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<blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 5293017" data-attributes="member: 44797">I mostly agree with billd91.&nbsp; The only exception I would add is that I think you *may* throw slightly higher CR enemies at a big party.&nbsp; However, I would qualify that by saying only slightly higher CR than normal, and I'd expect the DM to do a good job of inspecting the creature's abilities to make sure that it doesn't have some party-killing feature that low-level parties cannot overcome.One way I've found to do this is to simply give humanoids a few levels of warrior or fighter.&nbsp; That way a single monster is stronger, but not with something scary like damage reduction or magical abilities that are difficult for low-level groups to beat.&nbsp; The monster is simply tougher.If I know ahead of time what spells would be intimidating but not result in a TPK, I might assign a level or two of sorcerer to the creatures.&nbsp; I did this for the Sih'hel in the Castle Whiterock mini module.&nbsp; The party was stronger than expected, so I gave a few of the Sih'hel levels of sorcerer, and treated them sorta like tribal shamans.&nbsp; When the PCs showed up and started wiping everyone out, I had the sorcerers all unleash magic missiles.&nbsp; Since the party couldn't avoid the magic missiles, it was pretty scary for them to all take unavoidable damage under a barrage of missiles.&nbsp; However, it was low damage, and they killed off the Sih'hel quickly before any of the party members died.Just remember, you want the combat to be surprising and fun and edgy, not monotonous, drawn out, and hopeless.&nbsp; Good luck!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="aboyd, post: 5293017, member: 44797"] I mostly agree with billd91. The only exception I would add is that I think you *may* throw slightly higher CR enemies at a big party. However, I would qualify that by saying only [i]slightly[/i] higher CR than normal, and I'd expect the DM to do a good job of inspecting the creature's abilities to make sure that it doesn't have some party-killing feature that low-level parties cannot overcome. One way I've found to do this is to simply give humanoids a few levels of warrior or fighter. That way a single monster is stronger, but not with something scary like damage reduction or magical abilities that are difficult for low-level groups to beat. The monster is simply tougher. If I know ahead of time what spells would be intimidating but not result in a TPK, I might assign a level or two of sorcerer to the creatures. I did this for the Sih'hel in the Castle Whiterock mini module. The party was stronger than expected, so I gave a few of the Sih'hel levels of sorcerer, and treated them sorta like tribal shamans. When the PCs showed up and started wiping everyone out, I had the sorcerers all unleash magic missiles. Since the party couldn't avoid the magic missiles, it was pretty scary for them to all take unavoidable damage under a barrage of missiles. However, it was low damage, and they killed off the Sih'hel quickly before any of the party members died. Just remember, you want the combat to be surprising and fun and edgy, not monotonous, drawn out, and hopeless. Good luck! [/QUOTE]

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