D&D 5E I may have taken on a bigger challenge than i thought I did

[VagueDolphin]

I'm relatively new to DMing and I took over the game at the local game shop. The game has an open table with as few as three people and as many as eight. I want to keep the table open so when people want to try dnd, we have an easy game to have people join.

We're currently running through SKT and we're on the wandering around the sword coast section. For the most part, I've been making my own encounters and it hasn't been too much of an issue.

The problem I've run into is when one week we have a party of 7 and the next we have a party of three. When they're in the middle of an area I've prepped, I'm having a hard time re-balancing the area.

Any advice on how to prep?

 

[Ancalagon]

New to GMing and having large group up to 7? Ouch. I have been GMing for many years and I still prefer smaller groups to be honest.

Anyway, one thing that might help is to have variable size groups of foes that can be adjusted on the fly. Say the group is about to confront an evil sorcerer. Only 3 people show up? Well he has 3 bodyguards (whatever these may be). All 7 are there? He has 10 bodyguards. Or 5 with double HP.

 

[Rhenny]

I like to pre-think/plan for TPK or near TPKs so that if it comes down to that, I can seamlessly change the scenario to give the PCs a way out. (Best if used only a few times in a campaign so it doesn't seem like Deus Ex Machina).

For example, go through a list of possible scenarios:

1) Another rival foe (or an ally of the party) arrives and begins to fight off the foes.
2) The foes motivation is not to kill, but to rob, or just teach the PCs a lesson, or to capture. (I've had very interesting game sessions when PCs have to escape from capture)
3) A strange horn sounds in the distance, and the foes get spooked. Then they run. (Again, this could be a rival or a horde of maraudering orcs that the foes know about, etc.)
4) The foes offer terms of surrender, and ask for party to serve them or do them a favor. (It is funny how sometimes when boys fight, after the fight, they become friends)
5) A strange rumbling/earthquake occurs, which scares the foes or "randomly" swallows a few.
6) Small things like, one of the foes hears some noise in the forest near them so he tells a few of his buddies to "go check it out."

And, like [MENTION=23]Ancalagon[/MENTION], design for different sized groups. When I design encounters, I often design a base encounter that is relatively easy, with the potential to "ramp it up" by adding reinforcements later in the encounter or by quickly making the foes a little more powerful (max hp and extra damage on attacks, or give them extra attacks, etc.) - Remember, in 5e, Monster/NPC creation does not have to be the same as PC creation.

I've even created a d100 cheat sheet for adding different features to foes to make them more unique and more powerful.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1375

 

[SwivSnapshot]

It's easier to cut then add. Plan for a group of 8, then reduce monster/NPC count as needed or alter hit points/DC's/skill checks during encounters depending on how the PC's are doing.

 

[VagueDolphin]

I suppose the question I'm trying to ask is how.

Using the guide in the DMG I can get a raw exp count to scale the encounter, but it's the surprise party composition that kinda makes it hard.

For example, I had a room with a couple of ogre zombies and a zombie beholder, which according to the DMG should have been a medium~hard encounter for the party. But the party had no effective ranged attacks this particular week. The only thing I could think to do was "and you notice a couple of ballistas and a canon" to give them a chance to hit the flying thing and not turn it into a grindfest of 5 and 6 damage at a time, so we didn't spend all night on one encounter.

I know I could have just changed the encounter but when I prepped the room, it was made with the beholder zombie in mind.

This kind of situation is the real issue I'm running into. I think a well thought out encounter is more interesting than making something on the fly and I don't want my prep to go to waste

 

[Rhenny]

That's a tough issue to deal with in the DM side. I think your best bet is to make sure the players know that they don't have to fight everything. There may be times where the party will have to retreat and figure out how to escape or ambush the creatures later.

 

[Oofta]

When I do stuff like this, I prep for the small group and figure out if and what monster is critical as my starting point. Then I figure out how many "extras" I can throw in to balance it out, up to the maximum group size I expect.

So if I know the smallest group and the largest I just kind of wing it when the number of people falls in-between. I don't worry much about exact numbers, and just kind of use my best guess.

If I think a single (necessary) monster is too powerful for the smallest group I'll either reduce the power of the monster by reducing HP because they were in a fight before the group encounters them or I will throw in a helpful NPC or two.

So for your specific "no range" encounter, this is more difficult. First, there is no reason for the party to not have some ranged attacks. Any class can have some option, even if it's just throwing javelins or daggers. So I'd have a barrel of javelins handy if I had to. Hopefully the people will take the hint and keep some for next time.

The other option is to open up the encounter for creative fight options. If they can come up with something try to allow it if it makes sense. For example, set up the terrain so that the group has an option to climb on something and then jump/grapple the beholder and try to pull it down to the ground. Or maybe there's some rope with a grappling hook.

If they can't come up with anything, that's when I would fall back on the barrel o' javelins or give them some hints as to what I think they could do.

 

[Sunseeker]

Be honest with your group and have them help out. I've DMed for big groups and the difference really stems from if you are able to get the players to hook up their common sense and help keep the table in line. It's very easy for players to get it in their heads that this is just "free behaviour time" and that they aren't responsible for the state of the table.

 

[cmad1977]

Be honest with your group and have them help out. I've DMed for big groups and the difference really stems from if you are able to get the players to hook up their common sense and help keep the table in line. It's very easy for players to get it in their heads that this is just "free behaviour time" and that they aren't responsible for the state of the table.

Yes. I would start the game with a '1 minute meeting'.
Mepounding my Tiamat gavel) ok guys listen up! There are a lot of us here and that means in order for everyone to have fun and for us to get anywhere you guys need to focus, take turns, be ready when your turn comes up and don't get distracted. Table talk is fine and all, but if we want to do anything tonight other than chat about stuff I really need your help.

Now let's slay some goblins.


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[VagueDolphin]

\
So for your specific "no range" encounter, this is more difficult. First, there is no reason for the party to not have some ranged attacks. Any class can have some option, even if it's just throwing javelins or daggers. So I'd have a barrel of javelins handy if I had to. Hopefully the people will take the hint and keep some for next time.

The other option is to open up the encounter for creative fight options. If they can come up with something try to allow it if it makes sense. For example, set up the terrain so that the group has an option to climb on something and then jump/grapple the beholder and try to pull it down to the ground. Or maybe there's some rope with a grappling hook.

It wasn't that they had no ranged attacks, it was their ranged attacks would have taken forever to take down the 100ish hp flying monster. I didn't really consider the lack of worthwhile ranged attacks because the prior weeks we had at least two burn the world down magic casters.

Be honest with your group and have them help out. I've DMed for big groups and the difference really stems from if you are able to get the players to hook up their common sense and help keep the table in line. It's very easy for players to get it in their heads that this is just "free behaviour time" and that they aren't responsible for the state of the table.

I have a good group of regulars that really help with that. For the most part, they understand I've taken on a challenge as far as balancing the encounters for a variable group of players