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I am on schedule to run the first three levels of the Emerald Spire this coming weekend at a convention, and I have this question. The book tells me on page 21 to add monsters to the dungeon for tables of more than four players, but does not say what adjustments to make. Do any of the judges on this page (or maybe if a Paizo staff member reads this), could you give me any tips?
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You are not supposed to add any monsters there. Just run as written and if you think that your pc:s will steamroll the enemies without too much effort just limit the maximium number of PC:s. I'm starting my own Emerald Spire campaign for PFS and recruited two parties consisting of four party members, so it won't be too easy for optimized well-funded pathfinders.
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Hmmm, I'm not sure.
It's written into the module, so quite possibly yes but without any guidance it's troubling on exactly how.
Taking guidance from PFS scenarios with 5/6 players I would suggest adding additional creatures to raise the CR of the encounter by 1.
Meaning a fair amount of encounters will be hard to easily adjust due to the creatures present. I would only do this if you have a strong understanding of the CR system.
Probably better to just not make adjustments, I wonder if anybody has written a 6 player conversion for this, like people do for the APs.
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I've played the first level with five players and GMed it with six, and the challenge level of the monsters isn't an issue. In fact, adding more monsters is going to complicate matters and not achieve the result you are looking for.
The problem is maneuverability. There is only so much space on the map for the PCs and the monsters.
Depending on the party composition, five players is too many. Six absolutely has them stepping all over each other regardless of party composition. The tight confines of the map mean that at any given time, two or three players are on delay or readying for space to open up for them to be able to do anything and the monsters get to concentrate fire on one or two characters.
Limiting the number of PCs is definitely the way to go for maximum fun for everyone.
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I've played the first level with five players and GMed it with six, and the challenge level of the monsters isn't an issue. In fact, adding more monsters is going to complicate matters and not achieve the result you are looking for.
The problem is maneuverability. There is only so much space on the map for the PCs and the monsters.
Depending on the party composition, five players is too many. Six absolutely has them stepping all over each other regardless of party composition. The tight confines of the map mean that at any given time, two or three players are on delay or readying for space to open up for them to be able to do anything and the monsters get to concentrate fire on one or two characters.
Limiting the number of PCs is definitely the way to go for maximu8m fun for everyone.
I can't limit the players as I am not the person who created the event. I'm just the one who volunteered to run the game. But I thank you for the advice.
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I'm going to be running this tomorrow and my group has 7 players and a GM. As a result we've never had any challenging combats in PFS...ever.
I offered to run The Emerald Spire for them and advertised it as a terribly challenging dungeon and told them to build and bring the most powerful characters they could come up with.
While this will only be my second PFS game I've run, I've GM'd for years and am confident in my abilities to make appropriate CR encounters for my players. What I'm not clear on is what flexibility I have as a PFS GM while running sanctioned events.
While the adventure says I can add more monsters, I don't see anything in PFS about adding templates to monsters. Due to the narrow hallways and my large player count adding more monsters doesn't seem like the best solution. If the players are getting a 20 point buy for a dungeon scaled for a 15 point buy then it seems only fair that I get to slap on an advanced template and upgrade some of my goblins into commandos.
Can I do this at my own discretion?
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Can I do this at my own discretion?
Short Answer: No
Long Answer: NopeIn Campaign Mode certain modules (I don't know if Emerald Spire is one off hand) and the sanctioned adventure paths can be played for credit and the GM can do whatever he wants with his game. I'm playing Carrion Crown, we rolled character stats, used non-golarion deities, used the leadership feat, and the GM is adding more creatures to the encounters to make it more challenging. They state you don't even have to use the pathfinder system to play, as long as you buy the material and play.
Edit: I've been looking and can't find an answer. The only module I know that is Campaign mode is the Dragon's Demand. So RAW for credit and not Raw for no credit.
You might say "It should be GM's Discretion." To that I say that it is, the GMs who have this discretion are Mike Brock and John Compton. *waves at Mike and John* We as local GMs are the ground troops and follow our orders.
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Can I do this at my own discretion?Short Answer: No
Long Answer: Nope
** spoiler omitted **You might say "It should be GM's Discretion." To that I say that it is, the GMs who have this discretion are Mike Brock and John Compton. *waves at Mike and John* We as local GMs are the ground troops and follow our orders.
Thanks for the response! Even if it's not what I wanted to hear. We have the same 8 people each week and are hoping to find two more players and then I can regularly GM and we can run two 4 person tables. Unfortunately only one other person so far may attend so I could end up running with 8 players which isn't going to be much fun for anyone. We've been begging more people to turn up so I would hate to turn anyone away.
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I ran it tonight for 6 players without making any adjustments. I knocked multiple characters unconscious multiple times and killed a PC. The challenge level seemed perfect, maybe it was because only one person, (an arcanist) had dark vision and the two barbarians spent most of the session swinging at shadows. My players had a lot of fun and agreed that it lived up to it's deadly reputation.
