D&D's New Solo Player Guideline Explained

Dungeons & Dragons has a new way to allow for one player and one DM to attempt some adventures within its new Dragon Delves anthology. Out in early access now, Dragon Delves features a new supernatural gift called "Blessing of the Sole Champion" that is meant to aid solo players in playing through some of the adventures in the new anthology.

The blessing comes with the following attributes:

Heroic Inspiration. You gain Heroic Inspiration when you finish a Short or Long Rest and whenever the DM has you roll Initiative.

Temporary Hit Points. You gain a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to 10 times your level when you gain this blessing and when you gain a level.

Three adventures in Dragon Delves are marked as being appropriate for solo play. They include the Level 3 adventure Baker's Doesn't, the Level 7 adventure The Dragon of Nakjir, and the Level 12 adventure A Copper for a Song. All three adventures feature an emphasis on non-violent problem solving rather than traditional dungeon crawls or repeated combat encounters. However, there is some combat in each adventure.

Support for solo adventures are somewhat rare. The last product to support solo play was the D&D Essentials Kit, which introduced scaled-back companions that the player could control to fill out their party. Companions were further fleshed out in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything but have not been featured since.

 

[aco175]

I guess the easiest way to play with one PC is to have a bunch of rerolls and 3 times the HP. This way the DM does not need to modify the adventure. It seems easier than the gestalt rules where you have two classes that go up at the same time.

Now what do I get if there are two players? They need some moar power.

 

[payn]

I guess the easiest way to play with one PC is to have a bunch of rerolls and 3 times the HP. This way the DM does not need to modify the adventure. It seems easier than the gestalt rules where you have two classes that go up at the same time.

Now what do I get if there are two players? They need some moar power.

...or having the one player run 4 PCs. Will be interesting to see how this shakes out for folks.

 

[FrogReaver]

As long as combat isn’t a major part of the adventures this should be okay. Wouldn’t work well with lots If combat though.

 

[Reynard]

First of all: stop saying "solo play." This is Duet Play.

Second, lots of extra (temporary) hit points is great but your action economy is still that of one PC. You're toast.

 

[mearls]

It's weird that the rules for solo play focus on combat while the scenarios focus on non-combat.

It makes sense, in that 5e combat scales down poorly (creatures, especially at high level, deal out damage assuming that multiple PCs are on hand to mitigate the impact. 5.5's shift in encounter building pushes this challenge for solo play even deeper).

For solo play, I'd recommend addressing this challenge by broadening a character's capabilities without making them good at everything. A solo PC could also use a bit more strategic resilience. A few suggestions:

On the player side:

• Give the player their normal number of skills, plus an additional INT and CHA based ones. Those skills are good for uncovering info and interaction, so make sure the PC has at least one of each.
• Cut short rests down to 5 minutes.
• Second Wind action: As a bonus action, spend one HD and regain HD + level + Con mod hit points.
• At 0 hp, the character stays conscious and can act. Keep rolling death saves though (when a character hits 0 you might as well have them die; having your one PC unconscious is a TPK).
• Double attunement slots to 6. Magic items are a good way to add more versatility to a character, and with one player you can afford more complexity here.
• One extra action each turn to interact with a creature or the environment. Without a team to work on an encounter, we need to give the solo PC a bit more flexibility without making them a murder machine (unless your solo campaign looks like the TV series Dexter; then murder machine away).
• Remove initiative. The player always goes first (but still give out the temp HP and inspiration).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

So, 5 temp hp per level per characters for 2 players, or 3 for 3 characters. Give inspiration as appropiate

 

[Distracted DM]

For duet play you'd figure they would inject a little more than More Inspiration and More HP. You can add a little extra, say give the PC a "legendary action" themselves. Simple and relatively clean.. they can choose to take an extra action at the end of another creatures turn. Bam. Or just give them two initiative rolls! They take their turn twice in the order! I know , stuff can get wonky with that but you're already trying to run 5e as a duet game.. it's already weird.

 

[Faxfire683]

...Dragon Delves features a new supernatural gift called "Blessing of the Sole Champion" that is meant to aid solo players in playing through some of the adventures in the new anthology.

The blessing comes with the following attributes:

Heroic Inspiration. You gain Heroic Inspiration when you finish a Short or Long Rest and whenever the DM has you roll Initiative.

Temporary Hit Points. You gain a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to 10 times your level when you gain this blessing and when you gain a level.

These don't seem like awesome options mechanically over long term play. A year or two ago, I tried out Will Doyle's classes for Heroic Champions, published in MCDM Arcadia Issue 22, for this style of play. That design gave three replacement classes with beefed up abilities to be able to handle most normal encounters.

I had a good experience running with a player using it, I think GM and player just need to have a shared understanding that this character will be larger than life, so you have to manage your expectations on tone and style of game. The game was pretty fun though, and the classes were definitely well playtested. Maybe a better option than automatic inspiration and having to track exponentially increasing temporary hitpoints.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

For duet play you'd figure they would inject a little more than More Inspiration and More HP. You can add a little extra, say give the PC a "legendary action" themselves. Simple and relatively clean.. they can choose to take an extra action at the end of another creatures turn. Bam.

I think that what we are getting are soft suggestions, not really playtested to give an option with low cognative load. As distinct to running sidekicks, companion characters and the like.