Player Cap


Rules Questions


What amount of players is recommended for the modules? for example The dragon's Demand ( And would 6 be ok ? ) Thanks :)

Liberty's Edge

The game assumes a four person party. Having six players is more powerful and the challenge rating guidelines suggest you treat the players as one level higher.
A group of 6 level 8 characters should be fighting as well as a group of 4 level 9 characters.


The recommended number is 4-6

The number of players helps determine appropriate CR, to give you an idea of the number of players you "should" have.

2-3 is CR=APL-1

4-5 is CR=APL

6-7 is CR=APL+1

Most experienced players will agree that 6 is usually the happy number for a "big" party.

7 CAN work, but starts to become a little glacial. Make sure that you have players who know what they're doing and can make decisions quickly if you want to have that last person. 7 is really the most you should ever have

8 is just too big and should really be split into 2 parties.

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Animal Companions/Mounts are ALREADY calculated into the power of a Class, and thus should have no bearing on APL.

Cohorts should count as a full-on character with an effective level equal to its Leader's level (regardless of its own personal Level, which cannot be greater than its Leader's Character Level -2).


Also realize that the CR of a Monster might not actually be accurate to its effectiveness in Combat.

While 6 characters makes CR = APL+1 in theory, 6 lv11 characters might actually utterly destroy a CR15 monster simply because for every 1 Standard/Move Action or Full Round Action the CR15 gets, the lv11s get 6.

In reality, 3 CR12 monsters are likely a more-effective CR15 encounter than a single Monster, due to the Party members only getting twice as many actions as the enemies.

6 CR10s will likely be even MORE effective because the Players' Actions vs the Enemy's Actions is pretty much a 1:1 ratio.

This is what's called "Action Economy".


We play Adventure Paths with 6 people that know how to work together. A basic rule of thumb we use is 50% more "simple" bad guys and max hit points for all of them.

It seems to work out pretty good. A single PC has died in each one, which usually comes from a bad roll and/or decision, so that seems to fit just about perfect.

YMMV.

Grand Lodge

As Falcar said, the modules and APs are usually written assuming a 4 player party using a 15 point buy.

You can run with 6, and it is usually recommended that you bump up the enemies a bit, depending on how many PCs and what point buy they used.

4 PCs, 20 point buy, leave as is, but keep an eye on it.

5 PCs, 20 point buy, bump monster hit points to max, but keep an eye on it, especially is you have sessions where not everyone shows up.

6 PCs, 20 point buy, max hit points, and consider adding more mooks. Keep a careful eye on it, as things could go south quickly.

Remember that even a 6 PC, 20 point party can get themselves into deep trouble, if they activate multiple encounters at the same time. Or decide to investigate an area that they shouldn't.

Godsmouth Heresy:
IIRC, there is an area in Godsmouth Heresy where there is an opening to a lower level that the PCs are not supposed to investigate. The PCs will be 1st or 2nd level, and the area leads to an area infested with Morhg, which are CR 8 undead.

I just TPKed a party because they let an enemy run away, and their positioning required it to go through another encounter's area, sending that encounter to investigate why the one guy was running away. It didn't help that I was rolling well, the PCs were rolling badly, their main healer was AWOL that day, and that they were well past the point where they should have found a safe area and rested up.

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