I rather like Hook Mountain Massacre as an adventure, and it's very cool in a campaign with higher level expectations. My campaign world, however, tends towards lower levels - the PCs are celebrated heroes who've defeated the big bad by 10th level, typically. I love the idea of them getting Fort Rannick and using it as a base of operations and source of campaign plot. What I'd ideally like to see happen is the PCs rescuing the Fort and gaining command of it by around 5th level.
That leads to the problem at hand. I've got a few ideas for ways to rework the adventure into something more applicable for low level PCs, but I also figured I'd ask the forums if they have some as well. A few concepts I have are:
1) Replace {Ogre} with {orc}, which would reduce hit dice, BAB, HP, and CR of almost every encounter. In this case, the Grauls would probably become half-orcs, and they'd just have to be depowered a bit since there wouldn't be a lot of difference in CR otherwise.
2) Reduce number of encounters. Possibly removing the Grauls or perhaps cutting out the dam and the other stuff past the fort until perhaps later. This would still need to do something to the Fort's staffing, but it would make the adventure less of a full blown module, and perhaps give additional fodder for things the caretakers of the fort could deal with later.
Any other suggestions?
When I read through the module, alot of the flavor (good and bad) was from the similarity of the drawings of the Graul, to humans. yes they Weren't human but they were big ugly inbred human things.
I think, removing that to make them orcs, will remove alot of the atmosphere. For that reason, I think I would change the *stats* to orc stats while leaving the descriptions the same. You can even call them Humans instead of Ogres if you want to (so they don't get the idea that ogres are that weak).
Their little "society" is the interesting part, in my opinion.
just my .02
-S
Well since Ogrekin is a template, you can just lower their classes as you see fit, thus keeping the same look and feel.
Yes, but the Grauls are really a small, isolated part. My main concern is that them being ogrekin would seem less connected to the story as a whole if I replaced the ogres at Fort Rannick et al with orcs instead. They wouldn't be weirdly bred freaks with ties to the ogres that assaulted the Fort.
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It's the class levels added onto all the creatures that make Hook Mountain a challenge for the 7th+ characters. Just cut out those class levels and use the basic ogre/lamia/scrag/whatever creature. That *may* end up being too drastic, especially for the Graul parts of the adventure, but target your CRs for the 3-5 range for the first half and the 5-7 range in the latter half and you'll be okay (Your CRs can even go higher if you've got a large group or your players are skilled powergamers.)
Other than that: make sure Black Magga (sp?) is window dressing, and straight up skip the Lamatar Bayden thing (since that's not really related to the main storyline anyway).
I would agree with the idea of keeping the ogres, but lowering or removing their class levels. I guess that applies to the other creatures as well, although the stone giants will need to be downgraded.
If you do want "named" ogres, a level of rogue, bard, cleric or druid will make a good opponent who is still close to the same CR.
Unless you have a large group, you might want to change Dorella Kreeg to be less enchantment focused. Enchantments often have a way of turning bad for the party in a hurry. You could also swap out the annis hags for green hags, or even sea hags without the death-gaze ability. Another option would be to have one hag, and two ogres with a level or two of witch.
Include several places where Black Arrow rangers are still holding out in parts of the fort. This will be a good way to support the PCs without going all the way back to Turtleback Ferry.
Finally I would throw in a wand of cure moderate wounds, some good armor and AC items, and a few scrolls of Fireball, Lightning Bolt, or other AoE (javelins of lightning?). Make sure the party has some misc stuff in case they need to dig deep.
The other thing that does cross my mind is that PFRPG characters tend to be stronger in general. Class levels factor in to CR less in PFRPG than they did in 3.5 (though they should have factored in less then, too), and I know my DM had to do some serious tweaking to the Drow of 2nd Darkness to make them a threat to our PFRPG characters. It might not be quite as big of an issue in HMM for CR. They probably need some depowering, but less than for 3.5, at least...