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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Theo R Cwithin" data-source="post: 5416642" data-attributes="member: 75712">Heh, yeah "strength in numbers" can go a long way.  One of the biggest advantages a side can have in a D&D fight is a greater total number of attacks (that can hit).The recommendations for CR assume a party of 4.  Since you're essentially DMing for two-ish parties of PCs, you'll probably want to aim for CR+2 or +3 encounters to acheive the same degree of threat to PCs and their resources. The best way to do that (without risking introducing powers the PCs can't handle, which is an important consideration) is simply to double the number of baddies in a run-of-the-mill combat.  That forces the PCs to spread out their attacks so they can't focus fire on a single creature.  In a boss fight, that would probably mean giving him a surprise defense of some sort (illusions, wards, decoys, etc), and a couple strong lieutenants, snipers or something.  You could also advance monsters in size/HD, or throw on a template to up the challenge a bit.[edit: I'll reiterate what Veven1290 said though: smaller parties are easier to deal with because that's how 3.5e is calibrated.]You can also make the battlefield itself hazardous: hidden pitfalls, falling blocks, cliffs, pools of lava, swinging pendulum blades, poisonous/bad atmosphere, random acid geysers.  Look over the dungeon hazards and traps for ideas.  Also you can just use difficult or restrictive terrain to keep the PCs slowed down (eg, ice, slopes),  spread out (or in tight formation and easy to hit with lightning!), unable to maintain line of sight/effect (columns, shifting walls, hills), and so on.  Terrain can also be used to give the baddies the advantage (eg, higher ground, head wind to deflect arrows, spiders unhindered by webs, or fire elementals unhindered by lava, low ceilings to prevent PC flight, etc)Just experiment with upping the challenge a notch or two for the next few sessions.  You should eventually find a balance between  "cake-walk" and "TPK".  Hopefully you'll find it before the TPK, of course.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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