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<blockquote data-quote="Squire James" data-source="post: 2488070" data-attributes="member: 548">A common trick I use with published modules is multiply the number of monsters by (num PC's / 4), and round up.&nbsp; For &quot;uniques&quot;, apply that formula to his HP (just his HP, not his other stats).&nbsp; For 8 players, that means 2x monsters and bosses with 2x HP.&nbsp; Apply +2 to EL for the regular monsters, and +1 to boss EL.&nbsp; I rarely increase the actual level of any of the monsters... higher level usually means they have better stuff than I want the PC's to have!&nbsp; I'd rather toss in a couple of extra &quot;sub-bosses&quot; (about 2 levels lower than the boss) to distract key PC's than make the boss tougher, for instance.This works in reverse for small parties.&nbsp; If there's 2 PC's in the group, 1/2 the monsters and bosses have 1/2 the HP (but are otherwise as strong as the 4 PC version).&nbsp; The boys will still be tough enough not to be cake-walked by powergaming PC's, but there won't be enough of them to mob the small party with sheer numbers (unless the encounter was meant to mob 4 PC's with sheer numbers, in which case the reduced group will still have a similar effect).This works fairly well for me... though I managed to TPK 2 level 4 characters with a single Tiny size CR 2 monster (yes, I'm talking about you, Whispering Cairn)!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Squire James, post: 2488070, member: 548"] A common trick I use with published modules is multiply the number of monsters by (num PC's / 4), and round up. For "uniques", apply that formula to his HP (just his HP, not his other stats). For 8 players, that means 2x monsters and bosses with 2x HP. Apply +2 to EL for the regular monsters, and +1 to boss EL. I rarely increase the actual level of any of the monsters... higher level usually means they have better stuff than I want the PC's to have! I'd rather toss in a couple of extra "sub-bosses" (about 2 levels lower than the boss) to distract key PC's than make the boss tougher, for instance. This works in reverse for small parties. If there's 2 PC's in the group, 1/2 the monsters and bosses have 1/2 the HP (but are otherwise as strong as the 4 PC version). The boys will still be tough enough not to be cake-walked by powergaming PC's, but there won't be enough of them to mob the small party with sheer numbers (unless the encounter was meant to mob 4 PC's with sheer numbers, in which case the reduced group will still have a similar effect). This works fairly well for me... though I managed to TPK 2 level 4 characters with a single Tiny size CR 2 monster (yes, I'm talking about you, Whispering Cairn)! [/QUOTE]

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