I recently purchased the Pathfinder Module, "Down the Blighted Path." I'd like to run it for my group, but the module starts off at 5th level and goes through 7th.
My group is already 6th. How do I go about scaling this module up for them? General advice is appreciated, but if anyone has the module and could advise with some specifics, that'd be awesome.
Thanks in advance!
Just add +1 Cr to each encounter until the party reaches the appropriate CR. I don't have the module, but adjusting is easy. CR 6 becomes CR 7. Look at the experience table in the Core Rule Book and subtract the experience for CR 6 from CR7. The resulting amount of XP is how much you have to add to the encounter. Each creature you add to that encounter adds to the XP total. Add creatures until it adds up to the extra amount needed for level 7.
Adjusting low level adventures like that is easy. All you have to do is either nothing and don't worry about it (they will still have fun), or beefing the encounters up a small amount, as Brother Fen says.
Doing nothing means that they will catch up faster with the intended level due to the lesser xp rewards. Also, +/-1 CR means not much in terms of difficulty, so it should be fine.
Increasing a CR by one typically requires 50% more enemies of the same CR. Round down.
So if you have a CR 6 encounter made up of two CR 4 creatures, add in one more CR 4 creature. This works for larger numbers, too - three creatures becomes four, four becomes six, five becomes seven (will actually be a tad short but not much), six becomes nine, etc.
For encounters with a single creature, add in an "assistant" creature with a CR 2 below the one there. For example, a single CR 5 opponent will be a CR 6 encounter with a CR 3 minion added.
If you don't want to run the hassle of figuring out extra loot for the extra CR you put on encounters to balance, you can just add bigger stashes at certain points to balance it out. Then you can pretty much have the creatures drop the same listed loot, just have more of them in the fight, and then throw some extra stuff maybe 3 or 4 times in the adventure to have more loot than listed. Or do a singular bigger cache.
Unless your group is super-accountant focused and will get bent out of shape because "Excuse me, this encounter should have had X-more things", it'll be fine :)
You can also just increase the hit points a bit. Use max instead of average, for example.
Adding an extra creature to multiple creature encounters also works, especially if you have more than the assumed number of players.
