slowing advancement rather than raise difficulty?

[BobTheCoward]

I have seen a lot of discussion about handling the easy difficulty of the the adventure path. However, there was one solution I have not seen a thread on.

Let's assume I am a super lazy GM, and the only thing I want to change is to alter the level advancement and pace of mythic tiers. All the loot and challenges would be the same. I would not alter when mythic tasks are completed, I would just give the tier when appropriate.

Is this possible? Instead of being level 20, tier 10 and raising the final challenges, can I lower those two numbers and achieve the same effect? Or does rocket tag favor the opponents too much at that point?

What kind of alternation do you think would work?

[Nylarthotep]

I have had some success with slowing advancement. I have left the mythic trials largely the same (I fudged a bit in the sandbox of book 3 and did not give separate trials), but slowed xp. They are generally 1-2 levels behind where the book says they should be.

I have a party of 6, and the action economy makes up for the lack of soul crushing power. Thus, I still end up making my big bad guys have max hit points.

I have also, at least for the mythic foes, used some of scorpion's stat blocks. The party still curb stomps the non-mythic foes, but the mythic foes are challenging.

That said, if you let them lag too far behind, they will not have the spells that they need for specific tasks (purifying the forge, completing the ritual to close the rift, teleport, etc.).