Starting LoF at level 5 / 6

[McCleak]

So a group which I'm GMing is moving their characters over to LoF from a homebrew I don't have time to work on anymore. Now, obviously they can't start at the beginning that easily, but I'm wondering if anyone had experience/recommendations for where to start a party with two level 5 and two level 6s. I figured I'd start them around where the CR approaches their level, but I wanted to see if people had specific recommendations for starting points.

[Christopher Dudley]

Probably starting them off going into Kelmarane at the end of the first book would be a starting point that would give them a connection to Kelmarane and let them have a rollicking good time stomping things that are probably just a little too low for them. But if you want to skip the stompy phase, the beginning of book 2 is a decent place to pick up. What they miss from book 1 would be knowledge of the Templars of the Five Winds, and there would be no Moldspeaker, but a lot of people have complained that the Moldspeaker doesn't really work out all that well anyway. The Moldspeaker in my game swapped characters out because he wasn't having any fun with it. Templar lore is a little more important, at least for the context of the end of book 2, so you might have to do a little homework to get them to learn it.

Another thing: LoF is written for 3.5, so it expects characters to be a little weaker. Check the conversion threads in this discussion board. There's a lot of work done for you.

[Jeremy757]

At that level you can just start them off at the beginning of Book 2. Book 1 is more of a prelude to the main plot, and is just meant to establish the characters in the local town. As written you can skip Book 1 and start at book two and not really loose anything except for the roleplaying investment in the town and the moldspeaker subplot (which is ultimately unnecessary for the greater plot).

If you want to give them the knowledge of the Templars(which they don't necessarily need to move forward) that they would have gotten from Book 1 and include the Moldspeaker, you can run the Monastery from Book 1 as a stand alone encounter and then skip the rest of Book 1. Just change the monsters there to something level appropriate.

[eakratz]

Howl of the Carrion King is actually very fun and would be worth trying to fit in. It sets the players up with a place to be motivated in saving. You could just double the number of enemies and add a few levels to Kardswaan to up the challenge. and a heads up, my players blew through House of the Beast and bypassed most of the dungeon in about two sessions, a bulk of the time spent in the actual fight against the Carrion King. so you might not have to worry too much about awarding too much XP in running the 1st module.

Edit: and it has pugwampis :)

[justaworm]

You could start with Kelmarane being liberated by Almah and her mercenaries, and ...

Spoilers:

Almah asking the PCs to destroy the demon in the crypts.

Almah should also ask the PCs to clear out the Monastary, which gives them a chance to learn about the Templars and also lets someone become the Moldspeaker and gain Tempest. I would double the pugwampis, hah maybe even triple, add an extra spider and give them Giant, and do something fun with the bird thing.

[McCleak]

Excellent suggestions, everyone. Thanks for the input!

[McCleak]

Just to cap it off, the next time someone is looking for advice:

Spoilers:

I mixed the stuff a little bit. I had Garavel pick up the PCs, along with a bunch of other mercs, from Katapesh. Garavel was tense along the way, and mysteriously stopped them for the evening. Shortly after midnight they heard a mysterious howling from down the road, soon answered by another one ever farther off. The carts then took off at a full gallop to Kelmarane, passing by a mysterious three story hexagonal building that smelled of blood and smoke. Eventually, they reached Kelmarane, only to find it under attack by 2d8 gnolls! After defeating them, Almah greets the group, and explains to them about being sent by the PactMasters to retake Kelmarane, and even though they did so, the gnolls have used the battle market as a fort to cut the town off from the outside. Almah tasks the party with using the also cleared out old monastery as a forward base, which gave the PCs opportunities to explore that area as well.

tl;dnr: I moved the Battle Market outside of the town, which meant I could start off at Part 4 with the town (liberated by Almah) under siege. The PCs are then tasked with clearing out the Battle Market.