Sindarin Elessar's page

We decided to start this adventure path before realizing that it has a lot of issues with balance. However, myself and players are very excited about the storyline and would still like to run it. There are just two players, each running two characters. I am hoping that there are some things I can address on the front end that will make the balance problems less of an issue.

We are using standard fantasy point buy to control stats from the beginning. I don't know anything about mythic, but would it be feasible to just tone down how many mythic tiers the players take? I am thinking of doing the first one as written and adding the next one in as needed based on how difficult the encounters are. Or maybe slowing the leveling? Are either of these tactics realistic? I really don't want to have to make a lot of adjustments to every encounter as I have had to do that before and it makes things a lot less fun for me.

Hello everyone.

I am a new GM (experienced player) and have been running CCT for 6 experienced players. We are just about to finish the Temple of Urgathoa and after last night, I think I need some advice for adjusting CRs.

They fought Lady Andaisin after killing Rolth. Rolth level drained the ranger (who has humans and undead as favored enemies) and the party STILL steamrolled Andaisin. And that was with the sorcerer only half helping because the player wasn't there and I only had the character shoot off a few spells.

I followed the AP and had Lady Andaisin come to find the PCs because they spent quite a bit of time talking to the patients. In hindsight, this was probably not a good idea, because they hadn't been drained by the other battles (they have not encountered the leukodaemon yet), but I have had this problem consistently for the last several sessions (really, since the 6th player joined). This is just the first time they've encountered a boss since then, so up until now I thought it was just because they were encountering "trash fights".

They had enough ranged attacks and were dealing enough damage that she had to spend several turns healing herself. But then they'd bring her HP down so fast, she really didn't have much chance to do anything else with her spells. She did try slay living, but the PC made his save. When she was "reborn". She did get one fighter down to about half hit points and drained his con and dex, but couldn't even hit the other fighter (this was partly because she wasn't rolling great). I did fudge a few rolls, but I feel like I would have had to do it almost every time to really made a difference.

Now they ARE drained, but I suspect they're going to leave and rest before coming back to check out the rest of the dungeon, so I still don't think the leukodaemon will be a challenge.

I know that I can slow down their leveling, but I think this will be frustrating for them. Is there some kind of formula I can follow for making encounters more difficult?

I am brand new to DMing and still learning how to wing it when my players go off "script". They went to the Direption and discovered the papers in Davaulus' name. Last game, they very nearly went to the guards at the castle in an attempt to tell the Queen what they'd learned. They got sidetracked, but may still try to approach her.

Has anyone else run into this? Thoughts on what happens if they tell the castle guards that they suspect the Queen's Physicians are actually helping to spread the plague? Although I think it would be a very interesting development, it seems a little daunting for me right now to head in the direction of them being imprisoned or tried for treason or something of that sort. Is it logical to think the castle guards even know what's going on? Or that they would pass a message onto the queen herself (or someone higher up)? Any suggestions?