Definitely bump it up, I didn't after reading how "tough" it was and I went with 5 players (plus one being a druid some animal companion makes 6) and have regreted it. My players (well rounded, very experienced) have not had too many close calls. I've had to adjust alot encounters ( put solo bad guys in with the henchman, etc when the encounters originally listed them seperately)to make it challenging. I also bumped up HP considerably of some NPC's to average HD+1 to give them some survivability.
I'm in Hall of Harsh Reflections now and finally seeing them challenged properly, so much so I fear a TPK, damn this ones tough, Whispering Cairn is probably fine as is. but the 2nd 2 adventures I would definitely bump things up a little.
I have 6 players in campaign and we just finished HoHR. The first 3 modules weren't too bad leaving cr's as is. They didn't exaclty walk through 3FoE, but also didn't have any near death situations eathier. EaBK was a push over but HoHR really worked them. I've killed nearly every PC in HoHR (they don't know, I let it slide) from start to finish with no adjusted CR's. I think they are starting to grasp how deadly this campaign can be. Here's the group layout
Rogue/Fighter
Paladin
Favored Soul
Wizard
Barbarian
Ranger
They're a combat heavy group but trust me lack of healing is not holding them back. The advanced octopin and illithid in HoHR were particularly nasty to this group. I'd play it by ear if I were you, that's what my plan is at least.
I had 6 players, also pretty experienced and a well-rounded group: monk, druid, barbarian, ranger/rogue, cleric, wizard. They also have two animal companions (a dire bear and a half-illithid pig)
In the first 13 levels or so, they got creamed a lot. No TPKs, but every character has died at least once, and the druid's on his eighth animal companion (literally).
Once they started getting triple digit hit points and 7th-8th level spells, however, the tide started to turn and now they're pretty well unstoppable, even against things that are theoretically supposed to give them a challenge.
I guess my impression is that you won't need to bump it up right away, but then gradually bump it at higher levels.
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I only adjusted a couple of encounters in Whispering Cairn, none of which increased the CR (just made the challenges different) and it was a meatgrinder for my group of 5 characters (2 veteren players, 2 somewhat experienced players and one rookie). There were 3 character deaths and several death-door incidents. Incidently, two of the character deaths belonged to the most experienced player in the group (his first character, then his first replacement character).
I've just started 3FoE and the battle with the Dire Boar was a near catastrophe for them. I can't imagine needing to bump that encounter up. We'll see how it goes with the rest of it, but I'm actually trying to resist the urge to nerf some of the encounters...
I've had from 5-6 players for most of the campaign so far, and have had pretty different experiences with each module. They had a hard time with Whispering Cairn, but had no wizard in the party. Three Faces nearly killed them, and so far they have walked through both Blackwall Keep and Hall of Harsh Reflections. That said, we have not made it to Xyzog's lair yet...
I know some have said the Blackwall Keep is a cake walk, and for my party it was as well, but I think that is ok. Sometimes it is good to let players feel good about how powerful their characters are. I think that there was even some indication from the Paizo folks on another thread that that was part of the intention of that adventure from the start. So, all of that aside, I would also just play it by ear and make sure your players don't get bored.
Some places you should up. Most not.
In Champion's Belt feel free to add members to the competition.
I added a Hecuva to the two dwarves.
He was the dead priest of Hexor.
I added a Steel Preditor to the returning champions.
I generally do not let the bad guys gang up on the PCs unless
they have reason to know they are coming.
Some places you should up. Most not.
I agree to this. My group of 7 is slightly overweighted towards spellcasters (2 druids, 1 cleric, 1 bard, 1 psion, 1 wizard, 1 fighter) and they are very well prepared to get through most encounters easily. Where enemies can make use of the terrain against the PCs (eg the grimlock cave in 3FE) they have a really hard time.
So I decide from time to time if there is the need for some ups.Anyway, for most boss-encounters, I have two stat blocks ready: One upped in the case, all 7 players are there and the original one if 2 are missing.
Well, I have a group of five players, with one animal companion and now one cohort, and they are of avarage experience with DnD. I have not made any changes to the encounters as of yet and I am not planing to, at least not yet. They are a level lower then what is normaly suggested for these adventures due to the size of the group. This keeps the challenge up for them.
I can see making changes as needed to keep it challenging for the PC's. But keep a feel on how your PC's are doing and then make changes as needed.
I'm running with a party of six as well; three fairly new people and three experienced players. So far no one has died, though the rogue did come close twice in the first adventure when she tried to take on the earth elemental by herself and again from the brown mold.
Basically, I've just been using the Scaling the Adventure sidebar as if the party were above the recommended level and its been going just fine since the first session.
I'm running this with seven PC's. For the first 3 adventures things were easy, but starting with HoHR they started to have a tough time with a near TPK at the end. Things are getting tougher with each new adventure because the size of the group has kept the average character level about 1-2 levels below the sugested level for the adventure. That being the case they are having to work through instead of breze through the adventures.
Foul out.
I started my 6 player group at 4th and 5th level going into 3 faces of Evil. I had to bump up a lot of stuff or else it would be a cakewalk. Same with Blackwall. Things started shifting in HoHR and into Champions. I have to pull a lot of punches now and nueter some fights or else the deaths add up really quickly. A big part of it is due to the larger split in XP with 6 players and deaths draining them a decent amount of XP. The group is at the end of Champions and are pretty much all a level behind the curve. They were unable to penetrate very far into the temple meaning they are in the final fight vrs the champions and the giant wormy. Things look grim.
Here is my simple recommendation: increase the number of opponents in multiple opponent encounters by 50% since you are increasing the number of PCs in a "standard" party by 50%. If you have time, you can also add +1 to the CR of all single monster encounters either by adding class levels or advancing them. This will keep your PCs on par, however...
In my experience having more than four players can balance itself. The PCs will get less XP, but they get more activations than the bad guys and more chances to have someone with a high initiative. For this reason alone, you can probably leave the adventures where they are at. I've actually found that some of the earlier adventures are some of the hardest (although a couple of the later ones are completely heinous as well). So your PCs might be a little less challenged than an average party would be at low levels, but eventually they will fall about a level behind, which is not a problem, because they will then start earning proportionately more XP per encounter than a "properply" leveled party would and the system will balance out. I imagine after the fourth or fifth adventure, your PCs will usually be one level behind the recommended level, but this is just fine since the extra two characters above the "standard" party is a great boon to overcome this.