Adapting Prebuilt Adventures for More Players [Archive] - Wizards Community

Adapting Prebuilt Adventures for More Players [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Limit
12-26-06, 07:37 PM I got Expedition to Castle Ravenloft for Christmas and I'm looking forward to running it with my players. My only concern is that there are five of them and the book says that it is balanced for four level six characters.

My question is what is the best way to adapt a prebuilt adventure to my group? Is it best just to lower their level? Five level five characters would have an effective party level of 5.6. I could also add one or two extra mobs to each encounter or give select mobs a class level or two.

What would you do? I don't want to take any drastic steps that will nullify the handiness of the encounters as described in the book.
Regular_K
12-26-06, 07:52 PM This is exactly what my DM is doing. We're running Expedition to Ravenloft, and we started the week after Thanksgiving. There are 5 of us, and we started at 5th level. So far, only one character has died, but that was because he had no health and jumped right into combat.
Nom
12-27-06, 12:27 AM For a single adventure, having 5 rather than 4 will make it slightly easier. That's generally not a bad thing.

If it's a multi-adventure campaign arc, don't worry. The extra PC will reduce everyone's XP awards (by 1/5) and the treasure will be split 5 ways rather than 4, so after a couple of sessions it will all balance out.
Echodork
12-27-06, 03:35 AM I ran Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil with six players. You COULD just run the adventure as written, and let the low experience/treasure even out the increased party power. But I find a low-exp, low-treasure game to be boring, and so do most of my players. So here are some of the things I did to make the module more challenging:

- Every number in a monster's stat block increases by one. So +1 AC, BAB, damage, skills, saves, DC on abilities, etc.

- Increase the class level of all important (named or plot-required) NPCs by 2.

- Increase the hit points of all important NPCs by 25% or so.

- In encounters with multiple mooks, increase the number of monsters by 1 or 2, depending on their level relative to the party.

- Increase the coin treasure found by 50%. Add one "appropriate" magic item to every encounter, sometimes in the loot pile, sometimes on an enemy. Roll one random magic item every so often.

- Just cook the books as you go along. When the party level started lagging behind the adventure, I simply gave them more experience. No science required, the module said they'd need to be a certain level to prosper, so I advanced them more rapidly until they approached the requirement.

- When they found themselves under-treasured, I introduced a new named NPC, equipped him as if he were a player of the appropriate level, and let the players sell the loot they picked off his corpse. When the players were too powerfully geared, I sundered a key item.
GenghisUber
12-27-06, 10:04 AM My campaign has been about half written by me and half out of Dungeon Magazines. I have a party of 6-8 PCs, although lately it's been hovering around 6. I will typically just increase the "big" monsters' hit points by about 50% - 100% and occasionally increase the number of "small" monsters by 50% - 75%.

I typically make the decision when the PCs get to the encounter so every battle tends to be interesting. Sometimes I'll let one stand as written so that the PCs have a fight or two that they just roll right over. I threw a CR 2 crocodile at my party of 6 4th level characters and you wouldn't believe how scared they were of it and how many spells and items they used during the combat, which lasted almost 1 round.
ccerose
12-27-06, 12:22 PM Echodork offers some sound advice, especially the part about adding additional enemies. Larger parties can quickly surround and flank their opponents. I've seen what should be quite challenging creatures go down very quickly when this happens.

Use environment to your advantage. Larger groups are going to be faced with bottle necks. A party of four can usually get through a 5' or 10' doorway without much difficulty. It might take 2 or more rounds for larger parties to get all the PCs through the same passageway. This can prevent heavy hitters from charging or bull rushing, it also forces melee characters to use ranged attacks which generally suffer from cover penalties and shooting into combat penalties. It also makes them great targets for AoE spells. This will help to keep combat balanced and accurately reflect the CR of the enemies.
Limit
12-31-06, 07:50 PM This is exactly what my DM is doing. We're running Expedition to Ravenloft, and we started the week after Thanksgiving. There are 5 of us, and we started at 5th level. So far, only one character has died, but that was because he had no health and jumped right into combat.

I think this is the option I'm going to go with. The estimated power level of five level five characters is 5.6, so thats not much lower then 6. Thanks for all the options folks and I'd welcome any more, we're not starting this adventure for awhile.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Limit 12-26-06, 07:37 PM	I got Expedition to Castle Ravenloft for Christmas and I'm looking forward to running it with my players. My only concern is that there are five of them and the book says that it is balanced for four level six characters. My question is what is the best way to adapt a prebuilt adventure to my group? Is it best just to lower their level? Five level five characters would have an effective party level of 5.6. I could also add one or two extra mobs to each encounter or give select mobs a class level or two. What would you do? I don't want to take any drastic steps that will nullify the handiness of the encounters as described in the book.
Regular_K 12-26-06, 07:52 PM	This is exactly what my DM is doing. We're running Expedition to Ravenloft, and we started the week after Thanksgiving. There are 5 of us, and we started at 5th level. So far, only one character has died, but that was because he had no health and jumped right into combat.
Nom 12-27-06, 12:27 AM	For a single adventure, having 5 rather than 4 will make it slightly easier. That's generally not a bad thing. If it's a multi-adventure campaign arc, don't worry. The extra PC will reduce everyone's XP awards (by 1/5) and the treasure will be split 5 ways rather than 4, so after a couple of sessions it will all balance out.
Echodork 12-27-06, 03:35 AM	I ran Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil with six players. You COULD just run the adventure as written, and let the low experience/treasure even out the increased party power. But I find a low-exp, low-treasure game to be boring, and so do most of my players. So here are some of the things I did to make the module more challenging: - Every number in a monster's stat block increases by one. So +1 AC, BAB, damage, skills, saves, DC on abilities, etc. - Increase the class level of all important (named or plot-required) NPCs by 2. - Increase the hit points of all important NPCs by 25% or so. - In encounters with multiple mooks, increase the number of monsters by 1 or 2, depending on their level relative to the party. - Increase the coin treasure found by 50%. Add one "appropriate" magic item to every encounter, sometimes in the loot pile, sometimes on an enemy. Roll one random magic item every so often. - Just cook the books as you go along. When the party level started lagging behind the adventure, I simply gave them more experience. No science required, the module said they'd need to be a certain level to prosper, so I advanced them more rapidly until they approached the requirement. - When they found themselves under-treasured, I introduced a new named NPC, equipped him as if he were a player of the appropriate level, and let the players sell the loot they picked off his corpse. When the players were too powerfully geared, I sundered a key item.
GenghisUber 12-27-06, 10:04 AM	My campaign has been about half written by me and half out of Dungeon Magazines. I have a party of 6-8 PCs, although lately it's been hovering around 6. I will typically just increase the "big" monsters' hit points by about 50% - 100% and occasionally increase the number of "small" monsters by 50% - 75%. I typically make the decision when the PCs get to the encounter so every battle tends to be interesting. Sometimes I'll let one stand as written so that the PCs have a fight or two that they just roll right over. I threw a CR 2 crocodile at my party of 6 4th level characters and you wouldn't believe how scared they were of it and how many spells and items they used during the combat, which lasted almost 1 round.
ccerose 12-27-06, 12:22 PM	Echodork offers some sound advice, especially the part about adding additional enemies. Larger parties can quickly surround and flank their opponents. I've seen what should be quite challenging creatures go down very quickly when this happens. Use environment to your advantage. Larger groups are going to be faced with bottle necks. A party of four can usually get through a 5' or 10' doorway without much difficulty. It might take 2 or more rounds for larger parties to get all the PCs through the same passageway. This can prevent heavy hitters from charging or bull rushing, it also forces melee characters to use ranged attacks which generally suffer from cover penalties and shooting into combat penalties. It also makes them great targets for AoE spells. This will help to keep combat balanced and accurately reflect the CR of the enemies.
Limit 12-31-06, 07:50 PM	This is exactly what my DM is doing. We're running Expedition to Ravenloft, and we started the week after Thanksgiving. There are 5 of us, and we started at 5th level. So far, only one character has died, but that was because he had no health and jumped right into combat. I think this is the option I'm going to go with. The estimated power level of five level five characters is 5.6, so thats not much lower then 6. Thanks for all the options folks and I'd welcome any more, we're not starting this adventure for awhile.