I will be dming Kingmaker as my second attempt at being a Dm tomorrow with only 3 players, an Alchemist grenadier, a ranger guide and a celestial sorcerer with access to healing spells.
Now since my players will only be 3 instead of the usual 4-5-6 I see running this game, I let them have 25 point buy instead of 20, which makes for 3 strong characters. However now I'm afraid they might be too powerful, or that their limited skillset might keep them from discovering some things about the campaign.
Battle wise they are set, alchemist with his 20 int post racial bonus should murder anything in sight for a good while and the others will help just as well.
Story-wise I'm reading the book and I keep seeing a lot of the important events needing a perception 20 DC check in the hex to locate the area, the gold mine for example. If they fail the check, they simply lose the event, don't spot it and it's gone? That seem's kinda boring, and on the other hand, can't they simply take 20 in every hex and invalidate the need for the check in the first place? I'd love to run some of my questions and worries, if possible, with other people who have played or ran a kingmaker game.
Three players at 25 point buy is not too much. You're still looking at one less set if actions in a turn. For three players I would tone down the deadliness of enemies, then adjust after you see what they are capable of.
That's the thing, I'm pretty sure they will murder everything in sight until the stag lord, especially the mites, and kobolds if it so happens. Those level 1 bombs form a 20 int alchemist can simply hurt. On the other hand, he's very limited in number.
When the pc's are settled in I'l have some random adventurers show up from time to time, I'l make pc's of similar level they can hire in exchange for 1/4 of the loot, basicly adding a 4th guy to the team for less loot.
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Two fights to watch are the
Everything else is all good since the nature of the initial game spreads combats so that going Nova isn't such an issue.
As for search dc's, let them take 20 if necessary. It takes much longer, which means more chance for random encounters and taxes their supplies, but it means they won't miss anything. Also, allow skills like kn geography or nature eac to lower the dc's for hexes when finding resources. Imagine they get hold of quartz or other mineral rocks that are known to e found near gold deposits that hinted possible gold bearing sites. This prompts them to hunt the area more thoroughly.
Finding tracks of mites and kobolds in an area where they lair should hint at them searching more thoroughly in here as well.
Mostly you'll be fine, but for the big fixed encounters I'd advise letting a merc NPC tag along.
Cheers.
What would you advise for the random encouters? unless im reading wrong it's only 5% chance, so they wont encounter much on their travels.
Its 5% when traveling through a hex, 15% when camping or exploring the hex. Also nothing stops you from "randomly" rolling an encounter.
I'l see what I can do, I simply hope they don't try rushing the Stag Lord asap, going from bandits, to bandit camp with Kessle to Stag Lord instantly.
Have you tried the Kingmaker forum? Lots of experienced DM's over there willing to share!
When I ran the AP I found that there were far too many "one encounter per day" hexes which allow the PC's to blow all their abilities in one encounter. When the PC's are doing that it makes for a evey easy time for them.
I introduced "Hexes of doom!" where they would have 2/3 encounter now and then to stop them kind-of-meta-game the way the AP is structured and keep them on their toes.
The 2 spoilered encounters above are by far the most deadly.
There are a number of NPC's that could travel with the PC's every now and then, especially when near one of those tricky encounters. In particular the Cleric NPC [name escapes me] would be some help!
There are a number of encounters later in the AP that are tough for a party of four (the terminal BBEG springs to mind). If your players have their act together I can see it, otherwise you could be looking at a very rough conclusion. Check the Kingmaker Obituaries thread for more details.
Like I said, I plan on making random adventurer npc's the pc's can hire once in awhile, and as stuart says, it seemed odd to only have 1 encounter a day, makes for the whole 15 minute work day thing.
Well the game happened. I fudged 1 dice to save them in a very unfavorable fight but they more or less murdered everything in their way from Oleg's fort, to the Kressle fight, to the mites and then to the kobolds in 1 go without returning to Olegs. The alchemist is almost broken for these low level encounters, seeing as his splash damage from his bombs is more then enough to kill or almost kill anything that isn't a leveled npc or the large/huge monsters.
Now they just reached level 2 and will go back exploring the main land, as they don't know where the Stag Lord is, or else they would have gone to him. They also don't know the password and some other details, since the 1 bandit they kept alive in Kressle's camp didn't tell them all 4-5 info.
follow cobra ki logic,
"mercy if for the weak"
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1. If they miss something in a hex, someone else will surely find it for them. For instance, did they miss the gold mine? No problem, the group of dwarves who do find it and eventually set up shop there rolled much better.
Now your PCs get to decide if they are negotiators with word, gold, or blade :)
2. The alchemist will still have plenty of things to struggle against, aerial attacks, invisible fey, and will o wisps.
3. The beginning of the game is basically like getting an open house tour. You check out everything, see what needs fixing and what is very nice, and decide if you want to live there. Thats where your players are now.
Once you get settled in, thats when the termites come out, the water heater bursts, and the foundation starts to crack. In other words, your players migh easily win combats, but the political, negotiation, and planning side is the most challenging and fun aspect of this AP (IMO of course).
4. Dont be afraid to use lots of non combat "encounters". I had tables for night sounds, tracks they saw during the day (great for foreshadowing), and animals. My party encountered lots of tracks, especially trolls, and heard the warbling of tatzlwyrms probably a dozen times before they actually saw one. They also ran into elk, deer, and wild sheep herds about twice as often as they encountered anything ferocious. I sort of used all this to paint a picture for them of what the lands they were exploring were really like. You would be surprised how many shield, expeditious retreats, and detection spells can get thrown around just from hearing a noise or seeing a fresh track :)
They seem to be well versed with word coin *and* blade. The ranger doing the heavy lifting, the alchemist having a dream of controlling all of the shops in the region if it ever gets colonized. He gives a lot of gold to Oleg and shares profit, while the last one is putting all of his skills in all of the social skills. They befriended the kobolds, and Mikmek, seeing their prowess in battle (and also killing the centipede in the Mite cavern) will be getting character levels, the sorcerer is already looking to get leadership and take Mikmek as his follower.
The gloves are off, and I need more big monsters and less small groups.
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I might move up the Shambling Mound sap quest from book two. But then my group has an herbal obsession. Any plant of possible value is firmly gathered and expirmented with as well as harvesting any useful bits they think they can get from the creatures they come across. You might try something similliar as a way to exploit their gold lust.
Yeah, seeing as they are 3 they should level faster too. I'm rewriting the quests at the beginning and the end of the book, they feel too WoW or Borderland-ish in their wording, I'l make them more real and personalized to interest them more. I do find that Oleg giving 1000gp in credit for his wife's ring to be rather excessive.
I have three players as well, and we run with three primary characters and three secondary characters.
The primary characters are all PC classes built as the players wish - the three secondary characters are all NPC classes who are primarily built by the players - but I (as GM) have the final say.
Mind you - all the characters are generalists optimised for RP rather than as ultra optimised specialists. It works out reasonable well for us.
I'm starting this soon with 3 PCs. But one might be druid, and one might be a cavalier, and that is pretty much 2 additional tanks, so I'm not too concerned.