Customizing Keep on the Shadowfell for two player characters

MadMaxim

First Post
I just started running Keep on the Shadowfell for two players (one with a dwarf cleric and the other with an elf rogue). What's the best way to customize the adventure when only having 2/5 of the required party? Decrease level for monsters or just leaving some of them out? Has anyone any experiences with it? Any tips would be highly appreciated :)
 

log in or register to remove this ad


I just started running Keep on the Shadowfell for two players (one with a dwarf cleric and the other with an elf rogue). What's the best way to customize the adventure when only having 2/5 of the required party? Decrease level for monsters or just leaving some of them out? Has anyone any experiences with it? Any tips would be highly appreciated :)
I'm running it for 4 PCs, and none of them are controllers, so I'm eliminating a minion or two whenever possible.

The easiest thing to do is come up with your actual XP budget (based on 2 PCs) and rebuild the encounters around that, using the monsters available. So maybe the wyrmpriest isn't accompanied by 2 dragonshields, but by 3 minions; when the PCs enter the lair, Irontooth is alone; etc.
 

I'm running it for 4 PCs, and none of them are controllers, so I'm eliminating a minion or two whenever possible.

The easiest thing to do is come up with your actual XP budget (based on 2 PCs) and rebuild the encounters around that, using the monsters available. So maybe the wyrmpriest isn't accompanied by 2 dragonshields, but by 3 minions; when the PCs enter the lair, Irontooth is alone; etc.

Yeah, figuring out the XP budget, like Klaus said, is a good step even if you do nothing else.

To do it the best "by the numbers" this is the best way to go
1) Find out your XP budget for 2 players of their level
2) See what the XP for each encounter is in the module
3) Start tweaking (remove creatures or replace them with deleveled versions of themselves)

I say this is best "by the numbers" because it has the potential to make the plot seem weird -- why is some particular villain lacking more backup support, etc. But if your players don't think that much in to it then I doubt they'll notice.

And also even with the right encounter mix "by the numbers" it's still easy for 2 PCs to get mobbed by large numbers. They'll be forced on the defensive much more than offensive.


Alt option 1: have each player run a second PC. But that depends on your group and play style as to whether or not that would be preferred.

Alt option 2: don't run the module. make up your own and use the module for inspiration if you want

Alt option 3: give 2-3 NPCs to join the PCs. But I dislike this idea, DMs have more than enough to do already, they don't need to babysit 2-3 extra NPCs every combat.

Alt option 4: (to be used sparingly or it gets old fast!) Slow down the enemy entry rate. For example, start the encounter with 1/3 the enemies in the zone. Then after 2 rounds, have another 1/3rd show up. And then, after another 2 rounds, have the final 1/3 show up... kind of like they called for backup during the fight. It helps keep the enemies a little spread so the PCs can handle a couple before being mobbed.

Alt option 5: (not my personal favorite, but, whatever) Make the PCs super strong (give them a higher pointbuy value to start with). Or keep them at standard point buy but make them higher level to start with. But in either case, the fact that it is still just 2 of them means they will be mobbed easily and also the proportion of actions that each side can take is skewed more than usual this way (in a 10 enemy fight; with 5 PCs that is 1 action on your side for every 2 against the PCs; but with 2 PCs that is 1 action on your side for every 5 actions against the PCs).

Random comment: It is often said that Keep on the Shadowfell is a deadly adventure for 5-6 PCs so even when remixing based on XP budget, remember that some encounters are just going to be plain old deadly even after proportionately lowering it.


It's late, sorry for any typeos and incoherent rambling. But hope it helps.
 

Make them 3rd level (or maybe higher). That way you'll have to cut fewer monsters. Use DMG pp. 56-7 to recalculate appropriate numbers of monsters. That would also start them with 4 encounter attack powers among them, which is closer to a standard party. The extra hit points, magic items, and higher bonuses/defenses will help make up for the lack of party roles.
 


What a timely thread...I'm facing the exact same issue: Keep on the Shadowfell with only two players.

I've been mulling over this a while. I'm leaning toward letting each player run two PCs each, and I'll run a DMPC to round things out. However, my players are new to the 4e rules. They seem to be OK with the idea (they just want to play), but is this asking too much of them? Will it ruin my 4e debut?

One advantage I see is that if one PC gets killed, nobody has to stop playing.

Is there something wrong with more than one PC per player? What problems might be encountered with this approach?
 
Last edited:

In my experience, more than one PC per player tends to stifle intra-party roleplaying (and roleplaying in general) unless your players are brilliant.

In 4e, the increased complexity of running a character would make it a lot more difficult to play two at once.

So far the vast majority of my experience with 4e has been with parties of only two-three characters, and we've all been having a great time.

I've just started running through a few published modules, starting with Last Breaths of Ashenport and now moving into King of the Trollhaunt Warrens.

The trick is to reinterpret the encounters slightly with the reduced XP budget in mind - the encounter system works well enough that the balance holds up no matter how many PCs there are.

One thing you will have to be careful about are controller monsters (especially elite) with attacks that inflict conditions like stun, dominated, and blinded.
These aren't bad in a 5 player party, but can devastate a 2 player party. Not only are you halving the number of actions per round available to the party, but each player will be the target of these effects much more often than if they were spread out over 5 targets, increasing player frustration.
 

Two characters per player. But make one of them a person, and the other a non-sapient of some sort: a guardian construct, a magical force, an animal, etc.

I can tell you from personal experience that it's very easy to run two PCs in 4e combat.
-blarg
 

I recently ran the second half of KotS for 3 players (striker, defender, leader)... the fourth was dealing with some issues and had several weeks he couldn't attend. I setup the side trek to make sure the relevant plot I setup wasn't damaged too much and decided to use KotS because I had it and it'd give me a few weeks off as far as DMing.

The players were level 5 so a bit above what you'd expect but if you use the encounter builder tool it turns out the XP budgets weren't too far off. I dropped a few minions here and there and tried to make the encounters a little more modular with varied waves. I could then determine how well they were doing and on the fly decide whether or not to add that second group or let them hold off a bit if the players were having some issues. Overall I didn't have to do any major behind the scenes DM tweaking midway through and they didn't have a big problem with the final two encounters at the end.

I did allow them to use their magic items w/o worrying about milestone requirements and let them use more than one action point in an encounter (led to them saving about 2 each for the end boss).
 

Remove ads

Top