D&D 4E Does 4e scale up for large groups of PCs?

[AFGNCAAP]

A question for anyone/everyone with the 4e books.

How feasible is it to power-up a game/module with groups of more than 4/5 players?

I have to ask, since I currently run a game with anywhere from 6-10 players at the table. It is simply a matter of adding more opponents to combats, or increasing story award XP so the reward ratio is the same, or is there something more to it that makes it not so easy a task?

Also, how many different builds of the core character classes are there per class? I know future books may expand on the types of builds & number of classes, but with a large number of players (which may have a couple of players selecting the same character class), I want to encourage different builds to be used if there's more than 1 member of a certain class.

I'd appreciate any info you can provide.

 

[neceros]

So far I've seen the magic item distribution and rewards section of the DMG scales fairly well. They tell you how to reduce the items or increase them based on party size.

As far as encounters, I haven't read the whole DMG yet, so I am unsure.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Scaling up (or down) works very well in 4e from what I can tell. There are pretty straightforward guidelines regarding treasure, and the XP "budget" you have to work with for encounters is calculated using the number of characters there are so if you have a couple of extra PCs, you throw in a couple more critters; have a couple less and you can do the opposite.

 

[Rechan]

The nutshell of encounter creation is this: Every monster has an XP value. How much that monster is worth. 2nd level monsters, for instance, are 125 XP.

All you do is take the level of the monster, and multiply the XP vs the number of party members you have in the party. That equals your budget of XP for an encounter.

For instance, let's say you had 7 players who all had level 2 characters. 125 (2nd level monster total) x 7 (Number of PCs) = Encounter worth 875.

You take 875, combine monsters of any XP total until you reach that number.

To distribute Xp to players, just divide back by 7 (each PC gets 125 for that fight).

Also, how many different builds of the core character classes are there per class? I know future books may expand on the types of builds & number of classes, but with a large number of players (which may have a couple of players selecting the same character class), I want to encourage different builds to be used if there's more than 1 member of a certain class.

Each class has 2 builds. Each level, there's two powers per build.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

Magic items parcels scale up to 8 players, however you could probably keep on scaling them if you want. Encounters should scale reasonably well with the exception of solos. Solos are bases on a 5 PC party, so if you are running a 10 PC party you are probably going to have to use 2 solos (or more probably a Solo and more lesser creatuers) for those types of encounters. Simply using a higher level Solo probably wouldn't work since monsters only work well within a few levels of the PCs party, even if the XP works out.

In then end you are really just going to have to try it out and see if it works for youreslf.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

You take 875, combine monsters of any XP total until you reach that number.

Rechan is wise as always. However, you do want to kinda watch out for the level of the monsters with this. A monster more than, say, five levels above the PCs is going to kick them pretty hard, and a monster five levels below is probably going to be a cakewalk.

 

[Rechan]

Rechan is wise as always. However, you do want to kinda watch out for the level of the monsters with this. A monster more than, say, five levels above the PCs is going to kick them pretty hard, and a monster five levels below is probably going to be a cakewalk.

On the other hand, if you have 7 level 1 PCs, I think they can handle a monster a few levels higher than a party of 5 level 1 PCs.

General rule of thumb: Look at the monster's Defenses/AC, and the monster's damage output. If the players can't hit it half the time, or if the monster would kill the fighter in two rounds, don't use it.

Also, if you don't want to have a ton of monsters on the field, make liberal use of elites.