Encounter difficulty with 3 players

[Herschel]

You always need a Leader in small groups. Then you need a Defender and controller/Defender (Swarm druid or Staff wizard with Leather armor).
And don't Take a striker! they suck.

I've found this too: Melee Leader + Defender, then add higher-defense Controller for straight role parties. Build them with damage in mind as well as defenses and you'll come out all right.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

funny, after you have filled defender and leader and contrller role, adding many strikers is a good thing to do.

A warlock could fill in the high defense controller/striker job ok... a sorcerer could too.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I'd disagree: higher point buy makes surprisingly little difference. An 18/14/11 array is achievable with the default point buy, and for most classes, having a 20 primary is going to be the best to-hit+defenses there are. The extra hitpoints hardly matter as levels rise (though 1st level they're still slightly noticeable). Extra point-buy do help a little - particularly by making players more flexible in terms of feat prereq's - but there's no noticeable raw power difference IME. Also, MAD builds become more competitive (but these aren't generally better - it's rather that they're no longer generally weaker). An extra feat or two tend to help a lot more than extra point buy (in other news, humans are quite good, particularly at low levels).

Still, and particularly if players aren't into optimization, extra point buy points will raise power simply by raising primary ability scores (which matter most).

1. 18/14/11 is most often not the best you can get... especially if the 20 is not raising Ac.

2. Higher Stats make skills better which is useful in a small party.

3. versatility is gold in small parties. So beeing able to multiclass more freely (which an extra point in wisdom or charisma could do opens up some nice multiclass options and could make a powerswap very very helpful)

4. defender classes often profit from high strength and high constitution and can make good use of dexterity although it is most often not a even a tertiary. So every point in dexterity can make a big difference. (actually dexterity is so much better by default than int, that everyone should consider increasing it. (stealth + ranged basic + initiative can result in having to face much less minions when the fight begins.

5. In a 3 player party having no versality can make you dead very fast. Actually, every party member should be able to take some hits and every member should be able to heal, even if it is with the heal skill.

this results in: a fighter with higher point buy is a much more resilent and sticky defender:

what would be your choice of attributes?

strength: 20 if possible
consti: 15 at least for plate armor
dexterity: 14 (15 at paragon for HBO and shield spec or scale spec)
wisdom: 20 if possible

ok, most conservative:

18 strength
13 const
14 dex
16 Wisdom

achievable with a longtooth shifter

ao, raising point buy by 9 points would result in:

20 strength
14 const
14 dex
16 Wisdom

adding 11 points results in

20/15/14/16 or 18/15/14/18

this spread cries: WARPRIEST with fantastic stickiness and ability to heal. (powerswap with some cure spells)

beeing most generous you could easilymake a 35 Point buy and have seriously stronger PC´s which are not overpowered (as eamon pointed out) but much more resilent and versatile.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

A rule of thumb that I ripped off from Stalker0 is that brutes can be up to 2 levels higher (they tend to have low def), artillery can be 2 levels lower (they have great attack values) and soldiers are just bad juju (they add little interest to the fight). Everything else should be party level or lower.

QFT

IMC I have run encounter groups right out of the DMG using monsters of the party level and it has worked perfectly...

 

[Camelot]

Parties of four are cutting it close, but a party of three is never going to work, especially with no leader. The math doesn't work with those numbers. Here's what I've done.

It's not per RAW, but it's cool and fun. Have each of the PCs be as good as two. It's kind of like hybrid classes, except you get the full benefits of each class. Then you get two initiative counts to double your power. Three players suddenly become as good as six. Two players can even function because they're as good as four. Granted, you only have one body, which could be a reduce in effectiveness, but it's still fun to play. I've done it with a Rogue/Swordmage and a Avenger/Druid, so no leader, but they still kill everything easily.

If you want to stick to the rules, go with the companion rules from the DMG2. Either run the companion yourself or let your most experienced player do it. You could let the players collaborate on what the companion should do, but that could slow things down. However, with only three players, things won't be going too slow anyway.

HTH!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

No, it works.

It works pretty fine indeed. Even without a leader. You just should be careful when using premade adventures. Also you should not use stunning monsters, because they are too unbalancing for the action economy.

If you lack a leader you should make individual fights less deadly (around the party's level or slightly below). beeing reduced to nearly zero hp means using 4 surges to be healthy again, and you can´t afford to save up surges when you are slightly injured.

All characters can heal themselves to a certain extend (at least with second wind) Even the solo adventure played great with a non leader companion. So don´t spread lies about any math not working.

 

[Pssthpok]

Well, 450 XP budget at 1st level is too high. 100 per PC at first level, IIRC. Fix that and your troubles should ebb away.