First of all, if you are one of the players in my game, please don't read this, as it may (will) contain spoilers and the like. Now then...
I have ran a few games of other game systems in the past, and have played several Pathfinder games before. I casually mentioned I was thinking of doing a pirate style game (as I had just acquired the first Skull and Shackles AP), and was basically told "Do it!". So I'm going to run the whole Skull and Shackles Adv. Path.
Here's a run-down of the player character concepts-
Gnome Barbarian (Titan Mauler)
Suli Brawler
Human Sorcerer (Sea Hag Bloodline)
Human Mesmerist
Catfolk Rogue
Merfolk Hunter
Undecided character
... Yes, seven players. I have some questions.
1- What is the current year in the setting? Not for the S&S path, but currently as of the most recent AP? This may seem like a weird question, but I figured with all the Adventure Paths that have came out, I doubt they all happened at the same time. I only ask because I was thinking of setting my game in the past of another GMs campaign.
2-How would I go about adjusting for so many players? The AP is based around four players, and I have almost double that. Gut reaction is to just double the enemies encountered, but what about with the named villain encounters, i.e. the final confrontation? I thought about having reinforcements there, but not sure on how many.
3- Any foreseeable issues with these characters? The Titan Mauler Gnome is going to be fun (played by a new-ish player), and I like the idea of the Suli Brawler. The undecided player just said he wants to be the ships muscle. The Merfolk may take some work story-wise. I just can't see the crew pressganging a merfolk into service. My idea was he got caught in the fishing net during the players first day on the ship, and the captain plans to sell him at the nearest port- idea being merfolk are rare and possibly worth a lot.
Thanks in advance for any help and/or advice you could give. I'm starting to feel a little out of my element, so your help will be greatly appreciated.
No adventure path is assumed to have taken place unless you are running it for your players or have specifically set that adventure path in your world's past.
In most products, the current year is assumed to be 47xx, where xx is the last two digits of the current real world year. You are of course free to alter that date as you see fit, although you probably won't want to go far enough back that major features of the setting are too different (Aroden being alive, etc.).
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The biggest problem would be not balancing the fights but managing so many players in general. Beefing the fights with low-level NPCs is a pretty good way to give characters a way to contribute to a fight.
-Build minions for small group tactics, so that 2-3 make aid another actions for each one attack. This way they could stay relevant even at higher levels and will be hard to ignore while saving time on rolling dice.
-If possible in fights attack the party from different angles or present danger from multiple sides. This way party will need to split, but still be within the confines of the single encounter (so not actually split). This allows for multiple smaller combat fronts that would be easier to manage and also should engage players in the fight better - they need to decide who goes where, especially considering that they seem to have multiple characters with similar combat roles.
-Try and use different low level tricks - many feats that do not work well with the party work very well when you have multiple characters built the same way which allows to effectively utilise multiple teamwork and other support feats.
-Don't make minions to fight to the last man. At least most of the time. This way you can use more of them in combat but party won't need to wipe them all out (that could save a lot of time). Give them a threshold to how many people they need to lose before they run (30% is ok most of the time). Of course for mindless enemies and boss encounters you could make them dig in and fight with all they have.
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For seven players you can fairly safely double the amount of minions/non-boss enemies in a fight. I'd at least add the Advanced simple template (effectively +2 to everything) to each "boss" encounter, and you may really want to give the boss some minions as well just for pure action economy reasons.
I prefer adding enemies rather than holding back PC levels (no offense to Ron) simply because having PCs too low level can make them super fragile, both in hp and against HD-dependent effects. Being 1-2 levels lower can lead to a party wipe against something like blasphemy.
Have you done any research on the campaign?
I’m not sure about dates, I run them independently. I think I read that they all happen at the same time once except a few.
To answer your second question. Doubling the number of characters per encounter is a start.
The biggest problem I see is that 7 players really throw off the balance of crew to party ratio. I would lessen the number of crew members and give them fewer options for persuading others to join them (this seems to be the main point of the first book). Maybe let them influence others every other day or limit them to 3-4 total PCs influence attempts per day. They could also work together on ship actions.
Also, I’d make two riggers and maybe a specialty job for another player.
I would remove probably remove Sandara from the campaign and give her role to one of the players (she is the friendly npc that helps the group). Her role is important at the start of the campaign.
Third question. I think the biggest problem is the hunter. The teams action economy is already through the roof and adding an AC is going to make it worse (from experience). If you are ok with this then go for it. The other part of the animal companion is that they are in a lot of danger at the start of the book. The powers that be on the ship actively want to torture and punish your players. The best way to hurt a hunter would be through their animal companion. An animal companion surviving the first week on the ship is unrealistic to the campaign. You could use this and have scourge kill the animal companion. This should be an effective way to bring about some hatred for scourge. The other realistic option is they find their animal companion after they are more in control.
I don’t know what I would do with the Merfolk part of the character either. They will shine at some points in the campaign, but other times will be a major hindrance.
The seventh player (unknown) also presents a problem imo. You said they want to be the muscle on the ship. You already have a barbarian and a brawler. Adding the hunter your front line is pretty crowded. If they just want a strong character that will shore up what the party is missing, I suggest an air kineticist or Druid. Then again you could use some more “face” characters in the party. A bard is probably the most impactful character at this point. My point is the party doesn’t need another heavy.
The other part of the animal companion is that they are in a lot of danger at the start of the book. The powers that be on the ship actively want to torture and punish your players. The best way to hurt a hunter would be through their animal companion. An animal companion surviving the first week on the ship is unrealistic to the campaign. You could use this and have scourge kill the animal companion. This should be an effective way to bring about some hatred for scourge. The other realistic option is they find their animal companion after they are more in control.
The only thing I would caution about this is to talk to the player of the Hunter and make sure that they're aware that the start of the campaign is going to likely involve the loss of their initial AC.
Since the AC is such a big part of the Hunter's class features this is a big hit. If the player is on-board, it should be fine. But if they have an elaborate backstory already written for the AC, to have it killed in ways that they have little control over could potentially be very traumatic to the player. If you let them know up-front "Hey, things are going to be harsh on the AC, and they may not make it through the first book, but if you stick with it, I'll make sure that you are able to find a new AC fairly shortly into the campaign."
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I kept a familiar alive through the start of S&S but a Tiny critter is much more concealable. I did have to rescue him from the galley but luckily we made friends with the cook very quickly.
One option you could discuss with the hunter is to take an aquatic animal that can be alongside the ship without being as noticeable.
One big danger in the first adventure is that the PCs decide to mutiny too early. Be prepared for that in case they jump the gun.
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I love skull and shackles, but the first book isn't the best in my opinion. I think the bigger the group the worse it would be as well. At the very least, you need to throw away the 'grog' rules, but personally I don't like much of it.
I have heard some people have used the first book of serpents skull and then transitioned to skull and shackles starting with book two, and that it worked out well.
I agree with unicorn. Make sure to talk to your player about either option I presented.
I personally love book one. It is quite different than most hack and slash encounters though, so I understand the reservations. This is also very dependent on the DM and their ability to make RP encounters fun.
Wow. I was only expecting two or three replies, not this. Thank you all!
My general solution is to use story leveling, and just keep the PCs a level or two behind where the adventures "expect" them to be.
The issue with this is I suggested awarding exp. at the end of the session instead of at the end of the battle like they usually do, and got all kinds of... negative feedback.
For seven players you can fairly safely double the amount of minions/non-boss enemies in a fight. I'd at least add the Advanced simple template (effectively +2 to everything) to each "boss" encounter, and you may really want to give the boss some minions as well just for pure action economy reasons.
I have dealt with six or seven players before, but it was years ago when I ran my last game. Even then it was only for a couple sessions. I was planning on advancing the "bosses", but I can't remember where I read up on it.
The biggest problem I see is that 7 players really throw off the balance of crew to party ratio. I would lessen the number of crew members and give them fewer options for persuading others to join them (this seems to be the main point of the first book). Maybe let them influence others every other day or limit them to 3-4 total PCs influence attempts per day. They could also work together on ship actions.
Also, I’d make two riggers and maybe a specialty job for another player.
I would remove probably remove Sandara from the campaign and give her role to one of the players (she is the friendly npc that helps the group). Her role is important at the start of the campaign.
Yeah I didn't even think about this until you brought it up. I don't want to get rid of Sandara as she is likely going to be the only healer. I'll probably put the other npc's (Crimson and Rosie) to the background and drop a few of the "other crew".
The merfolk hunter won't be an issue anymore. He changed to a gillman hunter. Didn't like the slow base speed.
The players starting the mutiny too early was my first worry. Gonna try to talk them out of it with npc's until it's time, but I doubt it will work...
Anyway, thanks for all the help and advice. It's given me some stuff to contemplate and mull over.
...
I'm not familiar with the adventure path you are running, but I have run for groups of larger than usual size before. One thing I've found is that some maps are better suited to a smaller party. Narrow corridors for example tend to hinder a party with more characters. The party tends to get stuck in a conga line down the hall limiting their mobility in a fight, making it hard to get a clean shot with ranged attacks/magic. It might be worth drawing maps to a bit bigger scale, widening some corridor, etc.
The hunter can cure. Have him hide a wand.
Sandara is an important NPC because she is the GMNPC that pushes the characters into doing what you want them to. If you have a player who will take that role it will help balance the DM to party ratio.
I think Rosie is important. She is the first and easiest crew member to recruit and kind of pushes you into recruiting more. You can put another character into that role, but the alternate recruitment is important.
Second, be advised that running an adventure path takes a while. Expect this to be a multiple-year commitment. Probably at least two years. Three is not uncommon. And I've been GM'ing Runelords since, you know, 2012 I think? Don't worry, we'll probably finish sometime in 2019.
!!! I wasn't expecting it to take that long to finish it! We meet weekly and typically play for @6-8 hrs. I was thinking six months, tops.
1) If you are playing with maps, draw them out in advance. It saves a ton of time.
I was going to use maps, yes, but I was going to try and use the pre-made maps- such as the flip maps and even a couple from the comics. Using maps is somewhat new to my group, so I may only use them for major battles. In a the previous Pathfinder game I was in, the GM had one of those dry-erase mats and drew out the dungeon as we progressed thought it. I may do the same.
2) The problem with boss fights, especially against solo bosses, is the imbalanced action economy. For every 1 turn the boss gets, he'll have to sit there and take seven spells or attacks from your seven PCs. This is the key problem with solo bosses even with just four PCs; with a larger group, it's much worse.
Just scaling up his hit points doesn't help much; it prolongs the fight without seriously increasing the threat to the PCs. If you give him sufficient levels to have abilities that are a serious threat to that many PCs, it's easy to start running into balance issues. That is, if he's a serious threat to ALL of them, he could wipe the board with any ONE of them easily.
Yeah, I thought about this. With the crowd I've got they potentially take out a boss in one round. I'm even kinda worried that if they went after the captain they could take him out with a some good rolls.
Here are several things you can do to address the imbalanced action economy for boss fights.
Give the boss minions. More baddies = more baddie actions. Having multiple opponents will divide your PCs attention. The downside is that the fight will last longer and be more complex to run. And, of course, sometimes there are it doesn't make sense for a particular boss to have minions -- plot reasons, or not enough space on the map, or maybe your boss just doesn't play well with others.
Speaking of minions, one of the few things I liked about 4e was the concept of, well, minions. In 4e, a minion was a creature that had the exact same stats as an ordinary creature of its kind, except that it had only one hit point. They can be dangerous, because they attack just as easily as usual, but they die instantly if they get hit by literally anything. You can flood the map with minions, which will first scare the PCs ("Oh god, there are so many of them!") and then let them feel like badasses. ("I just punched out a skeleton with one hit!", says the wizard with 8 strength.)
You know, I actually like this one quite a bit. Only problem I can see is a couple players/GMs in my group know the system better than I do, and could notice that the creatures should have more hit point that what it took to kill it.
If I did this option, how would I go about awarding exp. for theses weaker minions? Getting their full exp. for a one-hit-kill doesn't sit right with me for some reason...Limit player actions. This one is tricky. It does address the imbalance issue, BUT people hate being put in situations where they can't do anything. You run the risk of trampling on player agency. So you can do this, but be careful with it, and maybe don't trot it out too often.
This is not even a option, sorry. The group I game with does not like these kind of hindrances, and will likely just start an argument.
Give the boss more actions. Just let him do more than the PCs can, straight up. If you take this route, inform your players in advance that you intend to do so for key boss fights, because the party is very large and otherwise they'll just steamroll encounters designed to be dramatic conclusions. Nothing says "boss fight" quite like the moment the players realize that the bad guy gets extra actions.
The Agile mythic template basically lets your boss get two turns per round, for example, and ensures that the boss almost always goes first.
I like this and will likely use this option for the bigger bosses. Especially the final boss battle, and I was even going to add one (possibly two) golems that was they would have previously fought...
Add in the minions option, and this could be an epic battle, as it should be.Alternatively, you could borrow the concept of "Legendary Actions" from 5e.
I'll consider this, although I'm not sure how the players will react to using rules from outside the Pathfinder system.
Yeah, this will be an experience. I know I'll have at least four players every game, with the other three there most of the time, but I doubt all of the time.
Also, the previous merfolk hunter is now a gillman slayer.
Again, thanks for all the help and advise. You all have been a great help.
4e minions are worth 1/5 of normal XP. If you're worried about them finding out, make them 2-hit minions. :)
One issue with not doing dramatic leveling is that with all of the changes to encounters you need to build them so that they still level at the appropriate times.
GM-controlled leveling also eliminates the whining you hear when the players are less than one encounter from leveling.
Your players sound like entitled whiners. You are the DM. They should listen to your interpretation of the rules and trust that any changes you decide to try out are within the intent of making the game more fun for everyone. If you play by rules as written three of them are not allowed to play (as the AP was written for 4 people).
Late, but running this AP myself (albeit with the opposite problem, an undersized party with no tanks) so I had some thoughts. I'm going to address mostly Book 1 (figure you can get through that book and then figure out from there whether you'll continue on and in what vein). I will spoil some of Book 1 in my response.
1- What is the current year in the setting? Not for the S&S path, but currently as of the most recent AP? This may seem like a weird question, but I figured with all the Adventure Paths that have came out, I doubt they all happened at the same time. I only ask because I was thinking of setting my game in the past of another GMs campaign.
I don't know, but I think the setting is fluid enough you can say it does take place after the other campaign.
2-How would I go about adjusting for so many players? The AP is based around four players, and I have almost double that. Gut reaction is to just double the enemies encountered, but what about with the named villain encounters, i.e. the final confrontation? I thought about having reinforcements there, but not sure on how many.
Don't just double the enemies--that doesn't always map out properly. Look at/reread the Core Rulebook's chapter on Gamemastery on determining appropriate challenges for a party--and then at how many creatures it takes to make an encounter of a given CR (it isn't always just double the creatures).
Because your party is 6 or more, your party's Average Party Level (APL) is +1, so it starts at APL 2. This means most encounters through the first chapter should be CR 1-3, 4 for an especially tough fight, rather than 0-2 or 0-3. Look at the CR equivalencies table to see how many, if any, creatures you should add to a given fight. In some places you might add more creatures, but make it say, two weaker versions of a creature rather than one of the same strength (e.g., perhaps in the reefclaw fight, add two reefclaws with the young template rather than one more reefclaw, etc. I am not saying you SHOULD alter this particular fight in that way, but this is just an example).
And indeed, you can also add templates to some of the creatures rather than adding more, where it might make sense to have a tougher monster than a lot more of them. With a large party, sure, sometimes more monsters is better--but on the other hand, sometimes the battlemap or the scenario won't allow for it.
To echo and add onto what someone else said--also pay attention to stuff like terrain, particularly with a large group. Some of the fights are on or in water. When on the ship think about stuff like--is the floor wet and slippery? How does that affect things?
The one Book 1 fight that might stymie you is the boss fight at the end of chapter 3, because you will likely have a very specific number of enemies you are fighting. One possibility would be adding more crew--perhaps pressganged Rahadoumi sailors or slaves are also added to the Man's Promise roster and are too afraid to defy Plugg. Perhaps alternately you could give Plugg a magic item that lets him summon monsters to help, or extra buff spells to make him and Scourge harder to beat.
On the other hand, I also found some of the fights as written very tough. You may want to evaluate how hard they are to begin with. The reefclaw fight is nasty, especially since they can benefit from the terrain in a way the party can't. The island section also has some really hard fights--the swarms are NASTY, and for my small party I just removed them for the island. In your case, I would keep the swarms, I would NOT double the numbers per a given encounter, but I WOULD perhaps add a couple different encounters with them.
You also need to think about non-combat aspects of the adventure. Influencing the rest of the NPC crew is a big part of the story, and shouldn't be underplayed, IMO. However, the more party members, the more chances they have of gaining influence, and fast. You may want to either make influencing the crew harder, or add some additional, specific sidequests to gain influence in more specific ways than outlined in the book itself. If the PCs fail the sidequests or fail to take them on, they don't get the influence.
I would not personally delay leveling, as a lot of the adventure presumes access to certain abilities and spells by certain points. Just adjust the encounters for the higher APL.
3- Any foreseeable issues with these characters? The Titan Mauler Gnome is going to be fun (played by a new-ish player), and I like the idea of the Suli Brawler. The undecided player just said he wants to be the ships muscle. The Merfolk may take some work story-wise. I just can't see the crew pressganging a merfolk into service. My idea was he got caught in the fishing net during the players first day on the ship, and the captain plans to sell him at the nearest port- idea being merfolk are rare and possibly worth a lot.
I don't see any issues outside of the lack of full divine caster -- which will make the final island harder, because Sandara is not going to be around to help for most of that part of the story. On the other hand, given there are so many PCs, just the lack of a divine character in key areas may also in itself help balance things out.
Yeah I didn't even think about this until you brought it up. I don't want to get rid of Sandara as she is likely going to be the only healer. I'll probably put the other npc's (Crimson and Rosie) to the background and drop a few of the "other crew".
I would NOT reduce the number of crew--the party still needs to crew their own ship once they mutiny (Sailing Ships need a minimum crew of 20), and they need that ship---PLUS potentially if the party fails to influence enough crew, that's more enemies for them to fight during the mutiny.
I also wouldn't worry if they mutiny early, honestly. The game is somewhat prepared for that, and a lot of the encounters you can rejigger after they take over the ship. If the party does it early, they're most likely to right when they get on the Man's Promise but before the storm. They can just have the mutiny, gain the ship---and then get caught in the storm and have to deal with Bonewrack Island anyway--they will still need supplies to repair the ship and the crew can still get kidnapped. The final fight will just be the fight with the Whale rather than with Plugg and Scourge.
Good luck and have fun! There is most definitely no "doing it wrong" -- this is your game.
OK, well, I ran my first session last night. Went a little slow. Mainly because I was not as prepared as I thought I was- I really need to print some of the NPC's out instead of using the PDFs on my computer or tablet. And the job charts. All in all I had fun and they seemed to have fun.
We only got through the first two days of the AP. Highlights are-
The catfolk rogue successfully spreading the rumor that it's unlucky to hurt a catfolk.
The suli brawler knocking out the half-orc in one punch.
The gnome barbarian is undefeated in Hob Lob.
The gillman slayer, while trying to dispose of the body of the previous cooks mate (who died the previous night from drinking a large mug of urine- he got caught relieving himself in the lauder, and as punishment had to drink a mug of the other crews urine), found he could not carry the body and climb the ladder (can't go through the officers quarters after all), he got a large pot and cleaver from the kitchen and hacked the body into pieces... in full view of the everyone... and calmly threw the parts overboard.
The mesmerist casting hideous laughter on the dwarf NPC (who was hostile the PCs) while he was being whipped for being late reporting to work.
Yeah, I thought about posting a full rundown of the game on another thread, if anyone was interested, but I'd want to get the players OK first.
Anyway, a few issues came up, like what kind if weapon stats would a large meat cleaver have? The new cooks mate- the gillman- wants one as a weapon. I just ruled it as a hand axe for now, but I'm trying to find actual stats, if there is any.
As for the punishments, twelve lashings from the whip seems a little excessive. Especially to lvl one PCs. The brawler only took four before he passed out. And, if we read the rules right, if he was continually whipped while unconscious, the nonlethal damage would wrap around to deal lethal damage. That surely would have killed him.
In response to DeathQuaker- I got home and read up about the CRs in the core book. For the battle at the start of day 2, I added two hostile NPCs to the four that stops the players to make it 6v6 (the seventh "undecided" player could not make it). When I checked the book, if I'm doing it right, the players are CR2,and I threw a CR4 encounter at them. The PC's walked out without a scratch, and the all but two of the PNCs were out of commission (the other two ran away with 1hp left).
I do see what you're saying though. I'll need to read up on that more before the next game.
As for them starting the mutiny early... Well I'm not so worried about them doing it early, but rather them doing it too early. As in before The Man's Promise comes into the picture. They seem to be making friends of some NPCs, but as it sits, they have more enemies than friends. Those that dislike them hate them, but those that don't are just kinda "meh...".
With so many players, have a meta-agreement with them to limit summonings, familiars and animal companions so that you can better manage actions per round when it counts.
Seven players can quickly turn into tracking twenty participants when add in NPC enemies & all those other elements.
!!! I wasn't expecting it to take that long to finish it! We meet weekly and typically play for @6-8 hrs. I was thinking six months, tops.
That'll definitely help but 7 players typically get less done per player in a session than 4 players. So I'd still adjust your estimate to about a year or so.
You know, I actually like this one quite a bit. Only problem I can see is a couple players/GMs in my group know the system better than I do, and could notice that the creatures should have more hit point that what it took to kill it.
If I did this option, how would I go about awarding exp. for theses weaker minions? Getting their full exp. for a one-hit-kill doesn't sit right with me for some reason...
I wasn't much of a fan of the minions in 4e either. But if you wanted to use something like it you could still assign 1 hp/hit die and have much weaker henchmen/minions than average without adjusting anything else. I think you probably don't need to do much more than include some guards/henchmen kitted up a level or so lower than the PCs to back up the BBEGs with some more complicating actions to divide their attention from the BBEG or hamper their approach.
I've run S&S, and I am playing in an 8 player game of Giantslayer at the moment. Based on those experiences:
1. Ditch XP by fight and use story levelling - it takes away some pointless bookkeeping work and gets away from the 'must kill one mor goblin' mindset. It also allows you to add side quests that give different characters a place to do their thing. My party enjoyed their run-in with the cult of the Eye, and their naval expedition to burn a Chelish naval dockyard more than some of the published game.
2. Skull and Shackles, once you get past book 1 is a fairly gentle AP insofar as the party don't have to worry about things like carrying loot, keeping watches or (for a lot of it) having more than one encounter a day. With a big party that means you are not going to challenge them except in the set piece dungeons. Accept this.
3. If you don't already have them, get the map pack and the Guide to the Shackles book. they are incredibly useful.
4. For big parties, adding extra goons to fights is probably the way to go, once you get past the first level 1crit= death zone. One of our finest moment to date in Giantslayer involved the ref putting 40+ orc minis on the map,.. at which point the players stopped joking around and looked very carefully at their options.
5. Get one of the players to run the initiative tracker for you, That will save some time in fights.
4e minions are worth 1/5 of normal XP. If you're worried about them finding out, make them 2-hit minions. :)
One issue with not doing dramatic leveling is that with all of the changes to encounters you need to build them so that they still level at the appropriate times.
GM-controlled leveling also eliminates the whining you hear when the players are less than one encounter from leveling.
What I used to do when I ran PF in a 4E world campaign (was pretty fun, ran Shadowkeep)--
I built the enemy minions using NPC array (10 I think) dumping con (giving them extra stat points for Str or Dex), so they had lowest hp possible, but were really increased durability in AC/damaging power.Example,
Kobold Minion (Warrior 1) CR 1/5 (80 xp)
Init: +3, Sense: perception +3, Darkvision, Align: Evil. Language: Draconic
Hp: 2, AC: 14 =10+1 Size+ 2 Leather +1 light shield
Str 14, Dex 10, Con 5, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 7
CMB: 2/ CMD: 13. Fort -1/Ref +0/Will +1. short Spear +5 (1d4+2)/Javelin +3 (1d4+2)
Gear: 3 x javelin, Feat: WF: Spears. Resist Fire 5. Skills: Acrobatics +1 (+1), Stealth +1 (+4)
It is pretty hard not to kill this guy with 2 hits (even 1 if don't roll bad), but he has good AC for level 1. He also deals good damage.
Now Goblins are stronger:
Goblin (War 1) Minion 1 CR 1/4 100 xp
Init: +5, Sense: perception +4, Darkvision, Align: Evil. Language: Goblin
Hp: 2. AC: 18 =10+1 Size+ 2 Leather +5 Dex. Str 12, Dex 20, Con 5, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 7
Short sword hit +7 (1d4+1), Javelin hit +7 (1d4), feat: Weapon finesse
Gear: 3 x javelin, one vial of Fire Drake blood (makes weapon flaming 1d4 rd or till hits).
A little stronger, but still easy to kill.
A normal goblin warrior:
Goblin Warrior (War 1) CR 1/3 135 xp
Init: +2, Sense: perception +3, Darkvision, Align: Evil. Language: Goblin
Hp: 6, AC: 18 =10+1 Size+ 5 Chain mail +2 Dex. Str 14, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 8, Cha 5
CMB: +2/ CMD: 14. Fort +3/Ref +2/Will -1. Skills: Acrobatics +0 (-3), Stealth +1 (+2)
Mstk Heavy Pick+ 5 (1d4+3), Mstk Javelin +4 (1d4+3). Feat: WF: heavy pick
Gear: each has one vial of Fire Drake blood (makes weapon flaming 1d4 rd or till hits), CLW, 2 flask alchemist fire
Survives better, so worth more. Yes, they have masterwork, but since minions have less money I needed to make up difference.
But just my thoughts and old details.
As for the punishments, twelve lashings from the whip seems a little excessive. Especially to lvl one PCs. The brawler only took four before he passed out. And, if we read the rules right, if he was continually whipped while unconscious, the nonlethal damage would wrap around to deal lethal damage. That surely would have killed him.
IIRC some of the punishments are ridiculously excessive. I think I reduced lash counts to 1-6, depending on punishment. Alternately, the punishment can be "lashed until unconscious." You aren't supposed to die under the lash, and while Harrigan wants his crew to be terrified of him, he has barely enough crew so killing them all for minor punishments would make no sense. Harrigan isn't that stupid.
In response to DeathQuaker- I got home and read up about the CRs in the core book. For the battle at the start of day 2, I added two hostile NPCs to the four that stops the players to make it 6v6 (the seventh "undecided" player could not make it). When I checked the book, if I'm doing it right, the players are CR2,and I threw a CR4 encounter at them. The PC's walked out without a scratch, and the all but two of the PNCs were out of commission (the other two ran away with 1hp left).
I do see what you're saying though. I'll need to read up on that more before the next game.
I could always be doing this wrong too, but I believe 4 Wormwood Pirates are CR 2 (one is CR 1/2 so you have to do some fraction multiplication to get here). Going from 4 to 6 creatures, per the CR equivalency chart only increases the CR by 1, so 6 Wormwood pirates would be CR 3. You'd need 8 to make it a CR 4 encounter.
That said, IIRC that fight isn't supposed to be that tough--just an "example" of the hostility of some of the crew. So it's okay that one went pretty easily.
As for them starting the mutiny early... Well I'm not so worried about them doing it early, but rather them doing it too early. As in before The Man's Promise comes into the picture. They seem to be making friends of some NPCs, but as it sits, they have more enemies than friends. Those that dislike them hate them, but those that don't are just kinda "meh..."
On one hand--be sure to play up how badass Harrigan is. You could always create some kind of non-participation encounter like, say, a sea monster attacks, and Harrigan singlehandedly slices it in half without any of the crew helping. So they can see that going up this guy is a bad idea even if there are so many of them. You shouldn't have to actually say, "Dudes, this is a 16th level rogue, don't play" but you should be able to have him demonstrate in character that he waaaay outclasses (and out levels) the PCs. This by itself may help prevent mutiny on the Wormwood.
But... if they do mutiny too early? Play it out. See what happens. Beyond Harrigan, Peppery Longfarthing should have access to spells 1st level characters are not going to easily survive even if they have strength in numbers. Most likely, the party is defeated. Let them survive it (taking battle scars as appropriate) and wake up chained to the walls of the bilges and endure suitable punishments who have to prove themselves to serve on the ship again--or be thrown to the sharks.
If the party does some how pull a mutiny off too early--I'd just be sure Harrigan and some of the other key characters that show up later in the AP escape. Maybe even have the Man's Promise show up during the mutiny, trying to take the Wormwood rather than the opposite, taking advantage of the fight. Harrigan could contrive a way to get the party onto the Man's Promise once it boards, and then flee. Or something. Some of the other adventures could probably be altered to happen afterward regardless.
PS: Unless the adventure specifies otherwise, I would consider a meat cleaver an improvised handaxe, and include the weapon penalties as such.
Ok, several months later and they still haven't even cracked the rock yet. They don't have enough infamy and Lady Agasta won't ally with them. She did, however, ask them to check on a crew she sent to a nearby island to get supplies. That crew is a couple days overdue and she wants to know why. The PC's reluctantly agreed, but are discussing among themselves about taking the island by force.
I really thought I would at least be starting the fourth book by now, not nearing the end of the second. It doesn't look like I'll finish this AP anytime soon. One player made a comment that there doesn't seem to be an ongoing plot or story and they are just meandering around. Another player is starting to get restless and bored with the game- but I believe this is my fault. I am a casual layed back GM that enjoys hanging out as much as playing and or running the game, where as he want to be gaming the whole time. Two other players (the Captain and Master-at-Arms) moved away but are still attempting to play via Skype or whatever streaming service (usually bowing out after @1-3 hrs due to technical issues). Plus others are wanting to run their games, so I think I'm gonna pause the game after they finish book two and hopefully pick it back up at a later time. I'm thinking I've got about three to four more sessions before I end it, though.