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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ProgBard" data-source="post: 7016085" data-attributes="member: 6803722">Answers, plus some assorted thoughts:1. I run for a big table - seven, sometimes eight players: valor bard, paladin, battle master, arcane trickster, bear totem barbarian, moon druid, war cleric, and sometimes dragon sorcerer. No one will be shocked by now to learn that 5e's challenge math wanders well off the map with big parties.2. Most are first-time players, but one is by admission a recovering powergamer. They were 8th level in their last big boss-fight; they're 9th level now, and gearing up for their next one.3. I don't really adjust AC/HP, though I will use higher-CR statblocks for at least some of the minions in a battle. I never use solo monsters - always boss + minions, or several different types of creatures working together. The last fight where they really started to get worried about burning resources was a few levels back (5? 6? Now I don't recall), and it involved an 18-level warlock, a flesh golem, a mi-go, and two vampire spawn. It worked in part because they had to divide resources to pursue several goals: while the warlock and her minions were trying to kill the party, the mi-go was trying to fly off with a powerful Maguffin that they needed to prevent getting into the hands of the other bad guys, and the fight was going on in two levels of a tower, making it difficult to coordinate efforts.4. The last big fight was against a ridiculous number of opponents, but lots of those were mooks (1 HD cultists) - they like the feeling of mowing down lots of foes, and I'm inclined to accomodate (especially since even a mook can get in a hit once in a while). There was also another high-level warlock, a necromancer, an ogre, a Far Realm horror (basically a giant octopus with a black dragon wyrmling's breath weapon), and assorted cult fanatics, kuo-toa, thugs, and pactsworn champions (veterans with a couple of warlock spells). I threw in some of those (and increased the numbers) when the party decided they were going to use the silver horn of Valhalla they'd just found and summoned almost the maximum number of berserkers. Having that support made a huge difference, obviously, but the players also made good strategic choices, like sending in the barbarian to take out the necromancer quick, who got cornered and taken down before she could start raising some of the fallen cultists as zombies.5. (The good news - for a diabolical DM's version of good, anyway - is that the next fight's going to be tougher, and the horn of Valhalla won't have had enough time to reset. I had assumed they were going to save it for this fight, but they didn't, so that's not a resource that's available to them now. It will be interesting to see how much they wish they'd kept it in reserve when this plays out.)6. It may be relevant to know that I don't try and design every fight as a drain on the PCs' resources - some are there because it's fun to have a battle as part of the evening's play. I still rely on pretty tough monsters for those, sometimes with minions as well. Three or four CR 5-6 creatures are a good choice for this kind of thing; I think if I wanted to make the fight more challenging, I'd increase the number of foes, not hit dice or AC.</blockquote>

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