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Terraoblivion
2008-06-07, 08:36 PM
Today i found myself volunteering for running Keep on the Shadowfell, mostly because i am too lazy to create a scenario myself, for some of my friends. There should be no real trouble there, had it not been for the fact that i only have three players while the module is balanced for five players. The easiest solution would probably be to add two DMPCs, but that would also overshadow the players and just add general weirdness. Instead i am trying to rebalance the encounters to work for three players, but not having played the game yet i am not entirely certain what would work well. Reducing the amount of enemies is of course part of it, but i don't know which or how many.

Though possibly subject to change the party as it is looks to be a halfling rogue, an eladrin wizard and an eladrin warlord instead of any of the premade characters from the module. Not the most durable party, though it should at least be effective at dealing damage and causing status effects. I would give more information if i could, but the PCs are not ready yet so i don't actually know what they will end up like.

Azerian Kelimon
2008-06-07, 08:51 PM
The DMG has rules for how to deal with a smaller party. Check it out. I'll give you the page if I'm not ninja'd.

Terraoblivion
2008-06-07, 09:58 PM
If you are referring to the small bit on page 31, Azerian, then i have read it and it is not much help in this specific situation. The comments in regards to party composition does not fit with what the players actually want to play and what it said about scaling monsters i already know. What i wondered about was if anybody with more experience GMing than i have and a better sense of game mechanics than me, neither of which are huge achievements, had any suggestions for how to utilize it as pertains specifically to Keep on the Shadowfell.

Azerian Kelimon
2008-06-07, 10:04 PM
If you are referring to the small bit on page 31, Azerian, then i have read it and it is not much help in this specific situation. The comments in regards to party composition does not fit with what the players actually want to play and what it said about scaling monsters i already know. What i wondered about was if anybody with more experience GMing than i have and a better sense of game mechanics than me, neither of which are huge achievements, had any suggestions for how to utilize it as pertains specifically to Keep on the Shadowfell.

Kick the CR down at least one notch, if not TWO notches. KotS is really brutal on a normal sized party. A smaller party lacking some roles will be ripped to shreds by the second encounter, and let's not talk about Irontooth. Make the monsters play relatively dumb.

To tell the truth, KotS is not a good module to use for a smaller group. It includes many over-Player-CR encounters, and it's designed to push a normal group with average luck to its limits. If I were running it with three players, I'd just throw up something on the fly (Preferably a dungeon crawl to give the PC's their first level and get 'em accustomed to the mechanics), and use KotS to give me ideas on how to make encounters.

Terraoblivion
2008-06-07, 10:26 PM
I understand the sentiment and to be perfectly honest there are only three reasons i am not doing exactly that. The first is that i am only GM'ing because my friends have exams and that i do in fact not like filling out that role, so it is the easiest way. The second is that i do not feel anything like confident in my knowledge of the system to avoid having things break down completely on me. The third is that i have until Wednesday to be ready and as such don't have much time to prepare anything myself, which together with the inexperience of reason number two means i am by no means certain i would be ready if i had to make something from scratch.

As for playing the monsters stupidly there is no risk of that not being the case. My tactical sense is horrible so all monsters would act stupid as it pertains to combat in my hands. I might be perfectly able to pull off an articulate and devious goblin in a social encounter, but the moment it comes to battle my ideas of what is smart run out.

Pyroconstruct
2008-06-07, 10:29 PM
Bump the party to level 4 is your best bet. You want to aim for 500 XP cap (going by the chart) so 3x level 4 PCs does that most closely (525).

Azerian Kelimon
2008-06-07, 10:31 PM
I understand the sentiment and to be perfectly honest there are only three reasons i am not doing exactly that. The first is that i am only GM'ing because my friends have exams and that i do in fact not like filling out that role, so it is the easiest way. The second is that i do not feel anything like confident in my knowledge of the system to avoid having things break down completely on me. The third is that i have until Wednesday to be ready and as such don't have much time to prepare anything myself, which together with the inexperience of reason number two means i am by no means certain i would be ready if i had to make something from scratch.

As for playing the monsters stupidly there is no risk of that not being the case. My tactical sense is horrible so all monsters would act stupid as it pertains to combat in my hands. I might be perfectly able to pull off an articulate and devious goblin in a social encounter, but the moment it comes to battle my ideas of what is smart run out.

Okay then. My suggestion then is to remove two monsters or ten minions from every battle. Whenever there's an elite, take four monsters out, and when there's a Solo, EVERY other monster goes out of the window, AND the solo takes a penalty of -3 to everything and loses 30-50 HP. Whenever an encounter is over the CR of the party, either kick monsters out or give substantial penalties to the mobs (-4 to hit, damage, etc, and a reduction in HP, for example). With that, you SHOULD be able to give the players an interesting session. It'll need plenty of fine tuning, but the basics are there.

Daracaex
2008-06-08, 12:31 AM
Or run the extra encounters from the "Side Treks" article featured in Dungeon on the Wizards site. Those should give them a bit of an xp boost.

NephandiMan
2008-06-08, 02:09 AM
Instead of adding two DMPCs, why not ask your players if two of them are willing to run extra characters?

TheOOB
2008-06-08, 02:25 AM
Trying running a couple of side adventures, quick things with simple maps and one or two encounters (half an hour to design tops) to maybe get them a level or two, and maybe a couple magic items that make them a little better then characters their levels should be, this will give them a nice boost of power to start.

After that, reduce the numbers of enemies if the encounter looks like it will be tough, and remember you don't always have to make the best tactical choices possible. Some monsters may...forget to use their healing surges and action points, or that goblin might accidentally provoke an AoO when shifting next to the fighter(my DM is annoying, whenever a marked opponent shifts, I try to take my AoO and he takes back his move, remembering it's a bad idea).