I'm planning to begin running this AP this weekend for my group. Unfortunately, one member of my group will be unable to play for a while for personal reasons but I still want to run the adventure. (And have the missing player join the party once the personal reasons are dealt with in a few weeks/month.)
My group is not exactly the most optimized and I'm worried that they'll find the adventure too difficult with only 3 players. They are an Unchained Barbarian (Invulnerable Rager), Unchained Rogue (Sniper), and Unchained Monk (Manuever Master). So . . . yeah.
The first option is to add in an NPC party member. But the clear choice for an NPC that the party needs is a caster. Or at least, someone who can take care of the party's magic needs. And GMPC + only caster in the party = bad idea.
Alternatively just play the AP with 3 party members. Can they pull it off with no magic and subpar diplomacy? I know that I'll need to tone down particularly tough encounters like Xanesha and Erylium for this group, but will I need to weaken every encounter? Also, I was originally going it to use story progression to level up instead of exp, but maybe the early levels from doing this will help make up for the missing party member? And then maybe just switch back to story profession once the 4th PC joins?
Just run an NPC Cleric. I rather doubt you'll reach Nualia within two months or more of weekly games, and a healer will be helpful no doubt.
Alternatively, if the Rogue has Use Magic Device, give him a Wand of Cure Light Wounds.
That's a relief. Thank you very much. : )
I'll go ahead and talk to the rogue about UMD too.
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Not to be the orthodox, stick-in-the-mud guy but that party is missing both arcane and divine casting. That is likely going to be a problem throughout the AP.
Tangent gives good advice - low level characters are fragile so if you have to pick one for a gmpc, cleric is the answer. And the group described can likely handle all of Book 1 if needed without an arcane caster. Later books though...
Just an example:
My group (which admittedly has both arcane and divine casters) just fought Arkhyrst (the white dragon) in Book 5. It was a tough fight for them and I'm not sure how they would have survived without both the wizard and cleric. The wizard summoned flying help (as well as enabling the group fighter to fly) and the cleric kicked out a lot of healing. The dragon starts out in the air with a tremendous amount of mobility - the dragon has a movement rate that pretty much lets him determine when and where he will engage. This makes him particularly dangerous and effective.
Runeforge could be a real challenge - getting the keys including figuring out how to get the keys takes magic (though the AP allows for a non-magical method of key retrieval) and once they get there, the residents can throw out all kinds of things that take magic to fix - such as flesh to stone and baleful polymorph. One bad d20 roll and your group could be really wedged.
I'd also suggest you review the RotRL board history, there are several other examples of 3 person parties and associated discussions out here where you'll likely find some suggestions and foreshadowing of challenges, etc.