hi all any advice on the make up of a three person party as im starting a new game soon and a player has dropped out at short notice leaving just 3 players and myself any idears on a good party balance as most of the starting games i've worked to a 4 charater group any thoughts
Allow 3.5 gestalt rules. this will allow the party to take on risks that would be above their challenge and allow roles to be filled with short number of people.
+1
This is what I do with my group. We regularly only have 3 players and a DM. The gestalt rules are great. The party can frequently take on anything a 4 person group can do.
MD
|
Druid Druid Summoner. 6 actions a turn, healing and arcane totally covered. Summons on demand. You won't miss the 4th guy :).
*puts on sunglasses* Mother of God!
But seriously, this is a decent suggestion. Though I might swap one druid for a different pet class just for variety (beastmaster ranger, oracle of nature who takes the mount, etc).
Also, one of the players could hold off on having a pet/cohort for a while to take leadership at 7th level, at which point everyone would have their own "pet" of sorts.
Take whatever party your group ends up with and tailor your adventures to that.
I.e. don't use generic adventures designed for a 5 player party with optimal mix.
If you have 2 thieves and a fighter then ask them what they want to do and design your adventures for them around that. Take into account that they won't have healers or controllers. They might need more time between encounters to recover or if it's all mages, they may need more baddies but with less HP each and so on.
Work with the party you have rather than ask them to change what they want to play.