Our group consists of 4 people (3 players, 1 alternating DM), finding a 3 character party somewhat limiting we have gotten used to running two characters each. We are wanting to play the mega adventure series of Cormyr/Shadowdale and Anauroch, but we would like to carry on with our two characters each. I know that XP in 3.5 is somewhat self adjusting but what are peoples views on what character level the starting PC's should be and whether we need to adjust the XP rewards to keep things on an even keel. What we don't want to have to do is the DM to go through beefing up each encounter that is a too onerous task.
Well, my players are just finishing Chapter 2 of Cormyr. There are 5 PCs, they all started at 4th level, and just reached 5th level after the Tomb of Chonis encounter.
They've found the combat side of the adventure challenging but not overwhelming. I have generally compensated for the extra PC (over the standard 4) by giving most enemies an extra 20% HP. Seems to work.
so you want to play the adventure with 6 characters? I don't think the adventure will be much of a challenge then, even if you beef the npc's and monsters. I've played to the first part of the trilogy and four characters seemed perfect for this adventure. If you insist on letting the pc's run two characters each I think i would reduce their level by one or two, thus starting the adventure at 2nd or 3rd level. Although this could be very deadly for some of the encounters so perhaps you could compensate by letting the pc's have good stats and hp's and even better equipment than normal (Espescially HP's). Of course you could always increase the number of opponents to compensate for the increased number of pc's, although this will lead to alot of work for you as the DM. If you choose to go with 6 characters I would also increase the level of the main villains by one or two.
Cormyr, Char levels and numbers
Posted - 26 Sep 2007 : 23:29:37
