Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Jul 06, 2004 10:34:56	Alright here is my dileema. I am running KoD but my player base is larger than the book stated. I have 7 player's so we have 7 pc's. The adventure is designed to start off for 4 1st lvl char's. What would you do? I cant ask anyone to leave cause all 8 of us play in 3 campaigns together so it wouldnt be right. Do you think I should scale up the fights? Make more random encounters instead of scaling up? Thanks in advance for anyone's opinion.
#2 brimstone Jul 06, 2004 10:59:31	Personally, I would use the DMG's guidelines to scaling up the encounters. It confuses the crap out of me, so I won't try to explain it here...but Cam is quite good at understanding those rules...so maybe he can explain.
#3 cam_banks Jul 06, 2004 11:35:58	My group is 7 players right now - it was 6, but a friend of ours came back from a year in Greece and jumped in at Ak-Khurman. When you're looking at a group that size, you have to remember that the main thing that changes is less experience goes around than usual, because there are more characters. To offset this, throw in a few more of whatever they fight, if its mook opponents like dark knights or goblins, and bolster existing NPCs a little if you feel like doing so. I don't have to worry that much, as I introduce things on the fly as it is. If you're running a group that's twice as large as the intended size, they can handle challenge ratings of 2 levels higher than theirs. So, an EL of 6 is great for four 6th-level PCs, or eight 4th-level PCs. If your group is 7 players, I would imagine they can take on a lot of the earlier stuff without much trouble. Multiply the numbers of creatures encountered by 1.5 or 2 if you want them to be challenged, otherwise just enjoy the adventure and try to toss in some beefier monsters once in a while to keep them occupied. Cheers, Cam
#4 lorac75 Jul 06, 2004 13:26:21	We have 6 characters (soon to be 7) in our party and without scaling anything we came close to several character death since we entered the temple. In fact I was afraid we were going to have a party wipeout last night. We ended up fighting 3 bearded devils instead of one. They attempted a summon 2 rounds in a row and succeeded both times. Anasana was killed, but remarkably everyone else made it. If our Dwarf fighter went down we wouldn't have made it. Between all of the oozes and slimes (both random and reg. encounters. We lost a lot of weapons between these and rust monster) bearded devils, etc. I personally think the ruins are almost too powerful for four 5/6 level PCs.
#5 cam_banks Jul 06, 2004 13:52:52	Originally posted by lorac75 We have 6 characters (soon to be 7) in our party and without scaling anything we came close to several character death since we entered the temple. In fact I was afraid we were going to have a party wipeout last night. We ended up fighting 3 bearded devils instead of one. They attempted a summon 2 rounds in a row and succeeded both times. Devils that have been summoned can't use their own summon ability until an hour has passed, at which point they're usually on their way back to where they came from. That bearded devil was itself summoned, so it shouldn't have summoned anything itself - and the one it did summon shouldn't have been able to summon a third one. Still, sounds as though your party could take them all on. Cheers, Cam
#6 zombiegleemax Jul 06, 2004 14:20:43	LoL! Sounds like he had EVERYONE summoning something in THAT campaign. ~~~
#7 lorac75 Jul 06, 2004 14:41:52	One of the best combats I ever participated in. Had that first edition feel that I'm fond of where every knows they're gonna die and teamwork somehow manages to prevent that.
#8 zombiegleemax Jul 06, 2004 14:51:26	Originally posted by lorac75 One of the best combats I ever participated in. Had that first edition feel that I'm fond of where every knows they're gonna die and teamwork somehow manages to prevent that. One of the best old school adventures I have ever read about for DnD is The Temple of Elemental Evil. ~~~
#9 lorac75 Jul 06, 2004 14:59:04	Originally posted by LordofIllusions One of the best old school adventures I have ever read about for DnD is The Temple of Elemental Evil. ~~~ A friend has the Hackmaster version. Hoping to play through it at some point. Would like to do Robinloft as well. Been a looong time since I played through the first Ravenloft module.
#10 zombiegleemax Jul 07, 2004 7:13:51	Originally posted by lorac75 A friend has the Hackmaster version. Hoping to play through it at some point. Would like to do Robinloft as well. Been a looong time since I played through the first Ravenloft module. I am almost finished reading The Temple of Elemental Evil novel and let me tell you it is GOOD. I bought the book on Friday and I only have about 10 pages left to read before I complete it. The module must be off the chain, especially during the part when they get rushed by the army from the temple. Do you know if that part is in the module ? The PCs should be holed up in a farmhouse or something like that when the army attacks them. ~~~