Well as I plane for the adventure I was thinking about the past ones, Both in my games and others I read over there have been high death rate. AoW seamed harder then SCAP though I have not been able to run the whole thing.
So do you guys think that this STAP will be even harded, Should I add some rules that will give my players an edge?
reading through the first adventure- i don't think it will be too tough. But in my house you roll 4d6 minus the lowest - reroll 1's. so we tend toward high stats.the thing that worries...(excites ) me the most is that our cleric cannot turn dead- at all. so any low level undead encounters will be tougher.one particular manster in the adventure may prove very tough.
Just reading through the adventure.. it seems diabolically hard in some points.. how four 1st levels can deal with some of these things is beyond me.. I assume that they are supposed to get 2nd level before the end, but facing a creature with 42hp and the "boss" encounter being a CR5 and CR3 together.. seems like the encounters are _designed_ to be insanely difficult. I noticed the same thing in both of the other APs as well.. it's like playing a videogame on Hard mode. However I have not worked out the encounters mentally to see how it works in practice.. just going by the CR/EL guidelines, this adventure is a killer.
If you just skim through and look at encounter headers for their ELs it probably does seem really tough in some areas. Too tough. However, if you read the descriptions, you'll note that the challenges can often be overcome through negotiation, clever planning, or they just are meant to be combat encounters at all. I refer to the guild boss, specifically, in the latter case.
If the PCs are succesful in dealing with the challenges up to the point that they escape/leave Parrot Island, they should be 2nd level. Thus, going into the last section of the adventure they are no longer lowly 1st-level PCs. Yeah, they are still very vulnerable, but much more capable of dealing with the final challenges.
Creative Director
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Correct. As with all adventure path adventures, it's recommended that you let PCs level up during the adventure. By the time they start the last act of "There Is No Honor," they should certainly be 2nd level. In fact, it's quite likely that they'll even hit 3rd level before they finish the adventure.
Edit to my above post. I meant to say that some encounters aren't meant to be combative. Sorry.
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that makes more sense now...what with the EL 6 at the end of There Is No Honor and everything.
but the boss NOT being a combat encounter? i can't see that, not unless i missed something.
i mean, my party probably WILL take her up on her offer, but if they DO refuse...too bad for them, eh?
all in all, i'm expecting several deaths in the Crucible, as well as in the Parrot Island tunnels.
also: probably quite a few on the Blue Nixie...lucky crits and whatnot from those X-Bows..
-the hamster
that makes more sense now...what with the EL 6 at the end of There Is No Honor and everything.
but the boss NOT being a combat encounter? i can't see that, not unless i missed something.
i mean, my party probably WILL take her up on her offer, but if they DO refuse...too bad for them, eh?
all in all, i'm expecting several deaths in the Crucible, as well as in the Parrot Island tunnels.
also: probably quite a few on the Blue Nixie...lucky crits and whatnot from those X-Bows..
-the hamster
IMO, the secret to keeping players from suicidal actions is all in the presentation. If handled skillfully, your PCs should get the impression through subtle hints that NPC X is not a person to be trifled with, or the zombies in area Y are more than your average zombie and might need to be handled more cautiously. At least that's been my experience.
On the other hand, a very mean DM can set the players up for a partial or total party kill by presenting the BBG as a slouch that they should easily handle or giving the players an inflated sense of confidence with red herring encounters and then throwing the less than obvious meatgrinder encounter at them.
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i know what you mean, but i have given up on my players.
if i present something as lethal and really not-to-be-messed-with, they will use insanely creative tactics, up to and including sacrficing party members/cohorts/etc, in the pursuit of killing them.
then, when they DO see the "harmless looking old man" they run away like little girls.
so, i play it straight now, and try not to give them more hints about the opposition than would be construed through simple dialogue.
plus, there's gonna be at least 1 (possibly 2) VERY shady, very non-combat-types in the game, so the end of the 1st adv. should run fairly smooth.
unless they take it as a challenge.
then, all bets are off.
-the hamster
I just can't get over the Crucible room. Purely diabolical. lol
Correct. As with all adventure path adventures, it's recommended that you let PCs level up during the adventure. By the time they start the last act of "There Is No Honor," they should certainly be 2nd level. In fact, it's quite likely that they'll even hit 3rd level before they finish the adventure.