H1, 2 & 3 for 3 players

[SpiderMonkey]

Sorry if this has been asked before.

We're giving 4e another chance, and it looks like I'm going to try to run 3 players through the adventures. Clearly, since they were designed for 5 players, we may have a problem.

They're starting off with a very inflated point buy (upper thirties, maybe?) and they're going through Kobold Hall first, so they'll likely be second level.

Is this going to be enough?

 

[Vayden]

Nope. You're going to have to pull some monsters out of most of the encoutners, especially the higher level ones. Take out monsters based on role and party make-up - that is, if your 3 PCs don't include a wizard, pull out minions - if they don't include a striker, pull out brutes, etc.

 

[MerricB]

I've run several sessions of Keep on the Shadowfell without a full 5 characters (we were down to 2 PCs and Splug at one point), and it works very well as long as you scale down the monsters. For 3 PCs, look at the XP awarded for the encounter, calculate 2/5ths of it, and then remove monsters equalling that amount of XP.

It worked really well for me.

Cheers!

 

[charlesatan]

I've run Shadowfell for 2~3 players.

I didn't give them an inflated point buy nor did I give them extra levels. I just removed monsters. Usually it's a 1:1 ratio, except in the case of minions which is 4:1. So if you have 3 players, you can remove 2 monsters from each encounter.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Both charlesatan and MerricB have extremely good advice - take out a few monsters from each encounter. I'd pay particular attention to the Irontooth encounter, too - you probably need to reallly knock that one back as it's very hard for 1st level PC's to beat. 2nd level PC's will need plenty of help.

 

[wedgeski]

I've run Shadowfell with four PC's. As they get better at working together, I've had to pull fewer and fewer punches. But any less than that and I would need to have changed the encounters quite significantly.

 

[Grimstaff]

1.Reduce the number of monsters by a third or so (large groups only, like the kobold caves, etc).

2.Reduce monster hp by half (the party damage output per round is going to be about half, so this is very important).

3.Give the PCs a free 1st level magic item of their choice.

4.Cut out a third or so of the encounters (anything remotely redundant, like when you have 3 rooms full of hobgobs, cut one out, they are "out on patrol" or whatever).

The PCs are still going to get beat on pretty bad now and then, but they should move along through the adventure at a nice pace, level at the appropriate places, and have a good chance of success.