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.

 

[Junkyard Tornado]

These ideas sound pretty uninspired. Throwing temp HP and rerolls at the game for no reason doesn't add fun, IMHO. I wish they'd been a little more creative, or maybe write scenarios designed for duet play. Otherwise, give guidelines for the DM on how to adjust a scenario... Which seems it would mostly be around making sure combat was balanced and that the one character doesn't get swarmed.

 

[Weiley31]

I personally still prefer the Followers rules/subsystem from Beowulf: Age of Heroes as well as Retainers/Companions from Flee, Mortals!

 

[Li Shenron]

Sounds like they couldn't think of anything more interesting than helping the single PC not to die, and to beat a few more checks.

If I had a single player wanting to play the game, I'll let them play multiple PCs, maybe 3 at once. This way at least the game still offers a range of capabilities, some possibilities for combat tactics, and it feels more like D&D which is by nature a game for a group of people.

 

[Remathilis]

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.

Honestly, I'd probably mix these rules with Tasha sidekicks to give the PC a buddy.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Justice for sidekicks.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

So, rerolls and an HP boost? Eh, it definitely would help in combat, but not by a massive amount.

I like a lot of the suggestions here: give non-Fighters Second Wind (alt-idea: Arcane Vigor as a per-rest power), extra lore skills, up-porting sidekicks, or just letting the player run a full party CRPG-style.

I'd also have guidelines on which classes do/don't work solo. You want something that can cover multiple ranges of combat, can cover multiple avenues of investigation/pursuation (depending on your campaign), and can keep themself alive on their own.

For my money, any of the Divine classes would work swimmingly. Clerics, Paladins, Celestial Blade Warlocks. Primal classes as well, but especilly Druid. The Way of Mercy Monk could also be a good one. Hell, a properly specced Rogue (Thief for dungeons, Scout for wilderness, Inquisitive for urban) might get the job done, just maybe take the Healer feat.

 

[bedir than]

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).

I know you're generally against the Bonus Action concept, but would the extra action you mention maybe be better as a Bonus Action? That would ensure the ability to use the reduced second wind ability each turn, plus everything else a character normally does

We've experimented with an extra Bonus Action on nat 20 initiatives. It leads to some interesting things from characters who don't have many options though.

 

[Older Beholder]

I find a lot of players (especially new players learning the game) don't want to run multiple characters. And those that do struggle to get into character. This seems like an OK option for those peeps.

Interesting that they're highlighting appropriate adventures for solo players, I wonder if they got some feedback that this was something people were wanting.

 

[Mark Craddock]

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.

Probably because the bosses at WotC approached some poor designer at the last minute to add to the book or fired the designer before they were finished.

 

[mearls]

I know you're generally against the Bonus Action concept, but would the extra action you mention maybe be better as a Bonus Action? That would ensure the ability to use the reduced second wind ability each turn, plus everything else a character normally does

We've experimented with an extra Bonus Action on nat 20 initiatives. It leads to some interesting things from characters who don't have many options though.

The big thing with making it a bonus action is that it might mess up classes that rely on it for their class features, like the ranger. It's a little more complex, but I think in general you can afford to slow down turns a little if you just have one player.

I like that nat 20 benefit on initiative!