EL for larger parties

Mista Collins

First Post
Throughout the DMG and all 3.5 books you find CR's and EL's. These are based on a party of four. What happens if I have a party of 8? Do I double the monsters? I never figured out how to balance it for my party. They are all currently level 6th. What would be a decent challenge for them. A CR 6 monster is too weak because there is 8 of them. I just need to know how I would go about figure it out? Thanks for any and all help.
 

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Match a party of four 6th levels against CR 6
Match a party of five 6th levels against CR 6-7
Match a party of six 6th levels against CR 7
Match a party of seven 6th levels against CR 7-8
Match a party of eight 6th level against CR 8
etc.

If you look at the XP tables you will find that a party of eight 6th levels will earn exactly as much XP for defeating a CR 8 challenge as a party of four 6th levels earn for defeating a CR 6 challenge.
 

Generally, it's easier to set them against double the enemies. This does two things:

(1) If your monster rolls high init, it keeps a CR 8 monster from rapidly destroying one character;

(2) If your monster rolls low init, it means there are two targets, and one of them at least, is likely to survive longer. Otherwise, all the characters may get a hit in and take it out rapidly.

YMMV, though. Generally, a party of 2N characters (or enemies) is 2 EL above a party of N characters (or enemies).
 


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