A party of Two Strikers: How do I do this?

[Rechan]

So, some friends of mine want to try a little experiment, just an adventure or two. I said sure. They picked their class/race separately.

Dwarven Star-pact Warlock, and Eladrin TWF Ranger. I'm thinking of setting it at level 2, just to see how that goes.

So I'm sitting here thinking, what kind've encounters do I use now? They're damage hogs. They can clearly blow the crap out of one monster if they focus on it. On the flip side, they're fairly brittle. Yet just an array of minions doesn't seem very challenging either (especially with a TWF ranger).

It's easy to go up the level ladder with monsters. The eventual threat though, is that the critter might have AC/Defenses too high for them, or a damage output that's going to shatter them. And I don't know where that is.

 

[Boarstorm]

They're the monsters. I say put 'em up against a defender/leader combo or two and watch the fur fly.

 

[frankthedm]

They hire red shirts or play two characters each

 

[That One Guy]

They hire red shirts or play two characters each

this?

Besides balancing XP and/or offering multi-class feats or house-ruling a gestalt type of rules... what frank said.

 

[Rechan]

Eh. It's online. I think that would really muddy the waters really quickly if they're juggling two character sheets. I like the idea of a two-man group. I actually want to do it to see if the system can handle it.

 

[VBMEW-01]

We're running a small group of two in our playtest. I use a lot of minions and try to keep it close to 2 monsters of their level or just a bit higher (2.5 to 3 x exp value).

Its worked well so far and they have leveled 3 times.

Hope it helps

 

[MindWanderer]

The issue is that fights are going to be swingy. If they get a bad streak of luck, or the monsters a good one, they'll get torn to shreds. This is what happens with glass cannons.

To balance that out, I'd go with more monsters of somewhat lower level than them, or with minions. Elites are probably the wrong way to go. Solos might work--for example, a level 4 solo is worth 875 XP, so that's about right for, what, level 10, for a party of 2? That seems reasonable, I think.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

The issue is that fights are going to be swingy. If they get a bad streak of luck, or the monsters a good one, they'll get torn to shreds. This is what happens with glass cannons.

To balance that out, I'd go with more monsters of somewhat lower level than them, or with minions. Elites are probably the wrong way to go. Solos might work--for example, a level 4 solo is worth 875 XP, so that's about right for, what, level 10, for a party of 2? That seems reasonable, I think.

The problem is that you need to stick within a few levels of your PCs. If you want to do a 2 on one then I suggest using an elite of the PCs level by itself. Remember, an Elite is the same as two monsters of comparable level, which is also your XP budget if the Elite is the same level as the PCs.

 

[Rechan]

A thought just occurred to me. The Curse and Quarry mechanics require "Closest enemy to you". And the ranger ain't a ranged guy.

So some weak artillery in an elevated position or to the Side of a mess of minions or one or two heavy hitters should do the job, at least in some situations.

 

[Eric888]

From what we've seen, there is little evidence that strikers will be able to do much more damage than the other classes. Every class (maybe not leaders) are heavy damage dealers, the difference is that strikers have a lot more versatility as to who they get to dish out their damage to.

So a party of predominately strikers will be able to drop the controller on the first round, but will probably get themselves cut down when the defender's initiative comes up.

I would say just build encounters the same as you would any normal party, and just leave the players to suffer the consequences for not having a well-balanced party.