Encounter Library Copy
 

I've purchased the Curse of the Crimson Throne Data Package because in the next 2 months I will start to run this campaign for our group. The problem is our group consists of 5 people and I know all encounters are usually based off of 4 characters.

Is there a way I can copy this whole Curse of the Crimson Throne Encounter Library to a new one and then modify the encounters as I see fit, allowing me to leave the original intact and unedited.

If not, what's the best way to scale all these encounters and maintain them?

I would import each encounter into its own por file and adjust them as needed.

That's what I do with my Iron Gods group (six PC party); modify each encounter, save them to individual portfolios to import when encountered, and delete when not needed any more.

Don’t plan too far ahead with this, Joe.

I ran the 3.5e version of the campaign for Pathfinder Beta characters, and I found the PCs to be very strong compared to the 3.5e equivalents. I presume Paizo knows that my experiences are not unique (the forums would indicate thus), and they likely have beefed up the encounters a bit.

I’d run through the first dozen or so encounters without boosting them. If necessary, take over control of the leveling process and only level them up when you think the encounters are tough enough. I have found this to be a better approach when running APs vs. trying to track numerical XP counts...

Thanks, for the advice

This gaming group is really advantaged. We finished Rise of the Runelords over a year ago and switched to Shadowrun for this past year and will again go back to Pathfinder now.

I was maxing all the HP for the beast in the encounters and the party was 1 level lower than the recommended level within the module and they still walked all over those encounters. So I'm sure I'll be doing the same with Curse of the Crimson Throne.

My group is generally strong in relation to what an adventure assumes.

We're using Spheres of Power, as the magic system.
That reduces flexibility once the character is made -- you've made your choices, and like a Sorcerer are locked into those, but the choices during creation allow far more character concepts and flexibility on that end of the game.
The players all seem to stack damage...

The martials are all using Path of War (and Expanded), and are probably hitting a little harder than the casters at this point.
The martial classes have less flexibility in what they can do, but in regards to killing things they're not behind the Spheres of Power casters by any stretch.

At level 11, they had no issues with three CR 18 monsters that were working together intelligently. Nor did they have much issue with eight CR 14s. In both cases, when they saw what the opposition had, they pretty much said... are you kidding me? But then at the end of the session, all the monsters are dead and none of the PCs are.

I open my adventure path encounter library, and save into individual portfolios. Those are put into Realm Works, so I can show the picture to the group and break the defenses/special attacks into snippets for revelation via Monster Knowledge checks. I usually give something to the monsters such as extra hit dice and two mythic ranks (the passives, not the active mythic power abilities) to melee type mobs. Caster type mobs either get ability focus and some hit dice or more class levels. That seems to be a good balance point.

Plus, having them saved as portfolios, makes it easier to find the encounter... I save them in folders by chapter and then name the encounter both a descriptive name and the page number of the PDF.

It doesn't look like your third party choices are limiting players as much as you would think

Well -- Path of War, makes the martial options much stronger than the default classes.

The Spheres of Power is a definite reduction in power, in that you cannot be a Wizard with 49 spell options to choose, and the ability to pick the 11 best options for the situation. If a sphere user chooses Fire, Cold and Acid damages for their Destructive Blasts, but the creature is immune to two of those and resistant to the third... the wizard could fill up their slots with Electrical attacks, but the Incanter is kind of stuck with the choices they've made.

That said, you can focus on anything you want to, and be reasonably strong in that area. The players who want to kill stuff, can build casting type characters who are good at that, in general. Unlike a wizard, they won't be ultimately flexible in what they can do post-character build phase, but like a Sorcerer if they're built to be good at something, they'll probably be good at whatever that is.