Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Callista 04-08-05, 02:21 AM	I'm trying to figure out how to work around my group's large number of players, anywhere from six to twelve, sometimes including cohorts, mounts, familiars, or animal companions. My idea: Act as though they're a party of four, tailoring encounters for that number of people. Then multiply the number of monsters by (# players/4). BBEG encounters and other such special cases would have to be specially created of course... Would this create balanced encounters? What other methods have you used for large parties?
God_in_his_Heaven 04-08-05, 02:46 AM	Well, first of all, you shouln't take into account mounts/familiars/animal companion when trying to find the right CR. What I find works most of the time, is to increase the CR of an encounter by +1 for each character in the group beyond 4 (ex: A group of 7 level 5 adventurers could handle a EL somewhere around 8). Of course, it's better to use groups of low CR creatures instead of using a big one, otherwise it will lead to a lot of PK. You could always use a program to do this through... like this (http://www.d20srd.org/encounterCalculator.htm)
Lina_Inverse 04-08-05, 02:54 AM	cohorts,mounts, familiars and other abilitys are part of the owning charecters CR.they do not drain exp or raise the CR of the group,nor encounter levels of proper encounters. if you have more than 4 players uping numbers is often better than uping CRs.upped CRs end in tougher numbers than they should face.however it means area of effect attacks are stronger. but who cares,makeing fireball better is a GOOD thing.
Callista 04-08-05, 03:02 AM	I'm not counting them--I'm just noting that there are a LOT of bodies on the battlefield. The number of players is generally anywhere from six to eight. One player (I can't prevent him; he's another of the DMs and no one else seems to think it a problem) insists on buying slaves and running them as though they were extra characters (getting XP as part of the party)--so, one game, he ran what amounted to three PCs, without the Leadership feat. These, I do count when I calculate CR. Max number of PCs: Usually no more than ten. Max number of warm (or quickly cooling) bodies on the battlefield: Has hit sixteen on occasion, but usually no more than twelve.
Nom 04-08-05, 03:35 AM	Act as though they're a party of four, tailoring encounters for that number of people. Then multiply the number of monsters by (# players/4). BBEG encounters and other such special cases would have to be specially created of course... Would this create balanced encounters?Yes. It will create encounters that are exactly as balanced as the CR system can manage, and is by far the most robust way to scale encounters for more than four players. One potential gotcha - both the PCs and bad guys should avoid clustering too close together. Area attack spells are more potent against tightly bunched opponents.
Best DM ever 04-08-05, 03:47 AM	Add in more monsters...It's simple, a second creature of the same level makes for a Encounter Level (EL) of the original +2. A third gives an additional +1. After that it's just slightly modified. So, if you want a regular CR for that encounter, it should take about 20% of the party's resources. Basically, you might want to figure out your party's EL, then face them against something 3-4 levels below that. So, 10 PCs, estimated level 3? that's a Encounter Level of... 3+3=5 (2 PCs) 5+3=6 (3 PCs) 6+3=7 (4 PCs) 7+3=7+ (5) (7+)+3=8 (6) basically 1/2 of a level per character after that...so it should end up being about 9+ for your encounter level. Make the offending party be about A CR 5+, I think. Of course, I could be wrong, try an out-of-campaign gladiatorial fight to test this out. Use the PCs the group has, and see what kind of havoc they stir up. Or....divide the group in two....10 people....or 2 DMs and 4 each?