Best way to change the level of an adventure?

[Lamoni]

Hello, I'll be running the 2nd-level Eberron adventure, but for a group of 4th level characters. The group only has 3 instead of 4 adventurers. How should I take that into account? Should I treat them as one level lower than they are when deciding encounters?

Also, when I modify the adventure, what is the best way to do it? Add more monsters? Raise every opponent up one or two levels? Should I adjust any skill difficulties? Anything else?

I was thinking of just adding +1 BAB, +1 damage, and +5 HP to all their enemies and arbitrarily raise the CR by 1. Would this be too little? Too much? I'd just prefer to do something that requires the least amount of work. The more I have to do, the more things I might forget and the more things I can possibly mess up.

Thanks for any help. I also wasn't sure if this belonged in Rules or General. It seemed to fit here, but involves more number crunching that is more typical of the rules forum.

 

[TheNovaLord]

To be honests i wouldnt change anything in this situation. The party may do more in between rests, or get the adventure done a bit quicker, which is often a bonus.

the amount of xp they earn will not be a great difference

The trick i find is turning an excellent adventure u wanna run but the diff is levels is 45 or more. Cant jsut give all goblins 4 levels in warrior or make the hill giant a very weka and drunk and injured one all the time to make things fit

JohnD

 

[Janx]

because D&D assumes a 4 member party, I calculate party level by adding all the character levels, then divide by 4. This gives a better approximation of level when you've got a party of varying quantity or level

Thus, your party of 3, 3rd levels has a party level of 2.25 (3*3/4)

That's close enough to 2nd level to leave the adventure alone.


On an individual basis, things will be a little easier (one on one fights). But without the 4th PC to soak up damage, they'll be taking more themselves.

 

[blargney the second]

For your case, I'd say just run it as is and throw in the occasional extra monster. You can also increase some encounter levels by making the environment more of a disadvantage to the PCs than it is to the monsters. A wall-crawling spider or flying creature is unaffected by a very slippery floor, but the PCs will need to make Balance checks every round and they'll also be denied Dex to AC. If a monster has fire resist 5, it will be completely unaffected by an environment that deals 1d4 fire damage every round.

 

[arscott]

the dungeon is built for a party of four 2nd level characters (EL 6). You're running it with a party of three 4th level characters (EL 7). That's not enough of a difference that you couldn't just run the party through the adventure straight. It probably won't be quite as challenging, though. Of course, your three level party might be missing an important character. You likely don't really need a rogue, and wizards are only indespensible after 5th level or so. But if you're missing a tank or a healer, you might have better luck running it as-is.

Your party is of a higher level than what the adventure suggests, but has fewer characters. That means that you're probably better off beefing up each opponent rather than adding more combatants to the mix. While your 'positive level' idea isn't that bad, +1 attack and damage and +5 hp doesn't really come out to a full +1 CR.

Advancing monsters by HD isn't really that much harder to do than adding the positive level, and the advancement rules provide a general guideline of how much you need to add to raise a CR. Plus, by raising HD, you prevent the monsters from being turned/dazed/put to sleep too easliy, and keep the Save DCs for their abilities challenging. To save time, you can just swap out monsters rather than advancing them. If the adventure has a CR 5 devil, just sub in a CR 6 devil from one of your monster books, rather than doing all the math to advance the CR 5 one.

For fighter and rogue types, (and monsters that are best improved by the addition of levels in such classes), you can either choose to add one level of an associated PC class, or two levels of warrior for that +1 CR bump. Go with whatever's easier and whatever makes a more interesting opponent.

For wizards, clerics and the like, it gets tricky. A wizard isnt' really going to be improved by anything but more levels in wizard (or a wizard PrC). Ditto with the other caster classes.

I know that this seems a lot of work, and it kinda is. But in practice, mucking about with the monster's stats as you read through the adventure isn't that much more difficult or time consuming than just familiarizing yourself with the monster's stats on a readthrough, and you should be doing that anyway. Heck, I tend to improve my DMing just by spending the time to convert an adventure's monsters from the old statblock format to the new one.

 

[smootrk]

Because the damage taking by the party needs to be distributed differently, the only thing I would change is the addition of a few more healing options for the characters. Maybe a Wand of Lesser Vigor (Spell Compendium) with a few charges can be found early in the adventure to help healing between encounters. Otherwise, a couple of potions of cure moderate will do wonders.

 

[Lamoni]

Thanks for all your replies. I think I'll just run it as is, but maybe swap out a monster for a more difficult one if it seems like it will be way too easy. The party will be lacking both a tank and a healer. It will have a wizard, sorcerer, and a barbarian/warmage. The warmage can act sort of like a tank, but the d8 will be hard. They should have enough challenges finding and paying for healing without me adding in more dangers.

I just love the ENWorld community and wish I had known about this place during my first campaign. So many answers to any question you have is right at your fingertips.

 

[Wraith Form]

I have an associated, but tangential, question--since the OP seems to be happy with the responses, I feel safe in derailing the thread just slightly.

I've got a party at first level, the "iconic" arrangement - fighter, thief, cleric & sorc.

The fighter is a tank, plowing through my opponents fairly easily: I've doubled (and sometimes even tripled) the HP of the critters that he alone fights, and he still mows through them like a hot knife through butter.

The other characters, however, seem nicely balanced against my level 1 opponents (goblins, rats, kobolds, etc).

I'd like to throw some tougher opponents against the fighter without risking the other party members.

Any suggestions? (One that I can think of is to have the smaller critters bum-rush the fighter, or have the "champion" of the group of monsters take on the fighter mano-a-mano.) Any other ideas that won't kill the weaklings of the group but won't be too easy for the fighter?

 

[Stalker0]

Why is the fighter so much more deadly than the rest of the group? Does he have amazing stats, a powerful magic item? With just first level abilities its hard to see him so much stronger than the rest of the group.

 

[Wraith Form]

Why is the fighter so much more deadly than the rest of the group? Does he have amazing stats, a powerful magic item? With just first level abilities its hard to see him so much stronger than the rest of the group.

Between high stats and carefully-chosen feats (and weapons) he has MINIMUM 7pts of DMG every attack with a melee weapon. He's weilding a great sword or a flail. A couple of 18's in STR and CON and some lucky die rolls allows him to cut a swath of death thru opponents that have < 7 HPs, then Cleave the next one in line, while keeping some decent armor and hit points.

I'll be bulking up on the HPs of the next few beasties he fights, trust me.