Just wondering if you GMs out there find it easier to ramp up a boss encounter, or tone down a boss encounter when you get either a 50% increase or decrease in number of players that show up.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
For me, Ramp up. If I made a mistake and add extra dice that I shouldn't have. Oh well, you have extra players with this encounter. Controlling bosses that you placed a bunch of power in to combat a normal group of 4-6 players and only half shows up, is hard. it needs to still be a challenge but you cant punish your players who show up on time and are consistent. So i struggle with not using ability's that I thought would be cool or if i had a "**** you in particular" button I can no longer press it because the encounter is already unfair.
Ramp up is always easier, can add lair actions or extra abilities, even just throw in a few extra minions maybe if it makes sense. Rather than ramping down it may be better to change the dynamic of the fight, instead of making it a full on slug fest to the death, make it an escape fight? Or a chase? Make up something quick and dirty as an objective they have to complete to either weaken the Boss or to banish it maybe to fight later. Creative narrative is more your friend there than trying to adjust down on the fly, that way your players feel like they have still accomplished something tough but know that they need to either come back at full party strength or with more personal power to be able to vanquish this foe.
I agree that to tone down you have to get creative. You can add NPCs which will both be a damage sponge as well as a side objective. I had the party fight a Venom Troll in the Feywild, which I wanted to be an inciting incident to intro a Pixie village. I had the Pixies present to cast Polymorph on the Troll if things got out of hand. But with no reward if the party fails!
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Just wondering if you GMs out there find it easier to ramp up a boss encounter, or tone down a boss encounter when you get either a 50% increase or decrease in number of players that show up.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
For me, Ramp up. If I made a mistake and add extra dice that I shouldn't have. Oh well, you have extra players with this encounter. Controlling bosses that you placed a bunch of power in to combat a normal group of 4-6 players and only half shows up, is hard. it needs to still be a challenge but you cant punish your players who show up on time and are consistent. So i struggle with not using ability's that I thought would be cool or if i had a "**** you in particular" button I can no longer press it because the encounter is already unfair.
Ramp up is always easier, can add lair actions or extra abilities, even just throw in a few extra minions maybe if it makes sense. Rather than ramping down it may be better to change the dynamic of the fight, instead of making it a full on slug fest to the death, make it an escape fight? Or a chase? Make up something quick and dirty as an objective they have to complete to either weaken the Boss or to banish it maybe to fight later. Creative narrative is more your friend there than trying to adjust down on the fly, that way your players feel like they have still accomplished something tough but know that they need to either come back at full party strength or with more personal power to be able to vanquish this foe.
I agree that to tone down you have to get creative. You can add NPCs which will both be a damage sponge as well as a side objective. I had the party fight a Venom Troll in the Feywild, which I wanted to be an inciting incident to intro a Pixie village. I had the Pixies present to cast Polymorph on the Troll if things got out of hand. But with no reward if the party fails!