So i am playing in a group, and we had a party size of 5 people and then one of the people in the party decided to leave, and be co-DM for a while, and i am wondering if i should work out a way to keep our party size to 5 people by giving someone else another character to help keep things the way they were.
Im relatively new to DMing but ive only realy played with 2 or 3 PCs. Im used to it and never really have a problem. But if you want to keep it `as it was` you could always have NPCs in the group or let the DM/coDM use the character who left. If youre just a PC tho, prob leave decisions like this to the DM. Not to sound rude or anything, just if he/she feels you've lost more than they'd like, they can deal with it in a way best suited to them. Be that adding NPCs, taking over characters or just altering the encounters or plots.
Over the years I've ran/played games with from 2 PCs up to 8 of them. Personally for me I've found that the sweet spot for characters tends to lie in the 4-5, as it can then handle absent players once in a while without narrowing the team too much that you often find you are lacking in a certain skill-set for the adventures, or being too big and having large amounts of overlap in characters.
That said I've found it comes down more to what the skill-set break down of the group is, a very diverse group of 3 PCs can often do more than a less diverse group of 6 PCs can. So I'd not be to worried about the group going to 4 PCs from 5.
At the end of the day DM(s) will typically skew/tailor things to fit the group so everyone has some fun.
If the players need a certain class because the party is lacking there is no reason you couldn't provide an NPC. Or just balance encounters to better fit them without. NPCs can be there for other reasons too. For example i have one that is a made up class that is not fully designed for player use. It can be a combat resource but is there for special purpose related to the overall story of my campaign. And also serves as some comic relief. For example in one particular combat encounter i had the NPC gnome keep getting swallowed by a giant frog.
Four players is perfectly ok for an adventuring group.
If you find that your group have a specific style of play, that they enjoy, that relied on the character that is now missing, you could always investigate the sidekick rules that were published as part of Unearthed Arcana.
So i am playing in a group, and we had a party size of 5 people and then one of the people in the party decided to leave, and be co-DM for a while, and i am wondering if i should work out a way to keep our party size to 5 people by giving someone else another character to help keep things the way they were.
Im relatively new to DMing but ive only realy played with 2 or 3 PCs. Im used to it and never really have a problem. But if you want to keep it `as it was` you could always have NPCs in the group or let the DM/coDM use the character who left. If youre just a PC tho, prob leave decisions like this to the DM. Not to sound rude or anything, just if he/she feels you've lost more than they'd like, they can deal with it in a way best suited to them. Be that adding NPCs, taking over characters or just altering the encounters or plots.
If everyone is having fun and showing up every week I wouldn’t worry about it.
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We had that issue in my group a couple of years ago. My DM worked an NPC into the campaign that joined us permanently, and was controlled by the DM.
Over the years I've ran/played games with from 2 PCs up to 8 of them. Personally for me I've found that the sweet spot for characters tends to lie in the 4-5, as it can then handle absent players once in a while without narrowing the team too much that you often find you are lacking in a certain skill-set for the adventures, or being too big and having large amounts of overlap in characters.
That said I've found it comes down more to what the skill-set break down of the group is, a very diverse group of 3 PCs can often do more than a less diverse group of 6 PCs can. So I'd not be to worried about the group going to 4 PCs from 5.
At the end of the day DM(s) will typically skew/tailor things to fit the group so everyone has some fun.
- Loswaith
If the players need a certain class because the party is lacking there is no reason you couldn't provide an NPC. Or just balance encounters to better fit them without. NPCs can be there for other reasons too. For example i have one that is a made up class that is not fully designed for player use. It can be a combat resource but is there for special purpose related to the overall story of my campaign. And also serves as some comic relief. For example in one particular combat encounter i had the NPC gnome keep getting swallowed by a giant frog.
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D&D Beyond FoundersFour players is perfectly ok for an adventuring group.
If you find that your group have a specific style of play, that they enjoy, that relied on the character that is now missing, you could always investigate the sidekick rules that were published as part of Unearthed Arcana.
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/sidekicks
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