Given a prime p, a finite group G and a non-identity element g, what is the largest number of \pth roots g can have? We write Οpβ(G), or just Οpβ, for the maximum cardinality of the set {xβG:xp=g}, where g ranges over the non-identity elements of G. This paper studies groups for which Οpβ is large. If there is an element g of G with more \pth roots than the identity, then we show Οpβ(G)β€Οpβ(P), where P is any Sylow p-subgroup of G, meaning that we can often reduce to the case where G is a p-group. We show that if G is a regular p-group, then Οpβ(G)β€p1β, while if G is a p-group of maximal class, then Οpβ(G)β€p1β+p21β (both these bounds are sharp). We classify the groups with high values of Ο2β, and give partial results on groups with high values of Ο3β