D&D 5E Scaling OotA (possible spoilers)

[Moose Bomb]

I will be running an OotA game soon and am very excited, but have a couple of issues.
How many players are standard for the module?

i will have 7 players, which is WAY more than I normally have. Can this module function with that
amount of players RAW? How should I scale the module to challenge them?

Thanks in advance

 

[discosoc]

Core 5e rules assumes a party of 3-5, with a way to modify encounters being built to account for more or less. Much more impacting on the OotA campaign is party composition, rather than party size (mostly due to the use of NPC's).

 

[Moose Bomb]

I'm likely going to be getting rid of a large chunk of the NPC's and only keeping around
the ones that apply to interesting story events. Buppido is going to get a couple and some
will die to help drive home the cruelty of the drow and the dangers of the Underdark

 

[Celtavian]

Out of the Abyss is so open-ended, you can do just about anything with it.

 

[Duan'duliir]

I was going to have the same problem with PotA, which I will be starting soon. I asked around on the Wizards Community forums a short while ago and the consensus is that it would be better to have two groups of 3-4, but if your players don't want to, playing OotA would be fine with 7 characters, especially if you are going to make a few of the NPCs die.

 

[CapnZapp]

With seven PCs I would not use any NPCs.

Then simply double the opposition, and done.