Anyways I'm going to be running KotS tomorrow night for a group of four people. As it's the first PnP RPG experience for all of them and the fact that I've heard thAT KotS can be difficult at times even for a full party I'd like to adjust the adventure accordingly. Have any of you run this adventure with four people? What did you do differently? The same? Just looking for a bunch of advive really.
Thanks in advance,
Mac
The only thing I'm concerned about is when you have a solo creature that you can't scale back.
For example, the first encounter (by memory here):
475 total xp = 95 xp per player in a 5-person group. To scale down to 4 players, we want 4x95 = 380xp total. There are two shield guys worth 125xp each, so I'll take one of those out and replace him with another minion, worth 25xp. Net change is -100xp, leaving us with 375 total xp for 4 players. In theory, it should be the same level of challenge.
I'm going to do this for each encounter and see how it goes. If anyone has already done this for this particular module, I'd love to hear what you did and how it played.
For four you might want to remove a shield and a priest from the encounter, and possibly delay the 2nd wave of bad guys an extra round.
One last note: If your players do not have a cleric then the adventure will be really really tough!
1. Are you using the pre-gens?
-- If so, you should really consider adjusting them a little bit.
Adjustments
Off the top of my head, the following changes to certain pre-gens are in order.
Dwarf Fighter: Replace Daggers with Throwing Hammers (just give fewer of them) because Hammers are Heavy Thrown weapons (use Str instead of Dex for to hit and damage). Daggers are Dex for to hit and damage. Also drop power attack and take Dwarven Weapon Training at level 1. I am not totally sure yet what feat to take at level 2. Quick Draw is a candidate for level 2.
Human Wizard: Drop Ray of Frost for Thunderwave. Thunderwave is Int vs Fort and is a Close Blast 3.
Dragonborn Paladin: The stats need to be reordered. I think Str 18, Con 14, Dex 13, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 12 is legal. Drop Healing Hands (even before one per day Lay on Hands with a +3 isn't as good as two Lay on Hands per day, now it would just be +1). Toughness is a good replacement. Alertness is also useful (prevents Combat Advantage). Dragonborn Frenzy is handy (it is easy for a Dragonborn to get knocked to half hp). In fact, I would probably argue that taking Toughness at 1 and Dragonborn Frenzy at 2 would be better than the existing feats for the Dragonborn Paladin pre-gen.
Half-Elf Cleric: Where to begin here? This whole PC was poorly built. I would replace it with a Dwarf Cleric: Str 10, Con 16, Dex 13, Int 8, Wis 18, Cha 14. Feat: Astral Fire (+1 damage with Fire and Radiant attacks). Powers: (At-Will) Lance of Faith, Sacred Flame, (Encounter) Divine Glow, (Daily) Avenging Flame. Avenging Flame is an offensive daily that has a defensive component (the target has to forgo its attack on its turn to get its normal save attempt to try to end the effect). Cascading Light is a second choice daily power.
Dwarf Fighter: Replace Daggers with Throwing Hammers (just give fewer of them) because Hammers are Heavy Thrown weapons (use Str instead of Dex for to hit and damage). Daggers are Dex for to hit and damage. Also drop power attack and take Dwarven Weapon Training at level 1. I am not totally sure yet what feat to take at level 2. Quick Draw is a candidate for level 2.
Human Wizard: Drop Ray of Frost for Thunderwave. Thunderwave is Int vs Fort and is a Close Blast 3.
Dragonborn Paladin: The stats need to be reordered. I think Str 18, Con 14, Dex 13, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 12 is legal. Drop Healing Hands (even before one per day Lay on Hands with a +3 isn't as good as two Lay on Hands per day, now it would just be +1). Toughness is a good replacement. Alertness is also useful (prevents Combat Advantage). Dragonborn Frenzy is handy (it is easy for a Dragonborn to get knocked to half hp). In fact, I would probably argue that taking Toughness at 1 and Dragonborn Frenzy at 2 would be better than the existing feats for the Dragonborn Paladin pre-gen.
Half-Elf Cleric: Where to begin here? This whole PC was poorly built. I would replace it with a Dwarf Cleric: Str 10, Con 16, Dex 13, Int 8, Wis 18, Cha 14. Feat: Astral Fire (+1 damage with Fire and Radiant attacks). Powers: (At-Will) Lance of Faith, Sacred Flame, (Encounter) Divine Glow, (Daily) Avenging Flame. Avenging Flame is an offensive daily that has a defensive component (the target has to forgo its attack on its turn to get its normal save attempt to try to end the effect). Cascading Light is a second choice daily power.