D&D 4E Running a solo 4e game - is it possible?

[renau1g]

So I ran a friend through a solo campaign that loosely followed the campaign of the Age of Worms (heavily modified, of course), but I'm curious as to the ability to run a game for a solo character in 4e as the system seems to require teamwork.

Does anyone have either experience or suggestions as to how this could work? I was thinking to have the player control 2 characters, but that still leaves them at least 2 short of the fou r roles.

 

[jimtillman]

So I ran a friend through a solo campaign that loosely followed the campaign of the Age of Worms (heavily modified, of course), but I'm curious as to the ability to run a game for a solo character in 4e as the system seems to require teamwork.

Does anyone have either experience or suggestions as to how this could work? I was think have the player control 2 characters, but that still leaves them at least 2 short of the four roles.

you could do it with 1 character if you were careful with encounters, I would advise a fighter or pally, and use lower level creatures most of the time

 

[Entropi]

Hi
I am currently running two campaigns, each with a single player.

One guy is running three characters (a Dragonborn Pally, a Human Wizard, and an Eladrin Rogue). He has been through all of H1 and is about 25% of the way through H2. I reduced encounters proportionally and it worked out fine. He enjoyed the adventure and the encounters were, for the most part, well balanced. By the end of H1, due to side-quests and random encounters that I threw in along the way, he was 2 levels higher than the recommended level. For the last 2 encounters (the 2 large poster-map levels), I did not adjust the encounters at all, and he was able to defeat them, although it was difficult even being 2 levels higher than recommended. His party is now level 6 and just cleared out the hobgoblin lair (the Chamber of Eyes) in H2. Even though he was 2 levels higher, I did have to adjust some of the encounters, or split them into multiple encounters, or long battles with multiple reinforcement waves, due to the large number of fairly tough (read non-minion) enemies.

The other guy is running only 2 characters in his campaign (a Half-Orc Pally and an Eladrin Wizard). He did some wilderness exploring (random encounters) in the Moon Hills near Fallcrest (which I decided to stock with simple encounters for new adventurers in my world) to get him to 2nd level, then found a map to Kobold Hall and cleared it. Again, I scaled the encounters proportionally and again, it seemed to work out okay.

Kobold Hall Spoilers below!!!
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The trickiest part of scaling Kobold Hall for 2 characters was the White Dragon encounter. I de-leveled the dragon by 2 levels, which dropped his attacks and defenses by 2 and his damage by 1. I scaled his HP proportionally, giving him 40% of the listed amount (since the party was 40% of a full party). I also took away one of his 2 action points.
The battle went pretty well. If anything, it was a bit too easy for the party, since I rolled poorly and the dragon couldn't hit until late in the battle. Oh, I also made the dragon worth 40% XPs, which made him worth the same per PC as he normally would have been worth for a 5-man party.

 

[renau1g]

Yeah, I could have him run multiple PC's, I was wondering if he could play just one and actually be effective, but I'm thinking it doesn't look too good.

I just find it hard to roleplay with yourself (i.e. if he controlled mutliple PC's). I might make them NPC's during noncombat portions (and agree on a personality), but during combat turn them over to the player to control.

 

[Kaodi]

Well, I am about to find out, hehehe...

I am both running and playing in solo games of 4e. My player is a tiefling infernal warlock, and my character is a dwarven two-blade ranger.

The hardest part I think is that it starts at 1st level, so for my player I think I am going to try to use a lot of skill challenges and some monsters that can be easily fled until she is about 3rd level. The character has Hellish Rebuke, which I think should help against some melee threats.

For my character, I guess I will try to go the stealthy, hit and run route. He does that Dire Wolverine Strike, so he can probably take care of swarming minions all right, thinning their ranks.

I think it is really all about just managing the threat level. It will probably be a lot swingier, but that is what tactics are for.

 

[Pabloj]

For a solo game, I would advise on making him a Fighter mc into Wizard, or Paladin mc Warlock, or something like that, and design encounters accordingly. The warrior-mage concept is pretty neat and should let him deal with lots of situation. Make sure he is a defender and add some magic on it. Add in ample supply of rituals, and you are ready to go.

 

[Dysmachia]

I would recommend a Paladin multiclassed into Wizard, or a Half-elf paladin for the extra encounter power (choose thunderwave).

Basically this is why:

A Paladin is a defender, while defenders aren't really a proper role when there's only one character (there's no one else to defend!), they have lots of hit points, and that's very important for a single character.

A Paladin is also sort of a "leader-lite", which in this case wouldn't be too helpful (there's no one to lead!) except for the fact that he can heal himself in battle, which is really important for a solo character.

A Paladin doesn't really count as a striker, but that's ok. They can do pretty good damage anyway, and striker is considered the least important role by the DMG, and well, it's right. You don't really need a striker because doing damage isn't a special role.

Finally, a Paladin isn't really a controller at all, so they need a supplement that can fill that role at least partially. Without control abilities, they won't be able to take on minion encounters which kind of reduces the variety of gameplay available. So that's why I recommend half-elf, for dilettante. The power I would choose is thunderwave, it's really awesome. I then suggest multiclassing into Wizard so that you can take another at-will for an encounter ability. Cloud of Daggers is a fine choice so that you can cover one of your sides, and scorching burst is great too. You then would probably want to power swap for color spray, which would be amazing control.

As for your paragon multiclass, I would choose either Battle Mage or Blood Mage. They're pretty nifty to use with the wizard powers you'll have.

 

[Crazy_Dragon]

A dragonborn Fighter with lots of constitution could work, its a minion killer with dragon breath, lots of healing surges (always useful) and decent Hp amounts

 

[Tony Vargas]

It'd be tricky, as the classes are designed to be interdependent. Many leader powers are of little use with no one to buff, and there's little point to a defender's mark when you're by yourself. Strikers and controllers are too vulnerable without a party.

I'd guess you'd need to do two things. 1) the player needs to pick a character who's abilities are all or mostly independent of other characters - that's most likely a striker, but I suppose a wizard qualifies, too. 2) the DM needs to scale encounters to fit the PCs abilities and general toughness. Thus, if the PC is a rogue, enoucnters can center around theft, sneaking about, disarming traps and taking individual enemies by surprise. For a ranger, it would be wilderness exploration, scouting, and tracking (and, again, what amount to assassinations). 'Chase scene' skill challenges, where the PC is the one being chased, would also be very apropriate. You could also take a standard adventure and just dial the threat-o-meter way down. That could work with a wizard. If an encounter retains the same number of enemies, but thier reduced in level and/or 'minionized' to 1/5th the exp guideline, a wizard might well be able to handle things. He hits easily, his lower-damage powers are still quite adequate because foes are so weak, he doesn't have to worry about catching allies in his AEs, and even though foes are weak, they're still a threat because he's 'squishy' for his level.

So, yeah, it could work: with a Striker vs mostly individual challenges of the right level, or a wizard vs more 'normally' structured challenges of substantially lower level. While a leader or defender might very well be able to handle such reduced-power challenges, as well, the fact that some of thier coolest features and powers just don't aply outside a group context would make them less satisfying to play solo.


Of course, if you really want the PC to play 'solo,' give him a Solo to play, and throw adventuring parties at him.

 

[buzz]

The advantage with 4e, though, is that encounter design is based on groups created with an XP budget. It's assumed that if you have X PCs, you throw [X x (XP of Standard monster of PCs' level)] worth of monsters at them.

So, if you have a single PC, you should be able to throw a Standard monster's worth of XP at them in a given encounter. This will mean a lot of Minions and single Standards until 5th level, but such is the situation.