Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Buddydutch Nov 22, 2014 6:15:54	Hi  guys,   I'am prepering the game Hoard of the dragon queen. I will be the DM, and 'the party' consist of 6 players. I have just recieved the Monster Manual and together with the free DM basic rules, I have been puzzled about adjusting the difficulty of combat encounters. One conculsion i hope to make (and would love too get feedback on) is: If i calculate the treshold of the party and secondly compare the monster(s) xp to that treshold,  is oke too assume too 'level up' the diffuculty by one level (easy result=> make it medium by adding/adjusting monsters), wich will result in an encounter challenging for 6 players, not 4 (standard for hoard of the dragon queen encounters)?   For example: 8 kobolds => party of level 2 For 4 players the diffuclty would be stated as: 25 (xp per kobold) x 8(amount of monsters) x 2,5(mulitplier for 4 player) = 500 .  Wich results in a encounter rated as 'Medium(400) - Hard(600) for 6 player : 25 (xp per kobold) x 8(amount of monsters)  x 2 (mulitplier for 6 player) = 400. Wich results in an encounter rated as easy(300) - medium(600) .. wich is not the diffculty intended in the book, it need too be 'medium-hard'.   I dont feel like doing both these calculations for every frick'n encounter.. so once again: What is your opnion about 'leveling up' the diffculty of the encounter by 1 level.  Easy? => make it Medium.  Medium?=> make it Hard.   THANKS!
#2 iserith Nov 22, 2014 7:32:44	Here, make it easy on yourself and use this tool:   5e Monster List & Encounter Builder
(Reply to #2) OoftaMeg	iserith wrote:
#4 gmanjkd Nov 22, 2014 8:48:21	My group is 6 to 7 pcs. You are are running with 1.5 the number of pcs so multiply the number of monsters by 1.5. Instead of 8 cultist the party encounters 12. Instead of 6 kobolds use 9. Easy on the fly.....not perfect but thats the beauty of being the DM you can always tweek things as you go. Hope this helps.
#5 Buddydutch Nov 22, 2014 14:14:52	Ahhh ill use my ipad for that encounter builder and give a try, looks like the best option .. I like that i shows the page number of the Monster manual!! THANKS
#6 MonsterEnvy Nov 22, 2014 14:48:17	Note that it's a bit out of date as it was made before the final rules came in.
#7 Kentus Nov 22, 2014 17:06:22	Honestly, HotDQ will be still difficult enough for 6 players, especially some encounters are dependent on number of players. Play the first episode without any further increase in monsters and you'll see.   The only things I might consider is to use the XP-rules over the milestone ones (which will delay their advancement a bit, but keep it pretty balanced) and to increase Rezmir's legendary actions to 3, so she can better disrupt the party.
(Reply to #6) Buddydutch	MonsterEnvy wrote:
#9 Nevvur Nov 23, 2014 19:06:20	When 5e launched, I was on the fence about running my own setting, or HotDQ. I ran a solo party through the first few chapters of Hoard to get some practice with the new system, and decide whether to use official content or my own. I ultimately opted for the latter. My party of five was fairly optimized, and of course I couldn't really surprise myself with any of the developments written into the adventure. Even so, Episode 1 was pretty rough, and I nearly TPKd myself in Episode 3 (room 9, added a berserker as suggested).    Point being, I don't think you'll find a party of 6 is extremely unbalanced against the module as written, at least through the first few chapters, and I would caution against adding additional enemies unless your group is seriously thrashing. I think you're better of taking it easy on them to begin with, and only scaling up the difficulty once your slightly-large party is acclimated to one anothers' tactics. As always, a series of bad PC rolls or good enemy rolls can very quickly bring the quest to a screeching halt.