Adapting Burnt Offerings for 4th level start

[Talos Valcoran]

Hi,
I'm just about to start running Rise of the Runelords for my 5 man group.
We're all fairly new to pathfinder and they're currently at level 4.
I had been using home brew adventures up until this point but university is getting to hectic to devote enough time to write my own stuff.


I want to start burnt offerings but I dont want to bump the characters back down to 1st level, but the problem is Ive never had to modify already existing material.
I'm not sure if its simply going to be a matter of increasing the number of HD the monsters have and bumping up their AC (like I said I'm still fairly new). I read the party should be level 4 towards the end of the adventure anyway so I assume that isn't going to be a problem.


If anyone has any tips or ideas on how I could modify burnt offering to suit a level 4 party, or even any tips on running Rise of the Runelords/ first adventure path I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks.

 

[Thotas]

You might consider not changing it at all. Sure, they'll steam roll the first chapter, but sometimes some players like to have an easy one occasionally. So that would depend on your group. Or just double the numbers of the grunts. If it says 4 goblins in a spot, make it 8. Fourth level characters will still take that out fairly quickly, sure. Keep in mind that upping the challenge will also up the party's experience, which means they'll keep rising in level quicker, and it'll take longer for the adventure's challenges to "catch up" to them. Another thing to note: unlike the APs as published serially, RoR recommends the fast advancement rate. If you're using the medium advancement and continue to do so, the adventure may well catch up pretty fast!

 

[Crothian]

For the encounters with goblins I'd just up the numbers. Hoards of goblins to fight through is always fun and it will really make those opening scenes seem a lot more dangerous and hectic.

 

[Talos Valcoran]

I think adding more goblins per encounter is probably the best idea. I'm also strongly considering 'freezing' exp until the start of the skinsaw murders. That way I dont have to deal with the whole campaign being having some weird exp skew. I'm running the anniversary edition of that makes any difference (im not sure of the differences if there is any).

Thanks for the input guys. Any more input from anyone would still be greatly appreciated since, well you can never get too much help starting out.

 

[Crothian]

If I were to run it, and I might be soon we haven't decided what we are doing when Council of Thieves ends, I will be doing a lot more with the different NPCs and the town. I might have the first session be allowing the PCs to explore the town and make sure they get screen time with all the important NPCs and places. I think the AP as a whole will be much more engaged by the players if I can really establish them as part of the town and let them really get to know it.

 

[Talos Valcoran]

Yeah I know what you mean, one of the problems I had with my own campaign setting was I didnt have the time to write interesting enough NPCs so the players didn't care about the setting a whole lot which reflected in them not really caring about their actions. I was originally dead set on running curse of the crimson throne but I changed my mind at the very last minute.

 

[Thotas]

Good point, Crothian. I noted myself as I was looking it over that the adventure tells you to have the PCs talk to the townfolk to get them invested in the location, but at least 9 out of 10 gamers are just going to be asking where the goblins are after the first raid.

 

[Jester David]

As most Paizo adventure paths are designed for the "medium" advancement track, there are always some filler adventures. Monsters that are just there, fights in rooms that aren't that interesting, etc.

Skip 'em.
Play it as a "Best of" series of Encounters, and move some of the monsters into other encounters to beef them up. It will play faster and you'll quickly move through that adventure to a more level appropriate chapter.

Or you can switch to the "slow advancement chart" until they get to the second or third chapter and then switch back to medium, moving them to the same rough percentage of progress. If they were 3/4 of the way through level 5 then they're still 3/4 only their xp total dips a little.

 

[Lwaxy]

Up the goblins and add a few (logical) monsters under the glassworks, and you should be mostly fine. When I played RotRL,we started equivalent to level 3 and still had some difficulties.

 

[Starbuck_II]

Hi,
I'm just about to start running Rise of the Runelords for my 5 man group.
We're all fairly new to pathfinder and they're currently at level 4.
I had been using home brew adventures up until this point but university is getting to hectic to devote enough time to write my own stuff.


I want to start burnt offerings but I dont want to bump the characters back down to 1st level, but the problem is Ive never had to modify already existing material.
I'm not sure if its simply going to be a matter of increasing the number of HD the monsters have and bumping up their AC (like I said I'm still fairly new). I read the party should be level 4 towards the end of the adventure anyway so I assume that isn't going to be a problem.


If anyone has any tips or ideas on how I could modify burnt offering to suit a level 4 party, or even any tips on running Rise of the Runelords/ first adventure path I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks.

You can spend NPC wealth on potions?
Give them all potions of Shield of Faith. They drink on first turn each.
That raises AC by 2 each. Add potions of cat's grace maybe for another +2.