Post/Author/DateTime	Post
coldreboot 12-19-05, 08:29 AM	Hi, I'm starting a campaign in January, and I've managed to bag 2 more players unexpectantly making a total of six players. Trouble is, I've only ever DMed for 3 players max before, so I little unsure about how many monsters I should be throwing at them per encounter. How many do you think? I'm planning the first adventure to be mainly featuring Troglodytes. Also what level do you recommend for single monster encounters? For example, where I was going to put 1 ghoul, should I know put two because of the extra players? It would be good if everyone could level up at the end of the first adventure. Thanks in advance for the advice.
Rising Dragon 12-19-05, 08:36 AM	Yes just adding a few more monsters to single encounter should help. More monsters gives everybody a chance to attack something and prove useful. Avoid using single more powerful monster as ether the players will easly beat it by ganging up, or the encounter could end up too powerful for the group. If add monster or monsters equal to the party's level you should be fine.
imperialjunkie 12-19-05, 08:38 AM	I feel your pain. I have a group of 7. It can be tough to figure out. Doubling the Encounter level is too much. I use an encounter calculator (http://www.geocities.com/edymnionii/EPLvsEL.html) that figures out the Encounter Level and the Effective Party Level down to the decimal point. Makes it easy to made sure your encounters are in the ballpark.
donteatdave 12-19-05, 10:28 AM	I've had this problem too--I ran for nine players once (never again! :yuck: )it's certainly doable, but having said that I now try to keep my number of players down. Just adding a few more monsters will often work. A larger number of weaker monsters is better, as a single appropriately-leveled monster will generally be too much for a bunch of weaker PCs. Generally, they have trouble hitting its AC and beating saves, SR, and DR while the monster hits them almost every time and regularly beats their saves. A good general rule, we've found in our group, is to add 1 to the encounter level for every player over 4. For example, if you have six level 7 PCs and you want to give them a standard-difficulty challenge (uses some resources but shouldn't kill them), look for something ECL 9 (Level 7 +1/player past 4). In this case, two CR 7 creatures should work--tough, but if they play smart and work together, beatable.
coldreboot 12-19-05, 11:27 AM	I feel your pain. I have a group of 7. It can be tough to figure out. Doubling the Encounter level is too much. I use an encounter calculator (http://www.geocities.com/edymnionii/EPLvsEL.html) that figures out the Encounter Level and the Effective Party Level down to the decimal point. Makes it easy to made sure your encounters are in the ballpark. I just had a look at that calculator and I have to say I'm a little suspicious of it. It seems to think 6 level 1 players would find 2 level 1 encounters 'challenging' and 3 'very hard'. They can't be that useless at level 1 surely? :confused: Could three trogolodytes wipe out my players? :eek:
Foofer1976 12-19-05, 11:44 AM	What i do is take the party's level take that plus 2 and find you monster in the back of the DMG. Or Take for a for instance level 5 party 4 level 3 monsters 6 to 8 level 2 monsters 3 level 4 monsters and it's wise to look at the special ability of the monsters cause not al party's of the same level can slay a medusa. Depends on the party's classes My party is level 6 They beat the living @##$#@ out of 2 CR 8 devils Greets Foofer
imperialjunkie 12-19-05, 11:45 AM	I just had a look at that calculator and I have to say I'm a little suspicious of it. It seems to think 6 level 1 players would find 2 level 1 encounters 'challenging' and 3 'very hard'. They can't be that useless at level 1 surely? :confused: Could three trogolodytes wipe out my players? :eek: No. The designations "Challenging" and "Very Hard (or Difficult)" are technical terms for balancing encounters within the grand scheme of the adventure. See Table 3-2 on pg. 49 of the DMG. "Challenging" is an equal Encounter Level in comparison to the Effective Party Level. "Very Difficult" means that the Encounter Level is 1-4 levels higher than the Effective Party Level. The main help that this calculator would be for you is that it calculates Encounter Level and Effective Party Level to the decimal point, factoring in more PCs than 4. If you try to even out those two figures then you should be fine. And always remember that an appropriate Encounter Level isn't meant to be an even challenge but instead a challenge that would use 1/4 of the party's resources. So three trodglodytes wouldn't wipe out the party, but they would use 1/4 or more of the party's resources (spells, potions, hit points, class features, etc.).
Rising Dragon 12-19-05, 12:23 PM	Could three trogolodytes wipe out my players? I would say no, as a party six level one PC have a 2 to 1 advantage over the trogolodytes. And overall should be able to dish out more damage than the trogolodytes would be able to. low level you shouldn't have to adjust encounters too much, maybe just adding another monster or two at most
StormCrow42 12-19-05, 12:49 PM	6 PCs is 1.5 times as many as a "standard" party of 4. I would recommend just adding half again as many monsters (3 rather than 2, 6 rather than 4, etc). For a single monster, you can either advance them slightly (but be careful, higher CR monsters often end up with abilities that your party can't counter at their level) or give them a slightly lower CR companion/minion. A party of 7-8 can usually handle double the monsters of a 4 character party, you can mix up the additions a bit to provide some variety. Just remember that the larger the party, the more likely it is that a single powerful monster will either go down instantly by being out-acted by the party, or be too powerful and completely wipe them out. More monsters is always better than bigger ones.
coldreboot 12-19-05, 01:57 PM	Thanks guys, as always very helpful! :D