Party Size and Encounter Balance

[doktorstick]

Howdy.

I'm thinking about picking up one of these mega-adventure/mini-campaigns and running it. I understand most are balanced for the iconic party--Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard.

For those that have ran or played these adventures, how well to do they work (with preferrably no modification) with parties of size 5 or 6? Does play remain balanced?

Thanks.
/ds

 

[Dimwhit]

They seem to be. In one of my campaigns, we've done all the Wizard's modules. We're on Bastion of Broken Souls right now. We have a very iconic party, but with 6-7 characters (Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Barbarian, Ranger/Fighter, etc.). It's seemed pretty balanced to me. There was a time, in the 7th to 11th level range, where we were plowing through things fairly easily, but that didn't last. It's nice and tough now, without being impossible.

 

[doktorstick]

They seem to be. In one of my campaigns, we've done all the Wizard's modules. We're on Bastion of Broken Souls right now. We have a very iconic party, but with 6-7 characters (Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Barbarian, Ranger/Fighter, etc.). It's seemed pretty balanced to me. There was a time, in the 7th to 11th level range, where we were plowing through things fairly easily, but that didn't last. It's nice and tough now, without being impossible.

Wow. Did you find that the characters were behind in magic items, money, skill and/or spell levels expected by the module? I can only assume that since the XP rate was slower per character, your party was "behind" in these things.

Cheers,
/ds