|
Ahoy, fellow pathfinders!
I'm considering allowing my 5-player party to use 25-point-buy for a new AP (haven't decided which yet). If I do it, what would be an appropriate CR boost to adjust the challenge?
They're competent players who enjoy a challenge so I'd rather overshoot a little at first then underestimate.
Thanks!
[Phone post. Please forgive any infelicities in composition.]
Just my 2 coopers,
If it is an older AP, I would certainly add some more cannon fodder folks.
If they handle that with ease and you are still feeling they need a challenge , recompute the HP totals of said cannon fodder and major bad guys(idea here is that the bad guys got a few more stat points as well so they are a bit harder to kill).
I would certinaly do this for older AP , Im running Legacy of Fire for a group and added quite a few more gnolls and other critters. Then when that didnt prove to be a challenge for them upped most HP of major guys by 10-20, and gave the cannon fodder an addtional 2 HP.
At level 1-5 a couple HP made it so that the cannon fodder would be able to take a couple rounds to clear unless some one rolled max damage. Combined with a few more bad guys these 2 changes have made the enoucnters feel at least dangerous to them.
Will have to see how things go in higher levels but for now that seems to be working well for me.
Easiest thing to do is probably to add additional creatures duplicating those already present. Maybe 2-4 per encounter depending on how battles go. For bosses apply the advanced and possibly another simple template. You can also give max hp per HD to the creatures as well.
Go with 15 point buy
|
|
Out of curiosity, why a 25-pt buy for 5 players? Why not a 15 pt buy? That would itself help balance out the challenge problem.
Yep. It would. But they want something high-powered for this game to try some more tricky builds ("more going on," one said) and I don't mind making adjustments—I just don't have a good sense pf what's a good target to start with before calibrating as we go.
Current plan: CR +1, mostly through adding minions, & 150% HP.
[Phone post]
Joe
I would test the game appling the simple advanced template to everthing and maxing HP.
^^ Sounds the fastest and easiest to me.
I got 5 players with 25-pts too, and often I just buff them with the Advanced template. It's an easy one to adjust on the fly.
I also sometimes add more NPCs, but usually not too many.
Why 25 pts? Back then I thought it was a good idea, and I found 15 too few.
These days I'd probably say 20 pts. Not quite as crazy as 25, but not as limiting as 15. Some of the more MAD builds/classes are near impossible to play with just 15.