I am going to start our STAP in the next couple of weeks (I had to wait until the end of football season) and was wondering what party size works the best.
Right now I've got 4 players. One is a paragon level player/DM, two others are pretty darn experienced, and one is experienced mostly with 2nd ed. I also already have a waiting list of 3 others.
I want to keep the party relatively small to allow a lot of interaction, but I don't want them getting wiped out...which is now a concern after reading the obituary thread!
So far we have a monk, a paladin, a cleric and a warblade/rogue/hexblade/swordsage (undecided as of yet) who wants to take the corsair PrC. So we're definitely lacking arcane spell casting and very possibly a rogue.
So, should I keep it to four or expand it?
I'd go with 5 but then again I have 5 players in my (non-ST)campaign. A lot depends on how reliable your players are and whether or not you think they will attend every session. If some players are going to be missing sessions then you may want to have an extra player or two.
Olaf the Stout
I'd go with 5 but then again I have 5 players in my (non-ST)campaign. A lot depends on how reliable your players are and whether or not you think they will attend every session. If some players are going to be missing sessions then you may want to have an extra player or two.
Olaf the Stout
I'm about to start the STAP as well, and I've got 4-5 players (5 but one isn't sure if he'll be able to play all the time).
I think 6 is an absolute maximum. 3-5 is my preferred range however.
As for the STAP toughness, I think 4-5 should be fine, assuming they have a decent party balance and have the four corners somewhat covered (tank/damage dealer, cleric, rogue/skills & trap monkey, arcane/knowledge monkey).
somnambulant.
i'm close to the others, i'd say optimum range is four to six players. The adventure paths are published saying they're geared for four pcs, but experience and opinion seems to bear out that they are, if played straight as written, better suited for six pcs (and when converted to the hardcover, the shackled city campaign changed their recommended number of players to six).
Having said that, i think that four is totally workable, but a DM has to be ready to 'play it easy' and give the players the benefit of the dice roll a few times (i make all my die rolls where the players can't see them so that if i fudge, i do it in their favor, but they can't see it, so the fun isn't lost.)
Of course, players with a good plan can wipe out some encounters you were certain were gonna be a near TPK, so you won't have to do that as often as you may think.
Just my opinion, for what its worth
A lot depends on your player's skill and creativity, and the stat generation method. For me, 3 to 4 is my ideal DMing amount of players; I can handle more, but in the end I think everyone looses a little in the confusion. For the Savage Tide I have four veteran players and we decided to go "heroic" and use 32 point buy.
So far, a lot of close calls, some only made close and not fatal due to a "death threshold" houserule, but aside from that, theyve managed to handle things up through Sea Wyvern's wake. Course, level 5 is when the gloves really start to come off mechanically, so we'll see what happens next.
Anyhow, a higher than 25 point buy can also serve to "bump" party power without adding extra members. Just something to keep in mind.
We have 4-5 people in our group, and again, the 5th can't play all the time, so I'd say 4 works fine thus far. We are heading to Parrot Island tonight and I definately want at least 4 players for this, as they have no cleric, or any good defence against undead.
Anyhow, a higher than 25 point buy can also serve to "bump" party power without adding extra members. Just something to keep in mind.
Thanks everybody for your input.
Yes, after reading the AP I actually told my players to do the 4d6 method with a minimum of a 32 point buy. We're definitely not a bunch of twinks, but I'd rather have a few heroic characters than a lot of average ones.
I'm still interested in hearing more comments...I haven't decided between 4 or 5 yet, but I do think 6 would be too many and 3 not enough.
Got 6 maybe 7 Players in my campaigns.
Leads to some fun and tomfoolery, despite the numbers and experience they still seem to die more as a group than wandering around in smaller splits, most odd indeed!
I'm going to be starting a Eberron campaign just after xmas, and it will be a blending of STAP, SCAP and AoW, all mixed together with some nice eberron goodness.
At the moment converting a lot of stuff, taking its time, but should be worth it.