"Level Lag" in the Age of Worms

[Menexenus]

Hi all. I'm running the Age of Worms adventure path, and I'm having a somewhat serious problem that I have come to call "level lag". The problem is that my PCs' levels are not keeping pace with the expected levels of the modules. Right now, we're just finishing up some of the loose ends of the Champion's Belt and the Hall of Harsh Reflections. According to the module, the players are supposed to be 10th level now, but only half of my party just barely reached 9th level at the end of last session.

This "level lag" has at least two causes in my campaign. The first is relatively obvious: character death. So far I've had 4 character deaths. One time, it caused the player to retire the character. In the other 3 instances, the players have chosen to have their characters revived by spells. But in all these cases it has caused a drop in the affected character's level.

The second cause is what I would call "party fatigue". By this I mean the party is so drained by preliminary encounters in the module that they are unable to continue and face/defeat the main bad guy at the end of the module. For instance, in the Hall of Harsh Reflections, by the time the party got through the Sodden Hold, the doppelganger barracks, and the labyrinth of mirrors, they were all at single digit hit points. They were unable to continue on to face Telakin, the BBEG of the module. And since he was literally the only one left in the dungeon, I decided to play him intelligently and have him run away while the party healed up. (I know that some people will want to slam me for playing my bad guys with any hint of intelligence, but too bad.) So that meant that the party missed out on the BBEG's XP and his gear. Of course, I am trying to find ways for the party to encounter Telakin again in the near future. But for the time being, the party is at a reduced level of XP and swag than the adventure path expects.

So, how would you other DMs deal with this "level lag" problem? One solution would just be to scale back the subsequent adventures in the adventure path according to the "Scaling the Adventure" sidebars. But if I took this route, I'd have to scale back all the remaining adventures for the entire adventure path. That is unappealing to me.

My solution has been to insert an unrelated module into the adventure path to help supplement the PCs' XP and bulk up their levels in preparation for "A Gathering of Winds". Does anyone have any suggestions for a good supplementary module - one that would dovetail nicely with the adventure path? I'm thinking of going with the "Hall of the Rainbow Mage". My plan was to link the Rainbow Mage to Loris Raknian's acquisition of the Apostolic Scrolls. Other modules that I own that I was also thinking about using are "What Evil Lurks" and "Aerie of the Storm Crow God". Any other suggestions?

 

[Deekin]

Are you running a core only game? What materials are you allowing?

AoW was a bucherfest ending in a TPK for a group of relitivly good optimizers. I think I lost a player a session.

Some Advice to avoid fatuige. Give out more magic items, esp. the one shot cure items, like potions and such.

Also, what does your group consist of PC wise? They may be missing a core role.

Also, try handing out 25% extra XP.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Throw is some additional side adventures of your own design (or from other sources) as a brek from the level of difficulty and as an opportunity to gain more XP. You can do it more often that once, you know.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

My PCs lagged a bit, but still did OK.

One thing I did was to reintroduce treasure when it was missed. For example, my PCs broke the mirror in Hall of Harsh Reflections, so I upped the prize in the Champion's Belt. When they failed to win the last fight in Champion's Belt, I put a big gold statue in one of the entrance chambers of the next module.

The XP thing is a bit self-correcting; if your PCs are lower level than suggested, they can spend money on magic items to up their power, and they will get more XP due to their lower level when they complete the adventure. After awhile, they catch up. I found it less disruptive to the adventure flow to introduce more wealth rather than add extra adventures (also, I just didn't have the time to write my own).

Ken

 

[shilsen]

Drop CR-based XP and just award the PCs a lump sum each session to have them advance at the speed you feel is appropriate.

 

[RangerWickett]

Make it harder to die.

0 to -9, you're disabled.

-10 to the negative of your normal hp total, you're dying.

Once you are more negative than your normal positive, you die.

Save or die spells don't kill you. They drop you to -10.

This way, a PC can die if he really screws up, but normally a PC won't die unless the whole party is knocked out.

 

[Someone]

Do your players enjoy the game? What you do should depend on if they believe the campaing is just as difficult at it should be, or too difficult to keep their characters they love so much alive.

 

[hong]

Make it harder to die.

0 to -9, you're disabled.

-10 to the negative of your normal hp total, you're dying.

That's a long way to drop.


Hong "if you wanna rock 'n roll" Ooi

 

[MerricB]

Here's one solution (taken from Andy Collins, and others):

* The level loss from losing a level is replaced by the gain of a negative level, which can't be removed by magic (restoration, etc.) When the PC next gains a level, the negative level is removed.

Thus, there is a penalty for dying, but not a permanent one.

The other question I have is this: How many PCs? I've run the AoW with 6 PCs, and they've consistently been a level or two below the suggested levels, but it's worked well.

Cheers!

 

[Hussar]

I would also point out that if the BBEG ran away, the PC's have effectively "defeated" him. Give his xp value out as bonus xp for completing the adventure. While they might be a bit behind cashwise, they are still on target for xp.

OTOH, yeah, bombing in a slaughterfest for the players to have a bit of fun in isn't a bad idea either. They've been in a nasty, nasty grinder. Give them a cookie and let them go aggro all over some poor schlob for a couple of sessions.