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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 9453855" data-attributes="member: 54629">Hi all,I recently got the Quests from the Infinite Staircase book, and I've been reading through the adventures. I was not impressed by The Lost City. I've heard it's been reimagined rather than merely updated, but it's still got too much of that old school random dungeon placement for my taste. However, I've really been enjoying reading When a Star Falls, and I think it would fit in nicely with my ongoing episodic <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/my-first-eberron-campaign.697052/" target="_blank">Eberron campaign</a>. Unfortunately, the PCs are all at level 6 now, and this adventure was written for 4th level.Normally I wouldn't bat much of an eye at upscaling an adventure for higher level PCs. Most of them time you can just add another monster or give the max hit points or whatever. But in this case, I'm cognizant of the 5th-level power bump. This adventure would have been written with the assumption that the PCs can't cast fly or fireball or make two attacks per round and all that.Is adding more monsters or giving them more hit points going to be enough in this case? Are there some challenges that I would need to rethink?WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR WHEN A STAR FALLS BELOW. READ ON AT YOUR OWN PERIL!Let us examine the various encounters.Random encounters<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">3 griffons hunt the PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">2 displacer beasts hunt the PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1 ogre is training 5 boars that it lets loose to attack the PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5 bugbears attempt to ambush the PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">10 giant bats attack the PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5 wolves led by 2 dire wolves attack the PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1 troll attacks the PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">6 jackalweres attempt to ambush the PCs.</li> </ul>It's a bit sad that these are all combat encounters. I could replace some with other things - friendly creatures and sites of interest. For the ones I keep as combat encounters, though, I'd just add more of the creatures.Death on the MoorsThis is the opening encounter, where the PCs come across some dead sages who were killed be a lone memory web. As a CR 4 monster, this would be a Medium encounter for a party of four 4th level PCs. To make it an equivalent challenge for my party of five 6th level PCs, I would need two memory webs. Given this is the encounter that provides the adventure hook, it shouldn't be deadly, so this should be OK.Piyarz's ShadowThis is a semi-random encounter in that the DM gets to decide when it happens. It's supposed to happen while the PCs are resting at night somewhere in the wilderness. They are attacked by a CR 2 named NPC (Sion) who has 2 shadows backing him up. This is again a Medium encounter for a 4th level party. For my 6th level party, I would need like 2 Sions and 6 shadows or similar to give them the same challenge. I think I would need to beef up Sion and make him more of a threat on his own, and then maybe give him some beefier minions.Cernant ValleyThis is meant to be a roleplaying encounter, but there is the potential for things to go badly wrong and for it to turn into 1-2 combat encounters. The first encounter is with 2 giant eagles, who are assisted by 3 elk if combat breaks out. This is another Medium encounter for a 4th level party. I don't think my players would fight these creatures, so I don't think I will bother worrying about "beefing it up". If they somehow did, though, using 3 giant elk instead ought to do the trick.There is also a druid who lives in the valley. If combat were to break out, the PCs would have to fight her plus her saber-tooth tiger and 3 giant goats. This is a Deadly encounter for a 4th level party. I would need to beef up the druid and maybe give her more pets for my 6th level party. I might even make her legendary and have her homestead count as her lair.Derro Lair<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D2: 5 derro raiders and 1 derro apprentice</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D3: 1 zombie</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D4: 4 derro raiders and 4 zombies</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D6: 3 derro raiders, 2 derro apprentices, and 2 zombies</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D7: 5 zombies</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D9: 1 lamia</li> </ul>D6 is Hard, D9 is Medium, the others are all easy or trivial. I suppose just adding more monsters to these areas to keep the difficulty the same should suffice (or just giving some of the monsters max HP). The lamia could have some pets of some kind.Therno LakeThis isn't meant to be a combat encounter at all but rather a safe-haven for the PCs. I wouldn't change anything here.Tower of the HeavensThis probably needs the most work. There's only one real guaranteed combat encounter, but it could easily go south with the PCs having to fight just about everybody here.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T1: 3 gnome guards</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T3: 5 gnome guards</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T4: 1 tower sage and 2 tower hands</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T5: 1 mimic</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T6: 1 gnome knight and 3 gnome guards</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T7: 3 gnome guards</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T11: 6 gnome guards stationed at each of the 6 watch turrets (total = 36 guards)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T12: 2 tower sages and 4 tower hands</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T17: 1 tower sage (with a ring of fire resistance), 2 tower hands, and 1 imp</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T18: 1 spectator</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">T22: 2 gargoyles (optional)</li> </ul>T17 is the climax of this segment of the adventure, with the "BBEG". The two tower sages from T12 flee here if they can, so the fight can potentially be a bit harder. It's either a Medium encounter or a Deadly one if the other two sages arrive. I think I would have to create a custom statblock for the "BBEG" so he isn't just using the same generic statblock as his minions. And I might give them slightly different statblocks too, since one is a named dragonborn and the other is a named halfling.A lone spectator is an Easy encounter for 4th level PCs and a trivial one for 6th level PCs, but I'm not sure it would make sense to have two of them. I might just have to give it max HP.I could upgrade some of the gnome guards to veterans. And just increase the number of tower hands in each area. I could also replace the mimic with a giant mimic. Doesn't make a huge difference but it is posing as a door ...Forge of the Kagu-Sverfneblin<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Approach: The PCs get attacked by 3 swarms of gibberlings. This is a Deadly encounter for 4th level PCs. To keep it that way for 6th level PCs, I would need to increase it to 5 swarms. But is that enough when one PC can potentially fireball most of them?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">F2: 1 gibberling</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">F3: 1 maschin-i-bozorg (a CR 8 construct). It's Deadly for 4th level PCs but only Medium for 6th level ones. I could just up its HP or I could add 2 or more gibberlings.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">F5: 3 maschin-i-bozorgs, 7 svirfneblin, and 7 giant lizards. This is meant to be an overwhelmingly Deadly encounter for 4th level PCs. I think I'd need to add more svifrneblin or maybe another maschin-i-bozorg to keep it that way. However, my 6th level party are all gnomes (including one deep gnome), so the likelihood of a fight breaking out here is next to nil.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">F7: 2 hook horrors (only a combat encounter if the PCs go snooping around)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Leaving: 1 young red dragon - Deadly for 4th level PCs but only Hard for 6th level. I'd probably beef him up - max HP and some spells or something</li> </ul>And that's it!Anyone got any thoughts / suggestions on this?I'll post my thoughts about converting this to Eberron in the second post.</blockquote>

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