Three person party.. does it work?

[GunnerRecall10]

Here's the problem I'm running into. Two people had to drop out of my campaign because of time constraints. Is a three person campaign worth even trying, when doing an adventure path? Or will it be too difficult? I think its a chance to try and be creative and will be an interesting challenge. Or do you all think the three of us are being set up for failure?

What would be an optimal party setup?

 

[El Mahdi]

Sure. It's doable. Either adjust the encounters acordingly (harder solution), or create a couple of NPC's (easier solution) for either you or the players to run (I recommend letting the players run them).

I've even run a campaign group with only two (besides me as GM), and things worked just fine.

 

[GunnerRecall10]

Here's my question. Just by buffing up the point buy from 25 to 30, and getting a bit more gold, would we be sufficient without creating npcs or lowering the "baddies"?

 

[Volaran]

Possibly. You'll also find that a 3 person party will gain levels faster, as the experience is being divided by 3 instead of 4.

That said, the difference isn't exactly perfect, for the same reasons that a gestalt character isn't as effective as two standard characters.

After 7th level, you may want to encourage one or more of the PCs to take leadership. A cohort can help make up for any party deficiencies.

 

[pawsplay]

My 1-20 campaign varied, over the months, between three and six players. I never had a problem even with only three, although one of the boss fights made me nervous when a fourth player unexpectedly dropped out. But it worked out okay.

I made some use of NPC allies, although they are not necessary, not even most of the time.

 

[Bladesinger_Boy]

Cohorts, NPCs party members, hybrids... Gestalt?

I'd first offer the PCs to have a Cohort for free (like, free Leadership feat). I say offer her because it is a great burden lifted from you if they can just handle some extra party members around.

If they're not into that, they I'd do have NPCs in the party you control. One good thing here is you can just supplement whatever role the party needs, often cleric or maybe rogue.

Adjusting the difficulty of encounters is a given but don't rely on the idea that. I mean, whether you throw 2 Ogres and 12 Orcs at the party or only 1 Orge and 8 Orcs, you're still missing a party healer/AoE mage/Defender/etc.

If you have 3 very experienced players who can come up with some very strong builds and know all the 3.5 material well, suggest that they each make very diverse hybrid build characters. Like, a gish Warrior-type mage Eldritch Knight, a mage/cleric Mystic Theurge, and maybe a rogue/mage Arcane Trickster or warrior/cleric Hospitaler. Hybrid builds such a low-level so you may want to consider starting higher, maybe somewhere 6-9th. And higher point buy certainly helps; 25 in Pathfinder I'd say.

Want a crazy crazy idea? Gestalt! It's like the above idea... but crazier. I should say that the 2 gestalt campaigns I heard of were all grossly overpowered and had to be stopped because they were unbalanced from the DM's standpoint.

 

[pawsplay]

I've seen a cleric, scout, and wizard with the right moves can take down a dragon of equal or higher CR to their APL reliably.

 

[GunnerRecall10]

Hey all, thanks for the responses. The first session was last night, the party isn't exactly optimal from any standpoint, but were going to move forward with it, we will see how it goes!

Its: Bard, Monk of the Sacred Mountain, and Inquisitor of Asmodeus

Were doing serpents skull, so there are a few beginning Npcs if any of you are familiar, but I expect they won't last very long. Just my expectation.

 

[krupintupple]

honestly, tell the bard (probably has the highest charisma and reputation) to pick up leadership and then pick up a nice and loyal barbarian X / dragon shaman X, and maybe sword and board it? i suggest this for a few reasons. firstly, he'll have nice hit points, and will be fairly tanky. secondly, his healing aura will ensure that everyone's at least healthy enough to limp back to the village inn on their own accord, even if they're mostly out of spells, ki, indignation points or whatever. thirdly, his rages will boost his life expectancy, hit points, and melee output. his schtick is mostly "turn on healing aura, and never turn it off. also, barf all over our enemies and try to stand in between the bard and whoever doesn't like bards." lastly, i suggest this because it's a real case of "does what it says on the package," a fairly straight-forward character with a few solid options, that's hard to screw-up. he'll keep you healthy, and chip away at foes (every 1d4 rounds) with a nice burst of energy, and won't outshine your PCs.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Heh, that sounds a lot like my campaign - Bard, Monk, Ranger from levels 2 to 26 and counting!

A few thoughts:
-Make sure the bard has ready access to Wands of CLW or similar as he will be the party's primary healer out-of-combat.
-That said, having potions be readily available is nice too.
-Cohorts are great, otherwise guest NPCs are good too! (so long as they don't steal the limelight from the PCs)
-With a 3 person party, giving everyone a nice/fitting magic item or similar is good to keep the power level balanced with monsters. Without a combat healer or a pure spellcaster to deal with large groups of foes, a 3-person group can get overwhelmed quickly.

Hope this helps, if I think of any other useful advice I'll be sure to post it!