Ok, no, I'm not looking for ways to do a Total Party Wipe, let us just be clear on this.
The thing is that since 10 years, I've run a game using 6 players, instead of the "usual" 4 players. Coincidently, many aspects of D&D resolve around facing a monster of a certain CR with 4 players. Same goes with roles, but since I basically told my team to "do what you want to do", that's not much of a concern.
No cleric? Deal with it. Pretty much...
Now, I've been noticing that many of my encounters aren't scaled that well for 6 players. I use a higher-level monster, it still goes down as fast as a equal-level one. I use multiple creatures, they still go down as fast, mainly because, well, "6 players" means "6 rounds of action" instead of 4.
So yeah... I need some advice. How should I plan my encounters with my 6 players, barring anything that would avoid or tone down such encounters? What I mean is that for a mission to retrieve an item inside a chieftain's tent, I once had a big encounter to defend a camp... and they literally sneaked their way past EVERYONE, like going Solid Snake with a cardboard box and not pulling the trigger once. In short, yes, encounters can be avoid or talked out of and such, but what if a fight is inevitable, what do you suggest I should do when dealing with 6 players?
Should I just add one more creature of the same level?
Should I use a creature of higher level?
Should I use minions more often?
Should I use the surroundings better?
Any advice would be appreciate. Oh and it's for any kind of encounter, not just specific ones.
And no... I will not take "get rid of 2 players" as an advice...
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Use Terrain, Archery [well, ranged combat], and up the CR by either adding more creatures or having a few creatures of a higher CR than normal. Try using the CR of the party [APL+5 for party size] as a measure for your more powerful encounters. Also, tailoring certain encounters to gear towards a common weakness can be useful sometimes to up the challenge. Just don't do it too often.
I run into this all the time as well; my regular group is 6 to 7 people, I add more critters to the fight, up the HP by like 10, for big bads I always make sure to include minions to tie up the fights, use terrain, pump the CL a bit if I can do it on the fly (HP addition and save additions).
It also helps to know your party make up so that you can plan for enemies that specifically target weaknesses (like golems if you've got a caster heavy party or incorporeal things if your weapon heavy). Sure it's sometimes seen as a mean move, but I've always found it works out especially if you don't over do it.
I always like going with one enemy/player as a DM. If I wanted fewer enemies I just picked something bigger did a little math to make sure the players could do their thing to it and wouldn't get splattered by it and rolled with that. Then again I only ever used CR as a very loose guideline since it generally isn't that great at representing what an enemy can do.
If a session runs to easy dial it up next session. If it's to hard tone it down next time. Encounter design is more an art than a science.
That said I always ran with 6 players or more. A 4 player party seems tiny to me.
It is a lot harder to determine appropriate CR when dealing with larger parties of PCs, especially with the action economy! I found that when this happened in a pre-written module, most encounters were a joke (unless someone screwed up big-time). My best solution for the problem? More monsters.
Using the "Party Level = Encounter XP Budget" is great guideline, since you'll have so many more players.
I tend to throw in a few more minions, up the bosses/bruisers a few more HD (adding levels of commoner can do this without increasing their combat value too much), and start to use spells that hamper groups of enemies at a time instead of just single targets. (one of my group's biggest challenges was actually A swarm believe it or not)
As ArmouredMonk13 put it, Terrain and ranged combat are other great factors - throw a few minions up behind parapets, where they have the advantage of cover and higher ground! Or toss those Kobolds with longspears on the far end of a wobbly bridge or spiked pit - now the players have to cross while provoking AoOs! And don't forget the mundane stuff - tanglefoot bags, flasks of acid, smokesticks, and nets will really mess with players (especially since the net is a touch attack, you really don't even need proficiency with it against the big armored folk - the people who tend to charge in first!)
Hope this helped, and happy gaming
Edit: typos and last-minute thoughts
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Depends on the type of encounter you want but I often GM larger groups my usual bag of tricks include:
1) Lots of fodder/mooks. Can be more of a headache to run have sometimes pre-rolled or even rolled for them as groups (e.g. 6 minions get split into two groups of three).
2) I will sometimes max the hp of the monster (especially bosses, sub-bosses). Even for minions I'll generally increase them by 50%
3) Casters with abiltiies to control the battlefield (Black Tentacles is a good way to up the challenge in an encounter) and cast dispel magic are good for important battles.
4) My campaigns generally feature on-going villains so yes I do make use of the tailored encounter to target PCs but use these sparingly.
5) Ensure there's a good mix of opponents. I'm running JR and CC both campaigns feature particular type of monsters very often. So its important to throw them off a bit and dump a golem or aberration into an encounter every so often.
Alright, thanks for the tips people ^_^
I still will take more suggestions though. can't never have enough of those :)