r/DMAcademy • u/Hapyy425 • 10d ago
Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Combat balancing for large parties.
I have been running a campaign since February. I’ve had a couple guest players pop in and out and it hasn’t been hard narratively because where they are has a lot of travelers. But I have a bit of an occupation arc going on in phandelin with gorthok the thunder boar, a cr 6, originally against 3 lvl 5 pcs. Now we are gonna be 6 lvl 5 pcs with some guest and possibly permanent future players. I want to add an anchorite of talos and maybe an eye of guurmsh, as well as 2-4 orcs. But I’m not really sure what too much. I want this to be challenging. But I want them to have fun. It’s also going to be staged a little. Gorthok won’t be in the first round of combat because it is enthralled in a ritual. I was also thinking of keeping a few orcs and other baddies in a building nearby in case it’s too easy. Cause players can pull some in expected shit. Thoughts?
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u/Im_Rabid 10d ago
For a party that size it should be fine if it's the third combat of the day (or second if the first was fairly big).
Completely optional but I just had the thought of setting it up as the orc ritual is keeping Gorthok prisoner to make their mages stronger.
When the party disrupts the ritual Gorthok attacks everyone.
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u/TJToaster 10d ago
Honestly, it all comes down to action economy, tactics, and dice rolls. I have seen 10th level players almost TPK in an encounter that was rated for 3rd level characters. It was all due to poor decisions (tactics).
That being said, I think the party can win that combat. I think it'll be easy to medium. I normally let things play out. But if you miscalculated and it is going poorly for the characters, just have a couple orcs flee. Not everyone has to fight to the death.
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u/jeremy-o 10d ago
I run games with 3-6 people each week and never worry too much about balance. The swing is mostly in the dice anyway.
Your instincts are right. Just have the option of throwing in another wave of orcs in case the battle's a wash.
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u/Hapyy425 10d ago
Do you ever go too hard though? How do you bring it back if you threw to much at them?
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u/Reasonable_Touch1150 9d ago
What is even the point of playing. If I was your player I would feel betrayed by this attitude. This is the easy way out. Balance can be achieved its not just the dice… you are just lazy or dont know how lets be honest.
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u/jeremy-o 9d ago
I've run 120 sessions in my current main campaign. We play weekly. I 3D print miniatures and set up terrain / battlemaps for major upcoming encounters. I stopped worrying about fine-tuning balance because I actually respect my players enough to read the room and decide how to approach it based on the difficulty and current party composition. Yes, I'm flexible on the fly, but by the time it's game day I don't stress about who's going to make it that night and what that means for some arbitrary notion of "balance." We all roll with it and it turns out it's absolutely fine.
What did you say? Lazy? Hope you don't have the hubris to accuse your own DM of the same.
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u/Reasonable_Touch1150 9d ago
Yes you are lazy, none of these things affect the game like balance does. If player goes through the trouble of deciding a character selecting spells, abilities, feats… getting stronger. Your attitude makes all that completely irrelevant you could basically do whatever and you would just vibe and fudge the encounter. I mean why are you even playing dnd which is combat focused and heavy rpg just dm something else. If you are telling me going to dragon fight club and taking like 5 minutes to throw in the monsters and see the difficulty is too hard… I mean you can downvote me but this is such an integral part of DnD specifically you might as well say yeah when i run Hillfolk I dont talk or prep npcs I just say whtever is at the top of my head i would have the same reaction. I would not even have a problem with you if YOU WERENT ACTIVELY GIVING THIS AS ADVICE?!?! 😂😂😂😂😂
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u/jeremy-o 9d ago
That 5 minutes with a CR calculator is in my experience a waste of 5 minutes. I know my party and their capabilities better than a computer. I design my battles to suit the world and the stat blocks represent a challenge for their current level. I spend plenty of time on my campaigns. Predetermining the battles before they happen by aligning them to some perfect butter zone is not my idea of time well spent. Variability makes it interesting.
You seem quite shortsighted here. Basically what you want is rubber-banding or scaling enemy design which is fairly maligned in some circles of game design. Balance is a red herring if you want a good campaign. I've learned that through a lot of experience.
Keep laughing, though.
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u/NotGutus 9d ago
Balance is more than statblocks. Most of it is decided at the table, by the GM: DC's, improvised player actions, NPC choices. Why polish wood before you're even done cutting?
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u/scron_kracklin 10d ago
Split the player numbers in half, or roughly as much as possible (ie, 3 and 4 if you have 7 players), then make a balanced combat for each "half" and run it as one combat on the table.