Artrosa the Unforgiving (spoilers)

[thedude6353637]

So I just ran a group through Artrosa, after the fourth wipe. Fifth if you count the witch tree. Players decided to end the game. With the lack of money per level, until the deaths they said - even bringing in a full new party 4 times they should have thought about getting together with a strategy when making characters. For all the players out there make sure you have a solid group or you WILL fail in Artrosa. Not to mention what waits ahead of you in the next chapter of your journey to find Baba Yaga.

As a question to the GM's here, did you find it odd that there really aren't any towns to allow PC'S to buy and sell equipment for awhile after leaving Whitethrone, unless the party does not make haste when they meet the centaurs.

[Tangent101]

You could, as GM, alter this so that they meet a traveling merchant willing to sell them stuff. And if the players kept dying? Then adjust the difficulty. Include NPCs to help or provide them with another stat boost. Or even a fiat level.

The AP is a guideline. But one group may breeze through it with 10-point builds and the enemies all with Advanced Templates. Another group may struggle with 25-point builds and all enemies reduced by one CR. Don't take the AP as written in stone.

Sorry your group had so many difficulties. :(

[Robert G. McCreary]

The centaur city of Vurninrn (its stat block is on p.80) was specifically detailed so the PCs could go there to buy/sell equipment, and the section "Trek to Artrosa" specifically mentions Erdija guiding the PCs there to do so.

Following "Mother, Maiden, Crone," as the PCs travel farther and farther away from civilization and Golarion, there is a mercane merchant presented in the next adventure again to specifically address the lack of places to buy/sell equipment.

In other words, we realize that sort of thing is often important to PCs, and we took steps to address that while keeping the flavor of traveling with the Dancing Hut to new and stranger lands. :)

[Necrovox]

Turns out the first world forest in book 2 was particularly nasty as well, had three deaths leading up to Nazhena.

[Nezthalak]

The dungeon is pretty tough, but a lot of difficulty can often be attributed to a lack of player strategy and group cohesiveness. Gear doesn't make a character nearly as much as tactics. The GM can always pull back too if the encounters are proving too much.

The game i'm running has the party in the middle of the Mother and they are barely getting through encounters. It is dragging down gameplay and they are losing interest. I'm going to cut some fat and streamline what I can so that they don't lose the story (albeit a convoluted one).

[Imattackingthedarkness]

This AP surely isn't a "kick in the door" style of campaign. It requires tactics, likely lots of resting, and maybe even some DM intervention in cases where these aren't possible.

My players have been having a lot of fun with this AP, despite its difficulty. Coming off of Rise of the Runelords, which is quite easy by comparison especially through the first two modules, they were quite surprised to be consistently facing enemies 2, sometimes 3, CR's higher than the APL. Sure there's times of frustration (seven shadows doing strength damage, the bebilith disarming shields and breaking armor) but I think that adds to the grinding feel of the game.

Also keep in mind, the PC's are following the path of the Riders (CR 12-15.) So they should take pride in being able to handle these things being far less powerful than the Riders.