Seeking some ideas for a solo campaign

[Enkhidu]

...Adventure 3: The Sunless Citidel. By this point, both my wife's character and the Half-Orc should be level 2. The first forray into the SC should get the wizard to 3rd level. At that point she and the Half-Orc should be able to deal with most of the challenges presented in the module if they are cautious. Especially if they ally with Meepo to give them a bit more ability in the sneaking and ranged attack areas...

As a suggestion, if you plan on using Meepo as a reocurring "helper" NPC then I strongly suggest making him a viable, eventually cohort-able (is that a word?) character. Actually roll his stats as if you are creating a kobold PC/NPC from scratch (or do point buy, or what have you). If he is properly outfitted, he will make a great lackey.

Also, I can't remember the book I saw it in (maybe Tome & Blood?) but for some reason I remember seeing rules for alchemical healing salves. Personally, I see this as your best bet for healing.

 

[kengar]

One of the reasons that I think she will do ok in the Sunless Citidel is that the character is designed to be very "social", kind of a salesman type. A lot of the challenge involved in the SC is in manipulating the political climate to minimize the conflict. I think she'll do well at that.

That's good. Maybe she should be a sorcerer instead of a wizard? High Cha and greater spell flexibility. Of course, their chaotic nature may not mesh with the whole LG "Staff of Light" thing.

Depending how you run the SC encounters, a bad roll on Diplomacy could degenerate into melee pretty fast, but you can hedge that a bit as DM. I agree with Enkhidu about Meepo, beef that lizard up a little. Not so much that he should have been the kobolds' leader, but -iirc- the guy only had one freaking hit point! IMHO, Give him a level of rogue, +6hp, and some ranks in Search + Disable Device. Wossname, the gnome, will be a great party addition, too.

 

[CerebralAssassin]

Enkhidu: The alchemical healing salves ("infusions") are in Masters of the Wild.

Just as a cautionary note, my group is playing through SC right now and we started at level 1 and (admittedly due in part to some bad rolls) are finding it tough going. We started with 2 level 1 rangers, a level 1 druid, and a level 1 rogue.

Nathan Hawks

 

[mmadsen]

She is going to be playing a Wizard, starting from 1st level.

Have you considered making her "wizard" a Cleric? You could have a game world where good "wizards" (like Gandalf) are in fact D&D Clerics.

 

[Destil]

I quite like the staff idea, myself. Perhaps, rather than just being an ordinary staff that casts summon monster it is instead a lantern archon trapped, somwhow, within the staff? Sort of an intelegent item, which could then comunicate, and even gain abilities (perhaps a cleric level or two, more spells that could be cast though the staff, et cetera) allong with her. It may not, entierly, remmber who it once was, or how it was fused with the staff, providing some more adventureing hooks. Personaly I've always liked magic items that grow allong with you, rather than being disposed of when something better comes along. Also this helps explain why it's so odd since you don't mention any charges, aside from the 1 use / day (techinachly probibly a very minor rod), and generaly staves use 50 charges, as well as the alingment restrictions: it just won't help someone it dosn't trust.

 

[FCWesel]

Its a bit cheap...

You could look to ... silly as it is ... HARRY POTTER for ideas/inspirations. Give her friend or two at the school, other apprentices perhaps to hang with or get help from...also to get her into trouble with.

Also, can have a nemesis come from a rival wizard's apprentices.

Do things like a local favourite baker getting taken by a magic using guy for some money and have her volunteer to help him get even.

these levels she should be meeting and greeting people. Make a list of NPCs for her to help and thwart and get aid from.

ALSO...if you didn't do it, make her find the "perfect" familiar. Unfortunately SOMEONE else sees it at same time...see apprentice nemsis" and the two masters make the two run a challenge quest/series of tasks to see who "wants to win it".

If I were to do that I would make sure that she knew that theother apprentices last and first familiar DIED and that this was likely to be his SECOND victim!

just some thoughts.

 

[Wicht]

I am gonna make an off the wall suggestion, do not start her out as a wizard 1. Death will come too easy and she will need some other skills.

Personally, I think you might consider starting her off as a rogue 1 and then doing some backstory adventuring providing her with a way of meeting with her teacher as a youth (giving her 1000 experience along the way) and then fastforward to the present when she is now a Rogue 1/Wizard 1 starting off on adventure.

In 3e, a solo adventurer needs to be very versatile, a level of rogue will help with that.

Also, do not start Sunless Citidal till she is 3rd or 4th level, and then you can start her off truly solo, no need to worry about NPCs. The rule of thumb in solo adventure in my opinion is to provide CRs that are 1/3 the level of the adventurer, perhaps 1/2 if you want the encounter to be a real challenge.

 

[Rel]

I wanted to stop in to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. I wish I had seen a few of these replies earlier because some of them were excellent ideas that I wish I'd used. I especially wish that I'd thought of Wicht's idea of starting her as a Rogue to give her a better skill base and a few more hit points to start with.

Oh well, we had a lot of fun anyway. Her mentor put her through her "Trials" and she did pretty well. As usual for me, I was probably a bit harsh in setting the challenges. She fought a pair of small skeletons, two formian workers (summoned by her master) and a dire rat as the combat portion of the trials.

She did okay against the skeletons and formians. She escaped the dire rat by the skin of her teeth. But she did excellent at the other, more cerebral, portions of the trials. I had her read the portions of Tome & Blood about Spellcraft, Knowledge-Arcane and Prestidigitation before we played and it payed off.

I did give her the staff but I made the Lantern Archon into a minor NPC (one who is only available for 7 rounds per day). He has somehow lost his Celestial abilities (including the Aura of Menace, Circle Against Evil and Teleport) as a result of being bound into the staff. My wife's character has already shown some interest in possibly freeing "Virsa" (that's his name) from the staff someday.

Anyhow, we had a very fun time and I'm setting things up for the encounters in the Haunted Mansion for her next adventure (probably this coming weekend sometime). So if you have further ideas, I'd love to hear them.