I'm going to be starting the Wrath of The Righteous AP tomorrow. My group may have 5 characters. Do I need to do anything to increase the challenge and XP a bit to keep them on track? Or should they be fine as is?
If you have 5 characters then the encounters should probably increase by x1.25 XP budget, which will probably mean adding an extra enemy here and there, or buffing up an existing enemy with an extra class level or template.
I'd probably advise erring on the side of adding more low CR enemies, rather than adding class levels, to ensure that the PCs don't overwhelm the enemies in terms of action economy.
I haven't played in this AP, so someone else might be able to give more tailored advice, but basically, the thing to realize is that an extra player means an extra set of actions each round. If you don't adjust, 'easy' or 'average' encounters can become pushovers, while more difficult encounters only provide a moderate challenge.
Also, the other thing to be concerned about is that with more PCs, they have a better chance to cover their own weaknesses, and act as force multipliers. Be sure to keep watch for this, and don't be afraid to make the encounter slightly harder, if you're borderline. Or at least have a plan in case the PCs get a really good start. If you can have enemies show up mid-fight without seeming contrived, that can help push an encounter that might have been a steamroll, from the PC's perspective, into a reasonable encounter.
My recommendation is that you slightly increase the difficulty and see how it goes. Usually the first couple of combats can be used to evaluate the party's strength.
Keep in mind that if you keep encounters the same, your party will get less exp per encounter and thus level slower. You definitely wanna boost all the encounters so that all 5 get the same amount of exp a group of 4 would.
And yes, more creatures is better. 4 players already wreck the s@%~ of a single opponent, 5 could end a 1-monster encounter before the round is over! That's okay to do sometimes but it gets boring after a while.
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Consider running it the same for 1st level so players can get their feet wet. Get a feel for how the rules work with their design. Who wants to kill a first level PC? Even worse, do not throw that fish back into the water, that kills the feeling of a threat to chracter life. I would definetly ramp things up once they are level two, the extra HP buffer makes death from a lucky crit less likely.
Keep in mind also that a larger party size can work against the group in combat depending on the encounter layout. In small rooms and narrow corridors the party could find themselves in each other's way. Action economy advantage goes away if half the party can't get into the room. I don't expect you will have that problem with 5 people, but I'm not familiar with that adventure either.
I am running it for a max party of 6 & 5 is what shows up most of the time. I've found maxing out HP on existing enemies and adding a few extra is helpful. Especially once you reach the surface give the mini bosses some thugs to hang around with. They get overwhelmed and dominated in the action economy. Also I track their XP because of the semi rotating door of players and level them that way.
I'm going to be starting the Wrath of The Righteous AP tomorrow. My group may have 5 characters. Do I need to do anything to increase the challenge and XP a bit to keep them on track? Or should they be fine as is?
With five instead of four (or a particularly optimized party of four) the simplest thing I've found to do is to max out the hit points of bosses and to add in a second or even third wave of kooks whenever you deem an encounter has gone to easily. That alone should do it.
Wrath is a bit trickier due to Mythic rules though - will you be using them or are you considering a different option? My wife is running us through this AP as we speak and we're well into the third book without using Mythic rules.
Well normally that's not a big deal, but you gotta realize that an adventure path only has a set number of encounters. If you don't give your players enough EXP, they won't level properly with the AP's challenges. And if you give them more EXP than they're supposed to get, well... you're spoiling them.
You can give it a try, but don't be surprised if your players find themselves having too easy a time.