Wealth and Difficulty balancing

[TheGreatWot]

I'm back! And I'm still working (albeit slowly) on my module. While the plot itself is fairly well laid out so far, I'm having trouble finding the right type and amount of encounters to include. How much is too much? The module runs from levels 4 to 10 (PCs will only reach 10th level after the final boss) and I'm currently working on the 5th level section. The setting is a keep that's been overrun by gnolls that worship several Outer Gods and Great Old Ones, and their minions.

I'm not sure how to determine the right amount of encounters. The main boss of each section of the module- the PCs face one before each level increase- is a PC level +3 fight. The final encounter of the module itself is CR 13. Each section has a few minibosses, encounters that are 2 CR higher than the PCs' levels, and the rest is PC level -1, +0, or +1. I haven't playtested any of the encounters yet, as I don't really have a group that I'm willing to spoil the module for, and I can't trust myself not to build absolutely broken characters.

My secondary issue is adding gear. Should I just take the WBL of 4 10th-level PCs and add a total of that amount into the module, spreading it evenly so each section holds a level-appropriate amount? Is there anything I should compensate for in the addition of treasure into the module?

Any help you guys can give is appreciated. This is going to be a very challenging adventure but I don't want it to be impossible. I can provide links to the module itself if anyone is interested in specifics.

Edit: To clarify, I'm using milestone XP for lessened bookkeeping. Maybe I should just do the math and add encounters that would gain PCs roughly one level in each section.

[Secret Wizard]

For amount of encounters, here is a good guideline for a party of level 5:

Imagine you start a day with a gauge at 0%. As players defeat events with a certain CR, the gauge increases by this much:

CR3 event - 10%
CR4 event - 15%
CR5 event - 20%
CR6 event - 30%
CR7 event - 40%
CR8 event - 60%
CR9 event - 80%

If the gauge is at 100%, then that day has been a Balanced Challenge. If below, it's been an Easy Challenge. If above, a Tough Challenge.

Make it so players need to do that much percentage to move forward. For example, put them in a place where they cannot stop and rest, put a time requirement, etc.

As they level up, raise the CR of those events by +1 to get a good idea. For example, for a party of level 6 players:

CR4 event - 10%
CR5 event - 15%
CR6 event - 20%
CR7 event - 30%
CR8 event - 40%
CR9 event - 60%
CR10 event - 80%

Btw, this is only valid for a party of 4 or 5 members who are not powergaming the hell out of the game.

[TheGreatWot]

Secret Wizard wrote:

For amount of encounters, here is a good guideline for a party of level 5:

Imagine you start a day with a gauge at 0%. As players defeat events with a certain CR, the gauge increases by this much:

Thanks for the help. Do you have a source for all this information?

The PCs don't have a time requirement until they reach the second level of the keep. When this happens, the leader of the raid on the fortress takes notice and casts control weather, which plunges the town around the fortress into a sandstorm which attracts lots of elementals and drives the creatures in the town into a frenzy- and, of course, prevents the PCs from resting anywhere in the town.

This looks like a pretty good system. I still need to be careful not to straight up TPK the party, but that's more on me as a DM.

[Meirril]

For treasure, I am of two thoughts.

The first thought is go heavy one items that will 100% be sold by the party, or of low value so even if you count the items at sell value instead of market value and the party keeps it that won't be over powered.

A good example would be including a bunch of +1 weapons, armor and resistance cloaks. All of those make the minor NPCs more powerful but at this point everybody in the party should have better equipment. So value that stuff at 1/2 market price because that is what the party gets as treasure. Potions and other consumables should be the same way. In my mind, have the NPCs use potions but always leave the treasure amount of potions behind. Also don't make 1 potion per NPC. It will seem silly if a gnoll uses 2 cure moderate potions during the fight and a different one went down first round but all of them have 1 cure moderate. Just say "between all of them you find X cure moderate potions."

The second though is there should be a few 'special' items you believe won't be sold. Those should be at full value. Make sure anything you count as special really is. If you include a +3 longsword, nobody in the party might use one. You thrown in a key item that has some other magical function that is special enough.

[Kimera757]

Quote:

My secondary issue is adding gear. Should I just take the WBL of 4 10th-level PCs and add a total of that amount into the module, spreading it evenly so each section holds a level-appropriate amount? Is there anything I should compensate for in the addition of treasure into the module?

No. You might take the difference between the WBL of 9th-level PCs and 10th-level PCs and spread that, though. (In many cases, the treasure tables leave PCs under-geared.)

Note that PCs can do many things to "change the dial" on gear. A crafter PC can make gear cheap, so PCs can end up over-geared. On the other hand, if the PCs find lots of items that aren't useful to them and sell them, they only get back half the gold, so they can easily end up under-geared. The best thing to do is the occasional "audit" so you know if PCs are above or below the guidelines and adjust accordingly.

I find that martial PCs tend to get more benefit out of gear than spellcasters. A lot of gear can be replicated by a spellcaster (in some cases quite literally). An example might be the +4 bracers of armor: 16,000 gp, replicable by a 1st-level spell that lasts an hour per level!

[TheGreatWot]

Martials are also more likely to face situations that greater gear would help. They make more saving throws, get hit more, etc. I'll try to take that into account.

I've heard conflicting things about WBL. Some say that it's too much, some too little. Obviously crafting throws things off, but this adventure is fast-paced enough that I doubt much crafting will happen, and challenging enough that PCs will probably save their feats for more directly useful things. The fact that it only goes to 10th level will dissuade the use of crafting feats further since there's less wiggle room.

When I throw in really special items I tend to compensate for the use PCs might get out of them. A +3 weapon would probably be changed to something that the PCs can use. If each PC starts with 6,500 gp (the current amount I'm giving them) to spend on items in the town they start the adventure in, that'll leave some room for the PCs to pick up low-powered items before they start wanting to sell them. There are several small towns and villages close to the fortress that the PCs will be able to drop such loot off at, as well as one small city that's relatively close and serves as a base of operations.

[Rysky]

I believe the rule of thumb for Paizo APs is to include 200% of WBL, based on the assumption that the PCs aren’t going to find it all. So that might help a bit.