D&D 4E What is the 4e 'assumed' size of a party?

[Herobizkit]

Simple question:

In 1e, 4-6 PC's with henchmen to round party size to 9.
In 2e, 6.
In 3e, 4.

Is the base assumption 5 PC's per party, or still 4?

 

[abyssaldeath]

It's 5.

 

[the Jester]

4e assumes a five pc party, but adjusts easily to other sizes. However, once you go below four pcs, you're missing a role (which may or may not be a big deal).

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

From my own experience game mastering, I never know if I'll have 3, 4 or 5 players, so I plan each of my encounters so as to be appropriate for each number (so, for example, if it is an encounter of character level +1 with 5 players, I'll drop monsters so as to make it that a +1 if there are only 3 or 4 players). Using that method, I find that having 3 or 4 characters isn't any more difficult for the party than having 5 - though I do find the encounters to be less interesting, as fewer players + fewer monsters = less going on.

 

[fba827]

as others said, the assumption is 5. though adjusts easily to 4 or 6.

once you get below 4 it becomes tactically awkward (easy for any one PC to get surrounded and you lose lots of opportunity for flanking and tactical positioning that some play builds/styles expect/depend on). and once you get above 6, it becomes meta-player issues of a) patience to wait during other people's turns and b) keeping track of all the people/conditions/things going on

just my thoughts/experiences anyway.

for any edition, i tend to prefer 4... because i like to focus on individual PC backgrounds and such, and that's hard to do in larger groups since there is that much more chance for any one particular person to be bored with a sidetrek that focuses on someone's history when it gets hard to remember a lot of other PCs' backgrounds after a while.