Hey everyone, I'm back with an issue in my RotR adventure. It's been awhile since I last posted so here's a brief recap:
I began the game with a party of 4:
- Paladin (Iomedae)
- Cleric (Sarenrae)
- Witch
- Sorceror
The party has gone through several incarnations and now looks like this:
- Paladin (Iomedae)
- Cleric (Sarenrae)
- Inqusitor (replaced the barb, who replaced the witch)
- Blackblade Magus (replaced the rogue/wiz, who replaced the sorc)
And we've also added a new player:
- Bard
In addition, the paladin has taken the Leadership feat and had a cohort (monk) who died recently and who I need to replace.
The party right now is in Jorgenfist, having just defeated the Black Monk. The problem is that they defeated him in one and a half rounds. He barely had a chance to act before they just completely destroyed him, and this is how pretty much every encounter has gone since they reclaimed Fort Rannick (that adventure was actually a bit tough for them, and is where they lost both the rogue/wiz and the barb).
Even if I add an additional 40 - 80 hp to every enemy and use the advanced template, my PCs just aren't being challenged. Compounding the issue is just how damn effective these PCs are. For example, the inquisitor has crossbow mastery and uses a heavy crossbow with rapid shot and averages something like 65 damage on a full attack, and the magus is just as bad (or good, depending on which side of the screen you're on :) ) and uses all sorts of meta-tactics to his advantage. The paladin is a walking fortress, and the bard and cleric buff the party to the point of making them nigh unstoppable.
Like I said, they stomped all over the Black Monk and have had very little difficulty with any of the giants they have faced in this adventure, and the end of HMM wasn't difficult for them either. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase the difficulty further without making it impossible? I'm having trouble finding that sweet spot between impossibly hard and just a little too easy.
Use the Mythic Agile Template. Enemies get two actions a round, one at +20 initiative.
Also, don't allow the player to have a combat Cohort. Suggest to him that a wizard or cleric who stays at home and creates magic items for the group is a better idea. Given the time constraints, probably only one decent magic item will be created in the time they are off adventuring.
BTW, Runeforge will... likely cause some significant problems for the group. Six level 9 Illusionists with Fireball would probably ruin a lot of PCs days. Have spellcasters act smart. Summons in the middle of the group for instance.
But for the solo "big bad" NPCs? You want to use Mythic Agile. It doesn't use any real Mythic rules - primarily just letting a second attack a round, and a small boost to hit points and AC.
BTW, is this a point-build? How many points were used? You could boost all stats of enemies by +1 per stat, so the enemies are using a 25-point build. (+2 per stat is a 37-point build, +3 per stat is a 51-point build.)
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Or better yet, don't let the player choose their cohort. Leadership isn't a free character-in-a-can. You get to pick who puts in an application, not them. So if the only guy who wants to apply to be the hireling for a party that just killed off their last intern is less than stoked on being out in the field, well, that's what you get.
Party of 5, especially one with a Bard, is going to be significantly tougher than a party of 4. They're also all spellcasters, so I honestly usually ramp things up a bit more just because of that too. Mythic Agile is a good suggestion for normal mobs, and I usually throw a mythic tier onto actual boss bosses to help overcome the action economy deficit. I've found that even when I want to challenge the party and think I may have gone too far, it usually is either a bit weaker than I anticipated or just right. Parties find a way.
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Adding HP and the advanced template will only get you so far. With five players, the action economy gets even worse for the NPC's/monsters. The pc's individual actions are more powerful (better spells, better attack bonus, more damage, etc.) than most individual monsters and for most of the encounters as scripted the pc's get more of them (ie the pc's outnumber the monsters.) Even in the case of the Black Monk who may be a match for one of the pc's (heck maybe slightly superior) it's still 4 against one. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya.
Adding Mythic Agile as suggested above is one answer, in that it increases the count of NPC actions. I'd pause to consider your player reaction before using it - some groups may be annoyed by NPC's having access to feats, etc. they don't have. "Why do they get Mythic features and we don't?" If you balance it out, you're back to where you started.
Another answer is to change their tactics and a third is to add more of them (which can be easily done by changing their tactics.) The default/scripted tactics in the AP are mediocre (at best) - a well organized or well-optimized party is going make mince meat out of the monsters. "A group of hostile creatures is attacking my home and killing all the people I know? Should I go help? No. I'm good here. I'll wait for them to come kill me at their leisure."
Consider the spot where you are - Jorgenfist. This is the headquarters of an army seeking to conquer and ravage all of Varisia. It has two outposts - Kreeg Mountain and the Storval Stairs. The leaders of the army know at least one of them has been taken out and a significant mission team has not returned and gone silent. (So Mokmurian uses sending to communicate with Teraktinus before the Sandpoint raid but never again after, where silence would be a critical clue? Really?) The entire place should be on alert. All the time.
Look at the above ground features of Jorgenfist - there is 1 giant in each of 4 towers (Just 1? Really?) and in the main courtyard there is a total of 1 (training a mammoth.) After that, there's a huge bear in a feasting hall, a couple frost giants (who stay in their hut while their new allies are ruthlessly slaughtered) and some mammoths in a stable. Available as air support are the harpy monks and rocs. There really aren't that many stone giants in the Fortress of the Stone Giants. I'd suggest adding 1 or 2 to each tower, including at the main gate (to support the harpies.) Put 2 or 4 in with Ember, 1-2 more training the mammoth and 2 more in the stable. When a fight starts anywhere, the other groups come running, raising an alarm the whole way. Some go to warn/get Galenmir and allies from below. If the Black Monk was the last thing left above ground, you can do something similar Under Jorgenfist. The secret is they all don't come running at once - they come in waves. This way you can "turn it off" if your pc's are struggling - they're delayed getting weapons and armor or reporting to superiors, etc. Just don't let your pc's piecemeal the enemies.
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Some things I've done that have handily killed characters since book 4 (I actually kinda regret some of these):
2.) Spell Lists: A lot of spells (some of them IMHO over powered) have been added to the game since RotRL was redone. There are a LOT of spellcasters in the upcoming books. Change their spell lists to reflect new spell offerings. The big bad and his leadership should be fully aware of the PC's at this point so spells that take advantage of their weakness' should definitely be finding their way into the daily prepares.
Easily the best example of this is the alchemist grenadier in my group. All of the big bad casters prepare resist energy fire or elec to further confuse him and keep them alive.
In your case I would add a powerful antipaladin of lamashtu somewhere in the hierarchy who can scribe scrolls. Have him/her start handing out high level scrolls of corruption resistance to every big bad with a use magic device skill. If Nualia survived to end game somehow this is a good task for her.
3.) Tactics: When it comes to the aforementioned big spellcaster fights it's important to remember that in a lot of cases they are ancient and have been spending a long time thinking about how they are going to handle an attack. I will do an example:
EX, Athroxis: A near total party kill for me I rebuilt a lot of her spell list and changed her tactics as a result. Giant Form to turn herself into a fire giant. As a result of this and pre-casting resist energy electricity on herself she frequently (using the evoker power below) would drop AOE's on herself (including detonate). Project Image to mislead the group. Glabrezu also used veil to appear to be Athroxis to further mislead the group. I also took the evoker archetype (I think) that allows the wizard to change the damage type of their spells a number of times a day. This completely nullified resist energy (especially since she had been scrying them the entire time and new their typical damage types and tactics). Add to that a split group, a cleric failing a teleport roll to run away, and a cowardly alchemist and I had a dead fighter, wizard, and druid on my hands.
4.) Mythic Invincible and Agile: When it comes to really big single target fights like dragons and others I don't hesitate to add Invincible. Agile is more deadly.
5.) Environment: A lot of people probably take it upon themselves to lighten up on the environmental problems in book 6 given how powerful the PC's are. Do not do this! Even if you have to go through and calculate how many castings of endure elements and life bubble they need to make a day, or at the least make them buy ioun stones to protect themselves. My players were severely hampered by how much the wizard, cleric, and alchemist had to prepare of those spells just to stave off fatigue and the cold.
6.) Attention to Bonus Types: You will perhaps note that at some points enemies inexplicably fail to have certain armor bonus' that would make fights more challenging. The question becomes, "Why would this insanely high level NPC not have access to a level 3 potion or scroll of mage armor?" Dragons are a good example of this. Also, casters can cast mage armor on their minions... or even have a wand of it?
The important thing to remember is to check that stat line and make sure that the evils are taking full opportunity to protect themselves.