Post/Author/DateTime	Post
rainbowcannon 03-13-06, 01:38 AM	I'm DMing the "Shadows of the last war" adventure, and its meant for an adventuring party of 2nd level. I also plan on running the next adventure, "Whispers of the vampire's blade"(WTVB), followed by "Grasp of the emerald claw"(GTEC). My question is concerning down time and leveling. Is "Shadows of the last war" written so that the party gets a chance level up in the middle of teh adventure?(so that by the time they reach Whitehearth, they are at level 3?) or is the party meant to go through the entire adventure at level 2?(seems kind of harsh when that final encounter with the 2 fire elementals is ECL 5!!?) Also one last thing, if WTVB level 4 adventure, follows shadows of the last war level 2 adventure, does this mean that the party should be pushed to 4th level at the conclusion of shadows of the last war? (sounds like a stupid question, but i added up the xp in shadows of the last war, and the party would only reach 4th level if they succeed in killing all of the guards in Rose Quarry, which is very VERY, unlikely, so do i just bump them up?)
MartM 03-13-06, 02:12 AM	For the elemental encounter, think that the character can shortly end the encounter, if they open the ceiling of the room... And could have a ally like Rorsha at their side, if they play wisely... I've created a short interlude between the SotLW and WotVB... I suggest that you do the same...
CarrotColossus 03-13-06, 02:40 AM	I found that I had to run a few adventurers to get my characters up to the pre-requisite level to do the next adventure.
rainbowcannon 03-13-06, 02:41 AM	And could have a ally like Rorsha at their side, if they play wisely... I've created a short interlude between the SotLW and WotVB... I suggest that you do the same... So no level up in the middle of the adventure? making an interlude sounds likes a good idea(i'm not very good at making my own adventures and i'm not sure that i feel comfortable with pulling my PCs away from the main storyline for a session or two, but i guess that seems to be the best way to get around it) Thanks for the help. Anyone else get around this little problem differently?
ekomega 03-13-06, 02:51 AM	I think the pre-made adventures assume the DM hands out experience in the middle. The designers design an adventure that takes more than one session to run, so that experience can be handed out at the end of the sessions before the final session. They also plan the encounters to allow for a certain amount of leveling that they feel is necessary for the challenges. The RPGA adventures are written this way as well. If the encounter EXP gets the PCs to 4th level by the time they fight the last encounter, then they should be level 4 by then.
rainbowcannon 03-13-06, 05:16 AM	got it, so according to that, the PCs should level up during their little trip to whitehearth...thanks again.
Tom McCarthy 03-13-06, 12:37 PM	My players leveled up between Rose Quarry and Whitehearth, then went into the Sharn neighbourhood of Fallen to recover some lost stauary and gain XP before I ran Whispers. In a smooth bit of serendipity, the PC who was a Brelish intelligence agent left the party and went NPC just before Whispers (disagreement over how to handle the statuary), and so took the role of the NPC Lucan from Whispers. Very memorable.