Which way do we play

[DrakeRoberts]

PFS Organized Play Guide wrote:

Starting with Season 4, scenarios are designed for six

characters and contain instructions on how to adjust the
scenario for four-character parties. When the APL of a table
is between two subtiers (like APL 3 for a Tier 1–5 scenario),
a party of four characters must play the lower tier without
any adjustments for party size. A party of five to seven
characters whose APL is between two subtiers must play
the higher tier with the four-character adjustment.
For scenarios written in Seasons 0 to 3, when the APL is
in between subtiers, a party of six or seven characters must
play the higher subtier. Parties with four or five characters
must play the lower subtier. In the fringe case where there
are no players that are high enough to have reached the
subtier level (such as a party of six 3rd level characters), the
group may decide to play down to the lower subtier.

Is the "Fringe case" scenario only for seasons 0-3? Specifically, I think I'm going to be running a game today, season 5, tier 5-9, with 5 people who are all level 7 or less. Expected average level is 6.6 which rounds to 7. Are they forced to play up with the 4 person adjustment? Or can they play down with the 6 player adjustment because they have nobody level 8 or 9?

[Brian Lefebvre]

Yes the fringe case is only for season 0-3 scenarios, and is in place because they weren't written with a 4 person adjustment.

The table's subtier in season 4+ scenarios is determined by party size, so in your listed example (5 players with APL 7 in a 5-9) they would have to play subtier 8-9 with the 4 person adjustments.

[DrakeRoberts]

Brian Lefebvre wrote:

Yes the fringe case is only for season 0-3 scenarios, and is in place because they weren't written with a 4 person adjustment.

The table's subtier in season 4+ scenarios is determined by party size, so in your listed example (5 players with APL 7 in a 5-9) they would have to play subtier 8-9 with the 4 person adjustments.

That sounds like it is really going to suck for them.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

Its usually quite close to being the right challenge. Since we've been using that rule, I haven't seen any group really struggle by playing up for 4.

[Majuba]

I'm agreeing with DrakeRoberts - rarely are the tables that are barely forced to play up pleasant. YMMV of course.

[Fromper]

What about Bonekeep? It's technically season 4, but I believe it has no 4 player adjustment. Would 5 players averaging level 5 be required to play subtier 6-7 instead of 3-4? What if none of them are level 6 or 7?

And no, this isn't a hypothetical question. Scheduled to play it in 12 hours, and this may happen. I think those of us with multiple characters in range will probably intentionally decide which PCs to bring to make sure we have no more than 22 total character levels (4.4 average).

[Andrew Christian]

Fromper wrote:

What about Bonekeep? It's technically season 4, but I believe it has no 4 player adjustment. Would 5 players averaging level 5 be required to play subtier 6-7 instead of 3-4? What if none of them are level 6 or 7?

And no, this isn't a hypothetical question. Scheduled to play it in 12 hours, and this may happen. I think those of us with multiple characters in range will probably intentionally decide which PCs to bring to make sure we have no more than 22 total character levels (4.4 average).

Yes they would. But its Bonekeep. It is supposed to be deadly.

[Fromper]

Andrew Christian wrote:

Fromper wrote:

What about Bonekeep? It's technically season 4, but I believe it has no 4 player adjustment. Would 5 players averaging level 5 be required to play subtier 6-7 instead of 3-4? What if none of them are level 6 or 7?

And no, this isn't a hypothetical question. Scheduled to play it in 12 hours, and this may happen. I think those of us with multiple characters in range will probably intentionally decide which PCs to bring to make sure we have no more than 22 total character levels (4.4 average).

Yes they would. But its Bonekeep. It is supposed to be deadly.

We managed to do it with 5 players averaging level 4.4, so we qualified to play subtier 3-4. Because we had a druid and summoner with high powered pets, we actually had a pretty optimized group, despite only being 5 PCs. There was one room where the druid's pet went back and forth between positive and negative HP 3 or 4 times in the same fight, but in the end, we handled it with no deaths.