First session ...

[pennywit]

Had my first session with a new KM group today; they're a 20-point buy; a paladin, a barbarian, and alchemist and a wizard. (There's a druid coming). Their GM, in the form of Haps Brydon and Kressle, really hates the wizard's sleep spell.

This group ambushed Hap, then almost immediately hatted up and headed south to get Kressle and her crew. The wizard pretty much nullified the mook bandits with sleep spells ... and it turns out Kressle isn't that tough when both a barbarian and a paladin are swinging swords at her ... AND an alchemist is chucking bombs.

I'm actually thinking of adding an antagonist -- a knife-nut rogue who will play some mind games with them.

[Winston Colt]

When I first started DMing KM we had a paladin, a barbarian and a wizard in the group. These guys had 20-point buys and breezed through all of the early encounters. I only realized later that the game was made for 15 point buy >.<

Since then Ive maxed out hit points from dice for all of my monsters (though a barbarian will still carve through them like butter) to keep them up for longer than one round.

I also added lower level mooks to all fights with only one monster. With the party taking so long to explore hexes you'll find they come to most fights with hp and spell slots at max and one monster will die pretty quickly.

With adding an additional antagonist. p48 goes over a few bandit NPCs. I think Topper Red, a former street poet turned bandit, would give some good role playing possibilities if tries to curry favor with the Stag Lord by finding out the weaknesses of the party and reporting back.

[JohnB]

That made me look back to the notes from when my guys met Kressle in the woods ...

Quote:

A set battle followed – both Rudy and Ox fell to the leader Kressle, although Robert managed to revive both of them. In the end Kressle escaped with a couple of horses, although she was last seen slumped forward on the neck of her horse, both of them aflame with the after effects of being hit by a bottle of Alchemists Fire. One bandit is captured alive, and it is probably that another one crawled off into the underbush, injured.

Ox is a Warrior (NPC Class) & Rudy is a Bard.

Kressle bugged out as soon as she thought she was going to lose :) She and the horse finished up in the river, half swimming half floating away, while the party worried about their fallen comrades. I think she was actually on 0hp :)

She hung around in the Narlemarches for a while, collected a few more bandit followers. She ambushed the party as they crossed a river - an alchemical explosion behind them scared the horses half way though a ford, and the party half-panicked.

Even now the party still haven't learned to ride their horses well, so I can always make life difficult for them by catching them while they are mounted :)

[Orthos]

Heh, mine was the exact opposite. My Kressle KO'd herself with her own axe thanks to a crit fumble card, and got her brains smashed in by a CDG from the Oracle's mace. I later had her reappear, revived as a flunky for the Dancing Lady, but she got julienne'd by the Samurai in a single round.

Going to have a Necromancer bring her back later as a vengeful ghost of some sort, and maybe this time she'll last more than a single round.

[pennywit]

I'm a little softhearted. I was originally going to do 15-point buy, but the players made puppy-dog eyes at me. After the Kressle Incident, the PCs heard hoofprints galloping away ... so the Stag Lord is definitely aware of them now.

I've pretty much decided that future bandits (mostly wandering monsters) are going to run like hell when they see the PCs.

On the bright side, this group has embraced the diplomacy aspect of the game. It was quite interesting to watch them discuss what to do with Haps.

[MeridiaCreative]

If you read through the obituary thread, you'll see that with a couple of notable exceptions, the overwhelming majority of them are from random encounters. Many people do find that the set pieces aren't exactly tough as written, so I've been using the 6-player conversions even though I've only got five people.

[pennywit]

I don't know if I'll buff up all the encounters, but I think I'm going to power up the stuff that should be epic. I don't mind if my players decide the mites are pushovers, but I want their battles with Tuskgutter and the Stag Lord, for example, to be memorable.