6 Monsters vs 6 PCs

[hailstop]

One of my favorite blogs now is Sly Flourish, who also submits D&D hints via twitter. One of his recent ones was if you're running a game with 6 PCs to add 2 monsters to the encounter (above the normal 5) rather than just the one.

The idea is that the additional monster is not enough to maintain the challenge to the partly.

Discuss.

 

[LostSoul]

Would you also adjust the XP? Adjusting XP would seem to make more sense. Then you could use the encounter budget.

 

[hailstop]

I think this is acknowledging the idea that just adding on another monster due to one additional PC does not balance the encounter. If you accept that 5 vs 5 is the base...one addtional PC is more powerful than one additional monster.

Personally I've kind of found this to be true. The party always seems to have more trouble fighting 5 on 5 than 6 on 6.

 

[Victim]

PCs will usually have better synergies between each other than the monsters, so each additional PC tends to help them more unless the monsters are carefully selected to work together well.

 

[LostSoul]

Oh. I suggest using ettercaps and ghouls.