I'm currently DMing for my group of mostly new players. I chose to start with a one shot adventure (Last Hope) to give them an idea of how the game worked and such. After completing that, they decided they wanted to continue on with their characters.
Currently I'm running through Crown of the Kobold King, and they're rocketing upwards in level. About one every two or three sessions. Once they're done with this I plan to do Carnival of Tears, Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale, Seven Swords of Sin, and then Gallery of Evil (of course any of these could be replaced by an equal level module and some may be skipped due to extra experience putting the party over the recommended level.)
My problem is that there's no 9th level module. I was wondering if anyone has played or DMed through the modules like this and can tell me if the party generally gets enough extra experience in each module to skip ahead to 10th level, which -should- be available by the time they're at that level. I hope!
I'd really prefer to keep things right on the dot if possible, and my time is very limited right now, so I can't really afford to adjust the adventures, except for filling in possible plot holes on the fly.
Currently Paizo offers:
Spoiler:
1st level available: 3
1st level announced: 0
2nd level available: 1
2nd level announced: 0
3rd level available: 0
3rd level announced: 0
4th level available: 0
4th level announced: 2
5th level available: 1
5th level announced: 0
6th level available: 2
6th level announced: 0
7th level available: 1
7th level announced: 0
8th level available: 2
8th level announced: 1
9th level available: 0
9th level announced: 0
10th level available: 0
10th level announced: 1
11th level available: 1
11th level announced: 1
?? level available: 0
?? level announced: 3
Once they're done with the one shots and understand the system better, including really understanding feats, and prestige classes I'll take them through an undecided Adventure Path, and I'm looking forward to it, but for now the one shots are great!
If your going to run all the modules you mentioned, your players will be far over tenth level. I used modules Last hope, Kobold king, Bloodsworn vale and Carnival of tears. My players are on ninth level and we have just started Carnival of tears. So I quess they will be tenth level by its conclusion.
I wouldn't mind that much if you don't have a module for the exact level your player's are. I'm running Carnival of tears for ninth level players, and the adventure is meant for fifth level. It's going just fine =). I understand that you want to be as close as possible, but one level off doesn't hurt that much in my opinion...
If your going to run all the modules you mentioned, your players will be far over tenth level. I used modules Last hope, Kobold king, Bloodsworn vale and Carnival of tears. My players are on ninth level and we have just started Carnival of tears. So I quess they will be tenth level by its conclusion.
I wouldn't mind that much if you don't have a module for the exact level your player's are. I'm running Carnival of tears for ninth level players, and the adventure is meant for fifth level. It's going just fine =). I understand that you want to be as close as possible, but one level off doesn't hurt that much in my opinion...
Hmm, neat. The module after the very early levels tend to advertise as one level per module, so I was slightly concerned. I'm glad I'll be able to skip past using Seven Swords of Sin easily, because it has a reputation of being deadly, and these are new players, so I don't want to dismay them too much.
I've totalled it out so that the players will be about a third of the way through level 5 by the time they finish Crown of the Kobold King, so they should be good to go for Carnival of Tears from there. That's a sure thing. I noticed that Carnival of Tears is light on treasure though, on a quick flip through. Has this caused any problems for any goups out there?
Sounds like same kind of advancement I had with my players, they were also on fifth level after Kobold king.
Carnival is lighter in treasure than Kobold king, but actually the amount of tresure in Kobold king is far more than expected wealth level. For example they can get their hands on mithral full plate on 2nd level.
How many players do you have? If you think your players will be bummed because there is not enough treasure in Carnival, I'm pretty sure it doesn't hurt if you add it a little. My players have far more treasure than they should for their level, and the adventures have still been very challenging. Deadly even.
Oh, and if you notice that your players are staying behind expected levels for modules, give them little extra xp, for saving Falcon's hollow or something. =)
Sounds like same kind of advancement I had with my players, they were also on fifth level after Kobold king.
Carnival is lighter in treasure than Kobold king, but actually the amount of tresure in Kobold king is far more than expected wealth level. For example they can get their hands on mithral full plate on 2nd level.
How many players do you have? If you think your players will be bummed because there is not enough treasure in Carnival, I'm pretty sure it doesn't hurt if you add it a little. My players have far more treasure than they should for their level, and the adventures have still been very challenging. Deadly even.
Oh, and if you notice that your players are staying behind expected levels for modules, give them little extra xp, for saving Falcon's hollow or something. =)
Yeah, I noticed that Crown of the Kobold King gave lots of treasure. I think Carnival of Tears lack of it was an attempt to balance that.
The Crown of the Kobold King and the Heartripper Blade are particularly nice. I didn't realize how good the Heartripper Blade was until just yesterday when I thought of dying opponents on the ground and bleeding to death.
Some of the players would probably be pretty bummed about the lack of treasure available in Carnival of Tears, but I think the added emphasis on RP and a unique scenario will more than make up for it.
Since entering the dungeon there's been very little opportunity to RP with NPCS in Crown, because the route they took has avoided all the children so far. They went down the elevator and in a room or two before they found signs that they should backtrack. :P
The Forge Spurned Encounter was great. It's been their first battle that had them on the edge of their seat and they hooted when they beat it, probably only because the sorceror lunged at it with a second shocking grasp, knocking himself unconscious in the process. I just hope nobody tries to use its chain...
Unfortunately Jurin Kreed was already dead, and they've already been doing a lot to anger the Gavel, so there may be some tough times ahead of them.
