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Here's my dilemma: I always run Dungeon Magazine adventures for my group and most of the adventures are made for 4 PCs. My group now has 6 characters. After looking through the DMG (I'm playing 3.5)in the encounter level section I'm still a bit confused. Would a group of six 4th-level PCs be equal to a 5th-level party of four? What I'm trying to get at is should I just add an extra monster or two to each encounter when I'm putting six 4th level PCs through an adventure made for four 4th-level PCs? I try to just use common sense when adjusting the monsters and key villans but the characters still have an easy time getting through the encounters. Is there an easy formula to follow when adjusting encounters for a larger than normal party?
Is there an easy formula to follow when adjusting encounters for a larger than normal party?
I don't think you are going to find an easy formula. Despite how CR works and adventures are designed, building and running encounters is more art than science.
If you want monsters to last longer against the PCs, consider upping their hit points and/or AC. If they are having a hard time hitting the PCs give the monsters a bonus to hit. You don't need to do a full rebuild of the monster, just quick and dirty adjustments to increase the challenge. You can easily do the same with damage, resistances, and DCs on monster abilities.
Adding monsters to encounters is a good idea if you want to tie down the PCs. Extra henchmen provide cover for the big boss. They can block fighter types. Or have them use ready actions to disrupt spell casters with attacks or counter spells.
Hope that helps a bit.
In general, increasing the CR by one is a good fix, there are a couple of catches though.
First, is that some monsters require abilities that the PCs may not have at their level. (not a big problem with only a +1 CR shift, but it is still something to pay attention to).
With single monster encounters, in your situation adding some minion types (using the rules for mixed encounters) almost always works better then increasing the power of the mobs. For some creatures that may not be 100% approprate though, in which case, added Hit Points and save bonuses is usually the best way to go.
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I feel your pain. ive never ran an adventure with 4 players all my games have always had between 6-12 players so designing encounters is pretty hard. What ive usually done is either add a few extra creatures in or add classes to most monsters. I also give them max hitpints and then do what is known as "fudging" if its looking the the pcs are going to struggle then i make some weaker and if it looks like they are breezing through i make them harder.
works most of the time but occasionly something is a pushover or could result in a tpk but luckily thats never happened yet.
It is hard work though and very time consuming preparing all the enimies and in my games there is no such thing as a random encounter..there all planned.
Im currently running a Waterdeep campaign and nearly every encounter has been with a group of npcs rather than monsters. they been fighting esentially other parties which is good fun but takes some time to create.
I dont think there is an easy wasy to cope with groups above 4 you just have to wing it!
I cant believe that 4 is an average group......
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, added Hit Points and save bonuses is usually the best way to go.
Cool, thanks for the suggestions. I've considered adding hit points and upping the creatures' attack adjustments.
I just ran the adventure Mad God's Key (can't remember what issue) which is a 1st level adventure and adjusted it for the 3rd level party. Last session the PCs fought 6 skeletons in a 2 foot deep lake of blood. To make the encounter more interesting for the veteran players, I had it so that when the skeletons were killed, each one actually rose back up in 1d4 rounds unless platinum coins were pried out from their eye sockets (DC 15 search to find). I found this idea in some book that I can't remember but the veteran players loved it! They thought it was just going to be an easy skeleton bash-fest until the skeletons started rising up again!
, added Hit Points and save bonuses is usually the best way to go.Cool, thanks for the suggestions. I've considered adding hit points and upping the creatures' attack adjustments.
I just ran the adventure Mad God's Key (can't remember what issue) which is a 1st level adventure and adjusted it for the 3rd level party. Last session the PCs fought 6 skeletons in a 2 foot deep lake of blood. To make the encounter more interesting for the veteran players, I had it so that when the skeletons were killed, each one actually rose back up in 1d4 rounds unless platinum coins were pried out from their eye sockets (DC 15 search to find). I found this idea in some book that I can't remember but the veteran players loved it! They thought it was just going to be an easy skeleton bash-fest until the skeletons started rising up again!
And, they got 12 plat out of the deal. :D (Actually, at 3rd level, that is real money.)
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I cant believe that 4 is an average group......
I know! Adjusting the treasure is a pain in the ass! Luckily, I have plenty of time during the week to do my "homework". I just try to gauge the party vs. the group of monsters or monster as best as possible.
Adding hit points, attack adjustments, and better weapons (masterwork or magical) has been the best formula so far.
And, yeah, I almost constantly "fudge" die rolls behind my screen!
I cant believe that 4 is an average group......
Some of us have the opposite problem. We are having trouble rounding up a full party.
If you just want to do it the easy way I'd run them in adventures for between one and to levels higher then they currently are. If an adventure is made for four 8th level PCs then six 6th-7th level ones should manage it. If you ran one of the APs made for four PCs with six PCs they'd fall about two levels back and hold there. Actual Dungeon adventures should face less troubles then an AP as well because they are not made really hard since their is no specific need to insure that the PCs make a certain number of levels by the end of the adventure.
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Put another way, your BBEG goes from being an EL 8 to being an EL 9 with a CR 1 Henchman (or some extra trick up his sleeve).
HTH,
Rez
Thanks. Now that the Ranger will be getting her animal companion (actually a plant companion from an article in Dragon magazine), the party's level is boosted even more. I did run a couple higher level adventures for the group. Worked out nice with a few adjustments. A couple creatures were a bit too tough on the characters by dropping two of them to negative HPs but I don't want to be easy on the party!
Have you tried using online encounter calculators? Like: http://www.penpaperpixel.org/tools/d20encountercalculator.htm
They're not 100%, but they give you an idea if you're running low or high on the encounter.