WotBS Suggestions for DMing WotBS Optimized Party

[kumagroo]

So I've been loving the adventure path, but have found my 4 (that's right, only 4!) players to be kicking the tail out of everything if I play it as written. To that end, I figured I'd put together a couple of suggestions, some of which I've used, others of which would have been good in hindsight. Since I'm on adventure 5, I'll look back in reverse order:

Shelter from the Storm
1) On the boat, don't make Giorgio need to stand by the controls to operate things. One tough player charged in there and so I used his Wafarer teleporting ability to disappear and then reappear one deck up and over. I then blocked the doorway with the well-armed swordsman so the other baddies could focus on the other three players. To top it off, the trapped player smashed the ship Nav. controls. I decided that would amp up the telportation ritual so my arcana skilled PC had to run in to deactivate it.

2) Up everyone's defenses by 1 in general (that's basic, but whatever)

3) Get the dragon into town for a fight (I used a D&D Mini map that had a market square). My players tried to steal the dragon egg in town (and succeeded!). The egg thief managed to escape and then the green dragon brought him into town, beat to hell and leased by a chain. He pointed out the inn where the PC's were staying and shouted out, "They're in there!" Since my PC's decided not to go after Damius and his toads in the swamp, they came to town and went after the PCs after the scene with the dragon pointed out their location! Give them a short rest between only if they need it...No rest if they don't. I kept the guards away earlier on by describing a food riot that had begun in the refugee camp.

4) In the Sunken Temple:
- the biomanced beasts in the beginning are solid (though thanks to a Breathing Water alchemist in the party there was no risk of drowning). The rats aren't worth the time and they don't even cost optimized PC's a healing surge.
- The corrridor of skeletons: remember Gate's Pass's exploding skellies that some claim were a TPK waiting to happen? A switch of those undead for some of the minions in tight quarters might drain a couple more surges from even a party of level 10s...
- The skum are good if the party has no water breathing. With it, I'd add some sort of nasty kelp growing in the lobby floor that can grab and restrain PC's while the biomanced skum go after others.
- Against Lee (after 5 below): Let Lee finish his ritual a round early and allow all three gargoyles to be free. Keep one near Lee and use the other two to block the stairs.

5) In the Pyromancer's tomb: Hit the PC's with the Alerted scenario or it will be a cake-walk. The level 5 Ragesians could only hit my party's fighter on a natural 20, and my party's rogue on a natural 19 (And they only have +1 armor each!). The psion couldn't miss with his will attacks since a 15 will is ludicrously easy to hit. Keep their hp as is and give them all a +2 to hit and at least that much to their non-AC defenses. Their warrior's surge just wastes times if they aren't a credible threat. Finally, a beautiful tactic is to have one of the grunts wear the Inquisitor's mask and claw and to dress Damius up as a grunt. The PC's blew a couple dailies and action points on the decoy on the bridge allowing Damius to run up and unload his dailies/AP on the avenger in the front. The teleporting power dumped the PC into the lava (and the lava damage brough him from full to 10 hp). Sound cruel? No one actually went unconscious. The PC's also didn't trust the healing machine, so they proceeded to fight Lee next without most powers or AP...still hosed him but it was a better fight without the extras.

Just my suggestions for a party that is kick butt and optimized.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

Just a question, are you playing the 3.5 or 4th Ed version?

 

[Blackbrrd]

It sounds like he is running the 4e version: "2) Up everyone's defenses by 1 in general (that's basic, but whatever)".

Personally I think the encounters, especially the ones in the first module are quite deadly. I pretty much alter every encounter I run though since I have up to 7 players.

Offtopic: I ran my third session yesterday and it was a blast. I was a bit nervous because there is a lot to keep track of, but it went very well. Kurycheck the imp was awesome. You should have seen the players faces when he made the girl disable the trap. The imp followed them and made a second bargain - otherwise he would have set Shealis upon them.

The amount of details, interesting NPC's, locations, etc, really makes for some really fun roleplaying. I think it was one of the best sessions I have run in a long time.

When I think about it, they actually only had a single combat encounter in a 7 hour long session, but as one of the players said: they had managed to do a lot in those 7 hours.

One of my new players noted that 4e is very easy to run as a player, and it's easy to create a new character with the character builder.

One thing about Gate Pass is that there are a number of set-pieces that are meant to be played in a certain way, but it's really not required at all. It's really easy to change things round so that it matches what the players have done. Mostly because there actually is quite a bit of logic in how it was created. And I really love all the amount of good role-playing running this module has created in my group.