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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 2496323" data-attributes="member: 463"><p>The balance changes - enemy save or die/incapacitate spells become relatively more powerful, enemy area-effect spells become relatively less powerful. Spells like Hold Person are particularly deadly. Some Monster Manual CRs won't work for a smaller group, eg "melee brute" monsters that can quickly kill a PC are much deadlier than their CR would indicate. My experience is that the best thing is to run scenarios intended for standard groups at least 2-3 levels lower than your group, maybe 4+ levels at higher level. Try to avoid foes that can kill a PC in one round, so don't use many save-or-die spells or melee brutes (unless their CR is well under party level - trolls & ettins are suitable for 9th-10th level PCs in a 2-PC group). OTOH flexible foes with lots of powers work very well, like demons. In a regular game these often die too fast to use their abilities, a smaller party can allow for more interesting development. In a small group battles go faster, so you can use more random encounters and incidental combats without bogging the game down - again, these should usually be well under party EL, and watch out for anything that can dish out unusually large amounts of damage - a longsword armed hobgoblin is preferable to a greataxe armed orc vs low level PCs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 2496323, member: 463"] The balance changes - enemy save or die/incapacitate spells become relatively more powerful, enemy area-effect spells become relatively less powerful. Spells like Hold Person are particularly deadly. Some Monster Manual CRs won't work for a smaller group, eg "melee brute" monsters that can quickly kill a PC are much deadlier than their CR would indicate. My experience is that the best thing is to run scenarios intended for standard groups at least 2-3 levels lower than your group, maybe 4+ levels at higher level. Try to avoid foes that can kill a PC in one round, so don't use many save-or-die spells or melee brutes (unless their CR is well under party level - trolls & ettins are suitable for 9th-10th level PCs in a 2-PC group). OTOH flexible foes with lots of powers work very well, like demons. In a regular game these often die too fast to use their abilities, a smaller party can allow for more interesting development. In a small group battles go faster, so you can use more random encounters and incidental combats without bogging the game down - again, these should usually be well under party EL, and watch out for anything that can dish out unusually large amounts of damage - a longsword armed hobgoblin is preferable to a greataxe armed orc vs low level PCs. [/QUOTE]
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