Hi All,
I'll be playing with a group of 6 players and am looking for advice in the best way to increase the challenge for my players. Any advice? Just bump up the number of monsters? Any guidance?
If it matters, I'm playing 5E.
I played this series using 3.5, but like you I had six players for the entire series. Through levels 1-13, I generally balanced the challenge and xp progression in three ways. I added an extra monster or two, but didn't go crazy with that method as it slows down play for the players. If I was afraid the action economy would grind to a halt with extra monsters, I added hit dice to monsters instead. And lastly I added side adventures if the group fell behind the leveling curve (I did not use milestone leveling).
But around level 14 I saw burnout developing, so I generally did not add any monsters or hit dice except for the most iconic of the fights in the adventure path, and computed xp as if the group only had a party of four to ensure the group was at the proper level, even if I eliminated some encounters to streamline the later modules.
I played this series...
Thanks. I think it might matter more on lower to mid levels. I will see how it goes. I told her nothing did not need to power gain their characters because there were six of them. I know at least one guy did listen.
I could see that as my last game finished and the party got higher levels. They felt that they were challenged and they were on a knife's edge, but no one ever lost half their hip points. I guess they felt challenged.