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I was wondering what the default assumed group size might be in D&D Next, in 3rd/3.5 a group of 4 PCs was assumed and the Challenge Rating system was based around that.  I'm not sure if it's NDA restricted information or not, but I have been trying to discover what sizes the groups were during the playtests at the various conventions.  I myself have a fairly large group (5-7 PCs) and am interested to know if the playtest material is scaleable for larger groups or if I need to split party for the D&D Next playtest.

Thanks in advance for any information regarding this. 

I don't know the answer yet, but I hope 4 is the magic number.  It is much easier to scale even numbers, and 4 to me seems like a better base group because sometimes it is hard to find 5 players.

I sincerely hope they don't design the game to be played by any particular group size, other than "A DM and One or More Players". Designing for an 'expected group' is unnecessary, and when you do it, you needlessly make the game less suitable for people who don't fit your 'expected group'.

Since they're including 5 characters it seems like that's the logical limit, unless you duplicate (which I guess is fine). If it's 5 I'm going to have to run 4 groups to let everyone in. *checks schedule* this could be a problem.

Established Group Size Official Requirement is 5, or 4 if you have a Wizard 

Spoiler: Show

I agree with Kaldric, I would prefer rules that support groups of any size.  If I want to play a game with my wife for instance, I don't want to be required to invite other people just so she can play.  OTOH, if she did want to play with others that would be allowed too.

FWIW, in 4E, the default party size was 5 PCs; all adventures were written based on a 5 PC party.  But, if you followed the experience budget, you could create a game for a party of one or a party of 20.  It is my hope they retain this for the next edition (and I suspect they will.)

Personally i don't have trouble if 5 is the base expectation as long as published adventures take in considerations if you have 4-6 players.( or if 4/3-5)

The rest is irrelevant if their is a XP Budget table. Wether you plan encounters for 3 or 7 players, you'll budget accordingly. 

I've always found 4 players and a DM to be the ideal social dynamic.  I find 5 or more players to start edging into not enough time to spend with any one player.

It is not entirely irrelevant even with a solid XP budget table.  For instance, 4e combat becomes far richer when utilizing combos that only open up with multiple PCs.  An incredible amount of texture in 4e combat is shut down when playing with only 1 or 2 PCs.

4-5 seems right in my experience but it should be easy to scale the combat enounters for other sizes. I'd like to see brief instructions for scaling the encounter e.g. 

"for 4 players, remove one X
for 3 players, remove one X and one Y
for 6 players, add one Y"

All I need it page 49 from the 3.5 DMG. Useing that you can make encounters for any party of any level simply and easily.