I am currently in the process of developing a campaign world for my group, seeing as I will be the GM again in a few weeks. Up until now, the party I am in has only contained three people, with one of us controlling two separate characters. While it has worked fine so far mechanically, it seems to be a little difficult to roleplay in that situation; the player in question has mentioned that it is awkward a few times, and that he feels like he is talking to himself.
So, that has me thinking on how to balance the game so that they can control just one character each. One idea was to run the game at APL-1, but I'd rather not go down that route.
Would running the game with the gestalt rules help out? They don't do much to deal with the action economy problem, but they would certainly boost them up. I'd appreciate any feedback and suggestions.
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I am not familar with gestalt rules, but I can tell you how I Gm a game for my neese and nephew.
Since there was only two of them I let them start out at Level one, but with two seperate classes. This gives them options, makes them alittle more potent, but does not give them access to anything too strong. They can only progress one class at a time per usual, but I do use the fast advancement table.
I also created a race for them to play that is a slight cut above the rest.(This has more to do with the concept of the dungeon itself, but also helps balance the game out a bit.)
I am alittle more liberal with hero points in this game then I would be in a typical house game.
So far I have only done two sessions, but they are enjoying it and I have been able to give them challenges with out threatening a TPK.
Our group only currently has 3 people and it has been difficult mainly because our action economy is swiftly sucked dry and we lack areas of what we needed for survival. One option is to have your players have optimized multi-classing going on or you start them out at level 7 and allow them to take the Leadership feat so they can fill in the gaps.
As a GM it is best if you Roleplay the cohorts but allow them to control them in combat.
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You can make a 3 character party. It dose require optimization of the group. And of the characters in the group. My group normaly runs 15 point buy. With only 3 people in the party 20 point buy is what I recomend. If you normaly do 20 point buy going to 25.
Melee focused group as a example. Every one of them can cover a min of two jobs in a party. And all over lap in there ability to help in melee combat.
Oracle of Battle (Can cover divine casting and melee combat.)
Polearm with reach and trip. figthing behind the paladin.
Paladin Hosplitar (Can cover melee combat and healing.)
Weapon and shield or two handed weapon are both good. The main focuse is to stop them from geting to the oracle.
Bard (melee combat, buffing, arcane casting, rogue abilitys.)
Two handed weapon or two weapon fighting. Buffing and mobility fighter.
I don't recommend maximizing anything except for the most experienced GMs, and I wouldn't recommend Gestalt even for half of the very most, most experienced. Overpowered and customized stuff like that can quickly get out of hand and become impossible to keep track of.
Think of it this way, you are only a man down. That's easy enough to cover with a likable (but not overbearing) NPC and a few extra wands or other magic items to help the PCs cover some of the area not covered by their class features.
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Recommend the pet classes. You can have a fully effective 6 person party with just three players.
Cavalier (allow flexibility with mount rules so they can take a combat companion instead of a mount, but a halfling on a wolf works great)
Druid (with combat companion such as large cat)
Summoner (with combat eidolon, give eidolon skill boosts in Perception/Disable Device and you've a viable trap-spotter)
Druid takes care of healing, summoner takes care of buffing and battlefield control Cavalier and companions take to the front line.
Other classes which require broader options are:
Necromancer with Skeletal Familiar
Ranger (buy an animal like a guard dog at 1st level and declare it your companion at 4th, take Boon Companion feat).
Cleric with Animal Domain
Paladin (again buy the animal at 1st level and declare it a companion at 5th).
Other answers:
Hirelings - if the PCs are missing someone crucial they can pay for Hirelings.THIStable shows trained hirelings are only 3 sp a day. They will recoup their investment on their first day of adventuring - assuming the NPC travels with them long enough they'll be able to upgrade him with Leadership at level 7 to a PC class.
So there's lots of ways to keep the a 3 man party up to snuff :)