Adjusting APs for 6 players

[Mavrickindigo]

I have been playing RotRL with 5 players and have gotten to the catacombs of wrath. From the beginning, I've been using the standard encounters, splitting the exp equally among 5 people, which means they get less experience than a 4-player party (I know you're supposed to award the same experience for a five-player group, but I'm doing it this way). Anyway, we got a 6th player, and I was wondering what the best way to alter encounters would be. I have three options

1. Run them as written, having the party start out stronger, but get weaker than expected as the AP progresses

2. Add monsters to each encounter to change the EXP so that it comes out the same exp per encounter as originally intended

3. Add 50% more monsters to each encounter to counter the 50% increase in party members, which will grant far more experience and loot in the long run.

Which do you think would be the best solution?

[Alexander Kilcoyne]

For the KM 6 player conversions we used an XP budget- the normal +50%. Sometimes this involved adding more monsters, sometimes it was to increase the power of a solo encounter. Essentially we didn't want to change the theme of the encounter too much when we did so.

Give 5 players a decent point buy and maybe a bonus trait somewhere down the line and they are roughly equivalent to 6.

[Tholomyes]

My advice, boost the XP Budget by +50%, and err on adding monsters rather than boosting existing ones, to account for the action economy. The Action Economy is a big reason why encounters, which, by CR, should be decent fights, are complete curb-stomps.

[Claxon]

Newer APs, though maybe not RoTRL, usually have an level track listed somewhere in the book. They tell you what level the party should be at certain events. If the party was not at that level upon approaching that event I would tell them to level. I would subsequently increase the CR of fights by either maximizing the hp of enemies and/or adding 2 additional (or possibly more) enemies to each fight.

[Troubleshooter]

Tholomyes wrote:

My advice, boost the XP Budget by +50%, and err on adding monsters rather than boosting existing ones, to account for the action economy. The Action Economy is a big reason why encounters, which, by CR, should be decent fights, are complete curb-stomps.

Agreed. Although every party is different, it seems more large parties are better challenged with more monsters rather than tougher single monsters.

With proficient players, a single boss monster isn't even usually a dire threat at CR APL+3; you typically need to add a few free mooks to reach that level.