Chamption Games - My PCs are breezing through

[behemoth]

I am not sure if it is simply my inexperience, or whether it is the fact that 2 of the players in my game have been playing for over 20 years (as opposed to my 2+ years), but these guys are breezing through the games so far (fought in the 4 team free-for-all and against Pitch Blade).

They are a mized group (5 plus cohort, lowest 2 are level 7, highest are level 11). I even tried upgrading the way the 'scaling the adventure' sidebar stated...I raised all NPCs up a level and added a 4th Archer, an Extra Gnoll and an extra Barbarian).

The free-for-all was a gimme in that I followed the tactics as presented and the PC's team oly became a real focus once they started attacking the NPC's.

The Barbarians were another story. The only thing they really accomlished was dropping the wizard. He had approached to cast a spell and realized he couldn't get within range of it (our house rule is once you count out your movement, you can't take it back) and put himself in charge range.

After that it was pretty much over. The combinations of spells and potions that the party had cast had pretty much put their AC around 30 for their main fighters and the cleric was dishing out a huge amount of damage and basically mowed through them.

The party has only experienced 1 death (an Advanced Octipin tore through the Paladin) and the closest they came to real disaster was because they pushed through the mind flayer's lair when they should have really retreated. They ended up running from that fight and coming back later.

So I guess I am asking for advice...I am not sure if the veteran players are abusing their knowledge (for the flow of the game, I tend to take them on their word as to their bonuses stacking), is the adventure too easy (i.e. should I go beyond what the Magazine says for scaling?), or am I just a crappy DM? :)

I advanced the Froghemoth at the same time as the other NPCs...I added 8 HD and had a mage cast the maximum Stonesking on him. On paper he looks positively scary. I worry that if I advance him even more based on how the party did in the first two fights that I am going to turn it into a TPK. I just don't want the players to feel bored.

Advice appreciated.

[Milak]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. My group breezed through the first fights easily as well. They got a real quick in the teeth though when the found the Akilith Demon. Then they also got smashed by the Frogemeth. It really helped using tactic of having the Frogemeth being delayed entering the arena and the group lossing all it's buffs. Madtooth's grapple check is pretty insane so he will easily bring your group down a peg or two during the battle. Let them enjoy themselves on the easy stuff because those two battles coming up are nasty.

[Hastur]

Yeah, I wouldn't sweat it that your group has had a reasonably easy time so far either. My group found the games a breeze most of the time too, and most of the Hall of Harsh Reflections except where they didn't rest.

Let them enjoy their victories, I say, it sounds like they are winning with good tactics, there will certainly be times when it's really difficult. Like my group fought the demon under the arena twice, and had to retreat both times. And the Ulugastra at the end was kinda difficult for them - the most difficult part of the games, although even then they won through with good play. I thought some of the adversaries would be tough too, but a combination of good player tactics and good fortune meant they breezed through. As a DM, as long as you are prepared and understand the monsters etc in advance, you'll be sure to do a good enough job (sounds like you are advancing the foes just enough). Better to have a few encounters that are a little bit easier on the PC's than encounters where you think "woops" half-way through because you made it too tough...

And there's plenty of tough stuff coming up later - the next module has a few tough pieces, and the Spire can be really deadly (my group is nearing a second trip to the Spire, as the first one failed with one death and the rest bailing out until reinforcements etc were procured).

[Are]

behemoth wrote:

The free-for-all was a gimme in that I followed the tactics as presented and the PC's team oly became a real focus once they started attacking the NPC's.

The Barbarians were another story. The only thing they really accomlished was dropping the wizard. He had approached to cast a spell and realized he couldn't get within range of it (our house rule is once you count out your movement, you can't take it back) and put himself in charge range.

The free-for-all isn't supposed to be very difficult. It's primarily (at least, I saw it that way) supposed to give the PCs a real chance to really bask in the glory of an easy win.

If the Barbarians managed to drop one of the PCs, that's pretty much what an average-level encounter is supposed to do (expend 25% of the party resources; for instance one PC going down).

My party may end up having even more trouble with the Barbarians, depending on how much of the night before that battle they spend on the Shrine of Kyuss (the last session ended after the Mohrg-encounter) (spellcasters without spells can cause troublesome arena fights :))

[Ninjack]

I'm going to add, don't worry too much about the first couple fights. For comparative purposes, my group is a set of fairly good power gamers:

behemoth wrote:

The free-for-all was a gimme in that I followed the tactics as presented and the PC's team oly became a real focus once they started attacking the NPC's.

My PCs blazed through this fight. I replaced the Druid's team with an Eberron-centric team. That team did okay, but it wasn't really a challenge.

behemoth wrote:

The Barbarians were another story. The only thing they really accomlished was dropping the wizard. He had approached to cast a spell and realized he couldn't get within range of it (our house rule is once you count out your movement, you can't take it back) and put himself in charge range.

The Barbarians were a joke in my campaign too. Again, I improved them to use the various splat books I have, but ... (I really, really hate Ray of Enfeeblement)

behemoth wrote:

The party has only experienced 1 death (an Advanced Octipin tore through the Paladin) and the closest they came to real disaster was because they pushed through the mind flayer's lair when they should have really retreated. They ended up running from that fight and coming back later.

Up until this fight, I hadn't had a single PC death. I went a little easy on them at some points, but still...

behemoth wrote:

So I guess I am asking for advice...I am not sure if the veteran players are abusing their knowledge (for the flow of the game, I tend to take them on their word as to their bonuses stacking), is the adventure too easy (i.e. should I go beyond what the Magazine says for scaling?), or am I just a crappy DM? :)

While it's technically possible you're a crappy DM, I doubt it. The PCs are considerably more powerful if they can use splatbooks, so the NPCs won't be able to keep up sometimes. Here are some suggestions to consider:

Give them less XP, at least until the challenge resumes. Give them about 80% or so, and their progression will slow down enough that they'll be seriously challenged within a few levels. One thing to note, if your party is below the suggested levels - Dictum, Blasphemy and those Word Spells are auto-?? against PCs, so be careful.

Give them less time to rest. All those spells they're using to amp up their AC have to run out at some point. They'll tear through 2-3 encounters a day, but 5-6 will serious drain them.

Give the monsters max HP, if you think they're going down to fast.

Give the monsters special abilities, like: A useful spell that's "always on", an interesting feat, or some other unique ability.

Give NPCs, especially those written with Core books, some unique ability to compensate for the fact they aren't PrC'ed out the wazoo. For instance, I'm writing a cleric for my group that's got "All inflict spells are ranged touch attack spells" as his special ability.

One thing I have noticed when I amp up a specific monster - it's very, very easy to go overboard with it. If the PCs are getting torn apart, I'll start to weaken the creature (take away some HP, give it a penalty to attacks, etc) so that it's somewhere between what I wrote and what the adventure says.

behemoth wrote:

I advanced the Froghemoth at the same time as the other NPCs...I added 8 HD and had a mage cast the maximum Stonesking on him. On paper he looks positively scary. I worry that if I advance him even more based on how the party did in the first two fights that I am going to turn it into a TPK. I just don't want the players to feel bored.

If you party falls for the faked conversation (as mine did), the Froghemoth will kick major butt. Don't forget, all their 1 minute/level buffs are going to have expired, unless for some reason they extended them in a fit of paranoia. The HD might be a bit much (giving it even more to-hit and grapple. The stoneskin will work, I think - maybe some other way to up its HP without too much upping of attack. Give it a ring of counterspells (Ray of Enfeeblement) to prevent anti-climatic-ness.

Consider: It has Improved Grab (IIRC), which lets it start a grapple on a successful regular attack. It has -6- attacks, any of which could be a grapple. Option: Attack until you get a successful grapple, then use the next attacks as grapples (at full, nigh-unbeatable, grapple bonus) to swallow the character. Repeat. Unless your PCs regularly have daggers (or other light weapons) or Dimension Door available, they are in some serious trouble. I had a PC get swallowed 3 times (and cut his way out all three) and other PC get swallowed without a dagger and died.