Hello everyone, welcome to my first-ever post.
I own most of the Age of Worms adventure path... and reading through it, this really seems like the kind of epic, blockbuster campaign (save the world from Dawn of the Dead type infestation) that would really charge me up for playing D&D again and would keep my players interested. The only problem is... I only have 3 players! (My two brothers and a long-time friend) So, aside from recruiting another player, could a three man party survive AoW without adjusting the adventures? If you think it can be done, what party composition do you recommend? (Also, should I begin the characters at 2nd level instead of 1st?) Thanks a whole lot for any input in advance.
hi! we play it with 3 players as well and we started 2nd level as you said. we discussed that we might need to have more extra levels later on, as the game is quite difficult.
i would suggest using 7th level istead of 5th, 13 instead of 10th and maybe 24-25 instead of 20 at the end. An extra 20th level character would do more damage even if we were a lot higher level.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Another popular option when faced with a small party is running gestalt characters. That ensures all your bases are covered (i.e., you have a healer, a wizard, a rogue, and a tank despite only having 3 characters), but it doesn't address other issues that crop up (i.e, the vulnerability of such a party to attacks that paralyze/disable one member). For those, you should tinker a little with any creature that has such abilities (mind flayers are a good example).
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You may also consider having one of the players run two characters. Or, if that seems a little unfair, have a fourth character that rotates among the 3 players from one session to the next (assuming they are all at least somewhat experienced players). That option can also help cover a vital role that they may otherwise leave open (such as if no one plays a healing class, which is tremendously useful in AoW).
Hi, I know how you feel...Lot of times I had to Dm to a group of 3 and what i did was adding a npc to the group..someone the pcs trust and/or are friends with them.
In the AOW I added the paladin Melinde(see Dungeob #124 in the section about the garrison)...It says Melinde is a paladin who one day dreams of becoming the responsible for the capel and such...Well, she is a lvl 3 paladin but you cam modify her or not, depending in how you think the pcs are gonna react to her(if they are lvl 1 , then having a paladin lvl 3 will probably disbalance the party)
My group started as 5 (on a different adventure, Mad God's Key), then hit the Age of Worms with four. After a while, they become only 3 PC's. I think 3 is fine, but you might like to encourage some form of NPC backup for the main 3 characters. My group has Melinde as a follewer of one PC with Leadership, so she's about 2.5 levels behind the PC's, and another PC has an animal companion. Sometimes I've only got 2 players, so the party size can range from 5 to as few as 3.
My group is currently half-way through A Gathering of Winds. I've run most of the modules with the PC's at one level above that suggested, occasionally two, but lately the group has actually been chewing through the battles pretty easily as they are strong players with a magic user / druid who has good spell selections, a cleric'rogue with excellent social skills and a fighter who can hit really hard. The follower and companion help with combats in sometimes, but the 3 PC's are the focus of the game; I'd warn you against playing an NPC yourself as that can easily take away from the players, especialyl of the NPC is a spell caster. In fact, lately there's always been one player away, and even with only 3-4 characters (2 PC's at 12th, a paladin follower at 10th and sometimes a minor animal companion with 5 HD), they killed Illthane the dragon and have bludgeoned their way through nearly all the monsters and traps in the dungeon until they found Allustan (resting a couple of times, but still).
So yeah, start the Age of Worms at 3 @ 2nd level - even 3rd is OK if you are worried they are not powerful enough. Make sure they have at least two spell casters, and encourage leadership and/or animal companions at some stage (even though most animals won't be able to negotiate all of the dungeons, they should be able to at least help out initially, then guard the entrance or similar). I'm not sure the exact classes matter too much; my group is all multi-classed with prestige classes and Practiced Spellcaster to help offset the loss of power from multiclassing the spell-casting classes, but I don't think that's neccesary, it's just the way the group has evolved (single-class generally works out better). I think you can actually get away without a rogue in the party despite the large number of traps - my group has a part-time rogue who's never ever found a trap let alone disarmed one, and while they have taken a few hits they also by-passed a few through detect magic and just good old fashioned caution when faced with things that are obviously looking bad. Cleric, Fighter and Wizard are the obvious 3 classes, but really it doesn't matter if the players mix it around - let them decide the classes as a group though, I made mine choose "blind" initially (Ihad 5 players then), but in retrospect while it made sense for the first adventure it was a mistake long-term, one player didn't like playing a mage when there was already another one in the group, so after a few levels I let him change to being a Cleric (the other divine casters were druids) so he had a clear role without overlap.
I play with three characters, its acually not very hard for them, only NPC's animal compainions and a few PC deaths so far at part 8 in the whole path. Let me recommend a druid for summons and heals, a barbarian for DPS/tank, and a wizard for wizard stuff. With that group some parts can be a cakewalk.
I am currently running the Age of Worms with just 2 players, a half-Orc Paladin of Hextor and a human Cleric of Wee Jas. I started them out at 2nd level (giving each of them 1 paragon racial level, I love those things) and they are doing ok so far. They have almost died (been knocked into negatives) at least the Half-Orc has, at least once in every module. They both ended up taking Leadership at 6th level to give them both cohorts, which has ended up helping them a lot (one has a Shadar-Kai Cleric of Hextor Cohort, the other has a human Wizard/Fighter cohort).
So far things are going ok. They are walking into each adventure 1 level ahead of the regular (they started HoHR at 8th level for isntance) and this has given them a bit of an edge. I worry about how well they will do against the big baddies, such as Dragotha or the Dragon Invasion of the Giant Kingdom, but we will just have to see playing each session be ear, and what not.
As a side note, I have dropped a couple, mostly annoying filler monsters here and there such as the chocker in the Architects hall, the Octopus and Mimics in the HoHR, and so on. I do this less to help them, and more to move the plot along.
Finally, one important thing to note is that as a two player campaign, my players have a lot of gold and equipment to split between them. I have not changed the loot levels of the campaign, and so by 8th Level they already have over 70,000gp of equipment and loot between them, not to mention their cohorts equipment. I forsee that this will only expand with time (in the Free City Arena for instance or much more so with Dragotha's Massive Pile o' Loot). So the players should have more resources than a 4 player party to overcome the odds.
Good Luck and have fun, but watch out for HoHR it is a killer.
My group has Melinde as a follewer of one PC with Leadership, so she's about 2.5 levels behind the PC's,
NOW THAT'S WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!!! SAME WITH MY GROUP....THE CLERIC HAS MELLINDE AS FOLLOWER
Ok.. wow, thanks a ton for all the input. So, what I'm gathering is this :
1. Start PCs at 2nd level.
2. HIGHLY encourage taking the Leadership feat at 6th level for one (or possibly two) PCs.
3. Encourage players to select classes that offer minions, especially Druid, Ranger, or Wizard.
4. Make sure one member is a solid healer ( I highly doubt a druid would cut it as primary healer in this campaign. ) Should I encourage the Radiant Servant of Pelor? (seems like this might balance the group)
5. Ensure that someone has a high Bluff and Diplomacy skill... (yeah, I've been reading Prince of Redhand... GREAT adventure)
6. Try to work it so that PCs are +1 level of the suggested level for each adventure.
So, say, we started with this party :
1. Cleric of Pelor, taking Sun and Healing domains
2. Barbarian (Druid follower at 6th)
3. Wizard who takes his first level in Rogue (Ranger follower, or Rogue follower if no 1st level in rogue)
Would this party possibly stand a chance at going all the way to the top of the Spire and defeating Kyuss?
I think it is possiable.
I have a group currently going through this.
So, say, we started with this party :
1. Cleric of Pelor, taking Sun and Healing domains
2. Barbarian (Druid follower at 6th)
3. Wizard who takes his first level in Rogue (Ranger follower, or Rogue follower if no 1st level in rogue)Would this party possibly stand a chance at going all the way to the top of the Spire and defeating Kyuss?
Their is one problem with this combination. Many Traps in Whispering Cairn! I think you can make it with this group through the Age of Worms, but you need someone to find and disable the traps.
i have 2 player each with 2 pc's and myself playing a DM druid. i have to agree with the last guy that a rogue is almost essential in the first adventure as there are a lotta traps that can make the cairn quite tough. we are just about to start blackwall keep and so far no one has died ( two pcs came close) and the ranger has just gained his alternate ability from the PHB 2 that gives him a distracting attack that means that he and the rogue are owning a lot of the non-undead creatures in the adventures.
Ok, after some digging in my books and conferring with my 3 players, we've kind of come up with this party :
1. The tank
Dwarf fighter going for battlesmith (from races of stone)
Takes feats like weapon focus, dwarven armor proficiency, combat expertise, imp. trip, imp. shield bash, shield charge, heavy armor optimization, and at 6th, Leadership... pretty straightforward, skills will be craft (weaponsmith), craft (armorsmith) with some Jump, Swim, and Climb mixed in.
2. The rogue / wizard
Gray Elf rogue 1 / spellthief 1 / wizard 5 / geometer 5 / arcane trickster 8
The first two levels get him a good head start on Disable Device (which geometer and arcane trickster have as a class skill ) and Search. Other skills will be Escape Artist, Decipher Script, Gather Information, Knowledge (arcana), Concentration, Spot, and Listen.
We chose gray elf for three reasons - the Int bonus the auto-search on hidden doors, and the racial sub-levels, of which he will take 1 and 3. he'll have a rat familiar for the +4 to fort. saves.
finally, the easiest character to flesh out :
3. the healer
Human Cleric 6/ Radiant Servant of Pelor 10 / Sacred Exorcist 4
Easy enough, the best healer possible. He'll take metamagic and divine feats, and Leadership. Skill-wise, maxed Diplomacy, Sense Motive, and Concentration.
Ok, for the two cohorts
one will be a stealthy rogue 1/ ranger X with undead as a favored enemy. He brings tracking to the table, and for skills he'll have his Survival, Search (for spotting traps and marking them), move silently and hide obviously, listen, and spot all maxed. Quick Reconnoiter will be an early feat choice.
The second cohort will be a straightforward Druid, no multiclassing, with feats geared towards summoning. He'll also be a backup Diplomat.
The only thing not set in stone is the Tank, would a half-orc barbarian/ frenzied berserker/ horizon walker serve better?
I was going to suggest NPCs in the party with limited PC control.
Basicly, if they want an NPC to do something stupid, I veto it.
The NPC will act with proper roleplaying.
The Kobold sorcerer will target the center of the fireball
right against the back wall for example.
If your NPC is a rouge he will ask for whatever helps skills
or dex. before he attacks the killer trap.
I am about to begin my campaign with only three players.
There is a rogue, a warlock, and a fighter.
There will also be an NPC cleric. The players will have control over him tacticly, but I will roleplay the character.
Hopefully it works out okay.