a well done scenario that's just out of my top tier of favorites.
Aramaya's strategy states that she "push[es] the PCs back -- ideally off the platform -- with the Pushing Assault feat", but the feat itself states:
"the target must end this move in a safe space it can stand in."
When I run this in a few days, I intend to run it without this aspect of the tactics, because my preference is to not break very clear RAW rules in favor of fixing a suboptimal tactic. However, I think this will make the encounter a little easier than it should be. Perhaps it'd be helpful to make explicit that this is an exception to Pushing Assault (though that's not my preference).
If the edge of the platform were standable but somehow slippery (perhaps it slopes downwards, requiring an acrobatics check when leaving but otherwise making it "safe" to "stand in"), that might be close enough to "safe" while still giving a similar outcome of Aramaya pushing people off.
Alternatively, perhaps rework that mechanic around Ki Throw, though that would require Aramaya to be standing at the edge herself, which might just get her bull rushed off instead.
Here's the author's take on the issue. The general reasoning is in the first quote of the linked thread.
It's nice that he addressed that, but...
Spoiler:
No, I disagree; this isn't even a grey area. "Off the side of a platform 200ft up" is not a "safe place to stand" even if they won't take damage when they fall.
(I also don't know how that ability is supposed to work anyway. Why can I suddenly not push someone off something when I could if there was a platform there. I get it's a balacent hing, but- ugh, nonsensical rules.)
The only Scarab Sage in my party recommended Dhiara as a new sage, rather than one of the options you can pick in reporting. Since it was recommended we post other options on the forums, I'm doing so on his behalf.
(based on 10 ratings)
