My small party lacks arcane magic - what to do?

[Thanee]

Let 'em suffer. It is after all their own choice.

With only two players there isn't really much choice!

Just don't use challenges, that cannot be overcome without arcane magic. The lack of it will show itself more than enough without these.

Getting more players would, of course, be the best way to solve the problem.

Can't be so hard... everyone likes to play, you just need to ask them nicely!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Umbran]

With only 2 PCs, there really is no way to fill all the niches. If they had taken an arcane caster, they'd be short in something else, and you'd be in a similar situation with another aspect of adventuring.

Also note, that for small parties, the notion of "APL" gets a bit skewed. The PCs may each be level 7 and 8, but the notion of party level is geared for a party of 4, so this party's real effective level is somewhat lower than their simpla arithmetic average level.

The game is supposed to be a story about the characters they choose to run. If they've chosen to have no arcane magic, that's fine. I'd tend to lean away from encounters that really need it. Don't avoid them altogether, but do take the party's abilities (or lack thereof) into consideration. Make it challenging, but don't completely hose them.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

With only two players there isn't really much choice!

Just don't use challenges, that cannot be overcome without arcane magic. The lack of it will show itself more than enough without these.

Getting more players would, of course, be the best way to solve the problem.

Can't be so hard... everyone likes to play, you just need to ask them nicely!

Bye
Thanee

Sorry, I was trying to be humorous, ummm, I think I failed my roll.

The Auld Grump

 

[Chaos Apostate]

Well, I know that this seems to be an unorthodox view, but to me the answer to this is very obvious. You say that the PCs don't care about the NPC sorceror? That they let him bleed to death just ebcause they couldn't be bothered trying to save him? Well then, the chances are that you haven't made them care about him. If you introduce a character in a rather lame, colourless way and continue to play them simply as the resident sorceror, needed for some quests but generally nothing more than a necessary evil, then that is how the PCs will treat him.

Inject some character into yuor sorceror - give him a real personality, have him talk to the PCs, treat him, essentially, as a real character rather than just a stop-gap. If you care about your sorceror, and work on developing a really cool personality for him, then the PCs will care about him too. I knwo that there's a starnge prejudice across the D&D playing community against 'DM PCs' but I have to say, I see no problem with fleshing out your NPCs into characters that the players actually care about enough to interact with.

 

[nopantsyet]

Nah--if there's no spellcasters, let them tough it out. I always say it's a hard, dangerous fantasy world out there. Some make it by strength, some by wit, some by spell.

Mind you, you may have to adjust some encounters down as printed CR's assume an iconic party. I've run a whole campaign without any arcane spellcasters in the group, and it was fantastic. So far my new campaign is following the same pattern.

 

[Anabstercorian]

Kill yourself.