[Pathfinder] Trying to figure out CR

[Vulkan]

I got 3-4 level 5 characters with AC scores of the upper teens and lower twenties and my turn is coming up next for round robin DMing.

The foe is undead and yes I know they don't have con but the sheet has auto fill so I had to use the CHA for con to make things fill in neatly.

http://charactersheet.co.uk/pathfinder/#/statblock/556540251a9b32030004a89f

Party comp is

Nature oracle that's deaf
Mammoth rider or order of the beast cavalier one of the two..
Cleric of the wind that is CN and is a pain in my backside
Catfolk investigator

I was told throwing 12 Ghoul Wolves would be a good combat for them.
But I was also told that would be cruel and sadistic.
Please help~

[Geddy2112]

Since your are going to have undead the cleric is going to have a clear advantage, the oracle as well since I assume they know every cure spell of their level and can cast multiple times. Having a single boss is going to be a walk in the park-the party can gang up and easily kill a single undead.

12 ghoul wolves would be hard if the wolves went first and paralyzed them all, but easy if the cleric can channel them all to death quickly.

If you are sticking to the undead theme, mix the two ideas. Have a horde of lesser skeletons-some archers so the cleric can't channel them into dust, and then a boss skeleton. Another option would be not to use undead, but if you must diversify the encounter enough where it is not over in the first round. Another option is to use waves of enemies to burn the channel energy/cure spells over a duration instead of being able to just spam per day abilities in the fight.

[Vulkan]

:smallamused: Maybe proud the player's weakness as a person and itchy trigger finger?
Yes, I'll first make it seem like I'm trying to make them all seem awesome by having scenarios that have skills they're proficient with pop up so they can look awesome and then just have weak foes gang up on them..

Then the anti paladin skeleton and his "honor guard" comes

You're cruel.

[Geddy2112]

Cruelty is for your undead antipaladin :smallbiggrin:

I would say it would be cruel to your other players if you only have 1 encounter the divine casters can dominate. The cavalier and investigator are going to feel weak in comparison when the cleric is blasting positive energy. Even once the channels are out, the oracle has 2 cure moderate wounds and 4 cure light wounds, and the cleric can spontaneous cast that plus a couple cure serious wounds. This amount of oomph will outright ruin undead, and if your casters have half a brain they won't be wasting their cure spells on skeletons and zombies. Since channel is an area ability, the players can bunch up when wounded and wait for the horde undead to get close and the cleric will spend the readied action to channel. This will heal the party and murder the minions.

A wave based approach is going to force the players to think and be tactical with their X/day abilities or face the consequences.

[Vulkan]

Oh, no I mean taking into consideration the player's personality and habits and designing a session with traps with those in mind.

The guy playing the cleric will obviously use channel positive energy in the first encounter because he's never used it before. It's a bright and shiny new spell to him.

He also loves to play that kind and benevolent person to child and female npcs.