Filling holes in the party roster

[Quasqueton]

If your group of adventurers is short a character position -- missing a healer, missing a blaster, missing a trap-finder, missing a meat shield, just too few in number, whatever -- do the PCs/Players seek out an NPC to fill in the position?

Quasqueton

 

[Crothian]

The PCs play what they want holes be damned. The current group has no divine caster in it and no one with the a class where BAB equals their level. I think it is a lot more interesting when the player characters have to do something that none of them are good at.

 

[Elf Witch]

We play with the holes and try and find ways around them. For example we have no cleric in our party but we have a druid and a bard and healing wands.

We do not have any arcane style caster except for the bard which sometimes makes it tough.

I do think the DM forgets this sometimes when he plans encounters.

Last session we faced these undead bone suckers that do con level drain. Since we couldn't turn them we had to fight all four. It came close to a TPK. They had damage res to silver we didn't have any silver weapons and they also had fire res.

It was a long slow battle what took them down was the bard with a magic missle wand. And the fighter getting at least one point of damge through most of the time and the druid's wolf being able to pin one down so we were not fighting all four at the same time. And a lot of action points.

And the DM was rolling crappy on his grabble checks with these things.

When I DM I try not to throw an encounter that the party has no way of really dealing with.

 

[haakon1]

Depends on the group. I put "bring in NPC equals", because that does tend to happen, but it's not necessarily so much to plug holes as just because it makes sense for some to travel with them -- either someone rescued, someone who knows the way, or a NPC who was a helper at one point and became something more (a DMPC). But I've also seen people try the 2 PC route.

Actually using cohorts seems the rarest solution. I always play in and run groups that start at 1st level, and you can't do Leadership until the "high" level of 6th level -- if you managed to survive 1st through 6th without a TPK, you have figured out most of the holes.

Sometimes, the holes are not plugged particularly well, e.g. druid as healer or thief as meat shield . . .

 

[Lanefan]

Voted for "bring in NPC equals" but we also play 2 characters more often than not. Usually, the NPC is either a Ranger (local guide), Cleric (because we need the healing), or Thief (because these are often glaringly underplayed in our crew).

Lanefan

 

[Mark]

They compensate with their approach/tactics.

 

[Emirikol]

Our group has found the best way to fill holes in the party roster is with http://www.wftv.com/2006/0711/9500707_240X180.jpg !

But seriously, we don't FORCE anyone to play a particular party role.

jh

 

[DragonLancer]

My players compensate when they have a hole. Makes for a far more enjoyable game when you don't have every angle covered and you have to think around certain problems.

 

[Arkhandus]

There's no "sometimes they seek help, sometimes they don't" option on the poll.

I don't see anything wrong, though, with expecting the DM to avoid throwing inappropriate stuff their way that they can't handle. If the DM just wants to make things difficult for the PCs, he should make it clear at the beginning, so they're prepared to run the gauntlet.

I tend towards filling any gaps in the party myself though, when making a PC, just in case.

 

[Peni Griffin]

We hire help, persuade NPC equals to help, or do without depending on the campaign circumstances; I chose "NPC equals" because it has occurred most often.

Usually, when we're putting together a party I choose last because I take pride in being able to play any race, any class, any time, no fussing, and if there's an obvious hole I can fill it. But the most recent time we made characters, I got a wildhair to play a monk because I'd never done it. The other PCs are two wizards, a cleric, and a druid. We have recruited former antogonists (my monk has a surprising capacity to convert people) to our cause and also made deals with people to join our party in the old-fashioned tavern-meet manner; plus the DM drops NPCs on us all the time. In the game I'm running, the player with the wizard departed and the party never felt any in-game pressure to replace him. At the moment they're going through Red Hand of Doom and have made a sufficiently good impression on Elsir Vale that they aren't having any trouble recruiting NPCs when they need them, but they play smart enough that getting along on bardic and divine spells plus magic items has served them well.

We've also historically played games in which everyone ran multiple characters, character with followers, or whatever. This tends to cause problems for the DM in the long run, though, as it boosts the power level of the party and the more powerful the party, the harder it is to run a challenging and balanced game. As long as the characters are responding realistically to the situation in the game, there's no need for anyone to die of party holes.