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breakdownjason
2011-01-24, 12:31 AM
Ok, so I'm running a less than serious swamp based campaign that has taken a very serious turn. The party, which had won a boat race the first session (barely) and done a fetch quest to heal the party bard (after he imbibed some less than fda approved... let's call them pharmaceuticals) stumbled upon an abandoned temple to Sertrous. They fought their way through well enough, and met the general of Sertrous' army. Now generally this would open up a lot of stuff, but the main problem here is that the players aren't exactly consistent. Overall, they're all level 5, and I have the following spread...

Lvl 5 Heavy Flail Fighter - Has shown up every single time I've run a game (prior to this one as well) and is very well versed in how to properly play his role.

Lvl 5 Ranger/Rogue - Less than optimized stats, but she has a good head for tactics and has a wide array of skills to draw on for more than combat.

Lvl 5 Mushroom Folk Wizard - WAS a gnome until he joined the bard in his partaking. Basically a Level adjust race (from a third party sourcebook no less) that is immune to electric, gets +4 Con and -4 Cha. Not a power player however, so I don't foresee any problems whatsoever from him.

Lvl 5 Dwarf Druid - Played by my mother in law, who started playing back in the old OD&D days. She's still getting the hang of all this newfangled skill checks and feats business, but she's an excellent roleplayer in her own right. The only evil party member as well.

Lvl 5 Ranger - Ranged combat specialist. This is her very first game EVER but she's also come into her own very quickly. I'm a blessed DM.

Lvl 5 Cleric - Focusing on buffing (with strength and protection domains), but not very consistent with his attendance. I don't hold this against anyone since we're all good friends who put more importance on playing the game than strict rules.

Lvl 5 Monk - My wife's sister. Terrible Roll player, excellent role player. She usually comes with her boyfriend (the cleric).

Lvl 5 Halfling Sorceress - The fighter's girlfriend. She's never played before either, but it doesn't take a whole lot to spam evocation spells in combat. Also has very good social skills making her the party face, which she seems to have the chops for.
Now usually a group this large would cause problems due to the huge disparity with the classes. However, I don't have any power gamers in my group and every one seems more interested in having a good time than anything else. The big problem I'm having is designing encounters since I can never be guaranteed of the number of players I have. Usually this isn't a problem since I've DM'ed quite a bit in the past and can think pretty quickly on my feet (per se). However, when designing encounters, it usually ends up being either way to overpowered (since I expect the full group to show up and I get about half) or underpowered (due to the opposite). Anyone have any pointers / ideas for me? :smallsmile:

Sir
2011-01-24, 01:30 AM
In my experience, stat up some extra monsters that aren't fighting. If more than usual show up, add a rogue to that group of ogres, or switch out the monsters with with others that have weaker stats if it vise-versa.

Mechanics also work, like a encounter that sets up a chokepoint with spells and forces the players to either think harder or expend resources battering through.

Runestar
2011-01-24, 06:01 AM
Maybe focus on more lower-cr monsters, with a mix of higher and lower cr foes? This way, you can toss the tougher monsters at the more powerful PCs, and the weaker foes can harry the not-so-strong PCs.

Throw in some difficult/blocky terrain to hinder their mobility so they can't focus fire, or maybe 1-2 spellcasting npcs for support/battlefield control.

Or maybe just vary the foes based on the number of players. Say you planned to throw 4 very young white dragons backed up with a drider against 6 players. If fewer players show up, remove 1-2 dragons. For 8 players, add an extra white dragon. This way, you can draw on existing stats, and it isn't too confusing micromanaging so many npcs, since they all have the same statblock.