I'd like to point as well that, as a D&D player and sometimes DM, number of characters in a party does influence a little bit if only on CR from monsters in a encounter. And what does the CR of monsters in a combat mean (if you come from DOS)? CR tells you the upper maximum difficulty of the monster, for example the famous Illithid Mind Flayer Arcanist has a CR of 8, meaning a party of 4 players lvl 6 could take 1 on with hard difficulty while a party of 6 lvl 6 could take it easy.
Later in the game encounters like an Adult Red Dragon would be deadly for a 4 man lvl 12 but manageable for a 6 man lvl 12 party. It might sound like the game might be too easy for a 6 man party instead of 4 but it can also make it more challenging and epic if you throw more epic stuff at them since they'll manage: Why not an Adult Red Dragon (CR17) that Summons two zombie Beholders (CR13) as allies? Or even a Death Tyrant (CR 21) and a powerful Lich (CR21 or 22 in it's lair)? Yeah that last epic encounter I just described can only be taken by a 6 man party lvl 20 at a Hard Setting, it's deadly for only 4 characters.
Sure the game might not be like real D&D, but I do want a bigger party for future encounters in the late game if we are expecting to have the same amount of epicness and legendary encounters we had in BG2. I'd like to have a Bard countercharming and polymorphing, while my Fighter and tanks and wrecks havoc at the enemy frontline, my Paladin destroys the evil and protect it's allies, my Ranger deadeye shoots enemy magic users, my Wizard casts Timestop or Meteor Swarm and my character do whaterver I want it to do in the last spot of a bigger and more balanced party.
Sure, we're still in the early stages of the game, but rest assured we won't always be fighting 20 CR 1/4 goblins or CR 1 Imps
Last edited by HeavensBells; 08/10/2006:50 PM. Reason: Grammar
