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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Making combat more challenging: increase monster level or monster number?
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<blockquote data-quote="Chadarius" data-source="post: 4975461" data-attributes="member: 71641"><p>After recently DM'ing the first Scales of War adventure, I found it easiest to add to the numbers of existing monsters. We have a large group, usually about 8-10. So even just doubling the number doesn't always work well. I've found, like you, that just adding to the minions doesn't do much. I still do it. Often the encouters have a set of minions/low level monsters, some medium level monsters, and one or two tougher monsters. For my group of 8-10 I will double the number across the board, but will usually add at least 1 or 2 extra of the medium/tough monsters in the encounter.</p><p></p><p>What often happened if there weren't enough targets was that the party would gang up on the one really tough monster and would quite often kill them before they really got to shine with some of the nastier powers. I wanted them to at the very least be able to soften the party up with some cool powers. This meant that I would have to give them a much better initiative roll (yes sometimes I would cheat) to get them near the top of the order.</p><p></p><p>The Scales of War by design isn't supposed to be a super high challenge level for a normal party of 4-6. My goal was to get at least 1 party member close to death per encounter. That seemed to keep the party at a good level of "what if its me next" tension.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Chadarius, post: 4975461, member: 71641"] After recently DM'ing the first Scales of War adventure, I found it easiest to add to the numbers of existing monsters. We have a large group, usually about 8-10. So even just doubling the number doesn't always work well. I've found, like you, that just adding to the minions doesn't do much. I still do it. Often the encouters have a set of minions/low level monsters, some medium level monsters, and one or two tougher monsters. For my group of 8-10 I will double the number across the board, but will usually add at least 1 or 2 extra of the medium/tough monsters in the encounter. What often happened if there weren't enough targets was that the party would gang up on the one really tough monster and would quite often kill them before they really got to shine with some of the nastier powers. I wanted them to at the very least be able to soften the party up with some cool powers. This meant that I would have to give them a much better initiative roll (yes sometimes I would cheat) to get them near the top of the order. The Scales of War by design isn't supposed to be a super high challenge level for a normal party of 4-6. My goal was to get at least 1 party member close to death per encounter. That seemed to keep the party at a good level of "what if its me next" tension. [/QUOTE]
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Making combat more challenging: increase monster level or monster number?
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