I'm finding that some of the encounters in the Runeforge are far too easy for a reasonably intelligent party.
Curious if other GMs changed these encounters and how.
If you're running RotRL currently and allowing access to all the current Pathfinder material, pretty much every encounter needs a re-work in the entire campaign. Those encounters were all designed when the CRB was pretty much the only source material, so enemies with class levels are full of sub-optimal spell, feat, and magic item selections. And, even with that in mind, there are often serious WTF design issues with the characters. (I mean, seriously, what wizard gets to lvl 14 without having some ability to deal with an are of Silence?)
This I'm aware of, and I did ramp things up, but these are "fatal flaws" that are exploited by material from the actual CRB.
In the end I gave Azaven a caster's tattoo and put dispel magic as one of the spells in his staff.
They haven't done the wrath area yet but those guys don't have dispel magic either.
Most of the encounters will be too easy if your players are at the recommended level for the chapter. Ideally, you should keep them 1 or 2 levels behind the recommended level.
This is obviously no help if they are already at the suggested level. <g>
Your only other alternative is to beef up encounters, either with additional mooks or by actually changing the stats of the critters involved.
Or... perhaps... look at nearby groups of critters, and arrange to have the PCs face several encounters at the same time, for whatever reason. No need to keep all your critters static, helplessly waiting for PC death to descend upon them.
Another way to limit PC power is to give them fewer opportunities to rest & recharge. Little by little they will run out of their nova powers and best spells.
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Or... perhaps... look at nearby groups of critters, and arrange to have the PCs face several encounters at the same time, for whatever reason. No need to keep all your critters static, helplessly waiting for PC death to descend upon them.
This is an easy to implement solution - the default tactics in the AP are borderline silly and suicidal for the NPC's. Mostly a lot of inexplicable - so-and-so waits in his room for the pc's (so he will be easier for them to kill.)
Want to have Wrath be harder? The Iron Archer sounds an alarm for the whole wing at the start of battle so everyone knows the pc's are coming. Assume all the warriors of wrath have cast all their buffs before the pc's get there (depending on how long the fight with the Iron Archer takes.) And the sinspawn are all hasted. And they all have readied a fireball for the first appearance on the teleport circles. And some of their friends from the fleshwarping lab have joined them or do so a round or two after the fight starts. Ditto on Highlady Athroxis and her pet glabrazu.
Or... perhaps... look at nearby groups of critters, and arrange to have the PCs face several encounters at the same time, for whatever reason.
Funny... one of the players in my game has the last name "Wheldrake." :) He plays the blaster sorcerer.
I actually had Xyoddin fall back and join Azaven in the room. Thanks to his fast healing and lack of spells he lasted longer than anyone else in there.
I also added a couple of the Thassilonian Mummies and all the mummmies in the place had 3 levels of cleric. This allowed them to do some nuisance damage through channeling but with their vulnerability to fire they didn't last long.
A big problem with the Ravenous Crypts actually is the sheer small size of the encounter areas. If I did it again I might re-do it. Or maybe just make everything 10' squares instead of 5'.
Another way to limit PC power is to give them fewer opportunities to rest & recharge. Little by little they will run out of their nova powers and best spells.
I can see this working in some areas, but in the Runeforge things are separated into discrete areas that generally don't interact with one another. Thematically it's harder to do here.
Want to have Wrath be harder? The Iron Archer sounds an alarm for the whole wing at the start of battle so everyone knows the pc's are coming.
Yeah, I think I will go this route. Even without the alarm they could have got wind of what was happening elsewhere in the runeforge.