GirlInHat, some advice on the CR stuff. Feel free to take it or leave it, but I think you're approaching this the wrong way. it sounds like your problem with the CR system isn't going to be it being inherently easy, but that you're not really using it to it's potential.
Random Encounters are supposed to have a minimal risk of life and limb, but a cost in resources. They are meant for long overland journeys, or trips into dungeons, where they wear players down through attrition. Characters don't need to worry about dieing from every fight, but they do need to worry about overextending themselves and getting roflstomped by bosses, traps, or a random encounter that caught them unprepared that they would NORMALLY be able to handle just fine, but have difficulty with simply because so many of their options are gone.
So you have a group of 6 level ones, and 4 goblins. Do your magic users use up their valuable magic? Are the goblins focusing on one player, creating a serious risk if they don't expend valuable resources? Do they have anything of value that will make the fight worth it? (Goblins generally don't, making fighting them a losing proposition even if you win) One or two good hits, and your suddenly fighting at less than optimal because you've used up a healing spell or item.
With that sort of approach in mind, where encounters and Challenge Ratings are focused on the role of an encounter in the context of a larger, longer, more grueling adventure or module, the Challenge Rating rules aren't easy at all. Depending on the length of the particular adventure, they can be quite brutal. Especially once you start getting into the higher levels where even a relatively nonthreatening creature can cause serious long term problems for the group.
Even beyond that, having the creatures react intelligently is a lot better than throwing bigger numbers at the players, which tends to make combat miserably long. A band of 4-5 properly played goblins could easily be enough of a threat to a party of six to make them seriously want to avoid the encounter. Pathfinder Goblins have bows, and darkvision, and bonus stealth (and a love for setting things on fire) - make the encounter happen at night, in the woods, as an ambush! Have the goblins light the players wagon on fire and kill their horses (Goblins absolutely hate horses) and run off gibbering, content with having murdered the foul equine beasts. Have them pursue the players, using hit and run tactics to wear them down, and if the players fail to scare them off for good or defeat them, have them stick around and show up when the players run into the NEXT encounter.
Are the goblins even TRYING to kill the players? Maybe whatever they want is worth less than the difficulty of fighting them, and giving it to them really is the best option!
Not every encounter has to be a threat to the players lives, and it shouldn't be - you want a sense of rising tension in most games, where the stakes get progressively more dire until the climax. If you're going to have encounters with level ones, take it easy and just threaten their livelihood, wealth, and valuable equipment instead. (Note: Most players will do far more to protect these things than they will their lives!) Change the flavour of the encounter by putting the players in a worse situation instead of throwing a wall of enemies at them and bogging the game down in incredibly boring mechanics and boring optimal-path outcomes. Wear them down. Make them fear passing off even an "easy" encounter not because they will die, but simply because they will come out worse than they went in and they can't afford to be worse than they went in if they are going to succeed NEXT time as well! Personally, that's enough most of the time.
Final piece of advice:
Swap monster details to make them a bit harder for players to identify. Keep them on edge, make them work those knowledge checks and stay on their toes. Don't hesitate to change bestiary details - after all, any knowledge the players have about these critters is OOC and shouldn't apply to the game anyway.
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Topic: Pathfinder Non-Sequential - Girlinhat is your DM! (Read 92915 times)