Thunderspire and the 5-minute adventuring day

[Nymrohd]

You could try to divert them to some sidetreck and have them return to duergar keep after they hit level 5. And I would suggest you scale everything for 6 people.

 

[Morrus]

With apologies, I guess I should have been more clear with my initial post. I wasn't really looking for advice - "tone down the encounters" and "add more enoers to increase their level" I can come up with on my own.

What I was wondering was whether other people experienced the same problem? Was it 4E, was it the adventure, or was it just my particular group due to being one character extra but one level lower?

If the latter, which I suspect is the issue, I can fix it easily enough.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

The duergar keep has definately been the toughest area to date. I agree with you Morrus that not having the rest of the keep react after being attacked seems silly. My group had to retreat from the 3rd keep twice to rest. I didn't have the duergar pursue them into the other two keeps since I decided their main goal was to protect their property and they didn't want to walk out of a defensible position into an unknown force. For all they knew the PCs were just a small geurilla squad of a larger force trying to lure them out of their hole. Besides they had another method of egress once thet could prepare the slaves for transport. The third time they assaulted the keep they didn't return, it was their first TPK.

 

[frankthedm]

I wasn't really looking for advice - "tone down the encounters" and "add more enoers to increase their level" I can come up with on my own.

It looks like your right hand is hitting the "o" key before your left hand is hitting the "c" key when you type "encounters".

 

[Fifth Element]

It looks like your right hand is hitting the "o" key before your left hand is hitting the "c" key when you type "encounters".

Priceless.

 

[Nymrohd]

With apologies, I guess I should have been more clear with my initial post. I wasn't really looking for advice - "tone down the encounters" and "add more enoers to increase their level" I can come up with on my own.

What I was wondering was whether other people experienced the same problem? Was it 4E, was it the adventure, or was it just my particular group due to being one character extra but one level lower?

If the latter, which I suspect is the issue, I can fix it easily enough.

Well no, not really, I never had 1 encounter/day issues with a 5man group. So I do suspect it is the +1 player/-1 level issue that is causing the problem, hence the suggestions

 

[Baumi]

Just an Idea ... from your desciption they seem to get challenged and have fun, only the long rest makes a Problem. So why not give them a magic Item/Ritual for the adventure (make sure that it works only for this adventure) that lets every short rest count as an extended rest?

So you can keep up the pace without having to think about consequences for all the time lapses or having to change the encounters.

 

[Ander00]

It may be the level, but level 5 isn't all that spectacular. They'll really feel it when they hit level 6 though, when they get +1 to everything, a feat, a new power, and healing word/inspiring word heals another 1d6 points.


cheers

 

[Beckett]

With apologies, I guess I should have been more clear with my initial post. I wasn't really looking for advice - "tone down the encounters" and "add more enoers to increase their level" I can come up with on my own.

What I was wondering was whether other people experienced the same problem? Was it 4E, was it the adventure, or was it just my particular group due to being one character extra but one level lower?

If the latter, which I suspect is the issue, I can fix it easily enough.

My first group was still at 4th when they hit the Duregar Keep (and died before an extended rest would have bumped them to 5th). Five characters in the group, and I'd let them roll stats, which might have provided them an extra edge. A cleric, a warlord, a warlock, a paladin, and a wizard.

I remember they blew through the early stuff pretty easy- I was having a hell of a time hitting, and they cut through the Bloodreavers pretty easily. Things definitely got tougher once they hit the duregar; the theurges were especially good at hurting the party. However, they were still able to make it through four encounters without an extended rest (then reached the paladin for their fifth and died there).

Maybe I had some runs of bad dice rolls, or the players had some good ones, and the reverse might be true for your group (although that would be a long run of bad dice). The only obvious big is the lack of a wizard in your group. I don't know how much a difference the one in my group made, but his fire shroud was pretty effective against the orcs, and I think he might have actually hit with force orb against some of the duregar group.

 

[Cadfan]

If you're just looking for a survey, no, my group did not experience that problem at all.

We had 5 characters, of level 5, at the time we did the Duergar Keep. The PCs are well balanced, but are played mostly by new players.