Link to the Google Doc with all the posts
Hello everyone, I have just started Kingmaker with a party of six, and given the fact that they made strong characters and just destroyed the first encounter with the bandits not taking even a single turn (they put up a clever ambush and rolled high initiative in the standard round too), I decided that I could raise the difficulty. They're all seasoned players, have very good teamwork and know how to get out of difficult situations... they have one player which is extraordinarily good at strategizing (the Cavalier), and 2 of them have incredible bursts of imagination, one girl (the Bloodrager) is so intuitive that most of the times she can "get" the plot line before everyone else, even with very little help (we named her Sherlock for a reason). So, this is not for everyone, but only for those groups who want a higher challenge... I will make a new post everytime I add a new encounter or modify the plot in some way, so that it appears on the forum. Also, I will put a link below that goes to the Google Document with all the posts, so you can find them all.
But on with the presentations:
The party is a Elf Wizard (necromancer), Human Cleric of Shizuru, Half-Orc Cavalier who worships Gorum (order of the sword, took Precise Strike as his Teamwork Feat), Sylph Druid (Marax companion, she took Stealth and Disable Devide with traits so she will also do roguish stuff), Tiefling Bloodrager (she took a variant to get +2 to str and cha, bloodline is Infernal).
I put this info so that you can understand the party lineup and why I am putting some strategies. There are 8 creatures in total, with 6 players and 2 animals, there's a lot of them, they're powerful and smart and can overpower many challenges. So here's what I'm doing:
First, I'm following the excellent 6 players conversion made by other awesome GMs, [url=http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2m26n?Community-Created-6-Player-Kingmaker]here's the link[url]
I'm not changing every encounter because that would be a crapload of work, but here's what I'm starting with:
First, I added the NPC of Taizée, a gnome sorceress 2 with the Fairy Creature template, to help enemies every now and then (see the doc for extra info on her)
Then, i completely rewritten the Thorn River Camp fight, to make it more "interesting". The biggest changes I made are:
1) I chose to give Kressle a Cavalier level instead of the third Ranger level that she has in the conversion, so now she has a Mount. She doesn't fight on the mount, however, she just calls it (by whistling) to flank characters and attack. Most characters won't want to kill a combat-trained mount and so it will be fun to see how they try to stop that beast without killing it.
Her teamwork feat is Lookout, which does wonders when your life revolves around ambushing people.
Kressle has the Order of the Star, and is a follower of Gyronna. She is now more of a religious fanatic (remember that she survived a rape attempt by slicing her offenders with axes while she was still very young, so it suits her well). She has a close connection with the cleric of Gyronna I added (keep reading)
2) I swapped three regular bandits for a Cleric of Gyronna (use the CR 1/2 Mercenary Healer NPC if you need it quick, change domains to Evil and Madness if you want it done better) and a Wizard (use the CR 1/2 Cautious Mage). This wizard has a spell of Sleep or Grease in place of the Burning Hands (your call, it depends on how much of a jerk you want to be, keep in mind that a single Sleep can completely destroy your party if it's done well), and he has a scroll of Expeditious Retreat instead of the Enlarge Person one.
The total experience is almost the same of the original encounter: ironically, the players get 5 points less experience now, and the encounter is much more difficult
3) I put the map upside down. I think it works better this way: it's easier to defend the camp. Also in my campaign, the bandits are aware the PC are coming, and already lost Happs and the others, so they put up a solid battle plan. You can see all of it in the google doc above.
So, that's all for the first installment of Kingmaker: Hard Mode. Let me know if you like it!
