I've seen Playful Darkness get mentioned here a couple of times - in Owlcat's defense, I'll say he's actually doable without having to resort to specific spells or Touch AC (at least on Core - haven't gotten to him on my current Unfair yet).
You don't have to target touch AC if you stack the numbers yourself, because bloating of stats is what Owlcat have used throughout the game; that is the point. A new player might miss out on Finnean and a might not get guarded hearth (from the companions only Sosiel can get it without multiclassing). Just like a new player might struggle with Nenio, because some of the illusion spells are bugged.
What I'm saying is that stat bloating is available on both sides, which makes certain boss fights not necessarily a "puzzle fight" as some people claim - but more so a test of system knowledge. Do I love it? No. Do I think Owlcat relies way too much on stat bloat to inflate difficulty (instead of using clever AI or design)? Yes. It's been my biggest criticism of the game (I've mentioned it on multiple posts in this thread).
In terms of new players struggling with Playful Darkness, I think that's understandable though considering that he is a optional boss. Per above, I do think that relying on bloated stats is lazy design because his AI is so dumb and it's not really challenging once you familiarize yourself with the system, but I do give them credit for providing the player solutions from the start.
Specifically regarding Finnean and Guarded Heath: while it is entirely possible for someone to miss Finnean, most newbies should have access Seelah and as a Paladin, she can confer the same brilliant energy buff to any weapon she uses. In regards to Guarded Heath - per my original post - Sosiel comes with a default alternative via his Good Domain (though I totally brain farted and said Nobility instead of Community):
Originally Posted by Topgoon
The one somewhat out of the way buff is Guarded Hearth (Nobility Domain, grabbed via Impossible Domain). But Sosiel has Touch of Good by default, which will also give you an equivalent or even higher sacred bonus to hit (just clunkier to use).
I guess what I'm saying is, Owlcat does a pretty good job in terms of making sure that if you just stick with what they give you, the tools are there for you to get through most fights. Obviously there's a chance someone might have multi-classed Seelah and Sosiel out of their default classes, but in that case really that's something Owlcat simply can't plan for.
And remember these are specific buffs that works in a sea of many that can be applicable. While the PF system can be extremely bloated (sometimes to the detriment of the game), the one thing that is guaranteed is that there will be hundreds of ways for the player to be absolutely broken and OP in the game.
Originally Posted by Saito Hikari
Either way I don't think my issue was really hitting her since I could stack enough modifiers to do it in theory, it was surviving long enough to take her down.
Totally fair.
Improving survivability is a little bit more biased towards having the right build IMO too, hence the popularity of all those meme-dip builds (I think to the detriment of the game). Having good CC and defensive buffs definitely help, but all those work even better when you have an astronomically high AC.
Specifically for Playful Darkness, if you're not sporting a rock-solid AC, the best way to deal with him IMO is actually to exploit the terrible melee rules in Pathfinder against him. A lot of his damage output stems from him being able to make 6 or 7 attacks when doing a full round attack.
However, if you actually pull away more than 5 ft from his melee reach each round, he's actually limited to to his standard action, thus 1 attack per round (+ the opportunity attack he gets when you pull away). You can try to avoid the Opp attack via Grace or just a Mobility check (pretty hard IIRC). This is most easily done in TB mode, but slowmo RTwP worked pretty well for me too.
Note, mirror image also works against him, so that stacked on top of the above has been a pretty safe way to deal with him in my experience. True seeing is also a must - because he has concealment, so this denies him auto-sneak attack (which is what he uses to drain your STR, like a Rogue). He'll still be able to sneak attack if he flanks though. Obviously Death Ward is also required to counter his level drain.
If you have the offensive output, Last Stand is absolutely fantastic against him too, since you can just slug away with impunity for a few rounds, which should be enough to straight up kill him.
