Background:
So my girlfriend finally convinced me to run a one-on-one campaign (can't seem to find reliable/enjoyable players in our area), so I whipped something up, and we played for a few months. We played 2-3 times a week, and I didn't really take the idea seriously at first so my campaign is showing cracks that grow as we play (undeveloped story/setting), but we're growing attached to our characters. With exam week + busy work schedule, the campaign has tapered-off a bit.
Not knowing how much characters would actually develop playing solo, I feel I've let us down with a shotty attempt.
Seeing as though I just ordered the Shackled City hardcover (still in the mail), and she is just getting back from vacation, we have agreed to start fresh, and play through the campaign.
Not ever playing a "solo" campaign before, I've made some mistakes, but more importantly- there have been some triumphs. My "main" character, and hers have developed a rich relationship, we would like to retain those characters, and re-tell their story.
The low-down:
I am starting Shackled city with one player. She will play two PCs, and I will play one GMPC (I'd prefer not to play more than one as much as possible)
The PCs:
The issues:
We need a balanced party, especially going three PCs. Healing will be an issue, and cleric doesn't really fit any of our characters.
I thought about going Paladin for my GMPC, but Smite-evil+GM+metagame is hard to avoid and clunky, but niche-wise is perfect. Barbarian also fits, but will be doomed without a cleric. Fighter works, but not very versatile. Inquisitor works, but more mechanically than thematically.
So what I would like advice on, are:
I'm sorry
HA!
I'm not familiar with the AP so i'm no help to you there. But, in my experience the biggest asset to single player games is the customization. You can custom tailor every aspect of the game to fit the player, and make it a MUCH more involving and personal storyline.
About a year ago I ran a single player campaign from homebrew. In my opinion, homebrew games are the way to go for single player, but premade modules can be shaped to fit as well. The entire plot revolved around him setting out from home on his own to learn more and avenge the disappearance/murder of his sister, and in the process learning who his mostly absentee father was, who he worked for, and why he was gone so long.
The plot was completely tailored around his character he made, so his character fit seamlessly into the story. I wasn't telling a generic adventure story with cardboard cutouts where the adventurers could be inserted, i was telling the character's own personal story.
Villains and encounters can be made specifically to play against the players strengths and weaknesses. NPC's can be focused on more, allowing them to be more emotionally connected as close friends, family, or lovers, rather than healbots and mindless lackeys that blend in to the background.
Even a module can be tweaked to personalize it to the player. Make it His/Her story that they are a personal part of. Make the end villain PERSONAL and not just a mad wizard with something to prove. Personal adventures are memorable.
About a year ago I ran a single player campaign from homebrew. In my opinion, homebrew games are the way to go for single player, but premade modules can be shaped to fit as well.Villains and encounters can be made specifically to play against the players strengths and weaknesses. NPC's can be focused on more, allowing them to be more emotionally connected as close friends, family, or lovers, rather than healbots and mindless lackeys that blend in to the background.
Even a module can be tweaked to personalize it to the player. Make it His/Her story that they are a personal part of. Make the end villain PERSONAL and not just a mad wizard with something to prove. Personal adventures are memorable.
Well, I have to convert the AP to PF anyway, so I can adjust it to fit our characters as we go. I probably will use the AP more as a backbone, than a play-as-written, I can use the setting and the story elements as are, and adjust the flow and focus to fit as we play along, depending on how awesome the book is when I finally receive it.
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As for healing, there are basically two options, if you don't have a healer:
1) give lots of potions.
/agree
As the GM, you'll probably want to make clear what the rules are going to be in regards to drinking potions during combat - i.e. how many potions one can have at-the-ready, and what sort of actions you need to draw and drink one.
Also, you need Cure Light Wounds wands. Either:
1.) Get at least one level in Ranger/Paladin/etc.
2.) Have multiple characters put several skill-ranks in Use Magic Device
3.) GM fiat to relax the restrictions on healing wand use.
That way, with a minimum of preparation, the PC's can recover fully between fights.
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Other tactics to deal with a lack of clerical PCs;
1) Use an NPC Adept, instead of Cleric / Druid.
2) Make the Heal skill more effective (Treat Deadly Wounds option might have a daily limit on hit points restored, or convert lethal damage to nonlethal, but require only a single 'use' from a Healer's Kit). This is an option that even the Rogue can take advantage of, with it's strong number of skill points.
3) Make alchemical or herbal 'healing ointments' or 'magic bandages' more common, curing 1d3 hit points or allowing double overnight healing. Again, something the Rogue could do, or the whole party could stock up on while in town.
4) Allow an arcane version of a healing spell, perhaps a transmutation spell that converts lethal to nonlethal damage, or a necromancy spell that allows someone to transfer life-energy between two willing subjects. It should be less effective than the cure light wounds option, but allow the wizard some healing options.
5) Check out the DMG II rules for totem / companion spirits, allowing the party to secure the 'patronage' of an otherworldly spirit that can be tapped into for healing, perhaps by 'donating' hit points to it and recovering them normally, and then calling out the stored hit points later, in times of need.
6) Blessed bandages (Magic Item Compendium), wands of cure light wounds and wands of lesser vigor (Spell Compendium) all make fine options, if the party has decent UMD potential.
7) Depending on what classes are available, consider alternate class features or options that allow for healing options, such as the celestial sorcerer's heavenly fire or some homebrew barbarian rage option that allows fast healing while in Rage or a Monk ability to 'share' his Wholeness of Body or something (and get it at a lower level, pushing another option further back to compensate, such as Stunning Fist).
These are all valid suggestions and I appreciate it, but note that I am not looking to alter the rules or anything at this point. I'd like to avoid playing an additional character as GM, unless my player picks-up an NPC's help momentarily during an adventure or such. Also, we are playing core-only.
I tend to control and limit what magic items are available for sale, but am not afraid to drop a wand of CLW as treasure or on an NPC, as long as it seems somewhat "organic" to do so (not that the heal-stick isn't full-of cheese as it is). Not really looking to force things too much.
What I do intend to do though is adjust encounters, thin-out the herds a little, adjust the bad-guys if necessary, and make sure the PCs have what they need for any situation they need to overcome. It seems there is a bit of dungeon-crawling in the Shackled City AP from what I've read on the boards, and that is something I will probably tone-down a bit, I do not expect my group to be able to endure as many encounters as normal, and my player can't stand to be in a single dungeon for 12 sessions.
I may have my work cut-out for me, but it is still less than creating my own homebrew campaign, and we are looking for something long-term. I will tailor things to the party.
Here's our rolled stats and tentative builds:
Ezme: Human, str14 dex15 con14 int17 wis11 cha12 (+2/race-int)
Most likely going Wizard/enchanter (divination/abjuration-prohibited).
She wanted to keep her pretty-much exactly the same as before, trying to get her to at least look at the Witch class.
Uulmec: Half-Orc, str17 dex15 con15 int10 wis11 cha16 (+2/race-con)
Paladin, party mainstay for healing, and damn resilient. Was a fighter in previous campaign, but we need some healing and Cleric hardly fits the image of this guy.
Idunnr: Elf, Rolled stats: 16, 15, 14, 14, 12, 10.
Likely going Rogue or Ranger.
She was a ranger previously, but a Rogue may fit this AP/balance the party better.
Shouldn't be to hard to adjust the AP, right? I think we rolled high enough (yep, we rolled high! 4d6 drop the lowest, only Idunnr got any fudging and was allowed to re-roll two low stats) that we will survive most anything level appropriate. The Paladin gets ridiculous saves and becomes immune to nearly everything, and has really high survivability for front-line, plus decent enough healing, I think. We will be lacking certain Cleric goodies at times though, like restoration/remove disease, etc., most of which the Paladin can handle much later on than the Cleric, so it is a gamble.
I will consider going Cleric with Uulmec deeply, but it really is a stretch for the character, he would have to be built more melee/tank-like, and not seem so...priestly, and come-off more soldiery and Orc-y in battle, and still needs his iconic greatsword. He needs to be tough!
Instead of thinning out the encounters, you might instead break them up a little bit. Give the smaller party more opportunities to avoid encounters or run away or use smart tactics. Make sure there are plenty of friendly NPCs around to help with things (in that AP, I recall that there are plenty). Maybe Nidrama helps out mysteriously from time to time, using magic to appear as a wise old woman who tends their wounds or feeds them information. The Striders make an excellent information source and could easily serve at need as reinforcements if the PCs get into trouble.
Instead of thinning out the encounters, you might instead break them up a little bit. Give the smaller party more opportunities to avoid encounters or run away or use smart tactics. Make sure there are plenty of friendly NPCs around to help with things (in that AP, I recall that there are plenty). Maybe Nidrama helps out mysteriously from time to time, using magic to appear as a wise old woman who tends their wounds or feeds them information. The Striders make an excellent information source and could easily serve at need as reinforcements if the PCs get into trouble.
I think these are great ideas, and once I get the AP I will look to implement them. She is not very fond of super long dungeon crawls, so I see myself trimming things in places for that reason at least.
Well, first of all in a small party I always recommend the more flexible classes. Summoner, Druid, Paladin, Bard, witch, these classes can fill in gaps left by a 3 person party.
If you dont think any of your characters can fit summoner, bard, druid, or paladin-, then I recommend pushing a little hard for Ezme to be a 'witch'. The witch can fill in alot of the gaps for a missing cleric. The healing hex, along with the cure spells on the witch's list (as well as things like restoration, remove disease, remove curse etc) will mean you dont NEED a divine caster.
For shackled city, may I recommend giving the whole book a look over. In my opinion it is really slow to develop and takes quite a while before the actual story arc comes into view. You may want to speed the lower levels along since this is just a 1 on 1 campaign. You dont need quite as long to develop the story for all the characters.
Particularly if she doesnt like long dungeon crawls there are some pretty brutal ones in there. (It was made worse when I ran it as we had a 6 person party, 5 which were elves, and 4 who had good search checks, we found every friggan secret door in the AP) I really recommend giving it a long hard look and seeing what best fits your playing style/preferences. With just one player you really have the opportunity to do this.
I think your party looks good. Charms and summons will let Ezme take some of the heat off you, and if you let Idunnr multiclass between rogue and ranger, she'll be able to use a CLW wand as well as disarm traps.
Shackled City is a pretty brutal AP. We played about half of it with an early TPK, so you will definitely need to tone it down somewhat. Not sure what to do about the dungeon-y quality though.
Long ago I ran a long-running solo campaign (1e transitioning to 3e), with a single character (a paladin). After a while he got a cohort and eventually an entire party. The first adventures were very focused on investigation, which works really well 1 on 1, but later he even tackled the Temple of Elemental Evil .
I'm sure you can find a lot of good advice about how to play with a small party surfing the forums, but my 2c is to concentrate on investigation and mystery. There is a good deal of that in Shackled City and I think you can expand on it considerably. Let Ezme pump her Knowledge skills and really shine, and you can probably reveal a lot more of the plot than you normally would, which might give the characters the edge they need.
I ran a campaign once where there was not a healer of any kind, but what I did was give out a magic stone that had 2 charges per day of cure light wounds. It was activated with a magic word so anyone could use it, and they were able to channel it into other people by concentrating while saying the magic word and touching the other subject. It is an expensive magic item that was able to be made under the rules, but it was handy for them, and was given as a major reward.
Black Tom is correct. Shackled City is brutal and essentially consists of a long series of dungeon crawls. My guys who love this kind of campaign (kick in the door, kill things, take their stuff, repeat ad nauseum) were so disillusioned by the next to last chapter that I rushed through it, cutting all non-essential encounters and hand waving XP to bring them to the appropriate character levels.
Might I suggest something along the lines of "Curse of the Crimson Throne". Other than Chapter 4 & 5 (I think), it is in the city and while it does involve lots of combat, I found it had much more opportunity for role playing. Your three characters would be almost perfect. The only possible change I would make is ranger/rogue to barbarian/rogue and that is just because of the Chapter 4 & 5.
-- david
Papa.DRB
Shackled City is a pretty brutal AP. We played about half of it with an early TPK, so you will definitely need to tone it down somewhat. Not sure what to do about the dungeon-y quality though.
Idunnr as a ranger will help.
If you can play Ezme or Uulmec as a bard, that will also help. You would have 2 secondary healers instead of 1 main healer.
Idunnr as a ranger will help.
If you can play Ezme or Uulmec as a bard, that will also help. You would have 2 secondary healers instead of 1 main healer.
You are not suggesting the Bardbarian are you :)
You are not suggesting the Bardbarian are you :)Idunnr as a ranger will help.
If you can play Ezme or Uulmec as a bard, that will also help. You would have 2 secondary healers instead of 1 main healer.
That was clever. Is that a common term or did you make that up?
No, I was talking about a single-class bard. They are a jack of all trades class. They could fill in for melee or healing (or magic), as needed.
It is my brother's favorite class, I am not sure where he got the name. He was a big time skald fan from dark age of camelot and translated it over as a bard/barbarian. In neverwinter nights he threw in some red dragon disciple and loved every minute of it.
Take a look at Expeditious Retreat's One-On-One Adventures. It's an excellent product, and while each of the modules is oriented for a particular class and level, you can get some good ideas on how to balance a single-character campaign. Plus, they're adapted for PFRPG!
Second edition had some one-character adventures. But that would require converting. Eridanis's advice would be easier.
While Uulmec is perhaps paladiny in flavor, you could easily go with fighter/cleric as well. Plenty of solders are religious people.
As for running a GMPC, I would make him as simple as possible. Weapon Focus (always on) instead of Power Attack (sometimes on). After all, you'll have monsters and NPC's to run also.
One way to fill out the group is to have a lively stable of NPC's, but make the player decide who to ask for help at any given time. It's another layer of strategy.
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But most importantly, TALK ABOUT EXPECTATIONS. Don't guess at what she likes, ask her. Discuss it. And discuss it more along the way, so you're getting feedback regularly.
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As rkraus2 said, talk about expectations beforehand.
You might also consider running gestalt characters, if you can find a way to fit it into the concepts of the characters. Link for info. For example, looking at your party:
Ezme: Human caster, probably wizard (The Witch fits, be she hasn't seen the class yet, I think she'll have to get-over the name first!)
You could consider a gestalt wizard/witch. Witches have access to some basic restorative magic, and this character would have ALL sorts of versatility.
Idunnr: Elf, ranger or rogue most likely.
If ranger is a contender here, maybe the concept fits with a rogue/druid or ranger/druid gestalt, or just a rogue/ranger. Any of these 3 keeps the basic flavor and adds a lot of versatility, which is usually what very small groups lack.
Uulmec: Half-Orc, fighter-type. (this is my GMPC, he has a background as a soldier, so has to fill that niche, but he is otherwise most flexible, as long as he can protect Ezme!)
As a current GM running a GMPC for Council of Thieves, I know how nice it is to have a character that is simple to play and can take a back seat outside of when his skills are directly useful. You could do something easy but not optimal like fighter/barbarian, or you could gestalt in something more supportive like fighter/bard or fighter/cleric. Really, you can gestalt in whatever you think is most useful for filling in gaps.
Shackled City is a pretty brutal AP. We played about half of it with an early TPK, so you will definitely need to tone it down somewhat. Not sure what to do about the dungeon-y quality though.
Another +1. I ran this campaign with 4 friends, I think each of them went through 4 characters throughout the AP before getting TPKed in the second to last book. They were being awfully loud fighting their way through the dungeon, then a couple baddies escaped and got reinforcements. After a pretty grueling fight they turned around to see 20 more come running through the door...
Well, I'm using this AP so I don't have to homebrew everything myself, I don't have the time for that, but I do have time to re-write and adjust as I go. Anything that is just to "difficult" to run as is, and too complex to make adjustments to (like large dungeons with many interconnected events) I will simply re-write. Even if I don't use some of the AP, it still saves me alot of time (and creative energy), and I am sure there is alot of material to work off of.
To update:
Ezme is going Witch (told her it was a perfect fit for her character!).
My GF wants Uulmec to go Paladin (my GMPC).
Iddunr is still vacillating between ranger/rogue.
Considering starting AP at level 2, or including a level worth of prologue, my PC's have high stats already, but I'll just have to wait and see the AP before I know what I need to do.
Still waiting for book (expect it by early next week)
Thanks everyone for your input.
P.S. Not interested in Gestalt!
As much as I love rogues, you'll be better served by a ranger with evil outsider and undead favored enemies. Maybe make an archer with a couple levels of rogue just to get some SA damage, I don't recall the AP being too trap heavy.
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This may have been suggested already, but the Gestalt charactes from Unearthed Arcana might be helpful. They pack two character classes into one class.
I would also recommend the cleric class. They have simple weapons, d8 hit dice, medium attack bonus, two good saves, and an excellent selection of spells. Oh they can heal as well.
I hope this helps.
"Goofs" and "mistakes" happen in "regular" games as well. I've played in groups, I've played solo, and I have DM'd groups and solo. "Mistakes" are unavoidable. The main thing is to ask each other "what will make this fun?"
If you refuse to allow more than a full party of balanced characters, then I'd allow for extreme flexibility in other areas as noted above. Easier access to potions, allowing anyone to use curing wands without ranks in a skill, and to also allow for negotiation instead of combat for encounters. Minions can be bargained with, intimidated, bribed, or bypassed with disguise, stealth, and/ or trickery.
In my current solo game, when we take turns playing, we each make a party of 6 characters. We allow for potions as a free action. Even if someone gets knocked down to -50 hit points, if someone else in the party is alive with a stabilize spell, heal skill, potion, or curing wand, and can get to that fallen comrade within that round, they are automatically stabilized.
I've also had a fun time being generous with loot. Whatever the AP or mod says, I add on more. It's never been "abused." If an encounter becomes a cake walk, I don't mind if she has fun. I know I enjoy it when I'm the player.
Anytime there's a slog, it kills the moment for us. We do whatever necessary to get the slog finished a.s.a.p. If I can see a moment in the next few pages where a slog may be close by, I will either cut it out entirely, or make some way that the character can turn it into a fun and quick encounter instead.