A single-round stun that is 1/encounter is probably ok, but avoid creatures with at-will stuns, since they will certainly kill a lone PC.
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Suggestions for a 2 player game (1DM,1Player)
- Thread starter Kerberos1976
- Start date
A single-round stun that is 1/encounter is probably ok, but avoid creatures with at-will stuns, since they will certainly kill a lone PC.
My approach for a 2-PC 4e game was to start the PCs at 5th level and run them through a 1st level adventure. This works great IME. It was a Defender-Striker combination, a Fighter plus a tough Warlock who had some good area-effect magic. They really enjoyed ripping apart the 1st level goblin warriors, battling the lizardmen, et al.
You could also start the 2 heroes at 3rd level and use a 1st level adventure with 3/5 monster numbers, but then you'd also have to adjust solo monsters etc. Likewise 2 1st level PCs, you'd need to adjust the XP budget to 2/5 or less of standard. I'm a big fan of running adventures as-is, so I would rather make the adjustment at the PC end. And IME players like being the Big Damn Heroes.
I think for 2 PCs, an elite is the equivalent of a solo. Just give an elite monster a few fancy powers and you're good to go. Although I'd give the elite a few minions, just to spice things up. I put an elite + minions against a warlock, a ranger, and an NPC artificer, and it worked out well.
Zaran
Adventurer
Really if you just follow what the suggested xp per encounter chart it will work fine. For 1 PC you put in 1 Monster of equal level xp into the encounter. That means 1 standard monster or 4 minions. Then you can vary the level + or -1 . For instance, a Level -1 for a 1st level PC would be 3 level 1 Minions. A level +3 "Boss" fight would be a level 4 Monster in XP or 175 xp (level 1 Monster + 3 Level 1 Minions) .
It works out pretty well. You might invent minions out of standard monsters on the fly. It's simple to do. Give them 1 hp and then keep their normal powers but ignore the damage rolls and just do (Level+8)/2 for their damage. Instant Minions.
It works out pretty well. You might invent minions out of standard monsters on the fly. It's simple to do. Give them 1 hp and then keep their normal powers but ignore the damage rolls and just do (Level+8)/2 for their damage. Instant Minions.
Randomthoughts
Adventurer
Modifying Encounters: To follow up on Zaran's comment, I'm looking at pages 56-57 of the DMG. Your encounter budget = # of PCs/NPCs in party * XP value of monsters of the encounter's level. A typical encounter ends up with 1 standard monster for each party member, or you "trade in" 1 standard monster for 4 minions (which are the same as the standard monster but with only 1 hp).
You choose the encounter level, where encounters of standard difficulty are +0 or +1 con. You probably want to stick with this difficulty level, or perhaps lower (-3 to -1 level) or higher (if the PC has a good build for example) to mix things up.
Dungeon Delves: If you're up for some light preparation, there is a 4e book called Dungeon Delves. A delve is a short adventure with only 3 encounters in a "dungeon crawl" format (its in a tower, a temple or actual mini-dungeon).
You can start with wrapping a story around a delve or using the one already provided. For example, Delve 1 is Coppernight Hold, a mine delve. It has a short paragraph on background, or you can create your own, say tying the PC to it.
Each delve has 3 encounters, so you can keep as is or modify them with less/more/different monsters or add traps/terrain. You can add more story elements to each encounter like adding a slave pen in one, giving the PC a choice of freeing them or not.
Think an adventure with only 3 encounters is too short? Well, you can string two delves together, say starting with a temple delve that has a secret door to a dungeon delve. Or you could break up the 3 encounters with skill challenges. For example, take a simple, 3-room dungeon delve. Kill monsters in room 1, go to room 2 then 3. Pretty boring right?
Well, add a skill challenge after the room 1. Say there is an underground river that has to be crossed (and you create a skill challenge to that effect). Once the PCs overcome that, they reach room 2. After room 2, they have to cross a massive chasm where stirges attack them (skill challenge #2 or perhaps a SC and combat). After that, they finally reach room 3.
That's plenty of encounters for a 3-4 hour session.
Hope that helps. Good luck and welcome back to gaming!
EDIT: Making Your Own Adventures: If the Reply If You Love 4e thread (http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4t...315671-reply-if-you-love-d-d-4th-edition.html) is any indication, 4e makes it incredibly easy to create or customize your own adventures. Now, I subscribe to DDi and use MB extensively , since I customize or create from scratch each and every encounter. But I am blown away with how easy it is. I'm an experienced GM so I tend to know what I want out of an encounter. I modify or create new monsters all the time, so I do that through MB and import the text to Word/Excel. I'd estimate it takes an hour - tops - to finish all the crunch aspects for an 8-hour adventure. Amazing, really.
Last edited:
Kerberos1976
First Post
Hey everyone, thought I would report back and let you know what happened. I spoke with my buddy about the few options that we had and we decided that for the first couple sessions, we would commit to testing out how starting the PC's at level 1 and scaling back the published adventures would work out. I decided to use the "Stick In The Mud" a pre-printed Chaos Scar adventure because of the recommendations here, I had quick access to it, and the prep for the maps, etc. seemed very quick and easy.
I copied the maps to some graph paper and in a fashion only a completely artistically devoid individual could, hoped that my buddy would figure out a bunch of random dots was in fact "collapsed walls and other rubble".
First encounter went fairly easy for him, not much of a challenge. Then we moved on to the second encounter. Also, not incredibly difficult, but I think it was a little tougher. On the third encounter, I decided that I wouldn't remove as many monsters because he seemed to be just chewing through them. Unfortunately, I don't think I removed enough of them, or more importantly didn't make the proper modifications that I needed to. As a result, both his characters were on the path to death (1 to 2 rounds for the fighter ... the wizard was already -3 HP) when we stopped and re-analyzed everything.
That being said, we both had a blast and learned a few things:
1) We are both very rusty on the rules... i.e. when the wizard cast an area effect power, we only rolled one attack and one damage. I'm pretty sure we should have rolled once for damage but individually for each monster he was attacking.
2) I need to more closely follow the advice here and scale back according to the rules ... I think the Chaos Scar adventure was designed much like a video game ... level 1-1 was easy 1-2 a little harder 1-3 harder still, but I saw him just steam roll through 1-1 and 1-2 so decided not to make 1-3 so easy. Unfortunately, it was already designed THAT way from the beginning. (Hope this makes sense?)
3) Our combat tactics both stink. We need to think more about the concept of "roleplaying" the combat and PC's and monsters, instead of just "I move here, roll for initiative, that's a hit, 9 points damage ... who's next?" I'm going to put most of this onus on me as the DM. Next game I'm going to try to have the monster's more active. Shouting insults ... picking up a book and throwing at the PC ... better combat tactics in general and by that I mean thinking more like the monsters and not "meta gaming".
4) Roleplaying has been and will continue to ever be ... ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN AWESOME. I love this game.
I copied the maps to some graph paper and in a fashion only a completely artistically devoid individual could, hoped that my buddy would figure out a bunch of random dots was in fact "collapsed walls and other rubble".
First encounter went fairly easy for him, not much of a challenge. Then we moved on to the second encounter. Also, not incredibly difficult, but I think it was a little tougher. On the third encounter, I decided that I wouldn't remove as many monsters because he seemed to be just chewing through them. Unfortunately, I don't think I removed enough of them, or more importantly didn't make the proper modifications that I needed to. As a result, both his characters were on the path to death (1 to 2 rounds for the fighter ... the wizard was already -3 HP) when we stopped and re-analyzed everything.
That being said, we both had a blast and learned a few things:
1) We are both very rusty on the rules... i.e. when the wizard cast an area effect power, we only rolled one attack and one damage. I'm pretty sure we should have rolled once for damage but individually for each monster he was attacking.
2) I need to more closely follow the advice here and scale back according to the rules ... I think the Chaos Scar adventure was designed much like a video game ... level 1-1 was easy 1-2 a little harder 1-3 harder still, but I saw him just steam roll through 1-1 and 1-2 so decided not to make 1-3 so easy. Unfortunately, it was already designed THAT way from the beginning. (Hope this makes sense?)
3) Our combat tactics both stink. We need to think more about the concept of "roleplaying" the combat and PC's and monsters, instead of just "I move here, roll for initiative, that's a hit, 9 points damage ... who's next?" I'm going to put most of this onus on me as the DM. Next game I'm going to try to have the monster's more active. Shouting insults ... picking up a book and throwing at the PC ... better combat tactics in general and by that I mean thinking more like the monsters and not "meta gaming".
4) Roleplaying has been and will continue to ever be ... ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN AWESOME. I love this game.
