Adjusting Hellknight Hill for a Three-Player Party-GM Reference

[TheViolinCon]

Gm here,

I'm running AoA for a three player party. So far, they've picked up Alak and are in A21 (having already completed the events of A22) and about to level up. The bard has gone to dying 2 previously, but they have been handling it well so far. Alak is a great damage dealer, but I foresee him leaving the party after the events of C8 (as written), unless the party convinces him to stay otherwise. My concern is D3. Any advice for tempering this encounter for a bard, druid/tank, and a ranger w/ animal companion? I'm tempted to place one scroll each of Searing Light and Haste to give them a fighting chance. I've read other posts about this encounter and am trying to take the lessons to heart, but I am worried the loss of 3 actions/round and an additional target will result in multiple deaths.

My options as I currently see them:

1. Give weak adjustments to encounter in D3.

2. Ensure all players have +1 striking weapons and extra scrolls as mentioned above.

3. Have the party at level 5 when they enter D3.

Your thoughts and advice are much needed.

[itaitai]

A player recently left the group and I am GMing for 3 players now and it's been going great.
Don't worry about the rest of the adventure as a whole, encounters are easily adjustable.

First of all, i suggest giving it the weak adjustment. If it turns out they handled it better than expected you can always bump it's HP retroactively just to make it a more memorable fight.

Then you have Renalli, she can always jump in and help even if they don't find her at first.
The PCs are her ticket out of their, so it makes sense to help them.

[N0cturne]

Been running AoA with three players as well (well, two players and an NPC, technically) and my solution has been just keeping them one level ahead of the recommended advancement path, and then using that advancement path as milestones for when a new level is granted. That way I don't have to worry about adjusting XP or encounters. We're just getting into the last chapter of Tomorrow Must Burn and it's been working out fine so far.