Scaling the adventure -- to the max!

[Psion]

I've been noticing that as I pluck adventure ideas from Beyond Countless Doorways, the ideas that appeal to me the most are ones for characters about half the level of the party... and I'm not exactly stretching myself thinking of how to scale them up.

Similarly, I considered some adventures out of "Raise the Dead", and some of the tweaks in there they recommend for levels slightly lower than my party is "replace the goblins with hobgoblins." Do I hear gnolls? Orgres?

How about it? Anyone out there having good luck stretching an adventure far beyond what it was meant to do?

 

[Crothian]

I usually use plot to do that and not always try to make the fights deadly challenging. I doin't mind the characters having a few easy fights as they explore a a particularly complicated plot or mystery.

In scaling up the enounters though I like to add numbers and magical support to the fights. A few hobgoblins to keep the party occupied as the sorcers and rogues attack the party from distance kind of thing. Tactics always play a good deal with it also. Monsters don';t need to tougher all the time, sometimes smarter is enough.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

I am currently doing it with the Dungeon adventure Fiend's Embrace. I believe it is written for 4th level characters and mine are 11th. I had to redo pretty much every encounter. The most deadly thing I did was replace the rat swarm with a cranium rat swarm. You should have seen the faces around the table when the rats came swarming out and blasted the party with a Fireball.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I am currently doing it with the Dungeon adventure Fiend's Embrace. I believe it is written for 4th level characters and mine are 11th. I had to redo pretty much every encounter. The most deadly thing I did was replace the rat swarm with a cranium rat swarm. You should have seen the faces around the table when the rats came swarming out and blasted the party with a Fireball.

That's a CR 11 for sure! OW! Cranium rat swarm! WOW!

Since I'm a big fan of pre-fab adventures, I'll be paying close attention to this thread. Good topic!

 

[Nightfall]

Psion/Al,

I'm in the same boat with a bunch of my bro's friends that are now 14 level for my SL games. While a few adventures crop up, most of the ones I want are like 6-5 level or less.

 

[Psion]

Well, if I decide to participate in this Adventure Discussion Group by Crothian, it looks like I'll be slathering 12 levels on The Whispering Cairn... (a 1st level adventure in dungeon mag).

 

[William_2]

Ramping up the combat portions of an adventure for higher levels is not too hard. I think the thing to watch for is whether the story and/or environment of the adventure are originally lower level precisely because they would easily be circumnavigated by the powers of higher level groups. For example, a low level module might use a pile of rubble to hide and block access to a spot that is to become significant later in the campaign, when higher level characters are able to access it. Higher level characters on the same adventure are more than likely accessing that spot right then without a radically different reason for why they can’t. So, those kind of issues are the real thing to watch for – 12 levels of monster added onto an adventure is not a big deal, but twelve levels of PC can demolish a lot of assumptions used in lower level adventures.

Also, as mentioned above, once in a while it is fun to let higher level PCs lay waste to a lower level location. For me, it actually gets kind of tired and hackneyed that as PCs advance in power, the world around them inevitable does so as well, so that most of the time their enemies are close to them in power. A world like that might cause people to stop bothering to gain power…
Letting PCs lose in an area where they really get to experience their relative growth in power can be very refreshing. In this case, a good plot and an interesting environment can still have the usual effect, but players get to feel like super-heroes for a few encounters. A nice break.

 

[Voadam]

I agree with william 2's first point. Higher CR combat replacements are pretty easy and should work out to an appropriate challenge if the ELs are proprotionately changed. The things that must be considered more carefully are new PC powers of divination, flight, teleport, plane shift, etherealness, etc. and how they impact the adventure.


I've been tempted for a long while to write out a quick "20th level orc barbarian and pie" adventure.

 

[Barak]

Scaling monsters is relatively easy. Most monsters have higher level equivalent, or even simpler, can have class levels added.

Traps are also pretty easily scalable. It's usually the intangibles, non-statted stuff that is harder to scale.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I've been tempted for a long while to write out a quick "20th level orc barbarian and pie" adventure.

Man ... that's going to be one big pie ....