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Game in one hour - will this 3-PC party be OK?
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<blockquote data-quote="Cryptos" data-source="post: 4310678" data-attributes="member: 58439"><p>I've been doing simulations with characters I've pregenerated in anticipation of a possible game with some completely novice players. There are three of them, and I've been trying out fights with three PCs against various encounters. Mostly to get the encounter balance right. The one thing that I can't simulate, though, is lack of knowledge of the game and RPGs in general. So I have to assume they'll do a lot worse than my simulations, at least for a while.</p><p></p><p>I agree with the "encourage them to move or they're dead" sentiment above.</p><p></p><p>I've got about three PC choices for each player, based on what I know about them and the sorts of characters they like from fiction and so forth. But I can't be entirely sure which of my pregens each of them will pick, even though I have a very good idea. So I roll a d6, pick one of the three from each set, and construct test parties from that against my encounters. </p><p></p><p>Things I've noticed, some of which may help you, some may not:</p><p></p><p>They seem to do roughly 50% better with an optimized defender that actually gets to defend (that means marking, wading into melee, and making sure they are positioned well for opportunity attacks, making the most out of each turn to do so.) That is, they'll end the fight with about 50% more expendable resources left (healing surges, daily powers, hit points, etc.) </p><p></p><p>Multiclassing is almost always a good choice. Be careful with skill challenges with a smaller party that there aren't a lot of missing skills. Your Warlord has arcana, so it looks like they've already considered this. Social encounters would look to be your party's weakness.</p><p></p><p>To finish fights quickly with this party, your rogue's goal is to try to keep getting combat advantage. Your warlord and fighter should have the secondary goal of helping the rogue get combat advantage. Your warlord should only ignore this goal when he needs to heal, if healing would interfere with helping the rogue gain CA.</p><p></p><p>This doesn't really apply to you, but you can have a viable striker - striker - controller team (just about any combination with the right tactics, really, if the DM designs for the party rather than generic encounter design, but for this role combo specifically: ) without toning down encounters overmuch, but the controller has to be using pushes, slows and terrain effects, and everyone has to keep moving. A damage-oriented controller does not help unless I front load an encounter with minions for a significant portion of the XP. However, if one of those strikers is a warlock, survivability can down for this particular three man team if the warlock can't stick to one attack bonus ability. Three fights with a warlock that tried to keep both CON and CHA equal vs. three fights with a warlock that had one of the two high and used that for all their attack powers: the fights finish noticeably faster (and thus survivability goes up) with the single ability warlock. Shadow Step is an immense help, a warlock shouldn't discount it and should always be looking to exploit it, as with a rogue and CA.</p><p></p><p>But as I've been considering running a three PC game for several weeks now, I think you'll do fine.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cryptos, post: 4310678, member: 58439"] I've been doing simulations with characters I've pregenerated in anticipation of a possible game with some completely novice players. There are three of them, and I've been trying out fights with three PCs against various encounters. Mostly to get the encounter balance right. The one thing that I can't simulate, though, is lack of knowledge of the game and RPGs in general. So I have to assume they'll do a lot worse than my simulations, at least for a while. I agree with the "encourage them to move or they're dead" sentiment above. I've got about three PC choices for each player, based on what I know about them and the sorts of characters they like from fiction and so forth. But I can't be entirely sure which of my pregens each of them will pick, even though I have a very good idea. So I roll a d6, pick one of the three from each set, and construct test parties from that against my encounters. Things I've noticed, some of which may help you, some may not: They seem to do roughly 50% better with an optimized defender that actually gets to defend (that means marking, wading into melee, and making sure they are positioned well for opportunity attacks, making the most out of each turn to do so.) That is, they'll end the fight with about 50% more expendable resources left (healing surges, daily powers, hit points, etc.) Multiclassing is almost always a good choice. Be careful with skill challenges with a smaller party that there aren't a lot of missing skills. Your Warlord has arcana, so it looks like they've already considered this. Social encounters would look to be your party's weakness. To finish fights quickly with this party, your rogue's goal is to try to keep getting combat advantage. Your warlord and fighter should have the secondary goal of helping the rogue get combat advantage. Your warlord should only ignore this goal when he needs to heal, if healing would interfere with helping the rogue gain CA. This doesn't really apply to you, but you can have a viable striker - striker - controller team (just about any combination with the right tactics, really, if the DM designs for the party rather than generic encounter design, but for this role combo specifically: ) without toning down encounters overmuch, but the controller has to be using pushes, slows and terrain effects, and everyone has to keep moving. A damage-oriented controller does not help unless I front load an encounter with minions for a significant portion of the XP. However, if one of those strikers is a warlock, survivability can down for this particular three man team if the warlock can't stick to one attack bonus ability. Three fights with a warlock that tried to keep both CON and CHA equal vs. three fights with a warlock that had one of the two high and used that for all their attack powers: the fights finish noticeably faster (and thus survivability goes up) with the single ability warlock. Shadow Step is an immense help, a warlock shouldn't discount it and should always be looking to exploit it, as with a rogue and CA. But as I've been considering running a three PC game for several weeks now, I think you'll do fine. [/QUOTE]
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