Need help scaling adventure (may contain 'burning plague' spoilers!)

Ok, here's the deal.

I've got a party of 4 (powerfull) 4th level characters.
I've got an adventure I like to run, but it's for first level characters.

I started reading through the adventure (for more detail: It's 'The buring plague' adventure) and thinking about how to scale it, and ran into several problems:

1. I want to keep the existing sentient creatures, and add class levels.
However, I couldn't find anywhere what the CR is for a CR 1/6 monster with (for instance) 4 levels fighter. Is it CR4? or something different?
2. I want to increase the number of creatures that I can't increase with class levels, instead of just replacing them with creatures that have a higher CR in those instances where the creatures are an integrated part of the adventure. But, how does that scale when you try to increase the CR of an encounter with 8 CR1/4 creatures?
3. I want to keep the EL scaled simmilar to the adventure. however, how high do EL's need to go? I can understand the EL1->EL4. But how much do I increase EL1.5? and EL5?
Since the party level will be increased to 4, do I increase EL1.5->EL6? or to EL4.5?
do I increase EL5->EL9?

If you know of a rules section, a simple reference should be enough. However, every other help is very much appreciated!

Herzog

bump

anyone?

Herzog said:

1. I want to keep the existing sentient creatures, and add class levels.
However, I couldn't find anywhere what the CR is for a CR 1/6 monster with (for instance) 4 levels fighter. Is it CR4? or something different?

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Humanoids and Class Levels: Creatures with 1 or less HD replace their monster levels with their character levels. The monster loses the attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, skills, and feats granted by its 1 monster HD and gains the attack bonus, save bonuses, skills, feats, and other class abilities of a 1st-level character of the appropriate class.

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Therefore, CR 4 would be right.

2. I want to increase the number of creatures that I can't increase with class levels, instead of just replacing them with creatures that have a higher CR in those instances where the creatures are an integrated part of the adventure. But, how does that scale when you try to increase the CR of an encounter with 8 CR1/4 creatures?

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Encounters do not have a CR they have an EL; CR is only for individual creatures (i.e. to determine XP). There's a table in the DMG (pg. 49), where this is precalculated for most common situations.

4 CR 1/4 creatures equal 1 CR 1 creature. 2 CR 2 creatures give EL 2.

The table actually lists CRs below 1 directly, though.

3. I want to keep the EL scaled simmilar to the adventure. however, how high do EL's need to go? I can understand the EL1->EL4. But how much do I increase EL1.5? and EL5?
Since the party level will be increased to 4, do I increase EL1.5->EL6? or to EL4.5?
do I increase EL5->EL9?

Click to expand...

You just increase EL by the same amount that the party level is over the suggested level.

EL stands in relation to the average level of a party of 4. Equal means an appropriate challenge (not too hard), EL 2 higher than the party level is tougher, but still managable (shouldn't do too many of those encounters, though, unless the party is powerful enough to get through those without spending too many resources). EL below the party level is usually quite easy.

And remember, that EL is just a rough guideline. If you feel, that the encounters end up too low-powered or high-powered, fine-tune it a bit more (best option is probably to have some means to fine-tune it right during the game, i.e. list some things they might have or not depending on whether it seems too tough (then leave them out) or too easy (then use them); this could be potions or reinforcements, for example).

Bye
Thanee

My advice would be the following.


Saving throws: Increase the DC on saving throws (traps, disease and so on) by 1 or 2 if you want to keep them challenging for the PC’s.

Skill checks: Increase the DC on most skillchecks (spot, search and so on) by 2-4 to keep them challenging for the PC’s


The Mess Hall Kobolds: Add 2 rogue levels to get the following stats. By the Encounter calculator rules this gives a very hard encounter, but in my experience four strong level 4 characters will blast through the encounter.

Kobolds (9): CR 1; Small Humanoid; HD 2d6; hp 10; Init +1 (Dex); Spd 30 ft.; AC 15; BAB +1, Atk +3 melee (1d4-2, small shortsword) or +3 ranged (1d6, small light crossbow); SA; Sneak Attack +1d6, SQ: Darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity, contagious, evasion; AL LE; SV Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +1; Str 6, Dex 13, Con 8, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10.

Skills and Feats: Climb +4, Craft (trapmaking) +7, Disable Device +5, Hide +10, Listen +6, Move Silently +6, Search +7, Spot +5, Tumble +7, Weapon finesse


The Larder: Add 3 HD to the Dire weasel (+1 CR) and add one Dire weasel (+2 CR) for a total of CR 5. A difficult encounter, but the adventure writer forgot to apply the constitution penalty to the weasel. If you do that each weasel will only have 15 HP (as opposed to the 27 a healthy one would have). I would recommend doing that, leaving the weasels dangerous, but quite fragile.

Dire weasel: CR 3; Medium-Size Animal (5 ft. long); HD 6d8+0; hp 27; Init +9 (Dex); Spd 40 ft.; AC 17; Atk +10 melee (1d6+3, bite); SA: Attach, blood drain; SQ: Scent, contagious; AL N; SV: Fort +3, Ref +10, Will +3; Str 14, Dex 20, Con 6, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 11.

Skills and Feats: Hide +9, Move Silently +10, Spot +8, Weapon Finesse (bite), Improved Initiative


The rats I would treat like a Rat swarm (check the Monsters Manual or this webpage http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/swarm.htm#ratSwarm). Is just about the right CR for the job, and requires different tactics by the PC’s.


Chutes and Ladders: The regular kobolds: Use the stats above. M’dok: add 3 levels of sorcerer for the following stats. Target spellcasters with Scorching ray and groups with Glitterdust.

M’dok, male kobold Sor5: CR 2; Small Humanoid; HD 5d4; hp 17; Init +1 (Dex); Spd 30 ft.; AC 15 (19 with mage armor); Atk +1, melee (1d6-2, halfspear) or +4 ranged (1d6, small light crossbow); SQ: Darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity, contagious*; AL LE; SV Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +5; Str 6, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14.

Skills and Feats: Concentration +8, Hide +4, Listen +2, Move Silently +3, Spellcraft +4, Spot +2, Alertness, Toughness, Point blank shot (+1 to attack and damage with ranged attacks at 0-30 ft. range)

Possessions: Halfspear, light crossbow, 20 bolts, leather armor, Enlarge potion (5th level), belt pouch, with 24 gp and violet garnet (500 gp). Note: M’dok has no familiar.

Spells Known (6/7/5): 0 – Detect Magic, Open/Close, Ghost Sound, Dancing Lights, Daze, Ray of Frost; 1st—Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Summon Monster I, 2nd – Glitterdust, Scorching Ray


The Charnel Pit: Double the number of Zombies and it will still be an easy fight, Triple them to make it challenging.


The Wellspring: Add 3 levels (+3 CR) to Jakk. Be sure to Summon the Fiendish dire wolf as the first thing, otherwise the adventurers will overwhelm him. Follow up with the Unholy blight and then darkness. This battle could (should?) be very difficult to win for the PC’s without losses.


Jakk Tornclaw, male orc Clr8: CR 7 (reduced from 8 for Plague Con loss, spell loss); Medium-Size
Humanoid (Orc); HD 8d8 - 15; hp 25; Init +1; Spd 20 ft. (chain mail); AC 20; Atk: +10 melee (1d8+4, +1 heavy mace) or +6 ranged (1d8, light crossbow); SQ Darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity, contagious; SV Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +7; Str 16 Dex 14, Con 6, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 12.

Skills and Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fight, Brew Potion, Spellcraft +4, Concentration +6, Heal +7, Knowledge (religion) +4, Listen +8, Spot + 7

Possessions: +1 heavy mace, large steel shield, chain mail +1, light crossbow, 20 bolts, stone holy symbol of Gruumsh, potion of cure light wounds (5th level), potion of invisibility (3rd level), potion of bane (5th level), scroll of summon monster II, lesser restoration, dispel magic (all 5th level), 13 gp, blue sapphire worth 1300 gp.

Spells Prepared (6/4/3/3/2): 0—Read Magic, Resistance, Guidance; 1st—Cause Fear, Cure light wounds (heals 1d8+5 hp), Doom, Protection from Good; 2nd—Darkness, Hold Person x2; 3rd—Contagion x2 (pick Red Ache or Slimy Doom), Cure Moderate wounds (heals 3d8+8 HP), 4th—Unholy blight, Summon Monster 4 (Summon Fiendish Dire wolf)



You might want to add some treasure to Jakk and M'dok to reflect their increased level (I only added a Chainmail +1 to Jakk). Jakk could have some more potions and M'dok maybe a near depleted wand or some scrolls.

many, many thanks!

one more thing though:

I just noticed this is a 3.0 adventure. Anything I should change when running it in 3.5?

Herzog

I'd add an ogre zombie to the Charnel Pit. A 4th-level cleric has twice as many levels as a human zombie has HD, so any turned zombies are destroyed instead. Ogre zombies have 8HD, so they stay and fight (possibly focusing on the cleric). If your party has no cleric, then have only human zombies. You might also add a couple of bugbear (6HD) or gnoll (4HD) zombies.

Herzog said:

many, many thanks!

one more thing though:

I just noticed this is a 3.0 adventure. Anything I should change when running it in 3.5?

Herzog

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Nah, the changes aren't significant for this adventure.

But Klaus analysis about the Zombies is right. But I think an Ogre zombie might do to much damage considering that they will face Jakk soon after that battle. I consider the Gnoll Zombies a better idea. But much depends on the actual character and how experienced your players are.


You should be aware that the adventure writer made a lot of mistakes with the stat blocks and I haven't corrected all of them. The most common one is that the writer applied constitution penalties to HP very inconsistently. I have not corrected that mistake (or decision) except for Jakk (who I feel will be very dangerous even with a very low HP total for his level).