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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Scaling for a large group
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7521347" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>One thing that I think often goes unmentioned in situations of large parties like this (and is something I've found to be pretty standard and typical) is that the more PCs you have... the most people available to get PCs stabilized and/or back on their feet.</p><p></p><p>This is why I personally don't have a problem with throwing much higher CR monsters at a party of 7 or 8 players... because even if a monster does so much damage that it can knock a PC to 0 HP in like a round or two... there's still little to no chance of that PC dying (or heck, even failing a saving throw) because invariably there's someone around and available to stabilize him or heal him.</p><p></p><p>A party of 8 PCs means you have a pretty good chance of having a Cleric, a Bard, a Paladin, and even an extra Ranger or Druid in there... all of whom have <em>Cure Wounds</em> or <em>Healing Word</em> or <em>Lay on Hands</em> variants... to use their turn to bring people back to consciousness. And this doesn't even take into account the amount of healing potions you've probably allowed them all to acquire in an effort to keep things "fair", which means the fighters, rogues, and monks can all run around feeding those draughts to PCs who are unconscious too.</p><p></p><p>Building any sort of tension in combat with 8 PCs is just really, really tough. There's just too many bodies available to keep people from making deaths saves. And even if you try and mitigate that by throwing more monsters in the fray (so in theory there are at least one, if not two, monsters on every PC to keep them busy), most PCs will be able to just take the chance of absorbing Opportunity Attacks to get over to their downed friends and heal them. Because those monsters you threw at them just won't be powerful enough to cause a real threat. That downed PC then gets up, Disengages further out of the melee, and if they are a class with healing, will then just keep healing the rest of the group while the fight continues.</p><p></p><p>Look at how much in-combat healing your party has. That'll give you a better idea of just much higher CR monsters you can use.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7521347, member: 7006"] One thing that I think often goes unmentioned in situations of large parties like this (and is something I've found to be pretty standard and typical) is that the more PCs you have... the most people available to get PCs stabilized and/or back on their feet. This is why I personally don't have a problem with throwing much higher CR monsters at a party of 7 or 8 players... because even if a monster does so much damage that it can knock a PC to 0 HP in like a round or two... there's still little to no chance of that PC dying (or heck, even failing a saving throw) because invariably there's someone around and available to stabilize him or heal him. A party of 8 PCs means you have a pretty good chance of having a Cleric, a Bard, a Paladin, and even an extra Ranger or Druid in there... all of whom have [I]Cure Wounds[/I] or [I]Healing Word[/I] or [I]Lay on Hands[/I] variants... to use their turn to bring people back to consciousness. And this doesn't even take into account the amount of healing potions you've probably allowed them all to acquire in an effort to keep things "fair", which means the fighters, rogues, and monks can all run around feeding those draughts to PCs who are unconscious too. Building any sort of tension in combat with 8 PCs is just really, really tough. There's just too many bodies available to keep people from making deaths saves. And even if you try and mitigate that by throwing more monsters in the fray (so in theory there are at least one, if not two, monsters on every PC to keep them busy), most PCs will be able to just take the chance of absorbing Opportunity Attacks to get over to their downed friends and heal them. Because those monsters you threw at them just won't be powerful enough to cause a real threat. That downed PC then gets up, Disengages further out of the melee, and if they are a class with healing, will then just keep healing the rest of the group while the fight continues. Look at how much in-combat healing your party has. That'll give you a better idea of just much higher CR monsters you can use. [/QUOTE]
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