A very basic question about early action decisions with draws

[wax311]

You're in a multiway pot (maybe 4-6 people) with no preflop raise. The flop brings you a flush draw with no overcards and you are first or second to act. Is the correct play to bet out, trying to build a pot, or check, hoping to keep it multiway so you are more likely to be paid off more when you do hit? Here's an example:

Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (8 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (6 SB) 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(6 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero ??? </font>

Bet or check?

I have been betting out a lot on hands like these, but I have recently been weighing the two options.

Bet
-Advantages: builds a pot in which you have more than your share of equity against 5 opponents, the bet is deceptive, there's a small chance you will win the pot right there
-Disadvantages: you will usually have less opponents going into the expensive rounds of betting as you would if you had check-called

Check
-Advantages: check-call is more likely to retain more opponents going into the expensive betting rounds, a bet from your immediate left and a couple calls opens up the check-raise possibility in which you trap everyone for two bets, check-calling opens up the possibility of check-raising the turn or river when you do hit your draw
-Disadvantages: you usually will not have as many bets going into the pot on the flop as you would have if you bet out, and it can be checked through, in which case the pot would be less than 4BB on the turn so opponents will be less likely to call with marginal hands when you hit your card on the turn or river.

I think it all comes down to the question of which is priority is more important: building the pot when you have high equity, or keeping it as multiway as possible to increase your implied odds when you hit your draw.

Thoughts?

Also: In this example, I had a flush draw and a gutshot. How would your play is this situation differ if you had no gutshot, just the straight draw? One overcard? Two overcards and the flush draw?