Encounters for a 2 person party

[Otterscrubber]

I will be running a small group of only 2 PCs. They are going to be a lvl 15 essentials mage and a lvl 15 essentials fighter (knight). I'm struggling with how to come up with some meaningfull encounters for them.

Should I use regular encounters -2 levels? Since there are fewer PCs, would small fights with elites or solos be more viable? What if I want them to get swarmed, but don't want them it to be a cakewalk or a TPK? Basically has a controller and a defender. But the lack of healing or dedicated DPS makes it hard to work a fight that might last awhile. Then again the fighter is very tough and I have not actually run any encounters with them yet so I dont know what to expect.

Have any of you run small groups? Advice?

 

[ffy]

the first thing that comes to mind is that you could let them both run a companion character, filling out the striker and leader roles. if you dont want to go that route, when adding monsters to encounters try to imagine how their abilities might interact with the PCs. even if the encounter is 2 levels lower, getting hit by abilities that basically screw them both over and cause a TPK is no fun.

i also think i saw something like a guide to one-on-one gladiator combats in (i think it was) the dark sun dm guide (cant check as i dont own the book). it listed what monster roles are good to put against players of which role, you could probably adapt that to two players. maybe someone knows what im talking about?

 

[Otterscrubber]

I hadn't thought about that. I guess some combos of monsters would really be too effective against a controller and a defender while others would merely challenge them.

So what types of monsters (skirmishers, brutes, etc...) would make a good match up? What would result in TPK do you think? I've played 4e since it came out but I also know a lot of the mosnters in MM2 and especially in MM3 are very different, doing more damage than before. Due to limited healing I have to be careful on this, but it would be good to know.

 

[OnlineDM]

I imagine that Brutes could be a little problematic without a striker in the party (they have a lot of hit points, and it would take quite a few rounds to wear them down without a striker). Lurkers might be tough as well, if they can deal a lot of damage in one go and you have no leader to do any healing. Skirmishers and artillery shouldn't be a problem - the knight can help to lock down the skirmishers and the wizard can help to control the artillery - but you never know without a leader. Minions, naturally, should be no problem with the wizard on board.

Keep in mind that if a PC goes down in a larger party, there's a good chance that character will be rejoining the battle as soon as the leader's turn comes up or as soon as one of multiple characters who are trained in Heal or are carrying a healing potion gets a turn. In this party, it's quite possible that if one PC goes down, the other will have no realistic way to bring them back. So, dropping a PC unconscious has a much higher chance of leading to a TPK in this party than in a normal one.

I think the idea of companion characters is worth considering. An NPC with some healing in a pinch could work, too.

 

[moxcamel]

I second the multiple-character recommendation. If for anything else, it makes combat more interesting. With two PCs, the DM will be rolling most of the time. With each player running two characters, they get to do stuff twice a turn.

 

[Mengu]

I'd avoid elites and solos. I'd make most encounters consist of 1-2 main enemies, and a bunch of minions (tough 2 hit minions are always a good option too).

Combat should be pretty quick. without healing, you can't wear them down too much. I'd make fights in a way that in most encounters when the enemy leader goes down, or over half the enemy force is down, they either surrender or flee. This would give you fuller encounter allotments, without tpk.

You could also give one free "Healing Word" per encounter to each PC. This would eliminate the greatest need for a leader.

Companion NPC can be helpful if the players are new, especially for giving them direction where needed, but if they are experienced players, it just takes spotlight away from the PC's. If this is going to be a city campaign, you could occasionally have an NPC accompany them on certain missions, but not be with them all the time. Depending on the adventure, they might travel with a priest, or explore city outskirts with a ranger, or delve a dungeon with a thief.

 

[ffy]

I imagine that Brutes could be a little problematic without a striker in the party (they have a lot of hit points, and it would take quite a few rounds to wear them down without a striker). Lurkers might be tough as well, if they can deal a lot of damage in one go and you have no leader to do any healing. Skirmishers and artillery shouldn't be a problem - the knight can help to lock down the skirmishers and the wizard can help to control the artillery - but you never know without a leader. Minions, naturally, should be no problem with the wizard on board.

Keep in mind that if a PC goes down in a larger party, there's a good chance that character will be rejoining the battle as soon as the leader's turn comes up or as soon as one of multiple characters who are trained in Heal or are carrying a healing potion gets a turn. In this party, it's quite possible that if one PC goes down, the other will have no realistic way to bring them back. So, dropping a PC unconscious has a much higher chance of leading to a TPK in this party than in a normal one.

I think the idea of companion characters is worth considering. An NPC with some healing in a pinch could work, too.

aye i agree, especially try to avoid monsters who come out of stealth and do massive damage - in a larger party there are two counters to them, any member of the party might notice them sneaking around, or even if they do get their damage off the damage can easily be healed. in a two player party though it is much more probable that both fail the perception roll, and neither can heal the other if the lurker gets a huge round of damage off.

[MENTION=65726]Mengu[/MENTION] companion characters dont have to be DMPCs; they can be a cooperative effort by the DM and the players. you could lead them into finding a companion or two that is halfway designed by them. the DM should definitely not throw a random character into the party, as two-player groups seems to be a much more intimate affair. the companion(s) could be of the class of their choosing and shouldnt really stand out in most roleplaying situations.

 

[Klaus]

For those characters, I'd peg 4 minions and one regular monster as a full encounter. They have a defender and a controller, so someone could shore up with some leader-ing. Potions of healing also help.

I prefer to tailor the encounter to the PCs before adding secondary characters.

 

[pauljathome]

I will be running a small group of only 2 PCs. They are going to be a lvl 15 essentials mage and a lvl 15 essentials fighter (knight). I'm struggling with how to come up with some meaningfull encounters for them.
Advice?

Have you considered encouraging them to take characters who are at the least multiclassed and perhaps even hybrids?

Essentials means that they can't be hybrids by the rules but it would be fairly easy to kludge something. With only 2 specific characters you don't have to worry too much about balance issues.

But having them both multiclass into a leader class for some healing would give you a MUCH larger safety cushion

What you throw at them is also going to depend a lot on the mage. If they're a blasty mage then you should tend to send reasonably large numbers of weakish opponents at them for the mage to shine. Probably with one or two strong opponents as well so the knight also gets to shine.

If the mage is more optimized to locking down single targets then you want to make sure that the groups they encounter are fairly small.

 

[Aulirophile]

Tailor encounters to their strengths. Fighters are good at locking down opponents in melee. Wizards are good at annihilating/locking down large groups of enemies.

Have them start on a balcony overlooking the evil ritual chamber. They blow their stealth check and are discovered! There is only one staircase, so the Wizard uses a daily on the staircase that slaughters the first 2-3 waves of minions (the Wizard just plays delay here) that try to run up and from behind guards from behind that they somehow got past charge the Fighter, who holds them down for a bit.

I'd use Monsters at level-2 solely because it'll be easier to hit, so Fights will be less swingy. I might cut their HP down a bit (1/2) to account for the no leader, and I'd allow them to always start in a tactically superior position so the Wizard can break something out.

Generally speaking my favorite 2-person party is tough melee striker and tough melee leader, both of whom have a Ranged option if needed. Then you just remove a standard, or downgrade solos to elites, or elites to standards, and the encounter design specs still basically work.