Members of the fellowship of the Ring :
1. Gandalf
2. Aragorn
3. Legolas
4. Gimli
5. Boromir
6.1 Frodo (*)
6.2 Sam
6.3 Merry
6.4 Pippin
*Since Hobbits are a quarter of a man, so 4 Hobbits = 1 man.
Party of 4 is heresy to fantasy genre. Fix it!
4 p m is an optimal and logical number that also has to do with balance, 5 will be OP.
https://youtu.be/63OZGWGewGI?t=4 Actually, now that I think of it, Lord of the Rings:
Travel from Bag End to Woodhall, 3-4 characters (pick up Merry near the end of this leg, can't remember if Fatty Bolger was on the road with them or if it was just Pippin).
Travel from Woodhall to Bree, 4 characters
Travel from Bree to Rivendell, 4-5 characters (pick up Glorfindel near the end)
Travel from Rivendell to Lothlorien, 8-9 characters (lose Gandalf in the mines)
Travel from Lothlorien to Rauros, 8 characters)
Rauros to Isengard, 2 characters
Rauros to Helm's Deep, 3-4 characters (pick up Gandalf in Fangorn, lose him after Edoras)
Rauros to Minas Morgul, 2-3 characters (pick up Smeagol early on)
Edoras to Minas Tirith early, 2 characters
Edoras to Minas Tirith by way of Dunharrow, 3 characters
Edoras to Minas Tirith with troops, 2 characters
Minas Morgul to Mount Doom, 2 characters
Minas Tirith to the Moranon, 5 characters
The bulk of the story focuses on 2-4 character parties. The main difference is in the bits right out of Rivendell. Assuming Gandalf is an NPC, call that 7-8 characters.
It sort of feels like a GM running multiple campaigns in the same world ran a short crossover segment and then went back to smaller party sizes.
