Hi everybody,
In the Sea Wyvern's Wake scaling the adventure sidebar it only gives details for reducing the difficulty of the encounter. I know that the opposite wasn't included as it would have taken the adventure from a low level adventure to a mid level adventure. However, I'm running STAP with a 3 person group (Basically the 3 musketeers) and at the rate their going their going to be 6th level or higher by the time they start the adventure and I was wandering whether anybody had any ideas for upping the adventure?
Many thanks
Warmage 101
Don't change it. They will get less experience, and level slower. Therefore you won't have to keep adjusting the levels of the mods.
I have the opposite problem. I have 6 players at L4 that are going to be starting the Sea Wyvern's Wake soon. I am probably going to run then through a quick side adventure or two while they get to Sasserine, but I don't know if that will put them where they need to be for SWW. As I figure it, six is much better than 4, so I am not adjusting things. If things are higher CR's than them, they will get better experience and advance to where they need to be to take care of them. If they are constantly fighting fights below their level, they will level slower and the fights will eventually get harder. It really is a self adjusting system.
The only reason I didn't want to do that was that SWW is a really cool mod. and I didn't really want to waste it by making it a walkover for them.
They've still got to do BWG first so I might just reduce the XP they get there. Are there bits of that I can cut? I understand its an important adventure as it introduces the PCs to the main plot device etc.
Thanks
Warmage 101
I would say that if you need to reduce encounters and experience in The Bullywug Gambit, go through the adventure and pick out the encounters that look really cool and fun to play and then reduce the encounters that are there for padding to get the PCs up a level to background elements.
For instance, the important fight with savage pirates at Kraken's Cove is the battle with Harliss Javelle. Interesting fights there would be the savage dinosaur and savage phanaton. The krenshars, to me, aren't as interesting and could be cut. Sick more savage pirates on Harliss and have the PCs aid her, making sure to keep track of the ones she kills in comparison to the player characters. For the Vanderboren manor section, the fight with the half-orc is important and the fight with the chieftain and the rust monster looks very fun. You can reduce encounters on the way through the city as well.
Sea Wyvern's Wake is mostly about roleplaying with the crew and investigating the sabateur. Making the Mother-Of-All tougher seems like a satisfying way to make sure that there is ample challenge without sending the PCs overboard with experience.
Good luck with the adventure, and I hope this was helpful.
Sick more savage pirates on Harliss and have the PCs aid her, making sure to keep track of the ones she kills in comparison to the player characters.
That's what I did. The only thing I did differently was essentially treat Harliss as a party member and divided the XP by 5 (I have a 4 player group). It cut a little off of the top, but with the extra Savage Pirates (I put 15 in the room) and the fact that they got experience for the ones Harliss killed, my party had no difficulty leveling up and it made the fight challenging but not overwhelming. (They were all 4th level by that time).
My logic was that the group benefited in the fight by Harliss as much as Harliss benefited by the party's aid.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. You've been really helpful.
Thanks
Warmage 101