The DCs are extraordinarily hard for half of the NPCs. One of them, specifically, says to use a weak bosun if they attempt to assist the PCs in a combat encounter. By this, the NPC's Will should be a +6, but they've got +11 in the influence stat block, with correspondingly difficult DCs for both discovery and influence. The other one that's stupidly high is based off a level 6 NPC from the
Gamemastery Guide, but with a higher Will, which again increases the DCs making it very hard for the PCs to even get a single success on the NPC. Assuming a level 4 PC with a +4 in the relevant ability and expert proficiency, they have a +12 on their rolls; in this case, they would need a minimum of an 11 on the d20 for the
lowest influence check. Both of these NPCs have saving throws that are between Moderate and High from the Saving Throws table in the
Gamemastery Guide (or High in the first one's case based on the Weak adjustment to the Bosun).
Next, the scaling. Three of the four NPCs have a default influence thresholds of 1, 2, and 4, which is completely valid and logical; the fourth and most difficult to get any influence with requires 2, 4, and 8. The scaling for this encounter in the PDF reads:
5-17 PDF, Page 21 wrote:
To adjust for the PCs’ overall strength, use the following Challenge Point adjustments.
10+ Challenge Points: For every 2 Challenge Points above 10, add 1 to each Influence Point threshold.
So, for my table at 31 CP, that means a minimum of 11 Influence Points to get the first level, which
obviously can't be right, but Organized Play GMs are required to run it as written in the scenario. I also have the Foundry Deluxe Module for Season 5, which has what appears to be an errata for this scenario in the scaling:
Foundry Module wrote:
To adjust for the PCs’ overall strength, use the following Challenge Point adjustments. These adjustments are not cumulative.
19–22 Challenge Points: Add 1 to each Influence Point threshold.
23–27 Challenge Points: Add 2 to each Influence Point threshold.
28–32 Challenge Points: Add 3 to each Influence Point threshold.
33+ Challenge Points: Add 4 to each Influence Point threshold.
This makes the scaling make a little more sense, bringing the thresholds to 4, 5, 7 and 5, 7, 11 for my party. Given that the PCs only have 4 rounds, unless there's a whole lot of critting going on for both the Discovery and Influence checks, the PCs aren't going to get much done.
Finally, there is no definition in the scenario as to what Influence threshold counts as "gaining the NPC's trust", which is important for both the treasure bundles and other mechanical benefits in the scenario. Normally, I would assume that meeting the first threshold would count, but the way the thresholds are written, it seems like they're expected to hit the second one before they're "trusted".
