starting kingmaker adventurepath with my players at lvl 2. How do i adjust?

[Henk-Jan Lammers]

In my campaign I have already played a few sessions and my players have reached lvl 2. They have gained 3000 xp.

We will now transfer to the kingmaker adventure path.

Does anyone have any tips on how to smoothly adjust? Do I keep the encounters the same and switch to medium progression and set there xp back to 2000?

This means they will reach lvl 3 after gaining 3000 xp in kingmaker. At that pont, they will be 2000 xp "ahead". This will slowly become less relevant the more they will lvl up.

My main concern is that the encounters will be less challenging. Is this going to be a problem?

my players are fairly combat focused

[Blakmane]

This is in the wrong section. You are better off having it moved to the kingmaker section if possible.

As for your post:

Kingmaker is fairly tame as far as challenge goes anyway, although the boss of the first and third chapters can be potential TPKers. I would recommend you buff the encounters slightly but give out slightly less XP until they are more in line. Don't actually reduce their XP: that way leads to player revolt!

For the first real encounter (bandit fort), having the stag lord slightly more aware, giving some of the bandits the advanced template and/or having the druid 'bonus encounter' actually come out as part of the main encounter should help to even the score.

Be aware you'll probably have to play around with the strength of many encounters in kingmaker. Some of them (trolls in book 2, for example) are laughably easy. I also definitely recommend the following thread for ideas:

paizo.com/threads/rzs2ljy6?My-Changes-to-RRR-Hargulkas-Monster-Kingdom

[Henk-Jan Lammers]

apologies for posting in the wrong section.

Thx for the great tip!

[Disturbed1]

Also keep in mind Kingmaker is set for the medium experience track, not the fast one.

[pennywit]

2nd level isn't too bad. With a few adjustments, Stolen Lands will challenge them just fine. Big thing: Put your players on the medium advancement track. Beyond that, I have only one suggestion specific to your party: Dump some of the sidequests on the cards on the front and back covers. Your players are 2nd level, and they don't need the experience.

Aside from that, here's some more general advice to make Stolen Lands fun for your group:

1) Because it's an exploration-heavy path, Kingmaker has something of an issue with the 15-minute work day. You should mitigate this by beefing up the encounters, either with more critters or by making the enemies a little smarter.

2) I would dispense with the initial encounter with Haps. It's meant to be an introduction to the area and thus isn't very challenging at all, but it's going to be laughable for a second-level party.

3) Make the bandits active. If you go by Stolen Lands as written, the players encounter wandering bandits occasionally, but otherwise the bandits sit in their fortress on the Tuskwater, waiting for the players to come kill them. Either the Stag Lord, or better yet, his lieutenants, should make trouble for Oleg's and for your players as they explore. One idea: Have bandits ambush the players and lead them away from their campsite. When they get back ... another bandit group has swiped their horses and loot.

4) You said your players are combat focused. Does this mean they eschew diplomatic encounters? Or that they've just focused on optimizing their characters for combat? If your players enjoy set-piece combat, I recommend this scenario, which I concocted late last year.