[D&D H1] KotS - Some questions

Rius

tl:dr version at the bottom.

Hey all, I've come out of the lurker shadows in CF to ask for some advice. A week before 4E came out, I heard about it, and decided to get some of my friends into a game. I bought the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure, figuring if we all couldn't get into it, I'd only be out 35 bucks. I'm happy to say that my friends and I are having a lot of fun so far, but I've got a little problem.

I tried to get 5 people to play PCs, but scheduling conflicts and waning interest (or no real interest at all, heh) have resulted in only 4 players. They are playing as the rogue, paladin, cleric, and wizard, so technically they have all 4 roles filled. However, not having the second defender (as well as just a fifth party member overall) is causing some issues. Since this week's session will likely result in the party venturing into the titular Keep itself, I need to find a good solution.

My main problem is it seems like I have way too much damage potential to throw at the PCs. I'm not worried about the group's ability to kill monsters; they're good about working together in that respect. What bothers me is the group's ability to keep up with it by healing. With the exception of the Paladin's AC, none of the party's defenses really seem high enough to stand up to multiple rounds of +4 to +6 attacks versus various defenses, for d8 and d10 damages.

Spoilers about the module's content to follow.

The guard drakes in the dig site encounter are particularily worrisome; with +6 attacks versus AC, they have a 50% chance at least of hitting the non-paladins for 1d10+3 or 1d10+9 damage, and with 48 hp each, they'll be a bit of a pickle to take down. I figure since there are supposed to be two defenders for the two drakes, maybe I'll take out a drake, and then the rest of the encounter seems a little more in-line.

Should I just keep on with this method? Reduce the number of mobs in the fight and reduce the XP to match? Or reduce a tough monster's hp, or the size of it's damage dice, or some other option? Give the PC cleric 3 Healing Word casts per encounter instead of two?

tl:dr, how do I balance the encounters for a party of 4 instead of five? (Rogue, Paladin, Wizard, Cleric).

Infidel

Standard encounters designed are for 5, as you know. 4 to 6 players is within the realm of "easily tweakable". Simply remove one standard monster (of the encounter level) of XP from the encounter, you would add it if you had six players. This may be as simple as removing one creature, or having to adjust the level/composition of the encounter.

Just make sure that you end up with an XP total that is closer to your 4 player adjusted one and it should be good to go. If you feel that your overlooked a special power or situation in the encounter and are owning the party despite them playing smartly and rolling ok, then adjust it somehow behind the scenes, you're the DM after all.

edit: I don't have the KotS adventure, but I guess I could just ask you about your example. Are the drakes standard creatures XP wise, or are they elites? If they are still considered standard XP, then removing one should be an appropriate challenge. Fortunately you have each of the four roles covered, so you shouldn't have to worry about balancing encounters too much beyond the XP value. In this case you are thinking about the defender side of it, but likely the paladin could handle the two if he had to yes? It's not as punishing as if you had no defenders or something.

tastydonuts

I can't wait to finish up and get my live 4E going... adjusting difficulty on the fly in 4E is so much simpler.

Rius

Infidel,

The drakes are just Brutes, they're not exceptional monsters apart from the potential damage output.

As far as the Paladin's Divine Challenge ability, it says "On your turn, you must engage the target or challenge a different target." Engaging means ending your turn adjacent, or attacking, the mark. Let's say on turn 1 you challenge monster A, and then attack it. On turn 2, you challenge monster B. Is the mark removed from monster A? Or do both monsters remain marked if you "engage" both of them, perhaps by the simple expedient of ending your turn adjacent to both?

I have a few more newb questions, if I can find my little list I'll ask them too. Thanks so far!

Infidel

Rius wrote: »

Infidel,

The drakes are just Brutes, they're not exceptional monsters apart from the potential damage output.

As far as the Paladin's Divine Challenge ability, it says "On your turn, you must engage the target or challenge a different target." Engaging means ending your turn adjacent, or attacking, the mark. Let's say on turn 1 you challenge monster A, and then attack it. On turn 2, you challenge monster B. Is the mark removed from monster A? Or do both monsters remain marked if you "engage" both of them, perhaps by the simple expedient of ending your turn adjacent to both?

I have a few more newb questions, if I can find my little list I'll ask them too. Thanks so far!

I haven't made a Defender of my own yet, so I am not 100% on the marking stuff and don't have a book in front of me right now.

But yes, that sounds right to me. You should be able to mark and hold both of the monsters, so long as you can get them in melee range. I think the Paladin has a power that lets them mark multiple targets easier as well?

SanderJK

If you don't have the DMG, just make encounters about as such (For l1)

easy: player x75xp
normal: player x 100xp
hard: player x125xp

Keeping the monsters within those bounds should make it doable. If it's 2 monsters, or a solo, you could tweak it's hp down by 20%, and perhaps it's damage as well.

Inquisitor

To re-balance the encounters is easy.

Go to the total EXP for the encounter and times that number by .8, then subtract and add monsters as necessary to get the EXP total as close to that number as possible.

UncleChet

I don't believe that the paladin can mark two targets. It's a challenge to the target, and they suffer if they don't attack the paladin. I believe it says that if the paladin doesn't engage the target, the challenge ends. I'm running the H1 module myself and it can be very tough.

We're about to engage Irontooth and company inside the lair, and the PCs haven't had a chance to rest from the outside battle.

Soon they'll be heading for the keep itself and I know that it gets tougher in there.

Inquisitor

Paladins get some moves that let them mark more then one target.

Infidel

I think "engaging" the target means either attacking or being adjacent to with a melee weapon if you're not attacking them specifically, no?

Inquisitor

You only need to engage the target if you used divine challenge. And the Paladin can only have one mark at a time up via Divine Challenge. All he has to do is either attack the target or end adjacent to it, or the mark expires and he can't use divine challenge again on his next turn.

Using something like Piercing Smite would let him mark multiple enemies at once, and then let him mark someone else with divine challenge, assuming he engages.

Though, that brings up a question. Are the marks from piercing strike just normal marks, ie, does the enemy just get a -2 to hit if they don't target the paladin? Or, do they leave the same marks divine challenge does, meaning that if the enemy doesn't target the paladin they also take radiant damage?

Samphis

Wizards of the Coast has a few tools to assist. They have added some downloadable side-quests to help get your party more gear and experience.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dufe/20080606a

Registration is required, but this actually adds a bunch of content to the campaign, helps flesh out the story and sets up future story arcs. Check the article titled "Keep on the Shadowfell Side Treks."