I'm planning on starting a Kingmaker campaign in a month or two and one of my prospective players has asked whether her boyfriend can join us; which would bring the number of players up to five. Looking around I see that there are threads already begun discussing modifying the A.P. for three and six players. I'm just wondering what the ramifications are of running the campaign as is for five. Are changes absolutely required?
Not really. Perhaps throw an extra mook in here or there, but the challenges are good enough that you could handle five players no problem.
I'm more concerned that the party will lag behind in regards to treasure and xp as the A.P. continues as a consequence of splitting everything by five rather than four.
after reading the Kingmaker Obituaries, i would say just be sure to do the random encounters....if they live they should be just fine for xp and treasure advancement.
8D
P.S. my group is 5 peeps also, we're just finishing the RotRL and are going to start Kingmaker soon.
my group is 7. had quite a few random encounters, so the xp was never an issue really
the amount of treasure they got was maybe a little low
they finished the 1st mod on about 10,000xp each after 6 sessions
after reading the Kingmaker Obituaries, i would say just be sure to do the random encounters....if they live they should be just fine for xp and treasure advancement.
It's a tough A.P.? It won't be too easy with an extra sword arm in the mix?
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Haven't started yet to say whether it's "tough" but I can say from having followed discussions here and read through the first three adventures, the biggest challenges probably come from random encounters well above the typical CR for a group at that time. Same might be said if they end up exploring far and wide into territories where the greater challenges lie.
Haven't started yet to say whether it's "tough" but I can say from having followed discussions here and read through the first three adventures, the biggest challenges probably come from random encounters well above the typical CR for a group at that time. Same might be said if they end up exploring far and wide into territories where the greater challenges lie.
random encounters are fine as long as the GM is sensible
1st levels pcs meeting d4 trolls is poor GMIng
1st level pcs seeing evidence of the passing of d4 trolls, or sighting them way up a large hill, isnt
You could run my 6 player conversion with 5 20 point buy character's, it should be about as challenging as 6 15 pt buy chars.
Hm. That's sort of the flipside problem then isn't it? Wouldn't I then have to worry about there being too much treasure and xp for such a small group?
I'm running Kingmaker with 5 players. I'm not going to throw any extra treasure or monsters at them, because (in my campaigns) they usually get too many magic items too soon anyway.
If their levels are a bit lacking between chapters I might send them on a side quest.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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random encounters are fine as long as the GM is sensible
1st levels pcs meeting d4 trolls is poor GMIng
1st level pcs seeing evidence of the passing of d4 trolls, or sighting them way up a large hill, isnt
You know, not every creature has to stand and fight. My 1d4 trolls ate all of their rations and their horses while the party fled. It ripped up their tents and did its job of terrifying the PCs. I think part of the fun in Kingmaker is going back to the 1e encounter philosophy - the first decision in any encounter is whether you ought to fight or run.
You know, not every creature has to stand and fight. My 1d4 trolls ate all of their rations and their horses while the party fled. It ripped up their tents and did its job of terrifying the PCs. I think part of the fun in Kingmaker is going back to the 1e encounter philosophy - the first decision in any encounter is whether you ought to fight or run.
My 2nd-level group learnt this at the last session when they encountered a Shambling Mound and nobody spotted it until it was right next to them! They all failed their Knowledge Nature checks and decided to keep attacking it. TBH I went a bit easy on them, but they decided to flee just before I had a Treant they had earlier made friends with turned up to tell the Shambler to get lost. Of course the Treant won't be there to save them next time, but it has served to highlight to them how dangerous the Stolen Lands are.
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My 2nd-level group learnt this at the last session when they encountered a Shambling Mound and nobody spotted it until it was right next to them! They all failed their Knowledge Nature checks and decided to keep attacking it. TBH I went a bit easy on them, but they decided to flee just before I had a Treant they had earlier made friends with turned up to tell the Shambler to get lost. Of course the Treant won't be there to save them next time, but it has served to highlight to them how dangerous the Stolen Lands are.
You know, not every creature has to stand and fight. My 1d4 trolls ate all of their rations and their horses while the party fled. It ripped up their tents and did its job of terrifying the PCs. I think part of the fun in Kingmaker is going back to the 1e encounter philosophy - the first decision in any encounter is whether you ought to fight or run.
My players fear troll now. If they even sniff a large sized humanoid heading their way they go into flee mode.
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I'm running 6 PCs with 20 point buys, and I have upgraded all of the opponents as well. If you increase the encounter by 50% (where possible) then it still works out to the same xp per player. Actually, I'm hiding the xp in the background and telling them when they level - all go up at the same time either way. This does thin out the loot a bit, but they don't know that the $$$ isn't upgraded. It does make it less likely for them to die horribly at the hands of the random encounter chart, though.