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Ckorik's (borrowed) AP Scaling system:
Paizo AP's are designed for 4 players 15 point buy and *assumes*
1 full BAB (includes monks)
1 full arcane (i.e. level 1-9 spells)
2 3/4 BAB (includes rogues and divine casters)
Take your party and figure out which characters fit into the above roles - and then count how many of each you have in your group.
For levels 1-2 do nothing or be ready for possible death - players have so little hit points and special abilities for the first two levels any scaling you do will need to be handcrafted and you may have to fudge tactics as adding 1-2 mooks can be devastating if they gang up on any character.
At level 3+
Take the encounters listed in the AP and do the following:
For each full BAB class increase all mook hitpoints by 50%. Have 3 full BAB people - that's 100% increase. 4? That's 150%.
For each full arcane over one add mooks that = to the APL of the party. Tailor this to the encounter but in general you want extra foes on the battlefield.
For each 3/4 BAB class over 2 you have add 1 to the DC's/Saves of the mooks. This includes all special abilities\poisons\diseases\etc.
Special note: If you have a special butterfly who is playing a class 100% opposite of how it's presented typically (i.e. your rogue outdamages your fighter and is a front line brawler) you should shift their role to the appropriate slot accordingly. Ever player is different however the above is based on the general roles these classes are designed around.
Full BAB = hits consistently on any first hit and does quite a bit of damage when doing so, buffs/debuffs are limited and or situational.
Full Arcane = can take one or more enemies out of the fight in any typical encounter or negate their presence through buffs/debuffs
3/4 = will do damage and provide a way to debuff the enemy and or negate special attacks\debuffs on the party.
Does that help?
For BBEG's I would add mooks to the encounter - typically these are CR+4 encounters and depending on the boss adding hit points, AC, or higher DC's could cause a TPK - adding some extra mooks is a much safer bet and negates the one problem BBEG's have - action economy.
There is also one thing to consider: Stats.
If you allow a 25-point build (or they rolled something along those lines) then add +1 to every stat for every encounter.
If you had something closer to a 37-point-build, add +2 to every stat.
If it's along the lines of a 50-point-build (really good rolls, for example) then +3 to every stat.
Don't forget that where it's possible you might need to make encounter areas larger. Rise can already get annoyingly crowded with all the large creatures you fight.
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So is no one seriously going to mention Ian got a new haircut
Looks good:-)
With a bit of searching i found this amazing work of Joey Virtue for scaling the AP from 4 to 6 players, you can take a look there.
The only problem is that I don't know if these changes are still valid for the Anniversary edition of RoTRL, because they were made before it's release.
For each full arcane over one add mooks that = to the APL of the party. Tailor this to the encounter but in general you want extra foes on the battlefield.
Sorry, Ckorik, but what exactly do you mean by this? I'm not quite sure how many mooks you're suggesting adding here, or what CR they should be.
For each full arcane over one add mooks that = to the APL of the party. Tailor this to the encounter but in general you want extra foes on the battlefield.Sorry, Ckorik, but what exactly do you mean by this? I'm not quite sure how many mooks you're suggesting adding here, or what CR they should be.
The AP is written and balanced for 4 players - 1 of those a full arcane caster with 9 spell levels and full spell progression.
Look at your party - if they have more than 1 full caster then for each encounter you need to add:
1 creature equal to the average level of the party *or*
multiple creatures that add up to the average level of the party.
Done. Example:
Example party has 1 paladin, 1 oracle, 1 slayer (doing the rogue thing), a sorcerer and a wizard. All the roles are filled, and we have an extra caster so add mooks to each encounter - how many? Enough to = the average level of the party when you figure out the CR - in this example don't change hit points, DC's or saves, while the slayer is a better melee damage dealer than a rogue the extra monsters should be enough. As stated above I'd wait until the party was at least level 3 before making adjustments as at low levels the balance is so hair thin and everyone is so weak that it's very easy to cause a TPK.
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As a follow up all these changes assume you will keep the party at parity with the levels suggested in the adventure - many people who use experience points find that a larger party will start to lag behind due to the extra split, and that as they move forward they don't need to adjust things at all.
This (IMO) is dangerous in the mid levels (7-10) because there are very definite break points within the system where monsters scale based on the expected jump in powers that characters get. If you do adjust encounters using this guide I suggest adding exp to compensate for the increase in difficulty to keep your party on track, or just using level milestones as printed in the AP. Just my two cents.
I have 5 players and have kept them one level behind the suggested level from the books. I have not had to adjust the numbers nor HP of anything thus far. It helps that player #5 is running a druid...
However I HAVE rebuilt some BBEGs from the ground up, taking into account new classes, feats and spells from more recent rulebooks.
I've got a slightly weird party of five in my campaign:
Barbarian (high-Strength, uses two-handed weapon), now Unchained.
Fighter (with a one-level kensai Magus dip; Dex-based and with the right feats, archetypes, and prestige classes will eventually have a very good to hit bonus - even while fighting defensively - and therefore will also have an obscenely high AC).
Magus-going-Mystic-Theurge (with a one-level Cleric dip using the [now retracted] FAQ ruling that spell-like abilities can qualify a character for a prestige class).
Inquisitor (archery-focused).
Druid (size Small, focused on Stealth and acts as party's scout; NOT a combat-monster, does NOT have an animal companion).
... Unfortunately, no one bothered to pay attention to all my advice when creating characters, so there's no real full arcane spellcaster. All those lovely spellbooks will be going to waste. :( ...
Anyway, I've been maxing out the foes' HP (i.e., +50%), but I am also wondering if I should be doing any other tinkering with the opposition. (The main foes with class levels will of course be getting updated to newer clases, feats, etc.)
IMO, there is no need to keep a party of 5 up to the suggested levels past 2nd or 3rd. The extra actions per round more than compensates for being a little behind in XP.
dotted - very useful
what should I do?
my party (lvl 4) went to thistletop last time. it consists of:
- human dual-wielding rapier ranger
- human vanilla bard
- elf evocation wizard
- halfling vanilla rogue
- dwarf Angradd cleric with greataxe
I'm going to guess that your cleric is more of a martial character - so first up increase all hit points by 50%.
75HP Nualia = 99 HP Nualia
we use the crit deck, so he made 4x damage and 2 STR damage. rolled 69! damage to 75HP Nulia
Don't use the crit deck - or if you do accept that a single crit will take out your bad guys almost every time. At the same time the bad guys will end up taking a player out eventually for the same reason - I'm not saying the crit deck isn't fun - it is - but you gotta accept the swings if you use it without complaint.
That being said remember that players can't move through an enemy without an acrobatics check - failure means they can't make the move - the fight with Nualia has the ability to use the tight hallway to her advantage - I'd use that if possible to keep the players from surrounding her. (well the moment is over now but...)
Use this alternative rule for Critical Hits - the only thing multiplied by a critical is the number of dice rolled. In short, a Critical Hit acts like Vital Strike. You roll the dice for the weapon and the critical and only then add modifiers for Strength, Feats, and magic.
Under the old rules, should an archer who is 30 feet away with Point Blank Shot, Deadly Aim, a +1 Longbow, and a 8 BAB manage a critical, they would be doing 3d8+24 damage. This variant would have them do 3d8+8. And if the players complain, mention that this also impacts the enemies, so if an Ogre critted with a Ogre Hook, they'd not be doing 3d10+21 damage against them... or more if it were an Ogre Fighter specialized in the Ogre Hook. ;)
Oh yeah - honestly unless you find it really something you can't swallow - start your bad guys off buffed up. You'll never get to swing at the players if they spend the first 'x' rounds buffing. At the very least in this case she was warned and should have had time to buff up.
The shadows are bound to E-6. If they were allowed free access to the rest of the dungeon, it would most likely end in a TPK.
That said, remember that they appear on a timer when someone walks into the crypt. Any adventurer with a sense of symmetry should figure out that there might be something interesting about the "blank" section of wall, and go in to investigate. General curiosity about the sepulchres will also help. So the shadows should get a surprise round on anyone inside the crypt. In general, the first encounter with them puts the fear of death in a party. Once a party has figured out how to deal with them, the shadows can be destroyed easily.
Bruthazmus will want to investigate, and possibly take vengeance for Nualia's death (remember that he hates elves, so the elven Wizard should feel some pain [in my two campaigns, he dished out some big damage to the elven Fighter in one group, and dropped the elven Inquisitor in the other one]).
Ditto for Orik re Lyrie's death, although he will be more amenable to surrender if things go badly for him.
If they are feeling particularly sneaky, they might set up an ambush in the Lamashtu chapel on Dungeon Level One, using the yeth hounds in there for some extra muscle. In that case, once the party (or most of it) has been lured into the chapel, Orik might be the plug at the main doors, keeping them from leaving it again. Maybe have Bruthazmus up on the dais by the altar, so he can open with some ranged attacks before switching to his melee weapon. The yeth hounds can bay, then swoop down to attack from the sides, while Orik "plugs" the main doors. (He's not keen on the chapel itself, so he probably won't actually go inside it.) I'm AFB right now, but if Orik has Combat Reflexes, then he can take opportunity attacks at party members fleeing the yeth hounds' bays.
Nualia was buffed. she used her suprise round for activating the Sihedrone amulett (false life).
Yeah I consider that a buff - the sanctuary I wouldn't. It's a personal thing but my general rule of thumb is if they are listed as 'having x buff' I just give it to them - with rare exceptions buffing during combat for the NPCs is pretty much suicide.
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False life has a long duration.
Generally I say that hour/level buffs (or longer-duration ones) are already cast. Minute/level buffs get cast if the caster has reason to suspect something is lurking around. Round/level buffs need to be specifically on the alert and probably cast after initiative rather than before the combat starts.