Red Hand Of Doom, questions

[Mighty Veil]

Looks like I am one session away from finishing Sons of Grummish. The PCs should be 5th and 6th level. I might run a DCC adventure next. After everyone should be 6th level.

RHoD is 5th to 10th lvl. My PCs should be 6th (maybe a couple 7th). I have between 4-7 PCs per session.

Any DM'ing tips? Any changes I should do with 5+ PCs (higher HPs enough?)

There are 5 parts in RHoD. When in the adventure do the PCs seem to gain 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level (I'm guessing 10th after the adventure)? And what tips does anyone have, who hasdone this adventure, running it with higher level characters. Should I just run it as is, maybe give the baddies higher HPs.

 

[Thomas Percy]

Levels 6-7th are good to begin this adventure. IMHO - even better than 5th!

 

[Ry]

Yeah, RHoD ain't easy.

 

[mikebr99]

Looks like I am one session away from finishing Sons of Grummish. The PCs should be 5th and 6th level. I might run a DCC adventure next. After everyone should be 6th level.

RHoD is 5th to 10th lvl. My PCs should be 6th (maybe a couple 7th). I have between 4-7 PCs per session.

Any DM'ing tips? Any changes I should do with 5+ PCs (higher HPs enough?)

There are 5 parts in RHoD. When in the adventure do the PCs seem to gain 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level (I'm guessing 10th after the adventure)? And what tips does anyone have, who hasdone this adventure, running it with higher level characters. Should I just run it as is, maybe give the baddies higher HPs.

--Spoiler--










Well, your party has +/-50% more members then the norm... and will be starting at 1-2 levels higher...

You could start off as-is, and then ramp up the baddies if the party is having too easy a time with the first couple of encounters. After the opening ambush and their foray against the Sorcerer Koth (& his toadies) in the Keep... you should know how the party is stacked against the norm.

or

Go through all the baddies... give them at least the Elite ability array (unless they have better already), and boost them all, by a min of 1 class level. tweak away!


... can you guess which option I chose??


Mike

 

[Sidekick]

This should be obvious but.. SPOILERS!!

Hmm I'm about to start it too with a Gestalt group.

My recommendation would be to leave the first two (or three) encounters as is.

If they totally cake walk CVraath Keep and the hydra then I'd suggest that you up Ozzy to a juvenile (same with Reggy in chapter 2.)

Other than that maybe a couple of extra mooks. The encounters in RHoD, especially the set piece finale's are rather tough.

You should by the time you get to the battle of Brindol be at the same level as a group of 4 that started at 5th (due to less XP, being shared out between more characters).

 

[jollyninja]

you are going to want to up the difficulty of the dragons with a group that big and of that level. most encounters will be fine with an extra mook or two for each pc beyond 4. every major encounter will need a bit of upgrading to take your group's size and strength into account. I had a group of seven that were level 4 at the start and they completed it with little difficulty overall, couple character deaths along the way but for the most part, not a huge problem.

 

[BadMojo]

I had a group of seven that were level 4 at the start and they completed it with little difficulty overall, couple character deaths along the way but for the most part, not a huge problem.

Would you say that a group of 5 players at 4th level would get slaughtered in RHoD?

Right now I'm running a DCC, which if I'm lucky will get the PCs to 4th level.

Not to jack the OP's thread (although I think the question was answered), but can anyone think of a nice adventure leading up to Red Hand for 4th level characters? I've set RHoD in the Shaar in Forgotten Realms, for what it's worth.

 

[Gold Roger]

I'd say additional players would be mostly self correcting, since they get less xp.

 

[Phaedrus]

I ran Mike Mearls' Looking Glass Deep to get players from 4th to 5th. It's a freebie on Monte's site (at least I think that's where I got it). I tied into the story line--the bad guys are splintered off from the Wyrmlord--don't want to take orders from him, want to go their own way.

 

[devilbat]

Would you say that a group of 5 players at 4th level would get slaughtered in RHoD?

Yes, I'd say they'd get slaughtered. I'll be running a group of five players through, and I'm leaning towards waiting until they're close to sixth level before sending them in.

can anyone think of a nice adventure leading up to Red Hand for 4th level characters? I've set RHoD in the Shaar in Forgotten Realms, for what it's worth.

I'm using Sons of Gruumsh, which is a 4th level adventure.