Pathfinder 1E When you forget to coordinate party composition.

[payn]

PF1 affords a lot of out of the box ways to do the expected roles. As GM, I'll ask during session zero how they plan to cover any glaring weaknesses. I know this practice developed from watching parties wipe from bad compositions, but Its been so long I don't remember the particulars.

 

[Grogg of the North]

I've GM'd for parties, and been in groups, were there was no coordination and the group was lacking some role.

As GM, I adjusted loot to help compensate. No healer? More potions in the loot pile. No rogue? Pull back on traps and locked doors.

As a player and GM I firmly believe that this is what the Leadership feat is intended to fix. If the party lacks some role, the feat lets the group compensate for it while not forcing someone to drastically alter their character.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

It's been my experience that the GM needs to fix such a situation.

Way back in 2e days, our group was uncoordinated. Our last 2e campaign only had one "healer" at campaign start, a paladin who could heal 2 hit points per day. The GM gave us more healing potions than you would find in a video game, and it still wasn't enough. We only lasted one session.

My first campaign of d20 Modern (I was a player) didn't have a healer. The game was new to all of us and none of us knew about surgery. We literally ran into the problem where we couldn't do plot (such as rescuing someone) because we were half-dead, and adventuring while half-dead is a really bad idea. I learned my lesson and insisted on a surgeon every d20 Modern campaign.

A healer stopped being necessary around the time people latched on to the 3e/Pathfinder 1e Wand of Cure Light Wounds, or 4e healing surges, or 5e Hit Dice. The OP's scenario would still have a problem though, as Strange Aeons is a very low-level adventure (I think it starts at 1st-level) so you're not seeing a lot of treasure and you're not crafting any wands. (I played in that adventure, as a cleric in fact.)

 

[billd91]

I encourage my players to coordinate. They rarely do and then are surprised when 3/4 of them are trying to play the party face with overlapping skill sets. I also leave it up to them to fix it, though I do make henchmen/cohorts and multiclassing available should they choose to use them.

 

[Fauchard1520]

(I will, of course, offer suggestions to new players, and give advice to more experienced players if they ask for it.)

I agree with many of the "not my job" GM posts. But this is an important caveat. About half of that party were first-timers, and the more experienced members of the party didn't think to bring up party balance.

At that point, I think it's worth stepping in and suggesting that "someone might want to prepare cure light wounds until you can find that all-important first wand."

 

[aco175]

My players tend to fill out the roles when making a party. There may be a warprirest instead of a full healer, but there is something. I found that PF is different than 5e in that multiclassing is easier. The players tend to look for this if they keep getting beat up. It may make one player feel cheated if they wanted to play a thief and now is a thief/cleric. This can be somewhat fixed with DM giving items and such of a feat that allows you to use a wand or such.

In my game, I may offer the multiclass route, but also give more healing items out if needed and I can also modify the encounters if needed. This is similar to the threads of a 1-class party with all mages or all fighters and monster make-up.

 

[Ancalagon]

Once, we did it on purpose. We ended up with 2 fighters (one archer, one dex build meleeist), a paladin, a monk of the long death and a ranger (the planeswalker one). It worked out ok!

I'm currently in a SKT campaign and we have a psi warrior (me! sage background), a hunter ranger, a paladin of glory, a shadow monk and an enchanter wizard. Is it balanced? Not really... but it works!