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Hello, new DM about to start a campaign for the first time with 8(!)players. I just have a question on how people would handle creating encounters. What should be the main focus to make a huge party sweat? 1. Huge damage? 2. Hard to kill enemies? 3. Enviornmental hazards? 4. Attacking their weaknesses? They're all starting at level 7.

My problem is: option 1-people will die. 2-take forever and some characters will feel useless, people will die. 3-I guess I see no problem with this except tactical fights are very long(but i love them) 4- people will die/possible party wipe.

I know a good mix of everything will do just fine, but it's very hard for me to judge how most fights are going to go with that many people. Maybe someone has some experience with big parties and how to keep it interesting without just murdering people? I would love to hear your take and maybe any formulas that can help me create the rest of my battles.

Hello, first post and I'm about to run my first campaign. "Attack action" is killing me on this. In what instances can you sunder? Charge? Vital Strike? Whirlwind attack? every attack on your full attack? The more I think about it the more undecided I become and it's going to become vital in the campaign.