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Hey all, I'm gearing up to run this for a party of only 2 players and am looking for some suggestions on how to go about doing it. I was thinking of merely upping their starting lvl to 3, but I'm concerned that it'll still be a rough ride. But if I have lots of healing "floating" about Sandpoint it should be all right. Any other suggestions you guys have would be great. Thanks alot.
How about introducing 2npc's? If you give them remarkable and different personalities it shouldn't be too hard to roleplay them.
Consider 2 Gestalt characters. Not my favorite mechanic in the world, but it sure is useful in this situation.
Hey all, I'm gearing up to run this for a party of only 2 players and am looking for some suggestions on how to go about doing it. I was thinking of merely upping their starting lvl to 3, but I'm concerned that it'll still be a rough ride. But if I have lots of healing "floating" about Sandpoint it should be all right. Any other suggestions you guys have would be great. Thanks alot.
Can be done. Just need to tell them that survival will be tough and they should build characters that are very self-sufficant. A Cleric or Druid is all but a must, the other should be high on skill and magic would be nice. A spell filcher type, rogue/mage, or bard could work well. Both will likely want to multiclass some, and honestly if one of them take the leadership skill and picks up a henchmen life will be much easier over all.
A Cleric and Paladin would make an interesting pair, they would have to have better then average int, but otherwise might work out fine.
Consider 2 Gestalt characters. Not my favorite mechanic in the world, but it sure is useful in this situation.
I like the idea of Gestalt Characters
But I still think i would see what they are playing and play a support character to their weeknesses
All but a handful of the gaming sessions I've run or played in have been for two guys, so I have some experience with the suggestions here.
We tried the Gestalt option once - And the economy of actions can really be a gripe. A Fighter/Rogue and a Ranger/Cleric very nearly got the ground wiped with them by a larger group of NPCs of their level in a pre-made adventure. I'm not sure it's the best option, but you can certainly try it - you'll probably want to tweak the adventures quite a bit, though.
We also tried two 'DMPCs' for a rather short-lived campaign. They were a little cliche, but rather vibrant from the RP perspective. I find that running DMPCs can be tiring from the tactical end, though - you know what's coming and it can be difficult to separate the two mindsets. Naturally this will vary wildly from person to person. This is also how the guy who DMs for me feels about them as well - and he only runs one.
The tried-and-true method I've found is to just let each player have two characters - 2x2 is conveniently the standard party size, and reasonably experienced players can handle two characters in combat. The downside there is that their actions are inextricably linked - so they will be metagaming whether they mean to or not - but that's also only subjectively a bad thing. I find the RP is best done when the two characters are either quite vibrant or play off one another. Sibling duos and romantically involved characters that are foils to each other seem to work best. This can also probably be overwhelming for new players, too, if that's the case - thankfully when my group started we were four strong, then three with a DMPC, then we got whittled down to two and we started investigating other options.
All three are worth trying, and I personally would say up front that you may be changing dynamics in mid-play if something goes horribly, horribly wrong with one option or another. Gestalt is obviously the hardest to undo (almost completely breaks suspension of disbelief, most likely), so I would carefully consider either avoiding that option or making everything Gestalt. That does bring up rebalancing issues, though, which could be a pain.
That's my take on the matter, anyway - good luck! I know what it's like to have such a small group and how you often wind up bending over backward, heh.
All the highlights have been covered;
-multiple characters per player
-npc's
-more powerful characters
I would just like to add, you might think about being flexible about magic items. 2 characters are going to accumulate a lot of magic items they can't use. How many magic weapons does a character need? Let them trade what they have for what they need. Besides, you have several older/mid level arcane types in Sandpoint, thats a reasonable excuse for allowing this.
I'd second the two PCs per Player suggestion as long as the players are reasonably experienced. I DMed for a group like this once, and it worked great.
I think the secret is to make sure the players build two unique characters. Vibrant and individual personalities help distinguish the roleplaying.
everything i've seen said so far are all great choices with what you want to do, whether it's 2x2 pcs, or if ya'll are comfortable with a dmpc, but a suggestion i may add if you only end up sticking with just the 2 pcs, on pg 30 of the pf corebook has a really excellent option i've seen for games... the level advancement table with 3, not one, but 3 different paths to gain levels either slow, medium, or fast (i'd suggest the fast-track option for two pc's...just me)
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Hey all, I'm gearing up to run this for a party of only 2 players and am looking for some suggestions on how to go about doing it. I was thinking of merely upping their starting lvl to 3, but I'm concerned that it'll still be a rough ride. But if I have lots of healing "floating" about Sandpoint it should be all right. Any other suggestions you guys have would be great. Thanks alot.
I understand your desire to not have extra npc's to manage. With that in mind, here is what I would do.
Starting level of 3 is a good idea.
Use the fast track xp.
In tougher battles consider dropping a monster or two.
If using purchase mode for stats, use Epic.
Maybe grant them some extra traits.
What classes are they playing?
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Hey all, I'm gearing up to run this for a party of only 2 players and am looking for some suggestions on how to go about doing it. I was thinking of merely upping their starting lvl to 3, but I'm concerned that it'll still be a rough ride. But if I have lots of healing "floating" about Sandpoint it should be all right. Any other suggestions you guys have would be great. Thanks alot.I understand your desire to not have extra npc's to manage. With that in mind, here is what I would do.
Starting level of 3 is a good idea.
Use the fast track xp.
In tougher battles consider dropping a monster or two.
If using purchase mode for stats, use Epic.
Maybe grant them some extra traits.What classes are they playing?
I agree with that. having each player play 2 PC reduces a lot the RP in my opinion ....
So, this idea looks best.
I am still at the end of burnt offerings but I suppose that the level difference will fade as levels go up.
Or may be not as they will get double the XP.... Would have to think about it but got no time :D