[PF] New DM - Pre made campaign

[Man With Dog]

Hiya Playgrounders,

So i have finally decided i will give DMing a go, but have decided that i am gonna start with a pre-written campaign.
The campaign i have is Carrion Crown - Haunting of Harrowstone.

Our group has a few small groups running PF rules but this is going to the first big campaign and it will be set in the Pathfinder World as opposed to the other guys running in a more Forgotten Realms-eque world.

What i was looking for is as i am about to start reading the book now in preperation for a couple of weeks, are there any hints and tips anyone could give me on this campaign or DMing in specific?

If the party make up would help - its not fully decided yet but there is a VERY strong fighter start (+12 and +13 characters) and a possibility of there being 6 characters but i think most campaigns are written for a 4 man party?

Any tips on how to handle these guys and whether i should jsut increase the monsters by 50% and such would be greatly appreciated.

If anyone has run this campaign. Even better.

Love any and all help :-)

[LansXero]

The problem with flat increasing the number of enemies is what happens if they focus fire one or two of the party members: they die. Try perhaps adding less than 50% but advancing (http://www.monsteradvancer.com/) them a little bit Also instead of adding just more of the same, perhaps put an spellcaster or a few classed monsters in the mix, to make it more challenging while still not lethaly so.

What do you mean by +12/+13 character btw?

As for general DMing advice there are lots of threads and tutorials in here, Im sure someone more qualified will point them out. Above all, try and have fun.

[Man With Dog]

The problem with flat increasing the number of enemies is what happens if they focus fire one or two of the party members: they die. Try perhaps adding less than 50% but advancing (http://www.monsteradvancer.com/) them a little bit Also instead of adding just more of the same, perhaps put an spellcaster or a few classed monsters in the mix, to make it more challenging while still not lethaly so.

What do you mean by +12/+13 character btw?

As for general DMing advice there are lots of threads and tutorials in here, Im sure someone more qualified will point them out. Above all, try and have fun.

By +12 and +13 i mean there stat adjustments equal that.
One PC has an 18 and a 17 for instance - so +4 for the 18, +3 for the 17, so +7 already. 9 and below of course, remove one point too :smallsmile:

[Lastgrasp]

I've ran Harrowstone with Six PCs and it still can be challenging. The Adventure Path is meant for 4 PCs and 15 point standard fantasy buy. If you run it with six you might bump encounters by 1 to even things out, but for the most part it can be run as is. (If the encounter is a incorporeal or haunt don't bump up they can be difficult)

Also, try to have a cleric. They can be a major asset in that adventure. My group consist of a monk, psion, rogue, inquisitor, ranger, and fighter/cleric. The cleric didn't join the campaign to session five I think but their are incorporeal creatures that are difficult to harm at low levels and if your PCs aren't creative it can be a problem.

The first half of the Adventure Path is pretty much research. So having PCs focus on non-combat skills is a bonus. Knowledge skills and diplomacy can very handy. The second half is a dungeon crawl that can be very difficult if the PCs don't use their brains.

In my sig I have my session logs from Carrion Crown Campaign. We are currently 3/4 through Trial of the Beast. As with any adventure you make adjustment based on group composition. For instance I did remove some of the non-essential encounters in harrowstone to speed up things.

If you have any questions I would be glad to help you out. Since the adventure is still fresh in my mind.

PS: Read up on the Haunt Rules since they play a major role in the AP.

[Lastgrasp]

One more thing. Even though I'm running the campaign with six PCs there are encounter that almost became TPKs as written. Just be weary on what you adjust. But most importantly have fun. Harrowstone was a blast to run and so is Trial of the Beast. If you love gothic adventures your group is going to love this AP.

[Man With Dog]

That woudl be awesome [Last Grasp]
As i said, i am new to DMing and the first in our group to take it into a Pathfinder world fully.
The two strongest members of our party look set to be Inquisitor and Paladin and there will be a Cleric (were a 5 man adventurig group but no one ever wants a cleric so someone runs two (one must be cleric) as standard)

But truly, any and all advice is very well received.
I havent had much chance to read the book today but plan to have it read a couple of times with my notebaook handy to note Kendra and Trust points etc as we go through.

First part of the read sounds awesome and am quite keen to play it, i jsut wanna make sure i dont fall flat on my face and the guys get bored waiting for something to happen

[Lastgrasp]

The first half is less combat focused and more research oriented. Read through it and if you have any questions shoot me e-mail. The group shouldn't be exploring harrowstone to level 2. They should be sticking to Ravengro for the 1st level. There are optional events that you can run to keep the pace going.

Don't go crazy on I have to run things 100% as written. I ran harrowstone as 80% as written. I added and subtracted some minor stuff to keep the flow going. In the prison I took some minor encounters out since it slowed the story down.

My suggestion would be read everything and prep the adventure around Ravengro for the first two sessions. Don't really prep harrowstone and hint they shouldn't be going there if they get ambition early on.

[Man With Dog]

**update**

Ok, so in my first campaign to actually run.
I've got 3 VERY well statted characters (others are well statted) that look to be taking Paladin, Inquisitor and currently UNKNOWN, we also have a Magus. There is a cleric in the party and overall it is a 5 man group.

Just a tad concerned that this 5 man well statted group (with a trait or two geared towards undead no less) will over run this campaign [Carrion Crown - Haunting of Harrowstone]

Any idea's on how to stop this being overrun or do i not have much to worry about in this campaign?

[Yora]

At first I would just start the campaign and see what happens. If you notice that encounters are way to easy, you can then look why they are so easy and make things a bit harder for the players.

I assume the campaign is using the standard tables for how many XP characters need to gain new levels. If you think it will be way to easy for your players, you could instead use the "slow" progression, so they don't gain new levels as fast and with time combats will become more and more harder to win.

[Lastgrasp]

**update**

Ok, so in my first campaign to actually run.
I've got 3 VERY well statted characters (others are well statted) that look to be taking Paladin, Inquisitor and currently UNKNOWN, we also have a Magus. There is a cleric in the party and overall it is a 5 man group.

Just a tad concerned that this 5 man well statted group (with a trait or two geared towards undead no less) will over run this campaign [Carrion Crown - Haunting of Harrowstone]

Any idea's on how to stop this being overrun or do i not have much to worry about in this campaign?

What was your attribute buy and starting gear? Was the 15 Standard Buy that is recommended? Also did you give Magic Item out at 1st level? I would stick with WBL. Also one trait should be from the Carrion Crown Player's Guide to tie the group to the Professor.

Inquisitor and Paladin are fine. Paladin if you run the AP consistently might have issues in the next AP since their shades of grey areas. Having just gotten into the third AP Broken Moon Cavalier might not be the best choose but can still be effective. Magus is nice. I have 6th level Magus is my game and he shines.

[Lastgrasp]

So enemy breakdown for the APs:

Harrowstone: Undead Heavy.
Trial of the Beast: Construct/Normal Bestiary. Not a ton of undead.
Broken Moon: Shapechangers/Undead.

In Trial of the Beast I lost two PCs in that adventure. My Cleric got level drained by 4 Wights and ended up spawning as one. The Rogue chopped his head off as that happened.....

The second PC to die was the Monk who decided to tank a Girallon Flesh Golem Construct who hit like a truck. He fought him at the front of a bridge. Needless to say he two shotted the monk and knocked him off the bridge into the raging waterfall below.

My group who just started broken moon is Inquisitor, Magus, Cleric of Pharasma(new guy not the same one who got killed), Ranger, Barbarian, and Rogue. Lacking arcane but the Magus make up for it to certain extent.

The AP is extremely fun to run. So just go with the flow. I don't normally run premade campaign but I've had so much fun with this one I might end up running Jade Reagent next, but I got another 30 sessions to go before CC ends.

[Man With Dog]

What was your attribute buy and starting gear? Was the 15 Standard Buy that is recommended? Also did you give Magic Item out at 1st level? I would stick with WBL. Also one trait should be from the Carrion Crown Player's Guide to tie the group to the Professor.

Inquisitor and Paladin are fine. Paladin if you run the AP consistently might have issues in the next AP since their shades of grey areas. Having just gotten into the third AP Broken Moon Cavalier might not be the best choose but can still be effective. Magus is nice. I have 6th level Magus is my game and he shines.

They got to roll stats (unfortunately rolled before i seen the 15 pt option) - in total there are 3 charactes that are very powerful, most powerful being Inquisitor and Paladin currently.
Gold they rolled for - most got around middle starting gold.
I havent given any item - only 2 traits. One campaign, one other.

[Lastgrasp]

They got to roll stats (unfortunately rolled before i seen the 15 pt option) - in total there are 3 charactes that are very powerful, most powerful being Inquisitor and Paladin currently.
Gold they rolled for - most got around middle starting gold.
I havent given any item - only 2 traits. One campaign, one other.

I don't know what you mean by powerful. Are their attribute insane or just slightly higher then a 15 point buy? There 1st level so I wouldn't worry too much. Inquisitor and Paladin are not going to break your game. They are both very nice classes for the adventure. Just have fun that all that really matters.

If you run a few encounters and they breeze through them just adjust as you go. The Haunts in Harrowstone are much harder to kill. Read up on those in the AP. They technically don't work as monsters and can only be harmed by positive energy. Paizo way of having incorporeal monsters that won't wipe a 2nd level party out.