How much Trouble is my Group in?

[csdershem]

We recently just started Kingmaker, 3 sessions in and we had a player drop due to wife aggro leaving our group with the following Makeup

15 point Builds
Human Fighter Falchion weapon master build
Half Elf (Warlord- 19 Cha, 13 str 10 all else.(Class from the 3.5 miniatures book))
Halfling Rogue - Scout
Human Bard (archaeologist build)

I don't have all the stats, but the Warlord is a diplomancer, the bard with his fingers in every pie, but nothing extravagant, has sleep & CLW. The Halfling is a well built rogue little less damage cause of halfling, but well rounded skill set. And the fighter is a Brute Killing Machine. However my worry is the group will not be able to handle things without a full spellcaster at 7'th level. (The fighter is taking Leadership to have a Oracle or Cleric Follower).

Any suggestions to optimize the chances of staying alive... I believe the groups first purchase is going to be a wand of Cure Light Wounds...

Thanks for the input!

[ShadowcatX]

Honestly, how well a team works together is much more important than what classes said team has. Be smart, cooperate, cover one another. You'll be fine.

[csdershem]

So lack of any real spellcaster's isn't a real issue in this AP? Yes I understand a bard can cast spells, however this particular player will probably just stand back and pling at stuff with his shortbow.

[Drowblade]

+1, my group has hardly ever if ever played the traditional cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard deal. Everyone makes the character they want to play at the time and we make it work or die laughing and trying.

[Drogon]

I personally kind of feel the AP was written without spell casters in mind. Meaning it almost feels like they didn't consider things like scrying, teleport, charm/dominate abilities, and the like being fully accessible to the PCs, as most of those things completely derail any story that is present when used to their potential (see some of the threads complaining about how easy it was to overcome book 4 or book 5 with that kind of spell power). So, honestly, I think your group is better set to get fully immersed into the story as it is written, the way they currently stand. Plus, many of the threats will actually be threats, considering they tend to happen only once per day, or even more infrequently.

In other words, I wouldn't worry about it.

If you keep running into things that are a problem to them, throw them a few solutions via treasure pick-ups. Make sure you really know the AP, though, and are prepared to plant things early on that they will find helpful later on.

[Maddigan]

Drogon wrote:

I personally kind of feel the AP was written without spell casters in mind. Meaning it almost feels like they didn't consider things like scrying, teleport, charm/dominate abilities, and the like being fully accessible to the PCs, as most of those things completely derail any story that is present when used to their potential (see some of the threads complaining about how easy it was to overcome book 4 or book 5 with that kind of spell power). So, honestly, I think your group is better set to get fully immersed into the story as it is written, the way they currently stand. Plus, many of the threats will actually be threats, considering they tend to happen only once per day, or even more infrequently.

In other words, I wouldn't worry about it.

If you keep running into things that are a problem to them, throw them a few solutions via treasure pick-ups. Make sure you really know the AP, though, and are prepared to plant things early on that they will find helpful later on.

I didn't feel this way at all. Enemies were very tough on spellcasters as the modules go up. You either don't know at all who you're fighting or they are so powerful it doesn't matter if you know.

[ericthecleric]

Talesian, have you seen this thread about updating the marshal to the Pathfinder ruleset?

[Caineach]

Maddigan wrote:

Drogon wrote:

I personally kind of feel the AP was written without spell casters in mind. Meaning it almost feels like they didn't consider things like scrying, teleport, charm/dominate abilities, and the like being fully accessible to the PCs, as most of those things completely derail any story that is present when used to their potential (see some of the threads complaining about how easy it was to overcome book 4 or book 5 with that kind of spell power). So, honestly, I think your group is better set to get fully immersed into the story as it is written, the way they currently stand. Plus, many of the threats will actually be threats, considering they tend to happen only once per day, or even more infrequently.

In other words, I wouldn't worry about it.

If you keep running into things that are a problem to them, throw them a few solutions via treasure pick-ups. Make sure you really know the AP, though, and are prepared to plant things early on that they will find helpful later on.

I didn't feel this way at all. Enemies were very tough on spellcasters as the modules go up. You either don't know at all who you're fighting or they are so powerful it doesn't matter if you know.

Maddigan, I can't help but feel you never looked at a will save on any of the monsters in the AP. In books 4 and 5, all of the big bads are fighter types, and with only a few exceptions their will saves are abismal for their level. I am not looking forward to my oracle player casting bestow curse on everything and makeing them completely useless. Not to mention his solid debuffs that make the party pretty much impossible to hit by all but the most powerful of opponents. I mean, I started up book 4 after book 2, and the monsters so far still need 20s to hit sometimes thanks to the debuffs.

[csdershem]

ericthecleric wrote:

Talesian, have you seen this thread about updating the marshal to the Pathfinder ruleset?

No but thanks!

[PsychoticWarrior]

Caineach wrote:

Maddigan, I can't help but feel you never looked at a will save on any of the monsters in the AP. In books 4 and 5, all of the big bads are fighter types, and with only a few exceptions their will saves are abismal for their level. I am not looking forward to my oracle player casting bestow curse on everything and makeing them completely useless. Not to mention his solid debuffs that make the party pretty much impossible to hit by all but the most powerful of opponents. I mean, I started up book 4 after book 2, and the monsters so far still need 20s to hit sometimes thanks to the debuffs.

I plan to up Will saves on most every major villain in the AP. With a Psion and Cleric in the group Will saves have become the #1 save needed. I won't do it for everything (obviously) but there is no way I'm letting the PCs end a BBEG fight in 1/2 a round thanks to Dominate Person (use that on the BBEG's second in command...). That's the nice thing about being a DM - I can do that! Rules are for players.

[drennier]

I have a player who reads and memorizes everything he touches playing a Wizard who retired his character to play a more martial character. Ever since they got a Kingdom he just kept thinking of EVERYTHING to a point where we both got a little annoyed. "Why wouldn't we protect from scrying?", "What if our castle gets hit from stone to mud?", "How do we protect against teleporting?", "Why would he have massive wars when we can teleport in and just assassinate their leader?". It goes on and on forever. I had to tell him "We'll deal with it when it comes up?" as they're not into a big kingdom with rivals and such yet but he didn't want to be the player that just bogged the game down/ruined others fun so he switched. We'll see how it goes.