Shin
Cipher
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2015
- Messages
- 686
I voted build your own party, mainly because recruiting often ends up with limited character choices which can make more unorthodox parties impossible, specially if the companions have a lot of writing depth. That's p. much the only problem, since even with recruiting dudes nothing stops it from allowing you to set all their stats.
I don't really care much about numbers, people obsess with having 6+ parties because most games have banal, shit, boring combat mechanics. Of course if half your party is condemned to (A)ttack, (B)lock and (M)ove you better have plenty of dudes to have a semblance of tactics. That said, I think bigger parties tend to be better because they allow for more variety in roster and gives the developer more freedom to design encounters and add more lethal mechanics.
Small parties are specially a problem with D&D-like games, with 4 dudes for instance, you're condemned to having a fighter to frontline, a thief to deal with traps and locks, and mage for control and aoe, and a cleric for support. So you're basically left with a cookie-cutter party, it can perhaps be salvaged a bit with multiclassing if it's supported but it's still not ideal.
This is slightly off-topic, but you made me wonder if there are any D&D modules where you take more then your 6 players? Why not have 12 or 18 players? Probably a totally retarded idea but I'd think that having an army of adventurers might be fun.