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View Full Version : Advice for Large, High Power Party? (Heartwound players stay out)



F.H. Zebedee
2007-11-15, 12:14 AM
Now, before we start, I just want to get this out of the way. Yes, this is for a Bleach D20 campaign in PBP. I'm not going to debate which system works best for that or anything like that.
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I've got 8 players at level 1 (4 fighters, 2 Skillmonkeys, a healer, and a blaster.), with another one (Essentially, an Archer) coming in at level 2. Initially, I thought they'd be severely outstripping normal power levels by far, but the campaign manages to prevent that. (Though they get class based AC and a weapon that powers up with levels, they miss out on the magic equipment that rules the roost at high levels, and miss the cheese spells)

What advice can you all give me for challenging the party? I already know two key things for dealing with a large party:
-Split the party down to mini-parties often. I should probably split them down to a 4/5 set or a 3/3/3 group every now and then. This tends to keep the balance pretty well. Heck, sometimes even split them up for seperate plot arcs and such.
-Any number of opponents less than half the number in the party is too few, too concentrated, powerwise. I think I can compensate for this by building bosses to be major tanks, and typically having at least two bosses for boss battle fights, possibly in seperate arenas.

And yes, I will throw TDC (refluffed) at them around level 2, and use that as a measure of their power. Just because it's that awesome.

leperkhaun
2007-11-15, 01:26 AM
Use your brains when playing your NPC's.

Dont make it easy.... if the BBEG is a wizard and can cast greater invis.....have him use it...make him teleport, DD, cast blur, use dispels to get rid of magic items for a bit.....etc. Same with the rest of things.

Have them prepared for a fight, along the same level as you would prepare a PC.

Its rather amazing how easily the difficulty of an encounter can go up if the bad guy does something other than CHARGE and I cast fireball. Just remember to use an NPC's abilities to the fullest.

Splitting parties works well, but not all the time. Try not to do that very often or for long periods of time. You dont want players to start thinking in terms of 2 seperate groups instead of 1 big one.

For boss fights..... having 2 bosses works.....making them fight the boss at less than 100% works well....also adding minions that cant be ignored works wonders.

The minions need to be strong enough that the party cant just ignore them, but not enough to do more than (majorly) distract the party.

Also Dire Weasels......for low level parties.....i hate those things as a player, as a DM they are great for softening up people.