Conversion to two player campaign.

[BastardToadflax]

Due to player attrition, I'll be GMing the campaign for two players only. I'd rather not add additional NPCs or have the players play more than one character, it just takes too much away from the role playing. So I am changing things a bit to be playable by two second level characters. The first several enoucnters are easily balanced, but I was wondering if anyone had some clever thoughts on what to do when they get to Gabal's?

Going into spoiler mode...

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The Shahalesti wizard and Diogenes are both 5th level wizards. The modules seems to contemplate avoiding direct combat altogether, which is great, but you know how things go... I was wondering if I should just have had the Shahalesti spy cast her fireballs in advance, so she has empty slots there, or downlevel her to fourth. If I do the latter, I suppose I have to downlevel Diogenes as well.
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[maggot]

How about using gestalt rules for both characters? It will allow them to cover more bases, and to have more power. I would also consider being a little generous in the stat department. Most NPCs are built of 25 point buy, so if you characters are 32-point or more, they will probably fair rather well.

And fireball works equally well versus 4 characters as it does versus 2, so the players will have to play the same way: avoid direct combat. (Actually, fireball does more damage to four characters because you'll need more healing.)

 

[BastardToadflax]

Hey, thanks for the response. Good point about the fireball that I didn't think of. We'll be commencing in a week or two.

 

[catsclaw227]

Yea, and there's a big jump from 4th to 5th really. The addition of Fireball and Lightning Bolt make that a huge level. I think taking away even just 1 level from the mages will significanlty lower the strength of the encounter.

I say keep it, give the PCs a small item bonus of some kind, or do like I do. Give an extra feat at 1st level, then again at 5th and 15th. (humans get an extra at 10th too).

I also have a couple of other house rules that make a 2 player campaign much easier to run. Let me know if you are interested in them.

 

[BastardToadflax]

@CatsClaw: Yes, bring on the 2-player house rules.

Thanks to both of you for your responses. I guess I'll leave the fireballs in there, and also give them some warning perhaps from Diogenes (he can drop the fact that she's accomplished with them or that she fried a partyof orcs with one once). While a fireball does as much damage to 2 players as to 4 in the sense that they all get to share the same hp pain, if they have four or more players there is still a greater chance that some will make their saves and be able to aid those that drop.

Game starts this Saturday.

 

[RangerWickett]

In one of the playtests, the party was all clustered in a hallway outside her room, and Shealis fired off a fireball that caught 4 out of 5 PCs. Three saved, one failed, and still the damage was only 18. No one died, and they nearly threw the b*tch out the window for what she did.

 

[catsclaw227]

@CatsClaw: Yes, bring on the 2-player house rules.

Spell Focus and Greater Spell focus - Spell Focus is still +1, but Greater Spell Focus would be worth +2 for a total of +3 to make the feat chain more desirable. Also - the bonus is added both the DC and caster level (this has the side effect of making the feat more worth it for schools that feature few save-based spells.)

Keen and Improved Critical Stack -- Read the great argument written by Sean K Reynolds.

Dodge is a +1 AC bonus to all opponents, not to just one opponent per round. It makes only a minor difference in actual play and is much easier to manage in-game.

Toughness is worth +1hp per level and do away with Improved Toughness. In its current incarnation Toughness becomes irrelevant at mid levels and higher.

Extra Feats – At 1st level, everyone gets a bonus Feat. Additional Bonus Feats are given at 5th and 15th level (humans gain an extra at 10th as well)

Buy Feats - You can spend XP to buy feats. A metamagic feat costs 1000xp + 250gp material cost per spell-level increase to use the feat [Ex: Empower spell uses 2 spell slots and would cost 2000xp and 500gp to buy], non-metamagic feats cost 1000xp per “feat-chain-level” cumulative. [Ex: Dodge costs 1000xp, Mobility costs 3000xp (1000 + 2000), Spring Attack costs 6000xp (1000+2000+3000)] Only 1 feat may be bought per character level.

20/20 critical. - A critical that gets a 20 + another 20 for the crit/confirm roll is max critical damage and does something awesome like chops a leg off or something. In addition to the normal damage. Roll on a Crit table.

Unearthed Arcana Action Points – Pg 122

Unearthed Arcana Craft Points - for creation of Magic Items. Pg 97.

Unearthed Arcana - Buy back LA classes - if you have taken a LA class, you may buy it back. Pg 18.

Bonus Skill Points – All classes get +1 bonus skill points per level.

Skill Experience - +1 skill point/4 levels in spot/listen/search representing your experience.

Expert Skill - choose one skill from Craft/Profession/Knowledge. This is always at MAX ranks and doesn't count towards your skill point expenditure.

 

[EditorBFG]

Best PC survival variant from Unearthed Arcana is Reserve Points.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/reservePoints.htm

Doesn't change game balance, but keeps PCs alive.

 

[BastardToadflax]

Great ideas all. Thanks a lot. Looking forward to the next installment.