I was somehow roped into running LoF (Pathfinder converted) for a group of 7 PCs. So far it's actually been running very smoothly. If it isn't a named NPC, double the number encountered. If it is a named NPC, max the HP and bring in more backup.
The Carrion King went fantastically, I just brought Thok Tal in as the fight was starting.
Coming up on the end of Jackal's Price and getting into End of Eternity though, this is looking real tricky. The whole warehouse encounter is nothing but a few complete canon fodder thugs, and a number of named NPCs. If I were expecting a big throw-down fight, I could just throw everyone at them at once, or, if it really came down to it, spend a full day statting out new high ranking members to fill things out. As it stands, I'm 95% sure that they'll take advantage of the situation at the end here, which allows for bypassing the climactic battle entirely. The run-up to that though is still tricky to bring up to par.
Plus, there's a chance that they'll go through door number 2 before door number 1. I don't want to beef things up with extra mooks, both because it ruins the A has B kill C setup if anyone else is around, and because quite frankly I can't think of anything that could possibly share a room with an emkrah.
And of course, once I finish up with that, it's on to the next book which is lousy with solo monsters early on. The ram and the dragon turtle in particular strike me as things that have to remain all on one fights, both of which are going to be tricky to beef up.
Anyone out there who's run this for a big group find a good solution for these? Or, any other nasty ones down the road? I don't recall anything else from my initial readthrough that'll cause major problems until the big fight at the end of the AP, but I'm sure I'm forgetting one or two.
An easy fix that I've found useful is to pull in a rule from Trailblazer: Elite and Solo enemies. They utilize action points which are equivalent to Pathfinder's hero points, but action points are somewhat more versatile (and PCs get many more of them -- 6 use-or-lose action points per level). So keep that in mind.
Elites are the leaders in groups; double their hit points and give them 1 action/hero point to spend.
Solos are, well, "bosses" that take on the PCs by themselves. Multiply their hit points by the number of PCs participating in the encounter and give them a number of action/hero points to spend equal to the number of PCs.
These changes don't make the enemies particularly more dangerous, but do buy them several extra rounds of survival.
In practice, I use solos very sparingly; they tend to make combats into slogs and can get swingy when applied to big monsters with CRs already above the PCs' level.
That should actually work out here, yeah. I'm still trying to just leave any solo types/named NPCs as is and give them some backup to deal with the extra player load, but handing out hero points in addition to cranking HP up solves the issue of how to deal with, say, walking in on Father Jackal without his backup.
I'd still like to do something a little less slapdash with the setpiece boss from End of Eternity though, ideally. Of course, if half the party ends up sinking thanks to heavy armor and lousy swim checks, that will probably take care of a lot of the problem.
Remember... if you have Gruk the Half-orc barbarian, Allura the elf bard and Stabby the halfling rogue in a room as NPCs the heroes need to fight... if Stabby was accompanied by Sneaky, his brother, Allura had her sister Seduca and Gruk his mother Grukka visiting, surprisingly with the very same stats, who would know after the bunch is dead?
Interesting stuff.
Another option beyond more mooks and upping the CR on the solos are environmental changes that make the battle more difficult. For the ram you could modifiy the pursuit rules and have the party undertake skill challenges to see who can keep up (if they fly perhaps he jumps straight into the water and motors along the bottom). For the dragon turtle you have him attacking from under the water which should create quite some work while they don't have their prep organised.
My favorite is still "phased" battles though. More guys than the party can handle at once but spread out so the threat stays constant for several rounds. Have to do this carefully and sparingly though so it doesn't seem forced.
JP seems tough as overall it seems rather easy. If the wizard can stay alive to help father jackal you have them, the priest and the mummy which seems like a fun bit fight. The emkrah could perhaps stumble in on top of it all (the turn on fj part seems rather uninteresting to me).