What boon for 3 PCs to bring them up to the power of 4?

[Roman]

In a game with only 3 PCs, what boon to my characters would be sufficiently powerful to bring the 3 character party to a power-level equivalent to that of a 4 PC party?

 

[Qualidar]

An NPC.

 

[Qualidar]

Seriously: more info needed. What level? What are the current characters in the party?

~Qualidar~

 

[Roman]

Nah, please no NPCs and preferably not turning the characters into Gestalts (though if nothing else works this might...). Ideally, I would prefer to grant the three characters some inherent boon that would boost their power sufficiently to balance them with a 4 PC party.

 

[Roman]

Seriously: more info needed. What level? What are the current characters in the party?

Well, the game has not started yet and might not for some time. The characters will all start at level 1. One character will be a cleric for sure, another is likely to be a barbarian and yet another will almost certainly be a sorceress or a wizard.

Hence, they will most likely cover the archetypes of a standard party except for the rogue.

 

[Roman]

I should probably add that I am not necessarily looking for abilities that will compensate for the lack of a rogue ... merely for a boon that will bring them to the equivalent power level of a 4 character party.

 

[Qualidar]

Nah, please no NPCs and preferably not turning the characters into Gestalts

Erp, that was going to be my next suggestion. How about superior stats and increased wealth? Or Max HP every level? Might be too extreme. You'll get crunchier answers in the rules forum, I'd bet.

Are you running them through a pre-published adventure, that they need to "equal a 4 person party"? If so, just a simple level boost might do the trick. If not, just adjust your adventures to them.

I'll step aside and let the real gurus give their imput now. Good luck.
~Qualidar~

 

[Jdvn1]

Are you running them through a pre-published adventure, that they need to "equal a 4 person party"? If so, just a simple level boost might do the trick. If not, just adjust your adventures to them.

Ah, true. In theory, everyone in a group of three has to be level*(1/3) higher in order to equal the power of a group of 4.

To be effective power level 6, for example...
3 players of level of 6*(1/3) higher, or 2 levels higher than 6. So...
APL 6 = 8*3/4 = 6

 

[Roman]

Ah, true. In theory, everyone in a group of three has to be level*(1/3) higher in order to equal the power of a group of 4.

To be effective power level 6, for example...
3 players of level of 6*(1/3) higher, or 2 levels higher than 6. So...
APL 6 = 8*3/4 = 6

Hmm, although logical at some level, I am not sure it works that way. The increase in power appears to be exponential with level, rather than merely linear. The EL of an encounter, for example, increases by 2 for every doubling of the creatures present. This would indicate that in order for two characters to be as 'powerful' as four characters, the two characters would have to be 2 levels higher. If I understand this correctly, than this implies that 3 characters should be 2 x (2^0.5 - 1) ~ 0.83 levels above the level of what a 4 character party would be. I guess this implies that I should give them abilities that are worth 0.83LA, but are thusly useful at all levels. Hmm.

 

[Stalker0]

Spellcaster should get an increase to their number of spells per day. Fighters could get a bump to their BAB to get better attacks and more of them. A general boost of hitpoints would also be a good idea.

You have 2 major things to make up for with the lack of a 4th member.

1) Character resources (hitpoints, spells, etc)
2) Actions per round.

The amount depends more on what classes you have. If you have one fighter and two wizard for example, you need that fighter to be able to take a lot more punishment then normal. If you have only the one spellcaster, he needs to provide spell resources for the whole party.