Adapting "Heroes of Undarin" for fewer than 4 players.

[Flungus]

I'm running the playtest for my regular group and typically there are 4 players play the game regularly, but one dropped out after a week, as he decided the playtest was not for him, and a second pops in and out as he is in the mood as he isn't wild about the playtest either. In general I haven't had too much difficulty adapting for this, even with on player only playing sporadically.

I'm worried however about adapting for part 5 "Heroes of Undarin", according to the adventure guide having an accurate idea of when and what took the players down is very important, so I'm looking on advice on how to adapt part 5 of the playtest for 2-3 players instead of the regular 4, any advice??

[Edge93]

Okay, so here's a quick suggestion of how to alter each encounter, based off of the additions for more players:

Fight 1, remove 1 Slaver Demon if down 1 player, remove 2 if down two.

Fight 2, change one Treachery Demon to a Toad Demon if down one, just remove a Treachery Demon instead if down two.

Fight 3, remove 2 Blood Demons if down one player, remove 4 if down two.

Fight 4,remove 1 Dread Wraith if down one, 2 Dread Wraiths if down two.

Fight 5, remove 1 Ghost Mage if down 1, 2 Ghost Mages if down 2.

Fight 6, this is tough as the single foe can only be scaled down so much. I'd say whether you're down one or two forget the Risen Corpses. Without higher party numbers they'll be way more trouble than intended (They aren't even factored into the challenge rating of the battle normally because they're so weak). Then add the Weak template to the Demilich if you're down one player. If down two, you could try applying the effects of the template a second time but I think it might take more. Maybe turn off the Telekinetic Storm and don't use Wail of the Banshee or Maze, or something else to your discretion. Alternatively provide them with some backup somehow, maybe a good outsider comes to aid them or the adventurers below can spare one member to help (Maybe a leveled up version of the Part 1 PC of the player who left could join them?)

Alternatively if one player down replace the Demilich with a Banshee and keep the corpses, remove the corpses if down two.

Fight 7, if down one player replace 1 Boar Demon with 3 Wrath Demons, if down two then just remove 1 Boar Demon.

Fight 8, if down one player remove 1 Toad Demon, if down two remove 2 Toad Demons.

Fight 9, uhhh..... this is hard for similar reasons to the Demilich. Textbook adjustment, if down one player apply the Weak template. If down two maybe applying it double would work. IDK. I think the fight would need other adjustments or the players need backup because some abilities like Focus Gaze might just be too strong even with the weak template when the fiend is less outnumbered. Or maybe it would work, IDK.

Hope this helps, this is just the basic textbook adjustments to de-scale these encounters. Honestly it's kinda the minimum reduction because a two or three person party may be further hurt by lower versatility. You may need to reduce things a little further. The solo foes in particular are hard to adjust. But it can hopefully work.

That said, given the nature of HoU it's probably less harmful if you make a mistake than it otherwise might be...

[Flungus]

This is all very useful, thank you.