Rise of the Runelords: Difficulty Level (Spoilers included)

[Votan]

You may want to use some variant of action points - it can make all the difference in a game with not quite enough players.

The Auld Grump

That's a fine idea. A second chance at a key moment could make all of the difference!

 

[Votan]

I am a player in a RotRL games(we are past where these spoilers are). We have a party of 5 and some encounters are murderous and some too easy, which a good campaign should be. A party of three with no heavy hitter is going to have a horrendous time especially when they get to the second and third book. I don't know about giving out more magic items, but if you can't find a heavy hitter, I would lower the AC on the monsters a bit or make some bad strategy/tactics decisions(w/o letting your players catch on).

This is useful to know. I need to read ahead and think carefully. Also, stepping up Gainesville area player recruitment is a good idea. The fall is coming and there must be somebody who needs to start playing Pathfinder one the summer heat ends and people become active again!

 

[Shazman]

I like Burnt Offering a lot (it was, BTW, a player based decision -- they all voted and wanted that series because of it's strong reputation). We did add a cleric in as a "cohort" and that helped a lot.

Part of what went wrong is that the Sorcerer ran out of spells and the Monk was being defensive to allow the rogue to flank. But the rogue had a 12 AC and missed a fair bit . . .

I did appreciate the madcap goblin guidance in the module. Having them try and "burn the dwarf" with torches (a decidedly sub-optimal approach given that they could have use dog-slicers to much greater effect both mode the insane goblins more scary and prevented a TPK).

How well are the PC's built? What kind of stats do they have? A rogue should never have a 12 AC. At first level, it shouldn't be less than 15. If the party has poor ability scores or made deliberately suboptimal choices in placing their ability scores, then they are going to be much less effective. As others have said, you really do need a melee heavy hitter. A barbarian or fighter with a two-handed weapon and power attack should be able to last a while in combat and dish out some serious damage. That could make all the difference.

 

[Votan]

How well are the PC's built? What kind of stats do they have? A rogue should never have a 12 AC. At first level, it shouldn't be less than 15. If the party has poor ability scores or made deliberately suboptimal choices in placing their ability scores, then they are going to be much less effective. As others have said, you really do need a melee heavy hitter. A barbarian or fighter with a two-handed weapon and power attack should be able to last a while in combat and dish out some serious damage. That could make all the difference.

The characters were all built on an elite array.

I think the rogue needs armor and that will help a lot. But the builds were pretty solid so far as I could tell.

 

[Shazman]

What do you mean by elite array? Is it the 15 14 13 12 10 8 from 3.5? If so, you should consider giving them a higher point buy. Also, if they started with by the book gold, why in the world wouldn't the rogue at least have leather armor?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Another trick you can try, though not one that I have used, is a bit of a hand swap - add a few undead to an encounter. If the cleric is more willing to Channel Energy in order to Turn Undead then you can tuck in the healing on the rest of the party, via a houserule,* in manner that he might find more palatable.

The Auld Grump

*The norm is that you pick a critter type, so the Channeling will normally either heal Humanoids or Damage undead. The houserule just allows it to do both at the same time. Given the small group this may help things a bit.