How to deal with solitary party member?

[Lanefan]

Don't adjust anything. Your main party should still be able to handle an 8-character encounter even if they're down to 7 characters (and if the system is inflexible enough to make this untrue, that's a system problem). Your lone wolf, on the other hand, very likely can't handle an 8-character encounter by himself should he blunder into one; so if he doesn't run away from it as fast as he can, kill him dead. And if he finds a teleporter or something like that and ends up 150 miles away with no way back...them's the breaks.

"It's what my character would do" is something I usually DO want to hear from my players, as it tells me they're going to play their characters true to what they are even if it means playing themselves right out of the party.

 

[Sadras]

Finish him.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

This. The player I had that would do stuff like this ended up getting booted from the group for some really heinous behavior later on. I put up with a lot of garbage player behavior on account of him being a friend, and in hindsight I wish I hadn’t.

"But it's what my character would do!" is a red flag of future non-cooperative behavior.

 

[Greenfield]

I had this guy.

It became obvious after a while that it was an ego thing: The DM had to keep twisting the adventure path so he'd be included.

It got so bad that, in one Supers campaign we restarted with a common "white event" where all the PCs got their powers together. That way they'd know each other and the team construct would be built in.

As soon as his character got his powers he took off, so he could claim that he didn't really know these other people and wouldn't be part of the group.

The solution? He wasn't part of the group. I stopped catering to his "beg me to play with you" tricks and just ran the game for the PCs who bothered to show up where the action was. He sat on the side lines, bored to tears.

I'd like to say that he learned his lesson, but he didn't. He got noxious and nasty words were said on both sides and he got himself thrown out of the game shop we played at. Chortling about how much fun his cat would have with the shop owners' hamster was the final straw.

Despite our unhappy ending, my advice is still to run the game for the players who actually want to be in it. Don't kill his character, don't have bad guys pick on him or monsters chase him back to the group. If he's like my loner player he'll enjoy the attention, even if it's negative. Just run the game and let him decide if he wants to be part of it. It's no loss if he quits, since he really isn't there anyway.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Overlooked this somehow:
That is exactly what you should do.

Why adjust your challenges if the PCs are being stupid? Let the players learn from their mistakes. My motto is that a dysfunctional party is a problem that solves itself. Normally it shouldn't take more than one TPK to get their attention... And if it's just a single PC that is being stupid, it's even less of a problem. I recall one of my players' PC(s) dying three times in a single adventure: First he tried to charge over a hanging bridge while goblins at the other end were ready to destroy the supports, then he trampled into a grey ooze, and finally he tried to argue with a roper that had him firmly in its grasp (in case you're wondering: we played the D&D 3e 'Forge of Fury' module).
He became a lot more careful after that, although he still managed to accumulate the most character deaths at the end of the campaign.

I'd call this an example of D&D's mismatch between advertised fantasy adventure and reality as meat grinder crushing the spirit of the player who actually expected to play an action hero.

And this is a point, be very careful not to just crush player's legitimate desire to really adventure (or do whatever) simply because conformity to the game's paradigm is uppermost in your mind. This particular player may not be a case of it, but the one that [MENTION=46713]Jhaelen[/MENTION] cites seems like EXACTLY that. Let them blossom.

 

[Garthanos]

I'd call this an example of D&D's mismatch between advertised fantasy adventure and reality as meat grinder crushing the spirit of the player who actually expected to play an action hero.

And this is a point, be very careful not to just crush player's legitimate desire to really adventure (or do whatever) simply because conformity to the game's paradigm is uppermost in your mind. This particular player may not be a case of it, but the one that Jhaelen cites seems like EXACTLY that. Let them blossom.

Yeah I remember DMs like that... it was more about making sure you didnt have the mistaken idea your character might be heroic.

 

[Ancalagon]

How does he find the group again?

The party is in a forest, he goes to do his own thing... how does he join up again? If he can't... He's now an NPC. Roll a new character.

You have to speak with the player and find what is the root of this behavior.