Adventure Scaling

[Merizan the Wise]

Case in point the STAP but this is more of a general query. Are the different level variations in the "Scaling the Adventure" sidebars only relevant at the start of the module? Or are they relevant throughout the module? I.e. when a party of four 3rd level PCs levels to 4th halfway through the module, should I then look to the scaling the final half for 4th-5th level characters, or is this already factored in (which is my guess)?

Sorry if the above is confusing: it's rather hard to describe...

[James Jacobs]

It's more or less already factored in. Most of the time, encounters later in an adventrue are tougher than those at the start. Part of this is because it's possible that PCs will level up during the adventure (this is actualy assumed to be the case for Adventure Path adventures).