Can someone help me out with what level my party should currently be. We are currently a 3 man, level 3 party in module 2 and have completed 2/3 of the temples. The gm says he leveled up to 3 prematurely and and no where close to level 4.
I don't want any spoilers so looking for an answer is kind of hard. A friend showed me a thread where James Jacobs said you should be almost level 4 by the end of module 1, which has confused me even more.
Going by other paizo adventure paths I've read I would have though it would be 2 levels per module. But the gm says we will barely hit level 8 by the end of module 5, and by my thinking we would be closer to 11.
Can someone give me a quick run down on how the levels are broken down for the campaign, or more specifically what level we should be currently.
Thanks,
- Ryan.
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The party starting levels (assuming a 4-man, you may need a bump with 3) and ending levels for each module. The names shouldn't give anything away.
Whispering Cairn: 1-3
3 Faces of Evil: 3-5
Blackwall: 5-7
Hall of Reflections: 7-9
Champion's Belt: 9-11
Gathering of Winds: 11-13
Spire of Long Shadows: 13-15
Prince of Redhand: 15-16
Library of Last Resort: 16-18
Kings of the Rift: 18-19
Into the Wormcrawl: 19-20
Dawn of a New Age: 20+, finale
As to your current adventure, I use story-based XP but expected my players to level to 4th after around 2 temples and hit 5th after the "finale." If you're using regular XP advancement, Jacobs is correct in saying that there should be a "close to 4th" level advancement if everything is done in the Whispering Cairn. If you're carousing to the finale in the temples at level 3, I pray you've got epic stats and great gear!
Thanks Touc,
Just wondering are you getting those levels from personal experience, or from the actual adventure like the other paizo adventure paths. I asked the gm and be said there is no break down of what level you should be at each module. But I think he might be wrong, since every other adventure path has seems to have it.
The adventures specifically state what levels the players are expected to be.
Each adventure lists the levels the party is expected to start and end at in the very first section, where it introduces the events of that adventure and explains the Adventure Path concept. As a three person party, you should be ahead if anything, unless you DM decided to slow down the progression to make things tougher.
You should probably be level 4 or 5 where you are currently, assuming you haven't missed any large chunks of the adventures, been resurrected, or crafted a lot of magic items.
So the general consensus is unless the GM reevaluates how he is doing xp, as a 3 man, under leveled party we're boned?
Yeah, unless he's using the sidebars at the back of each adventure to scale things down, you're going to have a pretty tough time if your characters aren't incredibly powerful.
If he's not sure why you're behind, feel free to send him this way and we can help him out.
Also this is probably the best time to ask. Apparently we 'screwed up' the temple of Hextor, heres how it went down. We walked though the doors and were attacked by a large group of armoured skeletons, then a dire boar joined the mix.
After dealing with that we entered the 'kill' room. Theldrick (not sure on the spelling) called out to us asking what we were doing there. Being a Paladin of Heironeous my character was not exactly up for negotating in a temple of Hextor, with a cleric of Hextor so he drew his sword and declaired here was here to deliver the justice of Heironeous. The dire ape was summoned and arrows started raining down on us from Tieflings.
After a long and bloody battle the result was one player dead(this was a 4th player who left because of this incident), everyone on very low health and resouces and two of the clerics committing suicide rather than being captured.
I don't see how we did this wrong or screwed it up. We had already been attacked twice before this. It was a temple of my deity's arch-foe. And diplomacy has literally never worked so far in this adventure path, even with rolls of mid-high 20's at level 2-3.
What he probably meant is that the temple is easier if you don't go into that big room, but instead go around the side and pick off the enemies in smaller groups if they haven't been alerted yet. The adventure gives tactics suggestions so that the cultists try to draw the players into the big room though, so it's hardly the wrong way. Just the more difficult one.
I managed to do the same with my players, and it would have been a TPK if I hadn't decided the Hextorians would take them prisoner. It's a very tough fight if you get ambushed like that. But the whole campaign is filled with moments like this, where you need to find a less obvious method to go about things, or you may end up in a tougher situation.
As for diplomacy, I wouldn't expect Theldrick to be easily swayed by a party with a paladin, but in general the successful of the skill will depend on how the DM wants to run things. If he's set on a hack and slash game, he might not be as willing to let you talk your way out of things. There are some points in the campaign where diplomacy is explicitly an option with a set DC, however, so I wouldn't recommend just ignoring it completely as an option.
I think a hack and slash game is on the cards. A good example would be when we were trying to get Cullen to reveal who he was working for, I rolled a 26 for diplomacy but didn't get any results. I feel like its a case of the module doesn't specifically state diplomacy can be used so using diplomacy wont work.
That part actually does list a couple of ways the PCs might deal with the situation, including flattering them with diplomacy. Of course, what was actually said may not have met the adventure's description of how to get on their good side. I could see the DM letting a 26 fail if it was phrased as a demand, or impose a penalty if you weren't trying to pad Kullen and his buddy's egos.
But in the end, a lot of these questions are things only your DM can answer. An adventure path leaves a lot of room for changes from person to person, so one DM's interpretation of a certain character, location, or event could be almost unrecognizable from another's.
I'll talk to the DM about what sort of game he wants. The Cullen situation btw was I was trying to convince him that he had gotten in over his head, and that I could help him if he helped me.