First adventure in PF2e: looking for balancing guide for encounters in AoA

[Kyle_TheBuilder]

Hi,

So we chose AoA as our first adventure, becasue it allows for biggest variety of locations and it's great way to see Golarion (everyone are new in PF2e) while going 1-20 levels. However, we know that some encounters are no as balanced as later adventures (understantable, AoA was first) and we'd rather avoid random TPKs for group that will still be catching up with PF2e many mechanics. So, with that said: could you please give some general pointers of how to balance (and which ones) encounters in AoA? Like for example "First fight should be level -2 instead of level 0", "final boss at Book 2 works better as Level -1 and with 5x henchmens instead of 10x" etc. I would appreciate tips like that from those that already played that adventure path.

Cheers.

[Magnus Arcanus]

Kyle_TheBuilder wrote:

Hi,

So we chose AoA as our first adventure, becasue it allows for biggest variety of locations and it's great way to see Golarion (everyone are new in PF2e) while going 1-20 levels. However, we know that some encounters are no as balanced as later adventures (understantable, AoA was first) and we'd rather avoid random TPKs for group that will still be catching up with PF2e many mechanics. So, with that said: could you please give some general pointers of how to balance (and which ones) encounters in AoA? Like for example "First fight should be level -2 instead of level 0", "final boss at Book 2 works better as Level -1 and with 5x henchmens instead of 10x" etc. I would appreciate tips like that from those that already played that adventure path.

Cheers.

I would highly, highly recommending giving Ralldar the weak template. This fight is notoriously difficult, and it TPK'd my first group bad. Instead of the weak template, or in addition to, I'd highly recommend doing what you can to have the NPC Renali help the PCs.

Voz is another tough fight (this actually takes place before the Ralldar fight). While she is L+2 vs the PCs, because she is 5th level vs 3rd level PCs, she is getting bumps to statistics like AC and Spell DC that would be typical of a 5th level PC. She also TPK'd one of my groups, though admittedly, the party contributed to that through bad tactics and probably could have won the fight, accepting there still would have been at least one PC that died.

[Fumarole]

A super easy way to reduce the threat of encounters is to have the party be one level higher than what is recommended in the adventure.

I would also advise reading the six GM Reference threads for the adventure path here in the forums, as they contain valuable info from other GMs who have run the adventures before. You could avoid potential pitfalls by learning from the experiences of other GMs. They are all stickied in this subforum.

[Augusto Maux]

Before Ralldar fight, make sure everyone has proper gear for a lvl 4 party. New players may not realize yet how important is to get fundamental runes asap, so it's worth to give some hints. I suspect many randall deaths are due to players not transfering/buying runes in downtime and fighting him undergeared.

Other than that, I've found gelatinous cube the hardest fight in Hellknight Hill - some unlucky saving throws can wipe a party easily. Its a great time to send the hellknight npc backup and save the day.

There is also an issue with citadel underground: the south wing is balanced around a lvl 3 party. If the players start there, you may want to give weak template to the undead.

Edit: I've only DM'ed first book so far, but it's my understanding books 2 and 3 have very hard boss fights, and it gets easier from there.

[Lia Wynn]

Ralldar was the only fight my group had issues with, but there is also a potential ally that can join in that fight and/or warn them in advance, and depending on RP, they could also have Arak with them. Also, Ralldar does have not have to be fought, there are ways to appease him and avoid the fight entirely.

With bad die rolls, any fight can be hard, but for the most part, my group cruised through Book One.