As of right now I hate Kingmaker. I don't hate the story arc, I hate this overwhelmed feeling our party has. Let me explain. Since we started our campaign just about every fight seems to come to a point where the GM clearly is pulling punches as to not TPK us. The latest example was this abandoned castle in the south lands (I think we are on the 2nd module). As we approach we see an opening with a raised portcullis. We approach cautiously and perceive no alarm for concern so we proceed through the gate. It was trapped and came crashing down on our clerics bloody skeleton hydra. A failed save dealt 28pts of damage. Our monk scales the wall then gets attacked by a quickling(?) the next round and he quickly scales the wall again to get away. We then proceed to make our way around to the crumbled section of wall and go in. Party member attacked again, quickling goes in the tower. We follow. Monk and Paladin make it to second floor, are both dominates in sequential rounds. Rest of part is attacked on stairs by quickling and some other thing. Long story short. GM 'forgets' to use quickling right, it dies, no more flank for other monster to sneak attack. Monster that is dominating stays in combat. We barely survive the fight. I don't mind tough fights but every fight has been like this. My GM assures me he is running it by the AP. So far we have had 5 pc deaths and should have had a lot more if the GM wasn't pulling punches. We are looking for a troll lair in the south and I have a feeling we are going to die to a player and the adventure will end. We had problems killing 2 trolls by themselves. We have been back to our town and spent a lot of time building our kingdom but we are continually urged to find these trolls. I know Kingmaker is deadly but is it this deadly that it becomes tomb of horrors? Or is our GM leading us to death? I really want to enjoy this campaign because its my first as a PC in nearly 10 years but I find myself analyzing CR of fights instead of enjoying the adventure.
Our part is as follows:
Monk 5
Sorcerer 5
Paladin 5
Cleric 5
Ranger 5
Between us all we have a few magic items: Paladin +1 shield, Ranger +1 bow, Monk +1 mighty fist, cleric holy symbol, sorcerer eldrich bow. We have about 1900gp between us all and have picked up and sold everything we find. We all do have masterwork weapons and the best mundane items you can buy.