Hello all, I've been preparing to run Mummy's Mask and it looks like I'm going to have 6 PCs in the party. Accordingly this alters the APL by +1. Looking ahead, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for altering the CR of the various libraries that will be encountered in Book 3 Shifting Sands? My initial thought was to maybe adjust up the KP involved in each one but I'm open to suggestions. Please and thank you!
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The 6-man group might up the APL, but unless you adjust the critters faced, the group will also be at least a level or two behind where they should be just about any time after the first book, so...you may not want to adjust it at all.
For reference, we're playing through the AP with a group that varies between 5 and 7 players being available at any one time, and about halfway through book 4, we're all about 2 levels behind what the AP recommends. So, as a group of 6 10th-level characters, we took on a couple of CR 13 critters...and barely defeated them, without permanent loss, from full strength.
The 6-man group might up the APL, but unless you adjust the critters faced, the group will also be at least a level or two behind where they should be just about any time after the first book, so...you may not want to adjust it at all.
For reference, we're playing through the AP with a group that varies between 5 and 7 players being available at any one time, and about halfway through book 4, we're all about 2 levels behind what the AP recommends. So, as a group of 6 10th-level characters, we took on a couple of CR 13 critters...and barely defeated them, without permanent loss, from full strength.
We are experiencing the exact same thing for the exact same reason. I am running MM with a party of 6 and the norm being 4-6 players during a session. The party is lagging by a level compared to the recommended advancement. I didn't expect the libraries to be too much of a challenge with a bard and investigator in the party but I also didn't expect the party to experience a near wipe from the 3 shadow mastiffs in the Dark Depository.
I don't worry too much about them blowing through the library checks. I worry more about making the actual experience of exploring the library interesting by seeding some random information as well as the research they are doing, especially for the bard and investigator that are playing university researchers. They want to pull the string on every tidbit of information.
The 6-man group might up the APL, but unless you adjust the critters faced, the group will also be at least a level or two behind where they should be just about any time after the first book, so...you may not want to adjust it at all.
For reference, we're playing through the AP with a group that varies between 5 and 7 players being available at any one time, and about halfway through book 4, we're all about 2 levels behind what the AP recommends. So, as a group of 6 10th-level characters, we took on a couple of CR 13 critters...and barely defeated them, without permanent loss, from full strength.
We actually had 8 at one point (though only ever played with 6) which was very difficult to deal with. Of course, the biggest pain in the arse was using pre-built dungeons/encounter areas which were often too small to fit the additional PCs and subsequent baddies.
As YogoZuno and Scarykavu said, the real problem for the party is once they fall behind IF you haven't adjusted through the whole campaign. They may have an economy of action advantage, but that won't make up for save or die spells with saves too high, or simply critter features the party has no way to counter.I let my party blow through the checks for all of their research. It only affected the amount of time they took, anyway, since they'd clear a dungeon first before doing any checks. If I had it to do over, I'd make the checks like gates, e.g., you have to solve this check to understand the next, and there's a DC 50 secret door that will become obvious as well. Or similar...
First of all, thanks so much for the responses.
For some perspective in my preparation for the game, to adjust for the higher APL I have tweaked all the encounters for Books 1 and 2 so far. I compared each based on what it was written for, for example if it was classified as easy, average, challenging or epic for the original party of four APL and then added to each encounter accordingly to make them the equivalent challenge for the increased party level. (An average encounter for APL 4 for example would be easy for APL 5 so I adjust up the XP value of the encounter to make it average for APL 5, and so on...)
It was as I was examining the libraries in Book 3 that I was a bit stumped on what to do with the research. Naturally I will be adjusting all the creature encounters as described above, I was trying to think of how to make the research challenge appropriate for their levels when they get to that point. I don't know, perhaps just increasing the DCs should suffice?
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The entire premise of the library checks is to burn time to hit some or all of Muminofrah's events. Taking 1-2 days per library won't allow you to get through all the events without essentially having one every other day. Adding more RP's to the library and upping the discovery threshold is really the only way to make it take longer when the group has enough appropriate KNOWs to run through the research. Bumping the DC will just make it harder to succeed (and take away some of the exceed DC bonus damage), not necessarily making the libraries take enough time for the Muminofrah events to all take place.
Okay, given that information I think it would be sufficient to increase the KP's necessary to unlock each level of information to increase the time requirement, along with increasing the CR of any creature related encounters. Thanks so much for the insight I appreciate it.
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The entire premise of the library checks is to burn time to hit some or all of Muminofrah's events. Taking 1-2 days per library won't allow you to get through all the events without essentially having one every other day. Adding more RP's to the library and upping the discovery threshold is really the only way to make it take longer when the group has enough appropriate KNOWs to run through the research. Bumping the DC will just make it harder to succeed (and take away some of the exceed DC bonus damage), not necessarily making the libraries take enough time for the Muminofrah events to all take place.
Each event gets you access to one library (out of 3) for 3 days. There are 3 Muminofrah events. (Not counting her leaving.)
You could blow through each library in 15 minutes, and you would still need all three events.