Adjusting Encounters for 3 PCs

[kaomera]

OK, I'm in a bit of a jam... I've been working feverishly on the next few encounters for my Dark Sun group for the last few weeks (through several skipped sessions), and now I find out that only 3 people (out of 5 normally) can make it on Saturday. Given missed sessions, the people who can make it really want to play, so I don't really want to put this session off...

I have 3 encounters I think might get used. Normally we have trouble getting in more than 2 encounters in a 4-hour+ session, but while the fastest (IMO) player isn't going to be there I think that having only 3 at the table will serve to speed things up a bit... The party is level 13.

The first encounter is level 13, the second is 14, and the third is level 17 and includes a big, story-important solo. I had previously decided to drop the second encounter (and thus it needs a bit of work still), to keep from having the PCs stuck in the same dungeon for too many months of real-time, but I think I should add it back in to preserve the boss encounter for when I can run it "right", with 5 PCs.

I think that ideally I'd just run the first encounter pretty much as-is (de-level the non-solos to 13th each?) and skip the second, because I put a lot of work into it and I think it will be a fun one. But I also don't really want to end up running a short session, so I'm not sure if I can get away with that and not end up trying to run the final boss fight... And I'd be a bit nervous about running the 1st encounter without cutting quite a bit out and then running a second encounter, as the first one would be pretty tough for 3 level 13s...

I could just let them extended rest an extra time, I suppose, but I've also been trying to avoid doing the 5-minute workday thing...

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

 

[MerricB]

Three players is going to run a lot faster than five: try twice as fast, assuming you drop the number of monsters accordingly.

If you use the solo, give it 3/5 of normal HP, and perhaps reduce the frequency of its major attacks (solos normally get several attacks per round, or target a lot of opponents, but that is often a near TPK for a smaller group).

Another option is to create a demi-planar miniadventure: something the players who play get sucked into (some trap in the dungeon) which requires them to fight and puzzle their way out. If you put in some role-playing/skill challenge as well as a monster or two, you can have an entertaining side adventure whilst delaying the onset of your Big Boss fight.

This works even better if the PCs get (a) good loot and (b) plot advancement - either knowledge about the Big Boss, or other matters outside the current plot thread.

Cheers!

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Dropping monsters is better than lowering monster levels. For example, if the original encounter had 5 standard monsters, drop two of them. And yeah, saving the solo for the full group is a good idea.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I have been running a game for 3 players when the entire group can't make it and I have noticed a few things.

I have stayed more or less on target for the XP budgets, going with fewer creatures rather than de-levelling.

I suspect that with only 3 characters, it would be very easy to overwhelm them with numbers, even if the baddies are lower level. Combat Advantage against the PCs becomes trivially easy, and they get locked down, which leads to long grindy combat.

Conditions become much more valuable, both for the PCs and for the monsters. In a normal party, if a PC or monster is stunned (or drops), all other things being equal, one side or the other loses 20% of their potency while the stun is in effect or the PC is down. In a party of only 3, debilitating things like stun or unconscious suddenly remove 33% of one side's power, which can really tip the balance, even if it was only a round or two.

The short version - things become much more "swingy" and you can go from fine to TPK in the blink of an eye. Even with reduced numbers.

That said, with fewer creatures cluttering up the map, you can do more in tight spaces, or include more interesting terrain features, traps, hazards, etc.

I've run several sessions with this in mind, and I have had no hint of a 5-minute adventuring day. After 4 encounters without taking an extended rest, the PCs are pretty much done. I think they could do one more, but then they'll have to rest or face a TPK. I hope they have the good sense to do so.

I hope that was helpful.

 

[SparqMan]

The short version - things become much more "swingy" and you can go from fine to TPK in the blink of an eye. Even with reduced numbers.

This has been my experience as well. I've seen my party dominate an encounter that was N+2, then fall to TPK in just a few rounds in an encounter that's N+0.

 

[kaomera]

Well running faster would be good, although it means more work between now and then to get things ready. If removing monsters is the way to go I think I'm going to have to start over from scratch.

More swingy may actually be a good thing. Party composition is going to be a swordmage, a shaman, and a sorceress, with the missing party members being the ardent and the fighter. The group has been very defensive so far, leading to long fights where not a lot happens. I'm somewhat worried that, while the sorceress is the top damage-dealer by far, she spreads that damage around a lot. With fewer targets she'll be doing much less damage and the other two PCs can't really put out that much deeps. OTOH they are aces at preventing damage and the shaman can drop a lot of heals (the only time I think I've seen the ardent bust out a heal was when the shaman was absent).

The PCs are already sort of in a demi-plane type environment (they are in the "fire wing" of an elementally-themed dungeon complex with four sections...), and it won't be at all hard to throw more encounters at them, I just need to get them written up. I'll probably go with something like: level 14 encounter (for 3 PCs) with 2x level 12 and 2x level 13. I just need to find enough good fire-themed monsters...

 

[S'mon]

You'd have to turn the Solo into an Elite to give the PCs a fighting chance.

Personally I would just leave it until you have a full 5 PC group again.

 

[kaomera]

You'd have to turn the Solo into an Elite to give the PCs a fighting chance.

Personally I would just leave it until you have a full 5 PC group again.

Yeah, several people have suggested I leave the solo, and I was already inclined to because I didn't want to change it if I could avoid it (I'm not 100% confident changing group roles beyond minionifying standards). I'm just working on 2 or hopefully 3 standard encounters for now.

 

[kaomera]

So I ran this session today. We only ended up playing two and a half hours, but we got two encounters in, so I guess it was about twice as fast.

For the first encounter I had a Fire Giant, a Fire Giant Firedancer, and a Fire Giant Forgecaller, all leveled down to 13. It wasn't really swingy, or particularly hard for the PCs. They weren't able to execute as much control as they usually do, and the Shaman got to use his "Oh, I'm bloodied... No, wait, I mean I'm at full hit points!" encounter power. But the giants went down in pretty short order even with the PCs failing to focus fire and ignoring a bunch of their encounter power stuff (the Swordmage could have saved himself both of the surges he spent in the session if he had remembered his Wearing The Void power). After the fight the Shaman's heals (he didn't use either one during the encounter) got everyone back up to within 1 hp of full.

So for the second encounter I figured I'd try something just a bit harder, with a Salamander Firetail (14th level), a Salamander Archer (15th), and 6 minion snakes (13th). Didn't go much different. The minions died in short order (I think that using more of them and having them appear in waves would have been better), and then they pretty much ignored the Archer while they destroyed the Firetail. I once again bloodied the Shaman (and he once again spent two surges...), and he actually used both his heals this time, but I think that was more because he didn't have to move his companion for most of the fight.

The big thing is that the PCs can just ignore a huge amount of damage each fight. The Sorceress has a bunch of evasive interrupts, the Swordmage has his aegis and several resists, including resist ongoing damage, and the Shaman has the Spirit of Athas and can use his companion and other conjurations as blocking terrain... Then they dish out a bunch of small amounts of auto-damage when the Swordmage is missed, and when anything moves next to the Sorceress... I don't know, the dice didn't really seem to be leaning either way, bot the players and I rolled our share of "1"s, and we both got crits... I'm worried I'm just doing something wrong.

 

[Quickleaf]

Did you read the "Party Building" article by Robert Schwalb in Dragon #373? Your group would be the ultimate tanking living fortress. The sorcerer must feel very protected Even though several of your PCs probably have striker as a secondary role judging by their ability to swiftly take down a fire giant, you probably have some fights become wars of attrition...they outlast their foe, healing as much damage as they deal.

I've seen a swordmage and sorcerer in action in my party - the swordmage is impossible to pin down and plenty of evasive powers and the sorcerer does consistently good damage against clustered enemies. I challenged the swordmage with larger spread out battlefields where they had to make decisions about positioning and who to protect. As for the sorcerer she hates being targeted by focused fire.

Their glaring weakness is the lack of a controller, and encounters which exploit that will be much harder. The more monsters and the more waves/directions the come in will tax your party more than any elite or solo.

I'd also try more situations where tight formation isnt an option and the PCs need to move to different points on the battlefield to accomplish their goals. If you have DMG2 read up on the section about encouraging movement.

A really tough encounter for your party would combine a lower level high damage elite/solo brute, scattered archers with terrain advantage, waves of minion skirmishers, and environmental hazards requiring movement. One enemy, probably an artillery, would need a powerful area effect to counter tight formations (eg chain lightning or a wildfire spell igniting PCs adjacent to target). If I felt particularly nasty I would add an offscreen leader who skirmishers could retreat to for healing - finding the leader and stopping it would be up to one PC. The terrain would be a couple open areas connected by narrow choke points, adding pillars with difficult terrain around them for artillery to use as cover... remember the swordmage's teleport requires LoS. Lastly, I'd throw in attractive terrain which PCs can use to cause extra damage or bypass blocking/hazardous terrain if they use it right.

Build that encounter and I guarantee your players will be sweating.

Hey whats the next element the party will face in your elemental dungeon? I'd be happy to throw together a barebones mini-boss encounter for you to adapt.