Hello. I've decided to run Carrion Crown, but, instead of having a 4 character party, I have opted to have 3 players, each playing a gestalt character. My question is: How much editing do I need to do to make the path as challenging as it would be with 4 regular PC's? Many people say to add +2 to the CR of encounters in a gestalt game, but this is for 4 players. Does the absence of a character create a balance that does not require me to beef up encounters, or do 3 gestalt characters still have enough strength to warrant an increase in difficulty?
The Characters are:
A Gnome Wizard (Universalist)/Cleric (Nethys-Knowledge and Rune Domains)
An Aasimar Cleric (Sarenrae-Fire and Healing Domains)/Fighter (Core)
And probably a Rogue/Inquisitor (Witchhunter) (Player is undecided)
Another thing to consider is that the players were unaware that this game was to be Gestalt, I had them send me a background and a normal character sheet and gestalted them myself, so their characters are probably not as strong as they could be. In the first module, the large amount of channeling will be powerful, but its effectiveness will probably diminish during Trial of the Beast, so I am not too worried about the large number of divine casters in the party.
Thank You for any replies in advance.
It really depends on your players and their playing style, usage of tactics, ability to improvise, and overall experience.
To compare:
The first two/three books of Carrion Crown have generally been deadly as all hell for most parties. Check the Obituaries thread for details. Harrowstone in particular has tended to chew up PCs and spit them out.
And yet... I'm running this as a solo campaign. One PC and one GMPC. They're normal one-class characters. Admittedly I started them at level 2 but, come on, they're two PCs. And the GMPC doesn't make any sort of tactical decisions, she's just there to provide a bow and an eidolon. But because my player is tactically experienced and willing to tell the GMPC what to do we've had no deaths. Hell, other than a hilariously failed fort save there hasn't even been any close calls. And all because my player has wargame experience, knows when to run away, and has ranks in diplomacy.
Having never run a gestalt game before I'm not entirely sure on the particulars but I would not recommend increasing the difficulty of Harrowstone. Trial of the Beast is likewise very difficult. But after that I'd start adding mooks.
Oh, and inform your players you're gestalting them. Not telling them seems wrong on some level.
It really depends on your players and their playing style, usage of tactics, ability to improvise, and overall experience.
To compare:
The first two/three books of Carrion Crown have generally been deadly as all hell for most parties. Check the Obituaries thread for details. Harrowstone in particular has tended to chew up PCs and spit them out.
And yet... I'm running this as a solo campaign. One PC and one GMPC. They're normal one-class characters. Admittedly I started them at level 2 but, come on, they're two PCs. And the GMPC doesn't make any sort of tactical decisions, she's just there to provide a bow and an eidolon. But because my player is tactically experienced and willing to tell the GMPC what to do we've had no deaths. Hell, other than a hilariously failed fort save there hasn't even been any close calls. And all because my player has wargame experience, knows when to run away, and has ranks in diplomacy.
Having never run a gestalt game before I'm not entirely sure on the particulars but I would not recommend increasing the difficulty of Harrowstone. Trial of the Beast is likewise very difficult. But after that I'd start adding mooks.
Oh, and inform your players you're gestalting them. Not telling them seems wrong on some level.
I am going to tell them about a week before we start playing, in case they wanted to do something different. I usually do my first session explaining the setting (They are new to Golarion) and the adventure in general. Usually we do character building then, but I am working on a lot of setting stuff so we probably wont have time. They will have final say in their character builds. Interesting note on the tactics. Maybe I'll run a society module for them to see how they play these characters (and to help see if I need to change any CR's).