Suggestions for scaling up SoW

[jffdougan]

In a couple of weeks, I'll be starting the Scales of War for some of my students at the high school where I teach. It looks like I'm going to have a full house of 8.

For several reasons, I'm not sure whether we'll get to keep going past late April (I'll be in crunch mode reviewing with my AP class; they'll be starting to roll to finals mode; then summer hits), so it might be a moot issue -- but I'd also like to be sure that things are sufficiently challenging for them.

Anybody who's running this got suggestions?

 

[Oompa]

In a couple of weeks, I'll be starting the Scales of War for some of my students at the high school where I teach. It looks like I'm going to have a full house of 8.

For several reasons, I'm not sure whether we'll get to keep going past late April (I'll be in crunch mode reviewing with my AP class; they'll be starting to roll to finals mode; then summer hits), so it might be a moot issue -- but I'd also like to be sure that things are sufficiently challenging for them.

Anybody who's running this got suggestions?

Simply add some extra monsters that are already in the encounters, make sure you don't exceed the xp limit..

So normally an lvl 1 enc. for 5 pc's would be 500 xp, now 800 with 8 pc..

 

[jffdougan]

Simply add some extra monsters that are already in the encounters, make sure you don't exceed the xp limit..

So normally an lvl 1 enc. for 5 pc's would be 500 xp, now 800 with 8 pc..

Yes, I know that's the basic theory. However, some encounters seem like they'll adjust more easily than others without becoming excessively dangerous.

I was looking for more specific suggestions, hopefully derived from people who have run it with larger parties (although likely not as large as this one).

 

[DanmarLOK]

You'll want to go with more standards as opposed to other types. With that many players focus fire and multiple AOE's tend to work against Solo's and Minions. 8 players can pump out a lot of damage to solo's per round, etc.

But by adding standards you have targets that can't be taken out with a single AOE like minions and there's a bunch so that even with good focus fire by the players there's still enough that can get at them per round to hurt them.

 

[Truename]

In a couple of weeks, I'll be starting the Scales of War for some of my students at the high school where I teach. It looks like I'm going to have a full house of 8.

For several reasons, I'm not sure whether we'll get to keep going past late April (I'll be in crunch mode reviewing with my AP class; they'll be starting to roll to finals mode; then summer hits), so it might be a moot issue -- but I'd also like to be sure that things are sufficiently challenging for them.

Anybody who's running this got suggestions?

I scaled Rescue at Rivenroar down to 2 PCs and it worked brilliantly. (Well, the math worked. The encounters were dull. Your group will probably have fun, though.)

I also scaled Siege at Bordrin's Watch up to 6 PCs of level 4. It's been a bit on the easy side compared to the H1 adventure that group did previously. I'm not sure if that's because level 4 PCs find it easier to hit the monsters than level 3 would, or if the adventure is just easier than H1. A little of both, I think.

Bottom line: mechanically, follow the scaling rules and it should work just fine.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that your combats will probably be long with so many players. Maybe 1.5 to 2 hours for a typical encounter. I'd put a lot of focus on table management, and have something for people to do or fidget with while they're waiting for their turn.