Enhancing Monsters + Monsters Attack Rotation

[HumbleGamer]

Morning everybody.

First Question:

Me and my group are done with EC chapter 1 and now we are moving back to AoA chapter 2 ( I master the former, and we alternate chapters to allow both masters to play and learn about the game, in terms of situations and mechanics, more through playing ).

Our party is composed by 5 members ( and 1 DM ), and because of that we had to do some adjustments in both adventures ( EC was peculiar because at earlier levels it was overkill for enemies, since they had no healer nor supports, and I didn't also had to modify any monster, while at some point ( when one of the players gave up his character to play a healer, it was without any challenge, even with 2x enemies ).

So, how do you deal with a situation like this?
How do you tend to balance encounters on a premade adventure if the numbers of players is +1 ( or even if the group tends to trample everything )?

____

Second Question:

While looking at different monsters, I happened to think about their attacks.
For an instance, let's talk about a "Young Blue Dragon"

https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=130

What should prevent the drake from making at least 2 jaws attacks instead of a frenzy attack?

The damage will be higher ( it's unlikely that a horn attack will hit with a -10 as a third attack, and it will be your third given the very low attack and damage. I can't imagine it being your first for no reason ).

I could consider using Jaws + Claw, to gain a +1 hit ( trading 1 extra d12 and 15 feet reach, so I'll need to be melee with the enemy instead of making a good use of the reach ) on the second attack, but it would be situational.

So, unless there's a rule I didn't read, what is the purpose of giving different attacks if some are way better than others?

Thanks for reading!

ps: eventually feel free to use the young blue dragon to provide some concrete example.

[SuperBidi]

Claw + Claw + Horn loses 1.2 points of damage against Jaws + Jaws when facing an AC 25 character (which should be the AC of players by that time). So, yes, it's worse, but not incredibly worse.
On the other hand, it gives you an extra chance to score a nat 20 for your Draconic Momentum.
But I agree with you, it's quite bad for an ability. Especially considering spellcasters dragons get a whole lot of spells to compensate.

About increasing monsters, I'll advise you to check PFS adventures. They deal very well with that, using the concept of Challenge Points. Roughly, every extra character gives a small bonus to challenges. There are tons of examples in PFS adventures to inspire you. Most of the time, it's an extra monster, but sometimes, they replace one monster with a higher level monster of the same type.

[Kyrone]

Dragons being solo bosses is pretty common and with how PF2 works this means that this boss will be 2-4 levels ahead the party and critical hits and even hits at max MAP will happen often.

So what the Draconic Frenzy do? Let you distribute 3 attacks around the party letting everyone feel some pain.

Would be more optimal for me to use Jaws against the same character over and over until dead? Yes, but it's not fun for me nor even the PC that is being targeted.

[HumbleGamer]

Kyrone wrote:

Dragons being solo bosses is pretty common and with how PF2 works this means that this boss will be 2-4 levels ahead the party and critical hits and even hits at max MAP will happen often.

So what the Draconic Frenzy do? Let you distribute 3 attacks around the party letting everyone feel some pain.

Would be more optimal for me to use Jaws against the same character over and over until dead? Yes, but it's not fun for me nor even the PC that is being targeted.

Leaving apart the Last sentence which is purely personal ( and there will be way too room for a discussion ), I second you that if the dragon is alone, draconic frenzy would be better.

But if we talk about a +2/+4 lvl,using the jaws even just once would mean a high chance for a critical hit, and because of draconic momentum a breath reset, which could be used with the remaining 2 actions.

And this in terms of mechanics.
Regardless the fact a party would prefer a fair battle or not.

Currently I go, as dm, with 1x attacks, when I can do It. And most of the times, because there are monsters with plenty of moves, I can stick with this.