So, I've got 8 players in my campaign right now, and I'm thinking that there might be a 9th joining soon. I initially only had 6, but two of my player's wives tagged along, so...
Anyone know how this could possibly affect the campaign? I was worried about experience, but after finishing Chapter 1 I found that everyone made it to level 3 except for one character that died (starting him over at level 1) and one character that missed a session (he's almost at level 3). I award alot of bonus exp for role-playing and info gathering.
As for the difficulty, the party seems to be able to deal with things okay, but certain encounters are still quite challenging. The grell killed one PC, and the howler and a couple of the traps almost did in another. Plus one contracted the Vanishing and had 2 CHA left before he got a Remove Curse cast on him. I'm worried that later on, if they keep leveling the way they do, they'll run over just about anything they face.
Is there any guidelines anywhere for increasing the difficulty of certain adventures. I know in Dungeon magazine they have the Scaling the Adventure sidebars, but I was wondering if there was anything like that online I could use to make things more challenging for the party. I'd hate to drag out back issues of Dungeon to find the sidebars, especially when some things have changed when the Adventure Path was published hardcover (which is what I'm using now).
Hmmm that is a tough one... nah, not really (although I envy you just a little, I only have the magazines and would LOVE the hardcover.) Okaay... scaling the adventures. I used to have to deal with this frequently as I had almost as large a group with my weekly sunday game set in my homemade setting. (I had seven players.) I looked at them as able to handle encounters one or two levels higher than normal. (For example; if the party was say 5th level I'd have no problem pitting them against a CR:7, with their sheer numbers alone they usually wiped out a single beastie.) Sometimes I'd mix it up a bit and have a "mixed-pair" and that would be a little tougher.
So... it's probably going to 'sound' very "Scaling the Adventure" sidebar-ish, but I would think with basically two 3rd level parties it'd be fair to add 3+ HD to basic critters, 1 or 2 levels to the "named" or leveled enemies, or for encounters with 'gangs' of low-level "fodder" (i.e. skeletons, orcs, kobolds... you get the idea) add about three (and possibly "double" the number encountered) depending on party composition (like do you only have one cleric (more specifically one divine caster that is able to turn/rebuke undead) how many front-line fighter types, more than one arcane caster, more than one skillful/sneaky guy...) because that can alter the "math" somewhat. (Two characters that can turn undead will have an easier time in an encounter with skeletons, zombies, ghouls etc) Unless you had in an "Unhallow" effect to make turning tougher. So... in a nutshell that's my suggestions to you. Look at the members of the adventuring party, and add, double-up, or level the enemies accordingly. (I hope that helps a little.)
~Cheers!
I would also recommend scaling up the size on the maps a bit, particularly if you're adding bad guys. I've only got six PC's and a companion in my campaign (with more companions on the way...) and people are already whining about how many bottlenecks there are in the melees in Jzadirune, the Malachite Fortress, Drakthar's Way, and the Lucky Monkey. The archers are also getting a little peeved at people always getting a certain amount of cover due to being partially around a corner...
The first chapter actually has an abundance of excess XP. By all reports character finish this chaptor with an average level of 5th.
the who with the what huh? Not by my report, it doesn't. The characters should make 2nd level and, if they adopt a scorched-earth policy, might make 3rd. I'll go through tonight and run the numbers again to check.
Is there any possibility you added up all the experience for the entire level and then didn't split it evenly among the party members; instead, you gave each PC all the XP? That would probably make them 5th level. Otherwise, the note at the beginning of Flood Season that the party should be about 4th level should sound a little odd to you.
I have considered making things a little tougher and what have you by adding in additional mobs and leveling up the existing ones, but I never thought about expanding the map a little to make room for them. It's such a good idea. Unless encounters occur in large areas there is a bottlenecking that occurs and not all the PCs actually enter the fight.
The current party consists of:
1 cleric
1 necromancer
1 bard
1 monk
2 rogues
1 ranger
1 warblade
1 unknown (he rolls up his character soon)
I've also played around with the idea for the PCs to split up in dungeon crawls to streamline combat a little, but so far it hasn't been a problem. My group is pretty on top of it. Surprisingly the biggest problem with the large group is finding a place for them all to sit and running out of sodas and chips too quick. I'll wait a chapter or two to see how they're holding up. How easily they handle Toungeeater will really determine what I do.
During the Malachite Fortress I did double up on some of the hobgoblins but otherwise, most everything was left as is. There was some bottlenecking but that's the problem with a big party.
Looking towards Chapter 2, I would expect to have a lot more goblins available and add them as need be to toughen up the fight. The encounter with Drakthar will probably have more underlings with him also.
While there are goblins galore, you might want to increase the size of the halls and rooms in the section of Dungeon diretly under Oraks Bathhouse, as they are really narrow and small. My group of 4 (4 out of my 6 each night) had bottlenecking problems at first (until the goblins began flanking them heavily).
With a group that size, I'd really adjust the map more than anything in else in Drakthar's way. If they have an abundance of Healers, then I'd also consider giving Drakthar 6 more hit points (like another hit die, without the other benifits), as a few healing spells in a round send him straight to gaseous.
-c