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Any suggestions? Been going a rather xp-less route (partially due to trying it out, partially due to not having time to) and was curious on when people thought the PCs should level. I've been able to find suggestions on when they should level based off a 4-person party, but what about 5?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
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Any suggestions? Been going a rather xp-less route (partially due to trying it out, partially due to not having time to) and was curious on when people thought the PCs should level. I've been able to find suggestions on when they should level based off a 4-person party, but what about 5?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
This is more a gut feeling decision than anything else. I am GMing a group of 5 characters. We are leveling almost exactly where the plot indicates we should, and i have found the EL balance almost perfect. Most major encounters that are meaningful have resulted in one or two of the party dropped to unconscious and i have yet to have a character death. Never run anything that has worked out so well, the players are in a perpetual state of fear... i love it!
Hope this helps
Any suggestions? Been going a rather xp-less route (partially due to trying it out, partially due to not having time to) and was curious on when people thought the PCs should level. I've been able to find suggestions on when they should level based off a 4-person party, but what about 5?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
This is more a gut feeling decision than anything else. I am GMing a group of 5 characters. We are leveling almost exactly where the plot indicates we should, and i have found the EL balance almost perfect. Most major encounters that are meaningful have resulted in one or two of the party dropped to unconscious and i have yet to have a character death. Never run anything that has worked out so well, the players are in a perpetual state of fear... i love it!
** spoiler omitted **
Hope this helps
POSSIBLE SPOILERS (then again, if you guys are all DMs here, then don't worry...)!
My major problems with my five PCs (three actual players) seem to be:
a) I'm a noob GM (one or two sessions, way too many years ago with 1st Ed. AD&D, running a totally-created-on-the-fly dungeon with my ex- as one of the players doesn't count);
b) since we're all Old School (like, late-1970's Old), we dislike the "everyone has the same initiative roll they got at the beginning of the encounter" rule and play the old way, where everyone rolls it again at the start of each round (and some of my players have egregious initiatives!). We've been convinced in Rise of the Rune Lords and Curse of the Crimson Throne (which we haven't finished yet, either of them, so no spoilers there, please!) that following the book rule about this leads to TPKs, especially with a lot of MOBs (at least, from what I've seen) having Improved Initiative as a feat;
c) my players are all experienced GMs, and, while helping where they can, they obviously can't be privy to stuff in Shadow in the Sky I could really use help with. It's actually been very frustrating, not to have as complete a set of books for Riddleport (and no, I do not own any of the Freeport stuff, so there's no help there...sigh) as there were for Korvosa, areas for RotRL, etc., not to mention good clear motives for Old Stumpy (they didn't buy it a bit that it was primarily revenge and fear of the party's increasing power [they interfered in his sub-plans, a la Scooby and the gang]), or no information at all that there was a rogue elf in the city until an NPC told them (Kwava; I suppose I could've come up with something myself, but my players suggested even a noob could run this stuff, because so much was provided for the GM in the other two APs);
d) being experienced players and GMs in their own right, my players are cake-walking over everything I've thrown at them (including increasing the numbers of MOBs in any given encounter, except for the set-piece). We've encountered problems like this before in 3.0: everything was either way too easy, or way too deadly, with not much in between, but we just figured that was because the CR system was badly broken back then (really looking forward to the Pathfinder bestiaries! PLEASE, say you guys fixed the under-conning garbage!).
So, I guess what I need is: how do I challenge these guys, without killing the party? They haven't yet gotten into the basement under the Goblin yet (they've done everything else), but they know there's smuggler's tunnels down below, since they found the deed and the trap door.
As I say, they're all Old-School roleplayers, and very attached to their characters, complete with long backstories and histories for them. I don't like killing characters by the bucketful, but I at least want to shake them up a bit. On the other hand, they do seem to be levelling "properly," with the set-piece also used; they just dinged 4th, and are getting ready for the tunnels.
Lady Bluehawk da Desperate DM
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So, I guess what I need is: how do I challenge these guys, without killing the party?
I'm surprised it is not happening... are you running 3.5 or Pathfinder? - the Pathfinder characters are a bit overpowered, but depending on how stingy you have been with loot (i find the first module a bit stingy and my character found it VERY stingy) some of those encounters should prove very threatening.
Places i dropped characters (i have not killed anyone):
Foamrunner - Old Korvosa bullrushed an armored character into the bay, she began drowning while the party was forced to divide it's attention between rescuing her and fighting Bradikkar Faje.
Swamp - lack of magic weapons/silver weapons made this VERY dangerous, i pulled a few punches here (switching targets) to keep it from going horribly wrong.
Under the Gate - DA got away before they got there, but i had her leave the Dretches. Between the DR and the resist Acid/Fire they had a hard time doing much damage. Stink cloud and position seperated one player from the group. After dropping him, i chose to pursue the others, but could have easily finished the player off. As it was it made an interesting race for time to get someone past the Dretches and back to rescue their downed colleague.
Chmetugo - could have easily laid waste to several party members (everyone failed their fear save) but he retreated to wait in his Magic Jar (they've been on the island long enough he has the spell back) - can't wait to posess a character next session
as for some of the other issues...
a) everyone was once, now you are a veteran!
b) tooo much work to reroll each time - plus it plays havoc with delay and ready actions - from a player standpoint the set order allows lots of nifty tactical tricks (like rotating with 5foot steps to always have a flank...)
c) don't sweat the city too much, just insert what fits your characters needs - as an inexperienced GM myself, i take comfort in having everything done in advance, but in practice things go smoother when you make it up as you go.
d) use terrain to your advantage, don't forget concealment rolls, pay attention to the DR and resistances, cast your buffs pre combat and you should present a legitimate challenge to your party... in the mean time, let them dwell in their false superiority, it will make the smackdown oh so much more humbling ;)
hope this helps!