Baal/MF runs

[DyetCoque]

I regularly solo Baal and MF runs (Pindle, Eldritch and Shenk) in Hell. I notice a lot of discussion on party runs. Does more characters increase the MF, or just the XP? Actually, does it increase the XP?

-DC

[Orphan]

More players in the game does decrease the chance of a monster selecting a "no drop". A "no drop" basically means the monster will drop nothing. Every monster has a "no drop" chance, and in player 1 games this is usually pretty high.

Note: Magic Find has no influence on what base item drops, just the quality of that item. So if Meph drops 2 daggers and a buckler for you, there isn't much you can do. MF can, however, make that buckler unique or set for example.

The more players in the game the more exp the monsters give. Each additional player in the game increases a monsters exp by 50%, but it also increases the monsters HP by 50%, so it's a double edge sword.

[Hrus]

But superuniques like Pindle, Eldritch, Schenck allways drop 2 items, so number of players is irrelevant (lower is better, because you don't spent more time killing them). Also champions and random bosses doesn't have any no-drop. Baal has quite complicated drop, but he drops 5.45 items on average in P1 games, 5.98 items on average in P2 games (1 partied player in the same area or 2 other players), 6 items on average in P3 and more games.
Since most of the uniques and sets come from random bosses/superuniques and Baal drop a lot of items even in P1 games, I would recommend solo games for MF.
If you want to know more: http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=412453