[PF] Looking for published adventure path suitable for a party of 3 beginners

[Giegue]

As the title asks. My friends and I in a very, very, very lousy situation right now. For years I have wanted a stable, regular group to play with either IRL or online. IRL I have had little success assembling a solid group, so I have given up on that avenue. Online, I have had more luck. I have 1 IRL friend and 2 online friends who would be willing to play. The bad news? That's only 3 people, and all of them are beginners. That would normally not be an issue, but it has become one because I don't have the time to create my own custom adventures due to school and I don't know any adventure paths that are suitable for a party of 3, let alone a party of 3 beginners.

So, I am turning to all of you for help. Are there any published adventure paths out there specifically tailored for parties of 3/parties smaller then 4? Are their any adventure paths that, while maybe not made for a party of 3 are forgiving enough that a party of 3 beginning players could have fun in the path and not have to constantly roll up new characters? If no such thing exists for PF, does it exist for 3.5e? Is there anything else that could possibly help us out? If anybody out there knows something that can help us out we'd be grateful.

[Starbuck_II]

So, I am turning to all of you for help. Are there any published adventure paths out there specifically tailored for parties of 3/parties smaller then 4? Are their any adventure paths that, while maybe not made for a party of 3 are forgiving enough that a party of 3 beginning players could have fun in the path and not have to constantly roll up new characters? If no such thing exists for PF, does it exist for 3.5e? Is there anything else that could possibly help us out? If anybody out there knows something that can help us out we'd be grateful.

Could you give them some Hirelings/NPCs?
Give them higher starting stats (32 Point buy)?
Start them at level 2 instead of 1 (since they are higher level it evens out with only being 3 PCs I think)?
If not Rise of the Runelords starts pretty easy. 1st conflicts are just goblins.

[Giegue]

Remember...these are BEGINNERS. Not skilled optimizers. They have never played a game of pathfinder in their life beyond a casual run through the beginner box in the case of one of them. Two of them have played D&D before, but 1e and 2e AD&D respectively, which have massively different rulesets. None of them have any other experience with either 3.5e or PF sans some exposure via Neverwinter Nights. I don't think making one or more of them play more then one character would be good for them as beginners, which means I'd have to end up giving them DMPCs, and I DON'T want to DMPC for reasons that should not even need to be mentioned.

Increasing the point buy dose little for survivability, as far as I am concerned. You get better stats, so what, still doesn't change the fact there is three of you and more enemies they you are capable of fighting. Starting level of 2 also dosen't really do much, as far as I am concerned, and is not good for beginners anyway, who really should start at level 1 if they want to learn the game. I have flirted with using the Mythic rules, but I fear that giving beginners the mythic rules is just TOO MUCH for them as beginners and would not be helpful in teaching them about the game.

[subject42]

Have you looked at the Paizo module "We be goblins"? It's short, simple, irreverent, and it shows all of the relevant rules.

[Giegue]

Thats a one shot. I am not looking for a one shot. I am planning on using the beginner box, slightly altered to reflect actual PF rules rather then the PF lite it presents, to show them the game. What I am looking for is an actual, full-length, hopefully somewhat long-running adventure path suitable for these players, not a teaching device. The latter I already have. That adventure path need not be Pazio. I am fine with using 3rd party material as well.

Also, that adventure requires them to be goblins. I want them to have flexibility in character creation...to choose the races and classes they want. So that option doesn't work.

[jmelesky]

I'm not sure this is the advice you're looking for, but you might be better off running them through some single modules, even with prerolled characters, rather than diving head-first into an adventure path.

The advantages of pregens in short modules is that it gives the players the opportunity to experience different builds and gain mastery of the rules. Once they've done that a few times, they'll want to try building their own characters, and at that point you can start into an AP.

The Beginner Box adventure, We Be Goblins, and the three "First Steps" PFS scenarios are all good places to start for new players. You can also try a longer module like Crypt of the Everflame.

When you and the players are ready for an AP, Rise of the Runelords has a great reputation. It's designed for 4 PCs (as are all the Paizo APs, so far as I know), but you can mediate that by either providing an NPC, or tweaking the encounters to suit your players. Honestly, you'll probably want to tweak things regardless -- different parties have different levels of strength and expertise, so the challenges should be accordingly varied.

Good luck.

[subject42]

If that's the case, I'm not aware of anything that will work. To my knowledge, all official Paizo adventure paths are four player if they start at 1st level, and the few "three to five" character ones all start at mid levels, with the assumptions (fast travel, wealth, etc) that come with it.

[Giegue]

Ehh....time is an issue for me, and the less tweaking needed the better. I already planned on running them through some teaching adventures at first. That is not what I am looking for here. I am looking for an adventure path to use once they get a grip on the basic rules and can graduate to an actual path. What I am also looking is for is something that takes minimal effort and time for me to run. I am not looking for an adventure I need to de-power for them. That would basically involve re-building the entire module in which case I'd basically be custom-building the adventure, which I already said I don't have the time to do with school.

Thanks for the help, though.

Also, I never said it had to be Pazio offical. Third party paths are on the table, as are 3.5e paths.

[ngilop]

Wait, so you don't want to actualyl do anything to help them LEARN the system. but you want help to teach them how to learn the system and toss experimentla rules at them as well ( mythic rules that is)


? dude, serisouskly.. just run them through the beginner box adventure then transition that over to the Rise of the Runelords adventure path, slamming their braons with the ENTIRETY of the PF rules is the most absolutest way of doing it wrong I can think of.

You want to just teach them the basics at first then slowly introduce them to the other rules.

which is what the boxed set adventure is supposed to do, not throw you in the deep end with nobody there to watch out liek what you want to do to these guys.

[subject42]

When you and the players are ready for an AP, Rise of the Runelords has a great reputation. It's designed for 4 PCs (as are all the Paizo APs, so far as I know), but you can mediate that by either providing an NPC, or tweaking the encounters to suit your players. Honestly, you'll probably want to tweak things regardless -- different parties have different levels of strength and expertise, so the challenges should be accordingly varied.

I ran RotRL for a three-person party a while back, where only one of the players was an experienced gamer. Except for a few specific encounters (I hate that quasit), everything went pretty smoothly. I just removed one monster from each encounter when there was more than one monster in the encounter. I left larger "boss" fights how they were, so they would have a nice, healthy feeling of terror.

If you were able to do it, I'd suggest taking a look at the path. I'm sure there are people on here who would help you out from a DM perspective if things got sticky.

[Giegue]

You took my statement wrong. I already said I was running them through the beginner box first. How did I not make that clear? By alter the rules I basically just meant allowing them to roll for gold, HP ect.. rather then just giving them max. I never said I was going to throw every class and every rule at them all at once. If it came off that way I apologize for it, but that was not what I meant. Sorry if I was not clear on that.

What I am looking for is what do do AFTER I teach them. Not what to start them on. I thought that was clear, but if it was not I apologize.

[ngilop]

Im sorry, you might have been clear.. just not to me LOL

I took it as you didn't want the starter advneuter and wnated to show them ALL the rules.

Rise of the Runelords is probabyl the best balanced Adventure path there is its pretty strasight forward in terms of power creep, and handling it wiht 3 players should be easy if you run them thorugh an 'intro' advenutre first.

they be a level or 2 higher throughout the whole adventure path, and liek previously mentioned it would not be that hard to have random 'red shirt' hirelings come along with them

there are some 'bosses' who are a bit rough and if you need help I will be more than willing to help you with doing the little bit of 'corrections; to run a 3 person party.

[Giegue]

Yeah...the only changes to the beginner box I was going to make was going to be adding more rolling to character gen. While I prefer point buy, my players overwhelmingly prefer rolling for stats, gold, HP ect.. since two of them come from an AD&D background where rolling was THE way to generate basically everything and one of them just likes the randomness of rolling. I am not just assuming this. They have all told me they prefer rolling, hence I have decided to give them what they want and add more rolling to the beginner box.

Other then that I am running the beginner box as-is, possibly introducing a beginner-boxed version of either the sorcerer or the oracle to give them a cha-based option(as the beginner box severely lacks this) if they want to make a charisma character, but I would present it in a beginner box-esc fashion, presenting them with only two bloodlines/mysteries to select from and using the beginner box spell lists.(So beginner box sorc, for example, would use the same list as beginner box wizard if I where to include it.) The sorc or oracle thing is not 100% going to be included either, I was simply considering adding one of those two since I feel the beginner box lacked a good option for a cha-based character, and one of my players may want to play one. I was also thinking about adding the Kitsune race, again, in beginner box presentation, because 2 out of my three players LOVE anthro races and one of them only agreed to play because I told him he could be a Kitsune in it....so yeah.

Anyway, thanks for the offer of help. I will most likely need it. I am horrid at balancing things, as evidenced by most of my attempts at homebrew, so any help I can get with this would be appreciated. I mainly want an easy, quick fix to balance the campaign for three players. I don't have the time to re-write encounters myself. I want to do as little alteration/extra work as possible as my time is extremely limited. So any and all help would be awesome. :smallsmile:

[ngilop]

Well as one person stated already dropping 1 creature when it calls for multiple creatures wil go a long way.

couple that with running thrm through the into advneutre first to get an additional level or 2 would be about spot on.


SPOILER ALERT!!

The quasit Will be an issue for them but she is relatively easy to down play. and the fluff will support this. the Quasit is mad, as in crazy mad, not angry mad. It is easy enough for you to have her act crazy for half the encoutner. I.E. spending the first round or two ranting about how she is the queen and they should bow down or some such, other crazy people acts such as that.

then there is the Lamia issue

the one in SKinsaw murders Xanesha is almost a kill for a full well capable and experienced party, while the lamia in hook mountatin massacre 9 forget her name off the top of my head, but I am sure is starts with an L) is beyond easy to handle. I suggest swapping thier places, as I woudl for any group that wants to play Rise of The Runelords.

those 2 are the only major issues i have with this adventure path, but other than that I have to admit it is the best one.

[Wonton]

Yes, actually. I think I have exactly the answer you're looking for: Serpent's Skull (http://paizo.com/pathfinder/adventurePath/serpentsSkull). The first adventure starts with the PCs and 5 other NPCs getting shipwrecked on an island so it's really easy to get even the most new players to group up and work together (almost everyone has seen Survivor, Lost, Castaway, or has some idea of a "deserted island" story).

Also, the NPCs that are with them are all level 2 and one of them is a cleric with tons of healing - I myself just started running this for a group of 3 and the presence of the Cleric has really made things run quite smoothly. If the encounters are turning out to be kinda tough, just have one or more of the NPCs tag along and help out.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Really I think any of the APs will work for you. The biggest issue you'll face is that they're designed for 4 players using a 15 point buy, but you only have 3 players. You can mitigate that with a DM PC, giving somebody leadership really early (look at the Squire feat) or bumping up the point buy.

For a really fun campaign, why not try Skull & Shackles? Everybody gets to be pirates, and you'll have a pirates crew of potential NPCs / Cohorts to help the players out.