How do you cope with only 4 characters in a party?

[Nifft]

I've run games with 1 person and others with 9... I find ~4 best just because you cover the basics without slowing things down too much.

Yeah. More than 4 becomes a logistics nightmare IME -- both in-game and in scheduling.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Bad Paper]

I like 5 as a size. 4 is easier to schedule and move the action along. 6 was a nightmare of drudgery.

The campaign that I run has 5: fighter/holy liberator, druid, fighter/wizard, cleric/contemplative, ranger/rogue. Insane spellcasting group. Insane melee group. They are just wicked powerful, and well balanced.

The campaign in which I play has 4, and after many PC deaths, and much player turnover, its current state is: barbarian, warmage, cleric, monk/rogue. I think we're well balanced, though we feel a slight pinch at the limits of the warmage's repertoire. The monk/rogue has a ridiculously high Use Magic Device modifier, but that often keeps him from throwing punches. This keeps us kinda low on the melee side.

Ironically, it is easier to schedule the first group than the second.

 

[Friendless]

How do you schedule a game for that many people?

My group has three players right now, and it's tough enough for us four to meet.

In those days we were young and free and had to go to school every day anyway.

 

[Friendless]

You can also look into using Gestalt rules. IMO, this is exactly the situation they were made to cover.

Thanks for the pointer. I think I'll wait till the players cope OK with one class.

To the poster who suggested I was out of touch with current D&D reality - yes indeedy! But I've just read through Red Hand of Doom and I can't yet imagine how my PCs are going to cope with the battles in there.

They have tried to use their stealth to solve problems. Sadly at the best opportunity the monk rolled nothing above a 5 to spot or hear the sleeping snoring bugbear. Luckily the bugbear rolled badly as well. She also rolled very poorly and couldn't detect the town hall filled with goblins and hostages.

Someone mentioned their rogue who got splatted every session... this monk gets splatted twice per session at the moment. The player feels the game doesn't move fast enough so tends to charge in and see what happens. I do my best to keep her alive because as other posters have suggested the plot of the campaign is focused strongly on these particular characters.

The barbarian is definitely going to take some cleric levels after reading the opinions here.

BTW, as a new DM in charge of 3 or more NPC adventurers I find it's a lot of extra work for me. Just last night I discovered that the wizard could have learned some spells when she went up her level. I think I put more effort into my characters than the players do into theirs.