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.

 

[MNblockhead]

1 player + DM play can be very fun...if the adventures are designed for that kind of play. I'm not a fan of trying to power up a single PC to play adventures designed for 4-6 players.

 

[Demetrios1453]

These ideas sound pretty uninspired.

Hmm... By definition, can something be "uninspired" when it's giving literal inspiration?

 

[John R Davis]

So I think 1 player and 1 GM shouldn't be so difficult to adjust, without throwing in other characters, sidekicks, etc. Almost stops being duet play if the players has other things to juggle.

Don't introduce too many rule changes by adding in this and that bonus action, rerolls, etc.

Play duet quite a bit and the only tweaks are:
Taking 10 on some skills
Having a safe haven, of whatever form, not to far away.
Get max hp back on a short rest
Get all HD and hp back on long rest.

The key is to tailor/create the adventure for just duet play, without trying to tweak a ' normal' adventure.

• Make DCs not as high
• Ensure couple ways to overcome each challenge.

-Have the PC likely to be captured not killed.
-Ensure items found are very useful
-Have monsters run away more when one of them is killed.
-Accepting the PC may level quite quickly
-Have puzzles, npcs, etc that you know the ' player's will like. That assumes you know the person.

 

[Burnside]

I'm honestly surprised they are hyping this aspect so much. Dragon Delves is a very good book, and these "guidelines" might be the weakest thing in it.