Small parties

[Stormborn]

I have been playing for years with 3 players. Frequently it is hard to adjust,especially with a lots of house rules but:

-yes to slightly better than average ability scores. We roll4d6, drop the lowest, reroll 1s. If you don't like one set you can do another, but you have to take a whole set and not choose the best parts of each.
- NPCs as needed. When we don't have a rogue I downplay the traps, but I might also sned a "guide" along into the dungeon who can disarm a few traps, not tons but enough so they don't say "Why are there no traps in here?"
- Action points, which you will have in Eberron anyway.
- Carefully choose your challanges. Don't completly throw out the CRs, but if you have a party with no magic users and it takes a lot of magic to stop the monsters then its going to be more difficult, on the other hand if the monster just needs to be hit hard and often the party of 3 with good combat skills is going to do as well as a party of 4.


Basically as has already been said: know the players and know the PCs. It will be fine.

 

[JimAde]

I know some people knock this idea, but it's much easier to just have an NPC accompany the party. As long as it's not a DMPC (that is, a character that outshines the PCs) it's fine. A multi-classed NPC will not be good enough at anything to overshadow the PCs, but can fill a lot of "holes" as far as skill and spell selections. Just make sure to avoid situations where the NPC is the only one who can solve the key puzzle/enemy of a scenario and you should be fine.

And don't let the NPC have all the social skills!

 

[IamTheTest]

I too am running a party of 3 members. I just went by the book with an elite array. When choosing an adventure I assume that Im working with a party of 4 that is a level lower than my party of 3 is. So far there have been few problems. Good Luck!

 

[painandgreed]

I'd go with one, just because they would represent above average people, but not any of the others. Certainly not taking down CRs for Xp purposes. While they'll get more Xp than usual, they're also fighting tougher CRs than usual. If three people are fighting a CR at normally used for four, then they should not also be penalized XP for doing so, essentially getting half the XP for the risk they would normally. I'd just leave the rules as is and simply not throw things at them that are meant for larger parties. Actually, I would leave it up to them to pick their own fights and to their own best judgement as to what they can or can't handle.

 

[MonsterMash]

I'd use option #1 - but I don't think option 2 is likely to be necessary as the odds are players will use high int characters who will get more skill points anyway.

I'd use max HP at 1 and 2nd level and rolling from there.

With encounters it'd depend on how balanced the party was - I'd sometimes adjust down or alter an encounter so that its not hopeless for the party to be able to win or at least withdraw safely.

I'd allow NPC companions, especially if no healers in the party.

 

[blargney the second]

I co-DM a game that will be moving to Eberron very soon, and we're using the world-change to revamp the characters. Since there are 2 PCs who will be there on a permanent basis, and two others that will take turns being run as PCs, what we've decided on are:

1) 32 point-buy (this will actually bring down most of their abilities)
2) Gestalt (all PCs are multi-class already)
2a) Skill points are added together for their base classes. (ie Pal + Sor + Int)
3) They will all count as LA+2, and receive XP accordingly.
4) Wealth will be brought up to DMG-recommended amounts for their character level.

-blarg

 

[Allura]

I don't have to worry about players showing up. One player is my husband and the other two are a couple who's house we usually play at.

I think adding an NPC could be difficult for me, given how I'm new to GMing in general. That adds another factor for me to track, and I don't want to take the focus away from the PCs. If later on it looks like they're lacking something, I may consider it. Alternately, if they want to hire someone, I'm certainly going to allow them. I just don't want to foist a long-term NPC on them if they don't want one.

I'm starting to think 36 build points might be too high. Actually, I personally hate build points. I like the more wild variation of 4d6, drop 1d6. I may add that they can reroll a one and/or that they can make 2 or 3 "sets" of dice to pick from. I don't want them to keep rerolling 20 times, or they'll try to argue that probability says they get all 18s eventually. That argument will be dealt with by clue x 4.

One reason I like #2, adding skill points, is because we just picked up DMG2 which has rules for teamwork in it that I like. A lot of those abilities require that the team members have 1 rank in the supporting skills.

I think the party is going to end up balanced, although they may get more of their treasure as healing potions and such then just raw gold. Everyone seems to have some small amount of healing at least, and they all are going to end up fighty, I think. That leaves traps as the last concern, and I'm going to make sure I keep track of the highest DCs they can search/disable.

When I talked about dropping the CR, I meant dropping the actual strength of the opponent, not just dropping how much xp they got from it. I'm sorry I wasn't clear on that. But, I'm thinking the edge from leveling a bit earlier & having a bit more treasure will balance itself out.

Yes, Eberron has action points. I had briefly considered increasing them, but I haven't used them in play and I don't like messing around with a rule I'm not already comfortable with. They'll be used by-the-book.

Ok, so now I'm leaning towards:

1. 4d6, drop 1. Reroll 1s and/or choose between 2-3 "sets" of stats.

2. Still thinking about the skill point thing. I may wait to see what their stats end up looking like.

3. Definitely reroll a 1 on a HD. I think my players like rolling dice, and telling them they get fixed HP may take that away. Letting them just take 1/2HD rounded up is something I'll see what they think of.

This thread has also made me realize I need to go back and talk to the players some more. I may be projecting some of my own dislike of 3 player parties onto them, and I'm not sure they feel they need the boosting.

 

[Oryan77]

Adding an NPC isn't that bad even when starting out as DM. Just keep him a plain ol fighter. It's pretty common for DM's to forget about the NPC anyway other than when it's his turn to attack.

Since you say you're new at DM'ing, I would really suggest running an NPC as a 4th member rather than adjusting things in your game to balance it out. If you run an NPC, you won't need to adjust anything. After you get comfortable DM'ing and you would still rather not run an NPC, then dump him and make adjustments.

It will take a many sessions to get a feel for party balance vs CR'ings. Having a party of 4 will cut down the hassle on your end. You could even let a player roll attacks for the NPC. I would keep the NPC very simple too. Give him feats that no one will need to keep up with. Forget power attack and things like that. You don't want to make decisions like "how much will he power attack for this time".

 

[Stormborn]

Rather than give them open ended extra skill points, consider allowing a "background" for each character.

Something like:
4 skill points in 3 related skills, these 3 skills are always class skills regardless of multiclassing.
One free feat or other feat like bonus.

d20 Modern, Black Company, and I think SkullnBones all have startign occupations/backgrounds, or if you have trouble coming up with something I can make some suggestions.


Your group sounds EXACTLY like ours, BTW. My wife has never run a game either, although she did buy a book of adventures recently and is thinking about running something for us.

 

[Staffan]

On HP, I really like the option to take 1/2 of your hit dice, rounded up. This keeps the low hit dice guys from being stuck with extremely low HP, but gives the higher hit dice guys a chance to get even more.

My house rule for hp is that if you're not happy with your roll, you can reroll. However, the reroll uses a die one size lower (so a fighter who rolls a 2 could roll a d8 instead). If you're still not happy, you can reroll again and again, until you're rolling a d2 (at which point it's kind of senseless to reroll a d1).