Solo Adventures?

[MindWanderer]

I think that if you just follow the recommended XP values for a single character, you'll be fine. Encourage at least a bit of multiclassing so they can take a bit of punishment (high defenses, healing) and be effective in most situations (melee and ranged), and keep enemies down to 3 or 4 (maybe 5 with minions) and I don't foresee a problem.

 

[dm4hire]

An interesting thought just occurred to me that might fix a lot of problems and it is quite simple. Let the player roll two dice and take the better of the two rolls. Look at it as a solo ability the hero is blessed with, amazing luck really which fits a lot of the stories of the loan hero. Both dice still have a chance of rolling bad, but more often one of them will roll to the players advantage. I'd leave skill checks alone as there is no reason to adjust it since skills tend to be for individuals to shine.

Solo feat I thought of, which can only be taken by solo players:

Lone Wolf
You are accustom to fighting on your own and relying upon your own abilities.
Prerequisite: Cannot be a member of an adventuring party.
Benefit: +2 to hit and armor if you are not a member of an adventuring party.
Normal: Members of an adventuring party can rely upon members of their party to help them overcome opponents in a battle, the lone wold adventurer does not have that luxury.
Special: If you join an adventuring group you lose the ability to use this feat due to the awkwardness of fighting with a group. You may retrain for another feat at no penalty or cost if you join a group.

 

[Novem5er]

Hmm... interesting ideas. I used to run solo adventures in 2e all the time, but I never got the hang of it with 3e.

The mechanics of 4e have left me wanting to try again. Of course, I'd rather play with a full group, but that's not easy to do.

Here's an idea to help out any solo player... give them an Iron Defender. You know, one of those iron dog constructs from Eberron.

Think about it... it's much more satisfying a solution than a typical animal companion. Nobody likes to think about a furry dog getting hit with an ax, but the iron defender? It's just metal! As a construct, it would never really die... just go inert like Warforged do. And of course, the newest line of D&D minis has an Iron Defender in it, so there's the miniature solution taken care of. The RP stats on the back of the card if the defender a pretty cool ability to "follow" an opponent as it shifts.

 

[2eBladeSinger]

There is no necessity in creating special rules for solo encounters. In fact, because of the high capability of a 1st level 4e character, it is EXCEPTIONALLY unnecessary to have to suppliment their ablilities. Perhaps give the PC use of an adventure appropriate (i.e. not random) magic item or gear. Use level appropriate encounters and keep in mind the class of the character.

Striker adventures involve lots of sneaking, light combat encounters with individual or paired sentries.
Defender adventures can have heavier combat. Use lots of minions, stagger them in every two or three rounds for a long cinematic fight.
Controller adventures could involve investigation/mysteries, places to use detect magic and their cantrips as well as a couple of baddies to blast.
Leader adventures might involve protecting innocents from an outside force, possibly with the aid of two or three conscripted men.

 

[Jeph]

Ignoring the facts that I don't think we've seen any templates for 1st level monsters, and that templates are for monsters rather than PCs...

Give him 2 templates! Then he'll be equivalent to a solo monster! And there won't be other players around to complain that the twinked out god-touched vampire ninja is such a twinked out god-touched vampire ninja!

 

[Cryptos]

I'd think that a half-elf with a multiclassing feat would be an optimal choice for a solo adventurer (or a human with that extra at-will power), but it feels like you should be able to do it with any class / race if you just make the adventure appropriate and use the XP guidelines for encounters.

The only other necessity would be to make a decent character designed for the purpose of solo play. A battle cleric trying to reform his lax and corrupted church while under pressure from outside forces would be ok, while a cleric optimized to give his allies bonuses and do things with others' healing surges that is trying to wipe dragons from the face of the land would be less ok for solo play.

I'd suggest something like a Rogue with some multiclass archery powers from Ranger, as that could probably be a fun choice for a Garret / Thief: the Dark Project feel and storyline.

 

[Jack Colby]

Wouldn't this be easily addressed as long as you keep in mind the character's role and level when selecting monsters? I thought 4e was balanced that way. I'm expecting the rulebooks will make it clear how to run games for one PC.

 

[Ipissimus]

Having done this twice, both as a DM and as a Player, I have to say from my experience: DO NOT ALTER THE RULES AS GIVEN.

And definitely: DO NOT PUT YOUR PLAYER UP AGAINST ANY NPC WITH MORE THAN 150% OF THE PC'S EXP. For first level characters, that means 150xp max. Yeah, I know what you're thinking - limiting, very limiting. However, under 4E, anything else you're looking at a TPK.

For example, to let you know how stringent this 150% rule is. As a 1st level character, I went up against an NPC worth 175 exp. I could never beat him in a straight up fight one-on-one. If you're interested, I was playing the pregen Warlock vs. the Human Mage from the fan monster manual off these boards.

Now, I know where you're coming from, soloing in any other edition was a stone cold migrane. But, amazingly, it actually works pretty well in 4E without major changes to the rules. Of course, you won't be fighting as many monsters as a party will, but believe me, blowing away a group of four Kobald Minions with a single Scortching Burst has a sort of visceral appeal.

 

[Shades of Green]

Ipissimus, you might have just convinced me to buy 4E. I'm currently playing a solo 3.0E game with my girlfriend and I've encountered numerous difficulties. If 4E makes solo adventuring far less painful, that would be its selling point for me.