Death in Freeport EL Adjustments

[Xarlen]

Has anyone ran Freeport? I am running Death in Freeport and I'm looking to alter the CRs some for a 1st level group.

How do I do this? The final encounter is EL5. The encounter with the mercs is EL4. And the encounter with the Mercs is so close to the PCs going into the cultists hideout that they probably woudln't have time to rest and regain spells. The press gang also looks nasty in that there are eight of them; even if you treat each punk as a 1st level warrior, it's an EL 5.

Any thoughts from those who have run/played Death in Freeport? How should the second part of the adventure be tailored for a 1st level group? Am I just under-estimating the power of 1st level pcs?

 

[Duncan Haldane]

With the press gang at the start, just remember that they aren't willing to fight for their lives - have them back off, flee, surrender, etc when they've lost some collegues.

With the rest - the players can withdraw before they finish, to rest and recover. If they do and you award XP at this point they might even level.

Also it's reasonable to use the cleric from the Libriary to help the party with healing. He might even tag along.

You can have the city guard come to investigate noises, etc, too.

 

[Xarlen]

Also, if you run a 1st level party through this adventure, they should hit at least third level by the end - the Gang is an EL 5, the mercs an EL 4, the final confrontation an EL5, and several El 3/4 confrontations in the latter part of the adventure, let's see:

EL 5 at 1st level = 1,800 xp.
EL 4 = 1,300 xp.
EL 3 = 900 xp.

So with 2 EL 5s, that's 3,600, then 4,900 from the El4, then (generously) 6,700 for the 2 El 3s.

Should PCs shoot up two levels doing this adventure?

 

[Xarlen]

With the press gang at the start, just remember that they aren't willing to fight for their lives - have them back off, flee, surrender, etc when they've lost some collegues.

With the rest - the players can withdraw before they finish, to rest and recover. If they do and you award XP at this point they might even level.

Also it's reasonable to use the cleric from the Libriary to help the party with healing. He might even tag along.

You can have the city guard come to investigate noises, etc, too.

Those are some good points, I hadn't considered. Though after my XP calculations, the party should level up after the merc situation. I just wonder if there's Room in the adventure to let them rest and recover between that and entering the combat heavy part of the adventure.

 

[Buttercup]

Has anyone ran Freeport? I am running Death in Freeport and I'm looking to alter the CRs some for a 1st level group.

How do I do this? The final encounter is EL5. The encounter with the mercs is EL4. And the encounter with the Mercs is so close to the PCs going into the cultists hideout that they probably woudln't have time to rest and regain spells. The press gang also looks nasty in that there are eight of them; even if you treat each punk as a 1st level warrior, it's an EL 5.

Any thoughts from those who have run/played Death in Freeport? How should the second part of the adventure be tailored for a 1st level group? Am I just under-estimating the power of 1st level pcs?

My current campaign started out in Freeport, and I didn't see any of the problems you're worrying about. It was a 4 person, standard party, and they were mopping the floor with everything/everyone routinely. Of course, if you find an encounter is too tough, you can always have the city guards intervene, or fudge the bad guys hit points, or any number of things.

I'll take the party back there at some point, after I can reasonably hand-wave away the mess they got themselves into by leaving a guard alive instead of killing him.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Quick rule of thumb for you in scaling encounters--

Generally speaking, half the opponents means EL -2.

Double the opponents means EL +2.

 

[Xarlen]

Also, if you run a 1st level party through this adventure, they should hit at least third level by the end - the Gang is an EL 5, the mercs an EL 4, the final confrontation an EL5, and several El 3/4 confrontations in the latter part of the adventure, let's see:

EL 5 at 1st level = 1,800 xp.
EL 4 = 1,300 xp.
EL 3 = 900 xp.

So with 2 EL 5s, that's 3,600, then 4,900 from the El4, then (generously) 6,700 for the 2 El 3s.

Should PCs shoot up two levels doing this adventure?

It occurs to me that when you handle the XP of an encounter, you divide by the number of the people in the group. I... forgot this. So if 6,700 is the xp for the combats, then each PC gets 1,675. Which isn't too bad.

 

[Xarlen]

Woops, double post - thought I was editing it.

 

[talien]

Has anyone ran Freeport? I am running Death in Freeport and I'm looking to alter the CRs some for a 1st level group.

I have, although my group ranged from 3rd to 4th level. I boosted all the NPCs by a few levels to compensate, but it was still a challenge, especially the end.

How do I do this? The final encounter is EL5. The encounter with the mercs is EL4. And the encounter with the Mercs is so close to the PCs going into the cultists hideout that they probably woudln't have time to rest and regain spells.

This is a good point. The Yellow Shields gang was tough on my group...in fact, the fighter went down. But they prevailed. It will all show up in my Story Hour: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=103252&page=3

(my Story Hour is now three adventures behind, so it will take awhile)

The press gang also looks nasty in that there are eight of them; even if you treat each punk as a 1st level warrior, it's an EL 5.

The 3rd level ranger, a new character joining the group, was assaulted by all eight of the buggers at once. He fought them off quite well by dropping two in the first round, wounding two more, and then using a successful Intimidate check to convince them to change their minds (they took off after that).

I don't have much more to add to the suggestions above. All of them are good, especially the cleric as backup healer.