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General Tabletop Discussion
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What kind of encounters would you prepare for 8 first level PCs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Orcus" data-source="post: 1148993" data-attributes="member: 1254"><p>Be careful just increasing the number of monsters without employing "staggered" type encounters like waves. The reason is that if you just increase the monsters (ie: 8 for 8 PCs) what really happens is that the front line guys get doubled up or tripled up with foes. That becomes really deadly for the PCs (particlarly if you use something brutal like orcs with greataxes and x3 criticals or my favorite the falchion and 18-20/x2 crits).</p><p></p><p>The real question is party composition. If you have 5 fighter types and 3 non-fighter types (a cleric, wizard and rogue) then they can handle more monsters. But if you have still only 2 pure fighters and the rest are bards and rogues and monks and sorcerers then you should really watch out for increasing numbers.</p><p></p><p>If the larger number of PCs doesnt include at least half pure combat PCs, you might consider a smaller number of larger monsters that have more hp (since there are more PCs and more individual attacks by the PCs can be focused on one or two monsters) but make sure the monsters dont have HUGE damage ability. 3 or 4 bugbears might be a good idea (as opposed to say 6 orcs). They only hit +1 better than orcs but they have 3 hd and live a little longer.</p><p></p><p>You can also run "staggered" encounters--like the "waves" that people mention above. The undead graveyard is the classic example. 4 skeletons rise from one area, they are dispatched and 4 zombies rise from another area, then when they are done a shadow emerges or something like that.</p><p></p><p>You can cinematically stitch several smaller encounters together because the greater number of PCs allows them to go longer without rest since they can swap out PCs--ie: one fighter is beat up so the next takes his place while the cleric heals the first guy.</p><p></p><p>Clark</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Orcus, post: 1148993, member: 1254"] Be careful just increasing the number of monsters without employing "staggered" type encounters like waves. The reason is that if you just increase the monsters (ie: 8 for 8 PCs) what really happens is that the front line guys get doubled up or tripled up with foes. That becomes really deadly for the PCs (particlarly if you use something brutal like orcs with greataxes and x3 criticals or my favorite the falchion and 18-20/x2 crits). The real question is party composition. If you have 5 fighter types and 3 non-fighter types (a cleric, wizard and rogue) then they can handle more monsters. But if you have still only 2 pure fighters and the rest are bards and rogues and monks and sorcerers then you should really watch out for increasing numbers. If the larger number of PCs doesnt include at least half pure combat PCs, you might consider a smaller number of larger monsters that have more hp (since there are more PCs and more individual attacks by the PCs can be focused on one or two monsters) but make sure the monsters dont have HUGE damage ability. 3 or 4 bugbears might be a good idea (as opposed to say 6 orcs). They only hit +1 better than orcs but they have 3 hd and live a little longer. You can also run "staggered" encounters--like the "waves" that people mention above. The undead graveyard is the classic example. 4 skeletons rise from one area, they are dispatched and 4 zombies rise from another area, then when they are done a shadow emerges or something like that. You can cinematically stitch several smaller encounters together because the greater number of PCs allows them to go longer without rest since they can swap out PCs--ie: one fighter is beat up so the next takes his place while the cleric heals the first guy. Clark [/QUOTE]
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What kind of encounters would you prepare for 8 first level PCs?
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