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My roommate wants me to DM a high-level fairytale campaign for her, and she's going to play a fairytale prince. She'll start as a 10th level paladin (no deity), and she's asked me to make her a cohort (a talking cat).
I've got some ideas where this is going: She's going to wander around a fairytale setting, saving various distressed damsels, and eventually fight the Big Bad Wolf, the custodian of the forest and the one who's been setting up all these traps for the distressed damsels.
The only problem is, I've never DMed for a single player before, and I really don't want to kill the PC.
How can I make it so she has a few close scrapes with death, without actually killing her? What's the highest CR she can fight? What class should her cohort be (maybe rogue or bard, for skills)? And can she handle multiple opponents/a dragon/a vampire on her own?
Any help is appreciated!
What race is the cohort? If it's a custom race, go to town. If not, best way to get close to a talking cat mechanically that I can think of is to go Druid or Synthesist Summoner.
Let's look at what you have so far and what a typical party "needs" in approximate order of importance:
Needs:
1. Ability to take damage.
2. Ability to give damage.
3. Ability to heal.
4. Divine spellcasting.
5. Arcane spellcasting.
6. Ability to talk to people.
7. Miscellaneous utility.
Has from Paladin:
1-3 with a bit of 4 and 6.
Looks like you could use an arcane caster who is good with utility and skills. I'd suggest Bard, Wizard, or Summoner.
However, it's debatable if a single Paladin can tank well enough for two characters. If not, consider a straight up Fighter, Ranger, or Barbarian. Inquisitor is another good melee skill guy.
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Solo games are different animals from group games. All the focus is on you and one player. So your sessions would do well to be shorter.
CR -2 or -3 challenges will be the order of the day, since the CR system operates under the assumption of 4 mixed class PCs.
You should avoid traps and subterfuge as challenges since she's a Paladin.
Big groups of minserts should only fight a few at a time, like martial arts movies or old swashbuckling movies. (The ones who aren't fighting should be throwing taunts or rocks).
I recommend the use of hero points or Plot Twist cards.
Whenever your paladin is outnumbered she should get an extra half action Ar initiative -10 in order to make up some of the action economy disparity. Hope that helps.
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Thanks! That's helpful, both of you. The cat will be a bard, nategar, and thanks for the hero points idea, DM.
A few questions about specific monsters:
Wyverns seem to have a lot of damage dealing potential. If I can spread the damage between the paladin and her horse, and she can compensate with Lay on Hands, is it reasonable to throw one (CR 6) at her?
Energy drain (from a vampire, for example) sounds kind of dangerous for a single player... Thoughts on different vampire abilities I could use? A way to replace it so it's still a fun fight, but not so debilitating?
And what about an enemy that fights with a crossbow and keeps out of arm's reach? Is this going to give a melee character too much trouble?
If you're concerned about the wyvern doing too much damage, you can add the Young template to it to reduce it's lethality.
As for vampires, make them vampire spawn instead, stilly very vampire-y but less debilitating for a character going solo to take on link (scroll to the bottom of the entry)
So long as the crossbowman/archer isn't at the top of a 90 foot vertical cliff shooting at the paladin, the paladin's mount should give your player enough movement to run down the shooter of pointy things within a round or two. (A swarm of archers/crossbowmen spread out would be very irritating though)
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Did you think about just having monsters do non lethal damage? Hear me out, because it's a fairy tale campaign, there could be plenty of reasons why monsters would pull punches:
- The prince's nemesis wants him alive, presumably for some evil punishment.
- The prince is destined for greatness and has some sort of blessing upon him that compels creatures to act more mercifully. This could also only apply to certain creatures.
I used this idea in my own solo adventure with a bar fight scene.