"Level Lag" in the Age of Worms

[Qualidar]

Shackled City on the other hand, I had to run several side quests during that to get the characters to right XP.

Really?!? My group of 6 has been above the recommended levels up to the mid-point, where they have just pulled even. I skipped Drakthar's way for my other group of 4 (+ NPC)because they were already high enough for Flood Season.

~Qualidar~

 

[wayne62682]

I recall reading that AoW was actually designed for 6 PCs, not 4.

Actually, AoW (and Savage Tide) are designed for 4 PCs. Shackled City was the one designed for 6. Although I think the general opinion is that it's brutal with just 4 PCs.

 

[Morrus]

How did you/they manage that?

It's my tendency to add asides.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I'm running AoW for a group of six players. I up the power level of encounters at times - and just as often move entire groups of creatures in the same level and move them all together in one room so that the CR is increased.

By end of Champion's Belt - the PCs were ninth and tenth - with one player who had died (twice) being 8th and a half.

On player death - I've penalized not a full level - but to the mid point of the previous level. That's helped a fair bit.

Overall though, this has not really had any measurable effect on the ability of the party to deal with the challenges. I don't think it will have an effect, until the party starts meeting things with abilities like "invocation of the worm", where the lack of Anti-Magic shell casting capability can have a real in-game effect.

 

[Vocenoctum]

The second cause is what I would call "party fatigue". <snip> 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.

My players also hated when the bad guy got away, though they killed quite a few during running. When I ran Three Faces, the Vecnan's all cleaned out and ditched. I wouldn't award XP for enemies they never encountered, but for a bad guy such as that, I'd say have him attack later, once he rallies a few comrades (coincidentally being right after the party is healed up...).

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.

Easiest way is to scale up the PCs, of course. Grateful NPC's can reward them appropriate treasure, random encounters can beef up stats. Kill Houses are fun (a mid sized house full of targets, you really only need the barest of plots...) and running a gauntlet of bad guys to reach Point B is also possible. (This assuming you don't want to simply give them more XP for the same challenge.)



Another thing I've seen, but how do you handle IDing of magic items? specifically potions really. Does the party have 8 potions of CMW that no one has IDed yet? Is the Staff of Uber Wound Closing sitting in Communal Loot Portable Hole, forgotten until they get out?

I found that the parts of the AoW I ran (stopped at Blackwall) often had useful magic items nearby (such as Potions of Water Breathing) without accounting for the fact the PC's wouldn't KNOW what that item was until long after it was useful.

 

[Mercule]

Age of Worms is brutal enough that I'm implementing reserve points for my five players.

Granted my group is not real great at min-maxing or bullet-proof tactics, so that may be a bit of the problem. By midway through 3FoE, we've lost one character, almost lost every character at least once (a bunch of heals at -9), and very nearly had TPKs on at least two occasions.

 

[Quartz]

Actually, AoW (and Savage Tide) are designed for 4 PCs. Shackled City was the one designed for 6.

I sit corrected. Thank you.

 

[DragonLancer]

Really?!? My group of 6 has been above the recommended levels up to the mid-point, where they have just pulled even. I skipped Drakthar's way for my other group of 4 (+ NPC)because they were already high enough for Flood Season.

Yeah. About half way through I had to start adding side quests to compensate.

 

[MerricB]

My group of 6 PCs has just hit 20th level (well, most of them have), and they are in the final part of the Age of Worms.

There have been deaths and resurrections throughout the campaign - there's only three PCs permanently dead, and two of those were in the first two adventures.

At present...
Ftr20, Ftr4/Pal16, Wiz20, Rog20, Clr20, Drd 20. (or thereabouts)

The PCs use options from Weapons of Legacy, the Complete Series and PHB2.

Cheers!

 

[Menexenus]

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

To finally answer your question (which I intended to do before, but got sidetracked):

Yes, I am running a core-only game with just a few tweaks, like my expanded death rule mentioned in a previous post. Also, a player with a druid character asked if he could get access to Wild feats from one of the "Complete" books, and I allowed it. But for the most part, we are just playing with Core rules.