Ok, my last campaign is drawing to a close and two of the five players will not be returning to play (due partly to personal reasons, partly because they want to play something else for a while - which I total respect).
That leaves me with three players who are dedicated and will only miss sessions if Hell freezes over, the Moon turns blue or there are two Thursdays in the week.
So I have two options; running a campaign with three players or try to find more players (and those I know who might be interested are much less dedicated).
If I choose to run with three players, I should obviously take that into account when designing adventures (or running pre-mades for that matter), and I know PF Core says to substract 1 level from the APL for a group with three players. But how does stats play into the balance? Obviously, the party will have more survivability with 25 points to buy stats than 20, but how big a deal is it in the "balancing the encounters" end of things?
Now, for the actual campaign, I'm (probably) going to base it in the Moonsea region of Forgotten Realms. I have the Sons of Gruumsh adventure, which I want to run them through at some point, as well as City of the Spider Queen, if the campaign goes in that direction.
I was thinking of starting them out at around 3rd level, all from the same home town (either Phlan or a place of my own design).
I have an idea for a first adventure, based on the rescue of some innoncents from the hands of a duo of Velsharoon worshippers (one necromancer, one cleric), who wants to perform one of Velsharoon's rituals. The villains would be based either in an old keep (or part of Old Phlan) or a cemetary and have some minions (probably a band of goblinoids and a few undead minions).
Question is, how powerful can/should I make the cleric and necromancer (who they should encounter seperately, not as a group)? Most of the fun cleric/necromancer stuff (mainly Animate Dead) kicks in at around 5th level, but that seems a little high in my opinion, so perhaps I should just provide the villains with some scrolls, that were used to raise a handful of skeletons.
After this adventure, possibly with a few short "side treks", I plan on bringing them to Melvaunt and start the Sons of Gruumsh adventure up.
Any comments/suggestions/advice?
by your own math, a 3 person party has an APL of 2.
but you are right. throwing a third level cleric and/or necromancer will be kind of a let down. I reccommend starting him at 4th level, having him come across them, but not actually fight them until they (and he) get another level under their belts. Have him flee early, or have important business to deal with ( mid level necromancers can be have some fairly hectic schedules.)
Later on you can insert the classic phrase 'You three again! haven't I killed you once already!'
Lolarious. But I do have a fondness for returning villains.
Or...sprinkle an above average number of side quests. Not that I'm advocating power levelling, just that you are allowed to put a break in the story for the players to develop a more broad universe.
Batts