2 characters instead of 5 - opinionis requested.

[Lord Mhoram]

Basic question is – what kind of rules changes need to be made to let a two (or maybe 3) character party be roughly equivalent to a 5 character party.

Reason for the question in rather odd. The wife is going to GM me solo, but because of work and school time constraints is planning to use published modules, with very minor adjustments. I don't want to run more than 2 characters, three at the outside. Personalities blend, I lose track of stuff during role playing and other such things when playing more than that. So please no comments of "find other players", "Adjust the adventure", or "play online".

So to play solo, I need to run smaller groups, and have the roles covered with fewer characters – so increase in power and something like Gestalt Characters is needed.

This is what I am thinking:

Apply the class template from page 182 of the DMG to the characters. This makes them Dual classed and ups hits and defenses. Combats last longer, but more actions with more powers from fewer characters seems about right.

The character can get a “free” multiclass – i.e. No feats spent, and the full heroic and paragon multiclass stuff – but no extra powers, just extra power choices.

And then normal paragon and epic stuff for main classes.

Also thinking an extra action point, and/or higher beginning ability scores. Maybe one level higher than recommended. Needless to say, experience received is halved.

Any advice or ideas on how two characters can run and survive an adventure set for Five characters is greatly appreciated.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Basic question is – what kind of rules changes need to be made to let a two (or maybe 3) character party be roughly equivalent to a 5 character party.

Reason for the question in rather odd. The wife is going to GM me solo, but because of work and school time constraints is planning to use published modules, with very minor adjustments. I don't want to run more than 2 characters, three at the outside. Personalities blend, I lose track of stuff during role playing and other such things when playing more than that. So please no comments of "find other players", "Adjust the adventure", or "play online".

So to play solo, I need to run smaller groups, and have the roles covered with fewer characters – so increase in power and something like Gestalt Characters is needed.

This is what I am thinking:

Apply the class template from page 182 of the DMG to the characters. This makes them Dual classed and ups hits and defenses. Combats last longer, but more actions with more powers from fewer characters seems about right.

The character can get a “free” multiclass – i.e. No feats spent, and the full heroic and paragon multiclass stuff – but no extra powers, just extra power choices.

And then normal paragon and epic stuff for main classes.

Also thinking an extra action point, and/or higher beginning ability scores. Maybe one level higher than recommended. Needless to say, experience received is halved.

Any advice or ideas on how two characters can run and survive an adventure set for Five characters is greatly appreciated.

Run one character and keep around expendable NPCs. NPCs are statted like monsters and can live or die depending on events.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Run one character and keep around expendable NPCs. NPCs are statted like monsters and can live or die depending on events.

Well, the wife doesn't want to run the extra characters in combat, and neither do I.

 

[Siberys]

one option is to apply class templates to characters. I rather like this option - an explanation is here

 

[chris.crouch]

This is all pretty much how I'd do it.

Also thinking an extra action point, and/or higher beginning ability scores. Maybe one level higher than recommended. Needless to say, experience received is halved.

I'd double action points: start with 2 after a rest, get 1 after every encounter, and can spend 2 per encounter.

Ability scores: Not increasing them is workable, but significantly limits what class combos are workable. I wouldn't increase them much though.

Chris

 

[MonkeyMage]

What my wife and I have been doing is applying non-class templates to our characters except for the extra action point. Also giving them magic items for 2 characters.

 

[excepti0n]

I use a combination of the elite template DMG p. 185 and the class templates DMG p.182 for 2 players. My goal is to make the team the equivalent of 6 players. Specifically my rules read as:

Edit: I should add that players get 1/5 of the experience points earned regardless of party size. I'm currently DM'ing a 4 PC group through Keep on the Shadowfell (one player just took on 2 PC's), a 3 PC group that finished KotS and starts Thunderspire Labyrinth tomorrow, and a 2 PC group (1 player and 1 DMPC) playing Scales of War. If a player wanted to play 2 PC's I would let them. My solo game the person wants to play just 1. It sounds like you could play 2 characters though.

House Rules
Short Party Adjustments

4 Player Party
Healing Surges: +1
Hit Points: 1.5x Class Hit Points per Level + Constitution score
Defenses: +1 AC and best two of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will Defenses
Saving Throws: +1
Action Points: 1
Milestones: Every 2 Encounters
*Bonus Attack: 1 Basic Attack for every 2 rounds

3 Player Party
Healing Surges: +2
Hit Points: 2x Class Hit Points per Level + Constitution score
Defenses: +2 AC and best two of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will Defenses
Saving Throws: +2
Action Points: 1
Milestones: Every 1 Encounter
*Bonus Attack: 1 Basic Attack every round

2 Player Party
Healing Surges: +4
Hit Points: 2x Class Hit Points +8 per Level + 2x Constitution Score
Defenses: +2 AC and best two of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will Defenses
Saving Throws: +4
Action Points: 2
Milestones: Every 1 Encounter
*Bonus Attack: 2 Basic Attacks every round
**Class Template: 1

*Bonus Attack is a Melee or Ranged Basic attack as described for your class. The attack may not be substituted for other actions such as standard, move, or minor. For 4 player games, you may save your acquired Basic Attack for the next round if you wish. In all other cases failure to use your basic attack on your turn results in its loss.

**Players will choose 1 Class Template from the DMG p.182 and receive all the benefits thereof. Hit points, saving throws, and action points have already been included into the adjustment. Additional Defenses, Proficiencies, Skills, Class Features, and Implements will be added.

***1 Player Parties will use the 2 Player Party adjustment and be accompanied by a similarly adjusted DMPC.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

After reading replies and doing some math comparisons this is what the wife and I decided on - and I like to play tough characters, and it is solo play, so balance with other players is not really required.

Rules for running 2 characters in a 5 character encounter/adventures.

Apply Class Template from DMG.
Character gains an additional Paragon Path, with bonus Powers for Paragon powers as well.
+2 to All Characteristics
Half again # of Healing Surges
Base 2 action points and can use 2 action points in an encounter
Milestones come after every encounter
Allows a Third Wind in addition to Second Wind.


Monetary and magic item rewards are using the standard 5 character rewards. This more than doubles equipment and money for the characters, but keeps the party amount the same.


Reasons for Changes -

Applying the Template adds hit points, powers and defenses. It allows the filling of 2 roles for each character.

Adding in the extra paragon keeps up the number of powers and greater options. Even so, 1 character with template and an additional PP does not match the number of daily or encounter powers that 2 characters have.

Adding half again the number of healing surges because the templated character will never have as many hit points as 2 single classed characters – the templated characters will have more hit points than a normal, but not double – so in addition to the fact that the templated characters have a larger healing surge, it isn't as great as 2.5 healing surges of a normal party. Third Wind is for much the same reason. Allows 2 character to take as much damage as 5 in a combat.

Action points are increased – a party of 5 gets 5 action points used per encounter. A party of two with 2 starting gets 2 – so they are still behind a normal party.

Milestones are after every encounter – this doubles the rate of action point recovery (see above) and also daily magic item usage – again a normal party has 5, the party of 2 (even with doubling) has 4.

Even with applying all of these changes, the hit points, healing surges, action points and magic item use are still less than a normal 5 person party. So adding in +2 to all characteristics (which allows for effectively a flat +1 bonus to virtually every roll) seems appropriate

These rules should allow a 2 character party to be roughly equal to a 5 character party.

If I erred, I erred on the side of too tough, because it is easy to scale back if things are too much.

Experience is 2/5s of normal - level progression speed is pretty much the same.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

The party we are looking at - a Dragonborn Paladin/Cleric with a background (like in FR) that gives him Thievery.

Gensai Wizard/Spellblade - focusing on Fire.

But we wanted to make the rules "generic" so that we could keep playing solo with multiple parties as time goes on.