Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Korethr 01-07-07, 12:41 AM	I have finally managed to pick up a copy of The Shackled City and will probably be starting a game here within the month. I was reading the first chapter, trying to get a feel for how the game might go, and what to expect, and found myself wondering if my players would level up as quickly as the book expects. I was of the understanding that encounters are balanced against a party of four. Well, I was planning on having 6 players in my game, and was worried that they might not reach level 3 by the end of the first chapter because of this. So I calculated the XP for all the encounters and it turns out that they would, and there would be no need for supplemental adventures between chapters 1 and 3. I was then wondering how one balances these things. A party of 6 is more powerful than a party of 4, and same for a party of 8 compared to 6. Now more characters would mean that the whole party would take some time to level up. But if I try to counteract this by giving them more experience or adjusting the levels of the encounters, do I risk throwing things out of balance? I'll be running a game for some veteran players (some of which have been playing since 2nd ed, maybe even 1st), and I am admittedly nervous about screwing things up like I did the first time I tried to run a game. Can anyone give me any pointers here?
theotherdraxen 01-07-07, 12:52 AM	Best quick fix: party faces 1.5x normal number of enemies. Or try to add one to the CRs of your encounters (BBEGs get an extra class level or two).
scott644 01-07-07, 01:12 AM	Best quick fix: party faces 1.5x normal number of enemies. Or try to add one to the CRs of your encounters (BBEGs get an extra class level or two). I agree. Adding quantity ensures a similar challenge rating, plus everybody can have different targets, while not overloading the party with creatures too individually powerful for the party to handle. I remember seeing that mistake being made my first game in 3.x D&D. The DM was trying to challenge us - a party of eight low level adventurers. So he decided to give us a single tough monster - a stone giant - and very nearly had a two-round TPK. If he'd just sent about fifteen clever kobolds, we'd have had a much better challenge without being overwhelmed.
Mitchell 01-07-07, 01:15 AM	There are a few things you can do. 1) Fake it. Just give everyone 1 1/2 X the XP they would normally get, so everything stays proportional. This is perhaps a bit easy, though, as the party is still larger. 2) Bigger challenges. Go through everything and raise the challenge level as appropriate for the bigger party. Usually this is just a matter of throwing in another beastie or two, though you could also add a level or three to some monsters as appropriate. The increase in party size will make single creatures that much easier to defeat, so multiplying the number of hostiles by 1.5 or throwing in an extra hostile is probably better for maintaining the challenges. 3) Prepare an occasional side-quest to bring them up to speed. This may be necessary anyway, as there is no guarantee that they will get XP out of every possible challenge in any given section of the adventure, and the longer the arc, the more likely they will miss out on some XP somewhere along the way.