How can i maintain a group without a leader?

[styker]

The player who played a bard leaved our group. And the others players love too much their characters to change one of them to be a leader.
How can i help the party so they doesn't need a leader? (The fighter and the ranger get multiclass with cleric to get some healing but i think it not suficient yet).

 

[Nifft]

Don't worry about it. A PC will die and be replaced by a Leader, or the PCs won't die (and therefore they won't have needed a Leader).

Cheers, -- N

 

[styker]

Don't worry about it. A PC will die and be replaced by a Leader, or the PCs won't die (and therefore they won't have needed a Leader).

Cheers, -- N

I dont want to discover they need a leader this way. All the characters are GREAT!!!

 

[babinro]

Agreed, players have second winds, they should ensure to save an action point available to use it in case of emergency. Also, if willing, there are defensive feats, powers and multiclass options if players are willing to dabble in additional healing.

I've run personally run a party of 4 characters up to level 12 without a leader and no players multiclassing into a healer. No one died during the time (though several fell below zero on numerous occasions, leaving 3 people to finish the fight).

 

[Baumi]

Here are some Ideas for a leaderless Party:

-) Potions: Doesn't heal as much as a leader, but every character can use them, they only need minor actions and multiple Uses per Combat are possible.

-) Multiclassing: One or Two Characters that multiclass to a leader for the once/day healing and taking one or two powers that can heal as a sideeffect can help a lot.

-) Companions: Create a Healer-Companion (DMG2 has great Rules for that) and let one of them play it in addition of their primary Character. They are simple to handle and a great way to replace missing players.

-) Wondrous Items: Give them an Unique Item (Artifact?) that simulates the Healing Power of a Leader (such an important Item can lead to very interesting Storyhooks).

By the way, I played in a group without a Leader and we had no problem with that.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Tossing them a few extra healing potions should help. I played in a group with no leader (just a one shot) and things went fine.

Be careful with enemy leaders. Buffing the enemy team is more potent when the players don't have a leader to "counter" buff them.

 

[styker]

Tossing them a few extra healing potions should help. I played in a group with no leader (just a one shot) and things went fine.

Be careful with enemy leaders. Buffing the enemy team is more potent when the players don't have a leader to "counter" buff them.

Hmmm... good advice. What kind of enemys or dangers should i be careful to a leaderless party?

 

[Mengu]

Use fewer enemy controllers and leaders. Especially elite and solo controllers can be devastating for a small party without a leader.

Use more minions. Minions are always a safe bet.

Focus fire on defenders. Defenders are built to take on a beating. This makes it easier for the players. If you ignore a fighter or paladin, and go after the rogue or ranger, the PC's wont have an easy way to recover from that. So usually try to dump monster encounter and recharge powers on the defender.

Use more potions. Depending on what kind of potion they need, feel free to make up potions that heal varying amounts of hit points. A level 5 potion heals 10, a level 15 heals 25. Nothing stopping you from making a level 9 that heals 15, and a level 12 that heals 20, so you have better control over potion healing.

More defensive characters. You can go about this in two ways, either equip their armor and neck slots faster than weapon slots, or use more monsters at lower levels. The second choice also tends to spread the damage more evenly in the party, so there is less focused fire, and a lesser chance of death.

And speaking of equipment, items that grant free healing like Dwarven Armor, or items that grant free saves like Boots of Free Movement will be very helpful for the group.

If it looks like you are frequently taxing healing resources, then the encounters may simply be too difficult. Ease them up. Every now and then it's good to tax those resources, but not every encounter needs to be that close.

 

[Ryujin]

Over the weekend I DMed a 3 member party that only had a Wizard that was multiclassed into Cleric for healing. The fourth member, who plays a Paladin, couldn't make it. It was a short Living Forgotten Realms adventure that only had two combat encounters, and I had scaled it for level 3 and only the three available characters. I was striving for a very difficult setup that would push them heavily.

Combat was rather bloody and I had them on the ropes through the whole thing. By the end of it there were no dailies left and the characters all had only two or three healing surges left. I debated tossing in an off-the-cuff and less difficult third encounter, to make it truly memorable, but thought better of it. It likely would have resulted in a TPK, given what they had left.

You have to give serious consideration before tossing in things like opponent healing, buffing, and status effect attacks that will tend to draw out combat, if the party has no healing. That sort of thing will tend to kill them off by attrition. As others have also said, items and potions will assist in keeping them going. There will be a cost though. I think that my own preference would be to provide them with "Sancho the Cleric", to keep them up.

 

[ricardo440]

We played without a leader. Our GM said "don't worry I will take this into account when I design the game"

It didn't work.

Fight 1 we were all so bad that we needed an extended rest. Fight 2 was a TPK. One character survived because of GM intervention. This was at level 1.

The fact a Second wind is a standard action does it for you. You can do it once, and you are not doing anything to the bad guys when you do it.

we then made new characters, and someone played a bard, and I played a Paladin. The game was much more fun after that.