Dan Backslide's page

4 players started, all at 1st level:

Human cleric of Pelor: sent round to DL to see about setting up a local church. DL doesn't look too promising for a parish, but the rumours of unkillable undead are interesting...

Human scout: assigned to the garrison, but bored, and looking for a way to buy herself out of her service commitment and get out of town.

Half-elf ranger: lives in the Bronzewood Lodge extended community, knows the scout from the garrison, and also --

Elven druid: part of the Bronzewood Lodge, interested in the cairns.

After the first session we added another player, who started out at 2nd level to match the rest of the party:

Human warmage: as a young teenager he was apprenticed to Allustan. He had something of a temper, and got into a lot of fights, so Allustan arranged to have him admitted to the ranks of the warmages at Tarth Moorda -- a much better fate than ending up one of Smenk's bully-boys (or getting killed by one).

My group of 4 (in the first session) didn't have any problems with the beetles. The noise scared them enough to back away from the elevator shaft, and they pretty quickly realised that (1) they could outrun the swarm, and (2) that something that big was just asking for a flask of oil or two...

The wolves were nastier. They caught the scout first, and nearly did her in before the cleric jumped in -- who promptly got hit by both wolves, knocking him down to -4 HP. Luckily the rest of the party got in a series of good hits and took the wolves out; the druid healed up the cleric, and everybody retreated back to town.

With the party up to 5 in later sessions they haven't had any real trouble, though it hasn't been a cakewalk either -- everyone's been banged up at one point or another. The wind trap in the false tomb nearly killed the scout (a lucky save meant she caught the lantern chain). The owlbear at the Land farm scraped up everyone. Filge himself went down fast, a victim of a bad initiative roll, 2 (!) consecutive critical hits, and a Produce Flame from the warmage, but the nasties in the glass tubes had everyone down to single digits by the end.

Next session they'll be headed back to the True Tomb. Hope they stock up on cure potions...

Well... my theory is this: Player Characters aren't normal people. If they were normal people, they'd have average stats and would live lives as cobblers, coopers, or owlbear snacks. (...)

Exactly my thinking, so here's what I've been using:

1) 5d6, keep the best 3d
2) After stats are assigned and any racial bonuses/penalties are applied, any stat that's less than 12 gets boosted to 12.

This scheme makes sure that PCs are above-average, yet it still doesn't seem to make them too powerful. My players certainly took a beating in the first two sessions of AoW...

Or maybe the AoW is tougher than average. Or maybe I'm just getting ornery in my old age...

Totally unofficial, but here's what I used: I told my players the mine office is about a 2-hour walk from Diamond Lake. The Cairn entrance is another 15 minutes or so away from the office, on the other side of a nearby hill.

I think it comes down to 'use what works for you', though I'll agree with Rob -- the Cairn needs to be close enough that the local kids can make it there and back within the same day.