Is there a tool to automatically / semi-automatically adjust encounters?

[vampatori]

I'm running a campaign for two players and so need to adjust the encounters down - the formula are great and so it's a straight-forward process, but it's still a process that needs to be manually done and can require some intervention (e.g. dropping something to weak, replacing something with a lower level equivalent).

I'd love something where you put in the encounter, have the number of players set, and it'll output an adjusted version. Is there a tool available that does this for you, perhaps giving you a few options if it's not simply 'halve the mobs'?

[breithauptclan]

I don't think so. That sounds like a very difficult problem to try and solve by algorithm. A lot of power budget that can't be quantified, and a lot of judgement calls about how best to go about the adjustment - whether reducing the number of enemies, making the enemies weaker, or something else.

[Captain Morgan]

Yeah, and you also need it to make narrative sense, which isn't something you can automate.

Pathfinder Society scenarios do have scaling difficulty variants though, right?

[SuperBidi]

Instead of scaling encounters down, I encourage you to scale the PCs up. 2 levels make up for the difference between 2 and 4 characters. It's not perfect but at least you don't have to change everything.

[vampatori]

SuperBidi wrote:

Instead of scaling encounters down, I encourage you to scale the PCs up. 2 levels make up

This is such a simple elegant solution! If it gets us most of the way there that's great, we can then tweak the encounters accordingly as we get a feel for it.

I see there's even a table showing the starting gold/items for higher level players.

Thanks!

[pauljathome]

Archives of Nethys has an insanely useful feature that can also help. All monsters have a weak/elite button to press that instantly applies the elite or weak template.

[pauljathome]

vampatori wrote:

SuperBidi wrote:

Instead of scaling encounters down, I encourage you to scale the PCs up. 2 levels make up

This is such a simple elegant solution! If it gets us most of the way there that's great, we can then tweak the encounters accordingly as we get a feel for it.

I see there's even a table showing the starting gold/items for higher level players.

Thanks!

I'd also suggest using either the Free Archetype or Dual Class rules. Otherwise 2 characters will just have trouble filling all the roles that are somewhere between desirable and required, especially if you're running published materials

[Phaedre]

Or have them each run two characters. Maybe do some creative roleplay where each of the pairs is mystically joined or some such.

[Themetricsystem]

My personal favorite way of handling this is by doing three things:

1) Grant the players loot/coin equal to a PC 1 level higher than they actually ARE. Similarly, allow them to buy and routinely loot equipment of this increased level in towns and dungeons. Getting the +X and Striking runes one (or two) levels early is a HUGE game changer.
2) Toss just a freaking BUNCH of cool and situationally useful (customized for the PCs and the adventure itself) Consumable items at them. By this, I mean at least 3x what they would normally find or normally want to purchase on their own. This gives them plenty of "outs" for situations where they are just slightly under-punching/outnumbered or simply don't have the Skill/Training/Tools/Abilities to get through obstacles/encounters due to being down players.
3) Start them off 1 level higher than they would normally be at a given point in the adventure and maintain that +1 throughout, or rather, at least do so until you pick up another player. (Note: This should STACK with change #1 so that if the adventure aims to have PCs at level 4 you should have them at level 5 and you should be providing loot access and drops as if they were level 6)

A possible 4) Free Archetype can help bridge the "ability gap" that suggestion 2 intends to target but bear in mind that if they try to focus their Free Archetype on something they are already themed/built for then it will no make a lick of difference given that they won't be branching out to do new things the party COULDN'T do before but rather to feed more ammo into their existing niche which, IMO only, is almost ALWAYS a trap for Free Archetype, esp in small groups.

Lastly, I do NOT suggest EVER using the weak/elite adjustments more than once per creature in basically any circumstance given that it has quite spotty effects from creature to creature and in some cases will either not have a strong enough net effect on how the are used in combat or it will cause their stats to bloat way faster than intended and make them more dangerous than you're shooting for.

[Nykrat]

Have you poked around in Mimic Fight Club? I find my encounter maths are constantly shifting to account for last-minute player cancellations and have to adjust my 5-PC Moderate encounters down to a 3- or 4-PC Moderate encounters without drastically changing the look n feel of my monster groupings…all within a couple of minutes.

It’s quite brilliant and mostly up-to-date. You can even adjust an encounter mid-combat if the mood/inspiration strikes. I’ve turned more than one throwaway encounter into a bossfight in this way due to awesome player roleplay.