New CK Questions - A0-A12 3 Players ?

Background:

- I'm coming from Pathfinder (A system I really like)

- I'm GM for my Bro, my Mum & my Nephew - we play on fantasy grounds

- My Real World commitments have left our campaign on pause for a year; 8th level Pathfinder is quite demanding for the GM & I want to get back to playing with a simpler system.

- I can't be doing with all these old school systems with 4 classes, Castles has 13 in PHB & 14 in the Adventurer's backpack & I intend to offer them all, that's why I chose the system.

- We won't be using any of the various multi/ dual classing systems on offer; I'm sure they're great, but I want to keep things simple for everyone on the 1st campaign.

- We'll be playing the Undying War adventure path.

Questions:

- As they are 3 players, & Undying War is designed for 4-6, I need to adjust the difficulty. My instinct is just to start them at 2nd level. In Pathfinder, this kind of adjustment works great. But I'm aware that Pathfinder is very strongly differentiated by level; since I've never played anything else, I don't know if it would work for C&C, or if it would continue to work over the course of the adventure path.

- Ideally, I don't want to make them have more than 1 PC each, or run a GM PC (I have enough going on making the adventure interesting & staying on top of the rules).
I'd also prefer not to have them need to have hirelings/ companions, although this is the least objectionable to me, especially if we have a Knight in the party, since it seems to tie in nicely with the abilities of the class. Despite my preferences, if this is the best way of doing things, I'm OK with any of these options.

- Another idea I had is to reduce the number of XP required for each level, so that they continue to level up more quickly & keep pace with the adventure as it gets to higher levels. Can any experienced players suggested an XP multiplier that would work well for my purposes ?

- Is this still the place to post for the FG Forge ruleset ? That's the one I'm using.

Thanks for your time.

I would start them at level 2 and I would level them up at milestones rather than by XP.
You might give the enemies 1/3 or 1/2 less HP as well. They still hit just as hard but they die quicker.

Thanks. Appreciate the response. So by milestones, do you think, make sure they're at +1 recommended level at the start of each adventure module, regardless of XP track ?
I think I would rather reduce enemy numbers, rather than alter the stat-block, just for convenience. But I will bear your numbers in mind as a guide & probably use them for single enemy/ boss encounters.

Yes definitely start at +1 and stay +1.
If the adventure should see characters go from Level 1 to 3 by the end of the adventure then make sure you level them up again in the middle of the adventure and again near or at the end.

Do whatever feels right for you without too much admin overhead.
For me adjusting HP down is about the same effort as removing NPCs.
Both methods work - they just give you slightly different flavors.

You are going to need at least one muscle - Fighter, Barbarian etc
You will need a Wizard but they are very fragile at low levels
Cleric is more valuable than a Rogue
If you don’t have a Cleric add a few healing potions to the treasure

That's great, thank you.
I am confident they'll make a reasonably balanced party; even for our Pathfinder Campaign, I explained the need for a frontliner, some healing & some decent spellcasting. They liked to spread that amongst the party a bit, with a Paladin, a Druid & an Inquisitor, which worked well.
That's one of the reasons I chose C&C - it has enough classes to cover the bases without silo-ing people too hard into strict roles.
At least when they choose a frontliner or healer, they'll have several options & can overlap a bit into other areas.
On reflection, you're right, reducing hit points could be just as easy as changing enemy numbers.

After more reading, I realise that I will probably be better off using some kind of multiplier or XP bonus ,rather than using Milestone levelling.

This is because C&C uses differing XP tracks as a power balancing method between classes. For example, the only penalty the spontaneous casting Primal Druid pays vs the prepared casting Druid, is a higher XP track. They even get additional powers on top.
There are many other examples where the XP track is used to balance otherwise un-equal classes.
So I've come to the conclusion that I need to calculate what I must multiply the slowest xp-track character's xp by, to put them at the right level for a given adventure, then apply the same ratio to everyone else, to maintain the class balance.
That will mean they level up at different times. But I see that as both inherent & desirable in the ruleset.