[3.5] Beefing up ROHD

[Ethdred]

Not another campaign journal (I'm far too lazy to keep one going!) but I am taking a party through ROHD and they are substantially over-powered for it. I know it's supposed to start easy and get harder, but this is getting silly - they are 8th level and haven't quite finished Chapter 1 (my fault - I started them off beefed up and then ran the pre-campaign for too long so they were too high level to start). I've been increasing the encounters but still don't feel they are challenging enough. Note: I want to challenge, and ideally scare witless, but not kill, the players!

The party is (in roughly descending order of munchkinness) - all character level 8:

Halfling druid/daggerspell shaper (with a dire bat companion), forget the class division
Half-ogre 4 Barbarian/2 Fighter - going for frenzied beserker, monkey grips a huge axe
Elven Ranger/Occult Slayer - ranged specialist
Tiefling Vow of Poverty Monk (yeah, I know, but he's good enough to carry it off) - grappling specialist
Half-orc cleric - the only true worshipper of the real Gruumsh, sworn to slay all false worshippers
Halfling Warlock - rides the half-ogre into battle

So it's not the most serious party around, but they are surprisingly effective, even without an arcanist. Particular problems I have are:

They all seem to have high AC so I have trouble hitting them, especially with all the mooks around in the module, but I don't want to use really big things that leave them with no HP after one hit
The ogre has 10' reach and bracers that double that for a round, so anything with fewer than about 40 HP is just cleave fodder (and he has Great Cleavage)
The ranger means that any combat that starts at range is basically over before melee (even though the rest of the party are basically pants at distance)
The druid is also the scout and spots basically any ambush or similar that I don't uber-fudge
Because the ogre is not a person, Charm and Hold don't work on him

So what I'm asking is for any help with building encounters that can challenge this motley band. For those who know the module, if you can help with specific encounters (especially making the bosses more effective) that would be really appreciated, but for everyone I'd be grateful for suggestions of interesting monsters that could be pets/bodyguards/cohorts or just wandering monsters, and for orcs (or other giant-class creatures) with class levels to introduce (especially if they use the ToB, as I love that but don't have enough experience with playing it) -any CR from 4-14. (For flavour reasons, I've changed the horde from hobgobs to orcs.)

Books I have access to:

ToB
Complete Warrior/Arcane/Divine
Draconomicon
Libris Mortis

I can also use stuff from the Magic Item and Spell Compendiums, so any hoopy stuff from that can throw the players a curve ball would be good.

Also, for flavour reasons, it would be nice but not essential to introduce some Yuan-Ti

And my party - keep out of this thread!

Go on Playgrounders, make me proud!

[AslanCross]

The adventure was meant for 5-11ish characters. They'd definitely have an easy time with the opening chapter if they're level 8.

Eldariel provided me with a lot of advice on beefing up RHOD; see my campaign journal (link in my sig) for details. While my party isn't anywhere as strong (I banned LA+ races, so I don't have a Large-sized Monkey Grip Frezerker), the module as written is indeed rather weak when the PCs only have one encounter a day. Only the Battle of Brindol in chapter 4 is a true encounter marathon.

Bosses you should definitely buff:
-Kharn. As written, he's really quite weak. My build for him is
Cleric 3/Crusader 2/Knight of Five Sorrows 5---just a refluffed Ruby Knight Vindicator.
-Saarvith. I used the Mystic Ranger variant and also gave him scout levels so he could get more damage out per shot, though due to my rather harebrained tactics, both he and Regiarix got blown out of the sky.
-Most of the dragons should be increased by one age category. Run them smart and keep them in the air.
-The Ghostlord needs serious buffing if the players plan on fighting him. I gave him a half-farspawn bugbear psychic warrior minion (for flavor reasons).
-I've got a small problem with having the hobgoblins as orcs---orcs have racial penalties for all their mental abilities. That's going to take a dent out of the casters' power. Keep in mind all of the Wyrmlords have casting abilities of some kind (especially if you make Saarvith a mystic ranger).


Some tips with the encounters:
-Marked for Death. This encounter is one of the most dangerous ones in the first half. Remember the Greater Barghests have charm monster, so if they manage to charm the half-ogre, the party is in for serious trouble. Your part doesn't seem to have much problems with illumination (mine does), but keep in mind the penalties for spot and listen checks due to distance. The module recommends running variations of it.

-The Ghostlord's minions are pretty pathetic. Lesser Bonedrinkers won't hold a candle to true Bonedrinkers, so I suggest swapping them out and adding an advanced Boneclaw like I did. The Ghost Brute Lions are useless; the Ghost Dire Lions are a bit scarier, but only since they have Strength Drain.

-I replaced the Kulkor Zhul War Adepts with Hobgoblin Warcasters (MMV) with 2 Wizard levels. They've got more spells and more interesting abilities all around.

-The Kulkor Zhul Mindbenders got replaced with Beguiler 7/Mindbender 1 hobgoblins, which make for a lot of creative spell use.

-The Doom Fist Monks got upgraded to Monk 2/Swordsage 3. This made them significantly less squishy and a lot more frustrating thanks to their maneuvers.

[Eldariel]

You could make Yuan-Ti come pretty naturally at the Lizardfolk-section. Are you intent on having them as a part of the horde, or a separate force?

Either way, it would require an excessive suspension of disbelief to have the rank-and-file members of the Horde to be of much higher level than they already are (heck, they ARE already of much higher level). What you can do is double up their numbers, improve their arrays (are PCs' stats near the Elite Array? If not, you could freely improve the monster stats across the board) and rebuild the military units to be efficient at what they're supposed to do. Working on their tactics can be a very good way to make it more threatening.

Worg Riders as Scouts (and using them as careful skirmishers), Rank-and-File as Fighters or Warblades (making heavy use of formations and Aid Another + readied actions), Bladebearers definitely as Warblades or Warblade/Swordsages specializing in Tiger Claw, Sergeants as Crusaders or Crusader/Marshals or even Bard/Crusaders, Veterans as just higher leveled Rank-and-Files, and throw in few Hobgoblin Duskblades and such. Warcasters could get some counterspelling prowess or such along with protective spells. But yeah, with efficient tactics and military-like builds, increasing the numbers of the regulars can actually have an effect.


The higher-ups are easy; you can just increase the Dragons by an age category (or maybe even two for Regiarix and Ozyrrandion in your case) and add few levels to the Wyrmlords (let alone optimizing them; giving them some Save-or-X effects can be extremely efficient vs. PC party and improving their casting abilities and rebuilding them more efficient for their position seems like just the thing). Note that optimizing the Dragons' feats (particularly since you have Draconomicon; I can bet you've been itching to do just that) is a great idea. You can also improve their arrays and give them more magical equipment; they're Dragons, after all. Just be sure not to go overboard - as I just said, they're Dragons after all and Dragons can be a walking [well, flying] TPK-threats even for powerful parties when played to their strengths and optimized carefully.

You can also optimize them; it's way too much work for me to just rewrite them all here, but something like making Koth a straight Wizard, Saarvith a Mystic Ranger (you'd really want Spell Compendium spells for him though; Complete Adventurer would also help), Ulwai...well, she's pretty fine as she is, Kharn a Ruby Knight Vindicator and Azarr a true Clericzilla complete with DMM: Persist, Beads of Karma, Ring of Enduring Arcana and enough power to smite some arse. The few other named guys can also be pumped few levels.


AslanCross has rewritten stats for much of the module, which could offer an excellent starting point for you. It might also help to read the campaign journals around here provided you haven't already (Kjones's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100257) [part 2 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123078)], AslanCross's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110022) and of course, Saph's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94243)), and see what they've done. That's a good starting point.

But yeah, which array are your players using? That's quite relevant too.

EDIT: Well, that was quite the spectacular ninjaing.

[Ethdred]

Thanks peeps - some useful stuff there. They've already killed Koth and Ozzy (I did make him an age category higher, but they had a very good plan), but I shall work on making the next bosses better. What book is Mystic Ranger in? Hadn't thought of using bards, but that would be a great idea, especially given the esteem that bards are held in by my group :)

For info, the PCs were built with a 32-point buy, which in retrospect may have been a bit generous!

[Eldariel]

32pb means you should 32pb the named opponents too. You could probably get away with Elite Arraying the mooks without too much trouble, but the biggest problem now is the level gap.

Mystic Ranger is from Dragon Magazine, but can be found on Crystalkeep. It basically gets a very accelerated spellcasting in exchange for a bunch of class features. With the Ranger-spells from Spell Compendium, that spellcasting actually makes the Ranger a frightening archer.