I'm curious what, if any build rules you guys used for this and if you felt it made your players stronger or weaker than intended for the module.
I ran it from start to finish with:
20 point buy
1 extra trait
hero points
My thoughts,
The point buy made them much sturdier, but not overly so. It was just enough to let them be aggressive and herioc, and still make nonetheless mistakes and survive.
We only had 4 PC deaths, three where my wife's characters and all where melee warriors with iffy will saves or bad luck.
The 4th was a 13th level inquistor(very well built) in the 5th book, but it was a good death.
The extra points let them "round out" their characters, increasing saves, hit points, skill points and a modest boost in spell power.
If run as intended with a 15 point buy, players would need to retreat often and might not act as heroic as intended, plus die more often!
This path is very "killer", many monsters and foes can end a character with extreme prejudice if they roll poorly.
There are a lot of undead...they are my favorite to set loose, but are problematic for weak or poorly built characters.
Alright then, I know I'm wary of rolling for stats since that can vary wildly, but seems to end up generally higher than point buy. Plus my last rolling attempt had a few optimizers in it and it kinda wrecked any challenge in the AP.
On the otherhand, I've got a few newbies, one potential optimizer, and a player that's played the system but more of a roleplay than an optimizer. So I'm worried about over compensating too much from my last group and not giving them enough stuff to work with.
I'm probably going to be running with the Harrow system in place of hero points, though I might modify it a bit for last ditch death evasion.
Alright then, I know I'm wary of rolling for stats since that can vary wildly, but seems to end up generally higher than point buy. Plus my last rolling attempt had a few optimizers in it and it kinda wrecked any challenge in the AP.
On the otherhand, I've got a few newbies, one potential optimizer, and a player that's played the system but more of a roleplay than an optimizer. So I'm worried about over compensating too much from my last group and not giving them enough stuff to work with.
I'm probably going to be running with the Harrow system in place of hero points, though I might modify it a bit for last ditch death evasion.
The Harrow Cards are an excellent plan as well.
There are a number of encounters that can go south and end in a TPK with just a single bad roll, let alone several.
20 points with rooks is good, and won't let the Optimizer get terribly out of control, mostly...it will depend on class.
Be upfront about the number and quantity of undead they will be facing.
Remind them that Fort and Will saves are going be a thing for them.
More fire power is not a bad thing for this path, if they create characters unsuited for it, it will eat them..