Level up to 4th - when?

[Paz]

I'm currently GMing Burnt Offerings, and the party have cleared the top level of Thistletop. The only encounters they've avoided/delayed are Tsuto (who escaped from the Glassworks; they will encounter him again soon), the bunyip (they've not ventured down to the sea caves), and Shadowmist (who they decided to leave alone, given that none of them have much affinity with animals).

The group of five PCs are all 3rd level. I'm not using formal XP, simply getting the group to level up when they reach the appropriate point in the adventure. However, I'm a bit confused about how far into Thistletop the PCs are expected to get before going up to 4th level. The appropriate quotes from the book are:

Burnt Offerings wrote:

CONCLUDING THE ADVENTURE: The PCs should reach 4th level by the conclusion of this chapter.

The Skinsaw Murders wrote:

4TH LEVEL: The PCs should be very close to 5th level when they begin Chapter Two.

Should the party be 4th level before confronting Nualia? Before encountering Malfeshnekor? Any advice is welcome.

[Tangent101]

Nualia's fairly deadly. Have them be level 4 before confronting her.

[Skeld]

I also ran this XP-less, but before the AE release. I think I leveled my party to 4 before the entered the lower level. Another consideration is that I have 6 players for RotRL, so I delay their advancement a bit. They also skipped a couple encounters (like the bunyip).

-Skeld

[Dathus Tomar]

I have 5 players, and I let them level up after finding Orik, Bruthamiz and Lyrie. Lyrie's retreat to Nualia was halted, so she ran to find the Bugbear and get Orik. Bruth held them off until Orik came from his bedroom, and Lyrie attacked from range with her Wand of Magic Missile. Orik would've been a great ally, had the Rogue not hit max damage with two weapons and Sneak Attack. Nothing like seeing 32 damage happen in a single turn to a Fighter.

[Paz]

Thanks for the advice. I'll have them level up as they go down the stairs to the bottom level of Thistletop; possibly slightly sooner if we come to a natural break and there's not much left on the middle level.

[M0bious]

spoiler:

I 've got 4 Pcs and 3 of them have very high ability scores (we rolled them -.-). I had them lvl up during 1st underground lvl (after Orik). I still regretting the fight with Nualia that night..it ended up being so easy for them in some way..maybe I didnt play her in the best way..Finally, Imo have them lvl up before nualia (so no1 dies) but play her cleverly and maybe add her some hp during the fight..I know everybody says she is a difficult enconter, but my players really had no problem..they even tossed her corpse in the pit trap:P The shadows almost killed them all though and they fled with no much treasure..

[Tangent101]

Only 32 hit points, Dathus? :)

I've been watching the half-orc Barbarian in my group... 20 Strength, Raging, Power attack (for 4th level and up), Two-handed weapon (Bastard sword). He's critted a couple of times and has a minimum damage of 32 hps in that situation. ^^;; If I've got my math right, that is.

Fortunately, most of the time the criticals fail t be confirmed.

[Dathus Tomar]

It was a Kobold and a pair of rapiers. He's not there to hit hard, but when he sneak attacks, stuff dies.

[Lithrac]

I gave 4th level to my PCs after defeating Nualia, but before moving on to confront the rest of Thistletop (shadows/giant hermit crab/Malfy).

[HangarFlying]

My players leveled from 3rd to 4th after killing Warchief Ripnugget. It was a partial level up (they didn't get access to spells, animal companions, etc until they rested, but they got everything else immediately). After clearing Thistletop, they were just shy of achieving 5th level, as per the recommendation in the book. They did skip the bunyip and ran from Malfeshnekor, but if I recall correctly, they dealt with everything else in Ch. 1.