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So I'm running Carrion crown for my group, my first adventure as DM. I've had the group running through the town and thrown pretty much every event the book has suggested, bordering on railroading the group from entering the prison proper before they've encountered the bulk of the suggested events. Note that I'm running with a group of 4-5 players. I'm noticing 2 things that are bothering me:
1) I've had to start drastically ramping up the encounters as they're extremely underpowered - even for level one. I'm not playing with min maxers, but 2-3 flying skulls - even in a burning building - is about a half hour encounter that leaves the players board and unfulfilled.
2) Even with ramping up the encounters (and therefore subsequent XP) and borderline railroading them into going through the majority of town events before entering the prison, and despite the fact that the AP mentions that the players should be level 2 by the time they hit the prison, the players are still several encounters short of level 2.
Am I calculating XP wrong? If a monster gives out 200 XP and I include 5 of them, each of the 5 players should get 200XP right? (200 * 5 / 5 = 200) - or am I not supposed to devide it up (e.g. each player gets 1000 XP for that fight)
Or is that AP particularly underpowered at level 1?
EDIT: one last gripe: the XP gains for the research left me particularly angry. Without really trying, they got the main NPC to look it up for them and got a whaktonne of XP for it. While I like that they got the XP, it would have been better if the records actually required some work - like winning over an NPC or something.
A monster's XP worth is meant to be divided across all players. For example, a CR 1 creature is worth 400 XP. For a group of four players, each would get 100 XP, while a group of five would each get 80 XP. If you go by this method, the group of five is behind a bit in XP gains, but makes up for it, theoretically, with the fifth party member.
Another way to approach leveling is via a milestone method. Whenever the adventure recommends or you as the GM decide, the players will level. If they need to be level two before entering the prison, you can just declare they are now level 2. It's a bit easier to manage, but your players miss out on the feeling of earning experience. It's really up to you which you prefer.
You are supposed to divide it up, so 5 200xp monsters give 1000xp divided among the party.
Honestly, I dont use XP when I am running an adventure path. The party levels accorrding to where they should be in the adventure in my game. Its just easier, and I dont have to worry about them getting too much or too little experience. Plot based advancement to me and the adventure paths come with it already laid out for you.
In terms of the power of the AP, I am not overly familiar with carrion crown (you might want to check out the specific subforums on it here
What I have found is that essentially paizo modules are balanced around 15 point buy, casually built character that include essentially a guy who fights (fighter) a guy who sneaks and kind of fighters (rogue), a guy who casts divine spells and kind of fights (cleric) and a wizard. If you deviate from that norm, one way or another you will have to adjust the modules. there is just too much potential variation in parties. For instance, if you have a Paladin, Inquisitor, Druid, and Summoner, that is certainly a workable party, but you have ALOT more offensive power then a traditional fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue party, even without any heavy optimization.
There isnt really a way to make a module challenging for every possible party combination, so you need to look at your party when compared to the above mentioned norm, and adjust accordingly.
You might try posting your concerns on the Carrion Crown adventure path forum. I've been running Rise of the Runelords and have found the forum for that AP invaluable and the people there very helpful.
As far as XP rewards go. If you have five creatures that give 200xp then that is 1000xp divided amongst the party members. So if you have 4 players that would be 250xp each for that encounter.
Honestly, I dont use XP when I am running an adventure path. The party levels accorrding to where they should be in the adventure in my game. Its just easier, and I dont have to worry about them getting too much or too little experience. Plot based advancement to me and the adventure paths come with it already laid out for you.
That is what I found worked best as well. I hesitated to offer that as advice since I am not familiar enough with Carrion Crown and didn't know if that would water down the mechanic for getting xp for research that he mentioned.
There’s a subforum dedicated to Carrion Crown with lots of good advice for new GMs. I strongly recommend you check it out. But I’ve answered your questions under the spoiler tag below.
But more important than making the encounters dangerous is making your players feel like they’re in danger. Experiment with how you present monsters, how you describe their actions in combat, and how you time and pace encounters. With experience and effort, you can be one of those amazing GMs that leaves their players feeling they were lucky to survive a CR + 1 encounter.
As far as XP goes, with 5 players instead of four the XP is spread a little thin; increasing the CR of encounters should help your players catch up, but letting them lag behind the adventure a little is another way to effectively increase the difficulty. You could also add more encounters, increase the number and value of story rewards and bonus XP (such as the rewards for researching the prison), or even put them on a faster XP track.
Alternately, many experienced GMs like to forget about XP entirely and just level up the PCs when the adventure advises you to.
Incidentally, my PCs also asked Kendra Lorrimor to research the prison for them. I had her roll an Aid Another check, giving them a +2 on their own checks, rather than substitute her effort for theirs.
Honestly, I dont use XP when I am running an adventure path. The party levels accorrding to where they should be in the adventure in my game. Its just easier, and I dont have to worry about them getting too much or too little experience. Plot based advancement to me and the adventure paths come with it already laid out for you.That is what I found worked best as well. I hesitated to offer that as advice since I am not familiar enough with Carrion Crown and didn't know if that would water down the mechanic for getting xp for research that he mentioned.
Well I've also started using hero points. So in situations like that where something might be worth 'bonus xp' I give hero points instead. Players still feel rewarded, and I dont need to play pathfinder spreadsheets to make sure xp is on track for everyone in the group. Its particularly troublesome for my game because sometimes people arent present. So keeping track gets messy when someone misses a session.
Well I've also started using hero points. So in situations like that where something might be worth 'bonus xp' I give hero points instead. Players still feel rewarded, and I dont need to play pathfinder spreadsheets to make sure xp is on track for everyone in the group. Its particularly troublesome for my game because sometimes people arent present. So keeping track gets messy when someone misses a session.
That sounds like a pretty good solution! I've just been ignoring the "Story Awards" in my RotR game because I'm not assigning XP. Using Hero Points sounds like a good idea.
If encounters are too easy, then letting them level up later than expected seems like a good idea. Remember that a four player group is typical, so dividing XP five ways will slow down advancement compared to what's normal, but since a five player group is more powerful right from the start, this balances out.
If you are worried about XP, you should look into the adventure supplements by Legendary Games. I've run all three of them and my player's enjoyed them. I'd recommend looking at The Fiddler's Lament due to where you are in the adventure so far.
HoH does lack early experience, but I've found for a 4 player group the later books (currently in WotW) give out a bit too much (extra from the LG modules aside). My player's like gaining experience, otherwise I'd just thrown the system out and do plot-based leveling.
You are doing the conventional way of giving out experience, which is what I do. RAW actually has you divide by 4 for a 5 person party, (at least according to the chart found here). So, that is an option as well.