Best way to beef up encounters: Higher CRs or larger numbers?

[BullMarkOne]

To sum up - Tactics > more monsters > higher CR.

You my friend have hit the nail on the head. Fight smarter not harder. Remember that most if not all monsters have enough sense to use their abilities to good effect. If you don't have alot of ability to think tactiaclly on yer feet (like me) research can help alot. Check out the thread about Playing monsters smart, for some really great tactical advice. The hardest part of applying tactics to monsters tho is resisting the urge to metagame. I as a dm know alot about my pc's that the monsters wouldn't. In order to keep things fair, it's important to be able to differentiate between what you know, and what your monsters/NPC's would know.

**Edit**Link to above mentioned thread: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=136488

 

[kigmatzomat]

In Sun Tzu speak: When you have numbers, increase CR. When you have CR, increase numbers.

The long form is that single, powerful creatures become too powerful when increased. Boosting large groups become too large and either readily overwhelm the PCs or become chaff.

When increasing CRs, add them to the bottom so the lesser creatures have more staying power. Increase numbers of tough creatures so basically the PC:creature ratio is the same. (meaning 4PC:2monster is about the same as 7PC:4monster) If the module calls for two CR7 and four CR3 (ECL10) make it two CR7 and four CR5 (ECL12). If the module calls for two CR8 (ECL10) go for four CR8 (ECL12).

Since you're at a bit of a wobble (ECL 11.6, wasn't it?) you'll have to use your knowledge of the party to balance between ECL11 and ECL12. Some ECL12s will slaughter your party and some ECL11s will be a cakewalk. Which is which will require some experience but this technique should reduce the risk of TPK while still keeping challenging combats.

 

[Arkhandus]

I'm running CotSQ for 7 PCs. It's built for 4. The players have requested that the encounters be beefed up a bit.

So, what's best? To keep the number of creatures in the listed encounters the same, but make them tougher, or to simply add more creatures to compensate for there being more PCs? Or some combination of both? Or does it not matter?

Hmm... I suppose I'll need to give them more treasure, too.

I currently run a group of 9 PCs, and I have to say, it's better to pump up the power of a few creatures rather than running more creatures against the party. Don't boost the power too high; keep in mind that an Encounter Level that's something like 3-4 points above the Average Party Level is likely (though not certain) to cause one or more PC deaths if run properly. A large party of characters is generally going to advance a bit slower in level, and that's fine; you don't want to overwhelm them with a a Big Bad that's got 5 points more CR than any PC, to the point where it'll slaughter them one by one (or en-masse with a high-powered Fireball or Ice Storm, as I almost did by mistake one session; thank heaven for good clerics!), nor do you want to bog down the battle with numerous enemies that are each just tough enough to avoid dying from a mere one or two hits. Try and use an intermediate number of enemies; for 7 PCs, probably use 4-8 enemies generally, or at least, have only that many active in the battle at a time; other enemies might be running away, repositioning, rallying, cowering in fear, waiting with uncertainty, or whatever. Have maybe 1-3 tough (not necessarily strong, but tough at least) enemies in a typical battle, to pre-occupy the warriors and blasters a bit, while having perhaps (not necessary all the time though) a few lesser critters for the support PCs to work on, or to harass the warriors and blasters a bit so they can't maul the tough guys too quickly. Sometimes it's good to just have 1-2 enemies, to either delay or rough up the PCs.

For my smaller group, they recently fought a green dragon, and I had his two chief minions hang back under Deeper Darkness to wait and see if the dragon could overcome the trespassers by itself (it had a grudge with the PCs); once the PC wizard Baleful Polymorphed the dragon into an iguana (fortunately for me it made the Will save at least!), the kobold cleric came out of the dark and dispelled the BP, while the kobold wizard came out to lend supporting fire against the PCs, while they worked on finishing off the returned dragon, and two PCs moved in to keep the casters busy while the rest fought the dragon. The PCs would have been slaughtered though had I used the dragon and kobolds more effectively (could have been in a pit of dragon-acid with the kobolds empowered by Resist/Protection from Elements, for instance). So, fighting smartly (with the right NPCs/monsters) can be as effective as fighting with more CR or greater numbers.