Rise of the Runelords: Difficulty Level (Spoilers included)

[Kaiyanwang]

I realize that this would mean more work for the DM, but, if possile, couldn't they meet a friendly cleric NPC?

This could bring in some heal and buff and make them able to defeat the challenges. They are only 3 PC, I think is fair. maybe Strenght and Heailing domain, see if is possible.

Moreover, suggest to the sorcerer player if he can take spells to control the battlefield and not expose the rogue and monk to too much fire, letting them dispatch their target(s).

Of course, this should be a suggestion: force the player to built HIS character in a certain way = BAD.

 

[ruemere]

If I remember correctly, the initial APs by Paizo assumed 5 party members.
Secondly, a cleric is essential for less stealthy parties.
Thirdly, you may want to read about Rise of Runelords at Paizo forum.
Finally, there are conversions of Paizo modules available at d20pfsrd.com, fan conversions, Paizo Adventure paths.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[Sylrae]

If built correctly, the Monk is the big damage dealing class in PFRPG, but he can't take alot of hits.

Average damage on the dice at 20 reaches 77 points, whereas the fighter with a greatsword reaches like 30. The fighter starts with more AC and more damage, the monk bypasses in damage somewhere around level 5.

I ran the first 2 second darkness modules. The players had an easy go of it though due to me giving out better magic items than they should have had per level.

 

[neofax]

I am a player in a RotRL games(we are past where these spoilers are). We have a party of 5 and some encounters are murderous and some too easy, which a good campaign should be. A party of three with no heavy hitter is going to have a horrendous time especially when they get to the second and third book. I don't know about giving out more magic items, but if you can't find a heavy hitter, I would lower the AC on the monsters a bit or make some bad strategy/tactics decisions(w/o letting your players catch on).

 

[James Jacobs]

All of our APs assume 4 party members, but they should work relatively well with 5. Once you dip below four PCs, though, things can start getting grisly. And while Pathfinder RPG characters are a bit more powerful than 3.5... I don't think that they're THAT much more powerful.

If you're running an AP with 3 PCs, adding a GM-controlled NPC helper, or giving a player a free cohort, is a good way to shore things up. Alternatively, reducing the number of monsters the PCs encounter in a fight can help.

In specific regard to the first few goblin encounters in "Burnt Offerings," that's something of an unusually designed encounter. I wanted to start the campaign with a small army of goblins attacking a town, and then have the PCs step in to save the town. But if you throw a big number of foes at 1st level players, things can go bad fast. Which is why the goblins are specifically called out for being crazy; they don't always fight to the best of their ability, and indeed every round some of the goblins should "waste" their actions doing things like getting caught in rain barrels, stealing food, laughing at another goblin's misfortune, or attempting really poor tactical choices like attempting to bull rush a heavilly armored fighter at the back of the party when the goblin doesn't have Improved Bull Rush. Running goblins like that not only helps to establish their madcap madness, but it makes a fight against a LOT of foes at low level something that's more fun and less fatal.

 

[Gorbacz]

If built correctly, the Monk is the big damage dealing class in PFRPG, but he can't take alot of hits.

Average damage on the dice at 20 reaches 77 points, whereas the fighter with a greatsword reaches like 30. The fighter starts with more AC and more damage, the monk bypasses in damage somewhere around level 5.

I ran the first 2 second darkness modules. The players had an easy go of it though due to me giving out better magic items than they should have had per level.

Wha ? Wha ? Have you ever seen a properly built Fighter ? Monks have nothing on Fighters in term of raw damage output.

 

[czak]

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboard...TheMechanicHereIronsidesIMostlyJustHurtPeople

Monks aren't that bad if built for offence.

 

[Gorbacz]

Yup, they aren't bad, but they're not before Fighters really. Damage on dice means little as most of the DPR comes from stats, feats, class abilities and weapon itself.

 

[Kaiyanwang]

I doubt they can match the fighter - but this is not the point, the two classes are just different (an an example, compare their saving throw, or monk's superior mobility). But I guess we should discuss it in another thread.

The monk can do his job, anyway.

 

[Votan]

All of our APs assume 4 party members, but they should work relatively well with 5. Once you dip below four PCs, though, things can start getting grisly. And while Pathfinder RPG characters are a bit more powerful than 3.5... I don't think that they're THAT much more powerful.

If you're running an AP with 3 PCs, adding a GM-controlled NPC helper, or giving a player a free cohort, is a good way to shore things up. Alternatively, reducing the number of monsters the PCs encounter in a fight can help.

In specific regard to the first few goblin encounters in "Burnt Offerings," that's something of an unusually designed encounter. I wanted to start the campaign with a small army of goblins attacking a town, and then have the PCs step in to save the town. But if you throw a big number of foes at 1st level players, things can go bad fast. Which is why the goblins are specifically called out for being crazy; they don't always fight to the best of their ability, and indeed every round some of the goblins should "waste" their actions doing things like getting caught in rain barrels, stealing food, laughing at another goblin's misfortune, or attempting really poor tactical choices like attempting to bull rush a heavilly armored fighter at the back of the party when the goblin doesn't have Improved Bull Rush. Running goblins like that not only helps to establish their madcap madness, but it makes a fight against a LOT of foes at low level something that's more fun and less fatal.

I like Burnt Offering a lot (it was, BTW, a player based decision -- they all voted and wanted that series because of it's strong reputation). We did add a cleric in as a "cohort" and that helped a lot.

Part of what went wrong is that the Sorcerer ran out of spells and the Monk was being defensive to allow the rogue to flank. But the rogue had a 12 AC and missed a fair bit . . .

I did appreciate the madcap goblin guidance in the module. Having them try and "burn the dwarf" with torches (a decidedly sub-optimal approach given that they could have use dog-slicers to much greater effect both mode the insane goblins more scary and prevented a TPK).