H1: Keep on the Shadowfell

Falstaff · Jun 12, 2008

Hello,

If I am understanding everything correctly, H1's encounters (including XP and treasure rewards) were built assuming a party of 5 characters.

My group includes 6 players/characters. Do I need to modify anything? Do I need to add treasure or modify any encounters? Will the standard of 9 or 10 encounters per level stay the same?

Thanks.

drquestion · Jun 12, 2008

You would want to scale the encounters to account for the extra player.

I'm pretty sure the module has a short section on how to do this. Unfortunately, i haven't got it with me right now, so I can't point you to it.

Scaling in 4e is pretty easy, though. As a rule of thumb, for an extra player, add 1 extra regular monster or 4 extra minions, and the encounter difficulty should be pretty similar.

Over time, you'd probably want to add a little extra treasure, too, but for the purposes of one module, it probably won't make a huge difference.

If you didn't scale the encounters, the players would, indeed, take proportionally longer to level.

Hope this helps.

Family · Jun 12, 2008

6 players is good since:
-you are learning
-some fights are REALLY tough
-not all players can make it every week.

I'm finding it REALLY fun and I'm planning to do the whole series.

samursus · Jun 12, 2008

For my group of 6 players, I decided I am going to try running Kobold Hall (KH) first then H1(KOTS).

I calculated the levels and number of Magic Items in KH and KotS, and found them a bit short for 6 PC's running from levels 1-3 (for 6 pc's add one [level +2] Magic item to treasure parcels). I also asked the PC's for a wish list (also in DMG I believe) and altered some of the Magic Items in KOTS and KH to reflect their choices.

The only thing I am not sure of, is if the challenge of the encounters as is will be sufficient to actually challenge the party. I think because of the newness, this will be okay, but it will be easy to add monsters on the fly if its going too easy for them.

I calculated all the XP from the 2 adventures and figured out they should be level 4 by the end, which is where I want them to be for H2. If they are not, the extra Dungeon encounters will be there for me to use.

If you want to avoid some paper work here are the magic items by level:

6pcs X 3rd level=

7
6x2
5x4
4x4
3x3
2

and here are the Magic Items in the 2 adventures (all are +1 unless noted otherwise)

[sblock=Magic Item list followed by level]

Life Drinker 5 (KH)
Bloodcut Hide 4
Amulet Health 3
Staff Warmage 3 (KH)
Dwarven Chainmail 2
Symbol Battle 5
Bag of Holding 5
+2 Dagger 6
Blackiron Scale 4
Aecris Longsword 5
Shield of Protection 3
Magic Wand 1
Vicious Shortsword 2
Safewing Amulet 3

[/sblock]

Falstaff · Jun 12, 2008

Thanks for the replies. I was hoping to avoid any encounter math and time spend building them. But anyway, I'll read my DMG more closely and see about modifying the module to accommodate six players.

Family · Jun 12, 2008

You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman.

Falstaff · Jun 12, 2008

samursus said:
For my group of 6 players, I decided I am going to try running Kobold Hall (KH) first then H1(KOTS).

I too am thinking of starting with Kobold Hall. However, I'm a little confused and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong when calculating XP.

For example, Area 2. The Tomb, is a Level 1 encounter worth 550 XP. However, 3 kobold skirmishers and 2 dart traps equal 500 XP, not 550 XP. The encounter says it is worth 550 and I count 500.

What am I missing?

Spatula · Jun 12, 2008

Falstaff said:
Thanks for the replies. I was hoping to avoid any encounter math and time spend building them. But anyway, I'll read my DMG more closely and see about modifying the module to accommodate six players.

Shouldn't be any math neccessary. Just add one creature of the group's level to each encounter. You may wish to leave "boss" encounters alone, however.

Regarding treasure, pg 125 of the DMG tells you how to modify standard treasure hand-outs by party size. Assuming that KotS gives the proper amount of treasure for going from level 1-4 (no idea if it does, but hopefully that's true), you'd want to add in a magic item of levels 3, 4, and 5 for a party of six.

Wolfwood2 · Jun 12, 2008

I confess, even though I only had five PCs I still upped the number of minions in that first encounter to 10. I figured that since they were headed into town they were probably going to take an extended rest anyway, so why not let them have some fun fighting off a lot of kobolds?

Remember, you can always drop in more minions.

hero4hire · Jun 12, 2008

I am running it with 6 pcs and I added +20% worth of monsters to each encounter. Sometimes minions sometimes an extra skirmisher...No biggie!

Worked out just fine...