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.

 

[Weiley31]

Yeah, I occasionally experiment with this.

Tried to make the most dirt-simple brawler imaginable (because I'm basic). Ended up giving a Champion Fighter a reworked Martial Arts (uses STR, starts at d6, no monk weapons) and Unarmored Defence (CON). Just keep pumping STR/CON and you can pummel everything in your wake. Never got to actually play it, though.

I sometimes like to give Warlock invocations for the Tales of the Valiant Witch class for their dead levels or other caster classes.

 

[dhdndnsn]

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

For three players use a dmpc that doesn't act unless spoken to follows the lead of the party and only talks when the players forgot the dialog from an earlier plot lines

 

[dhdndnsn]

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

For three players use a dmpc that doesn't act unless spoken to follows the lead of the party and only talks when the players forgot the dialog from an earlier plot lines

 

[Weiley31]

For three players use a dmpc that doesn't act unless spoken to follows the lead of the party and only talks when the players forgot the dialog from an earlier plot lines

And we shall name him....Bob The Silent.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

For three players use a dmpc that doesn't act unless spoken to follows the lead of the party and only talks when the players forgot the dialog from an earlier plot lines

And is probably a Life Cleric. Because few players WANT to cover support.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Until I actually play any of the three Dragon Delves adventures that were listed as possible for solo play as a solo play player to see how their solo play rule suggestions actually work... I will not bother trying to "fix" them sight-unseen. Heck, for all we know a veteran D&D player could actually solo play any of those combat-light adventures with a single character even without WotC's additional boons given and complete the adventures without issue. So why try to fix something that may or may not even need it?

 

[aco175]

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.

I'm thinking of when my son started playing with me when he was 9. We played with a NPC that could add some combat and such. I'm wondering if he played with these new rules and learned this way if he would like to play the 'normal' way when we started playing with more people. Not sure if the expected increase in power would stain playing with more people.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

For three players use a dmpc that doesn't act unless spoken to follows the lead of the party and only talks when the players forgot the dialog from an earlier plot lines

Ok, I wanted to respond to this. The best thing about these rules is that there is no DMPCs, supporting NPC, sidekick characters or the like.
As a DM I have enough stuff to be running on my side of the table without adding DMPCs and most people that I played with no not want the mental overhead of running even a simple NPC.
I do understand that for a good single player experience one would probably need a game built for it. Even the simple rules given do not account for the action economy very well and probably breakdown badly at higher levels.

 

[Clint_L]

Ok, I wanted to respond to this. The best thing about these rules is that there is no DMPCs, supporting NPC, sidekick characters or the like.
As a DM I have enough stuff to be running on my side of the table without adding DMPCs and most people that I played with no not want the mental overhead of running even a simple NPC.
I do understand that for a good single player experience one would probably need a game built for it. Even the simple rules given do not account for the action economy very well and probably breakdown badly at higher levels.

I kinda wanna take one of these and try it as a solo play with an AI running it. But I’m not sure of the ethics of purchasing it but then running it through an LLM. Maybe if I use NotebookLM to ensure it remains proprietary.

 

[Nicholas Reed]

I think a good solution for duet play, on top of this new Blessing, is just have the PC roll Initiative multiple times and take those turns in the counter. "The suit of armor suddenly lurches forward. Roll Initiative four times, give me each number."