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So I'm thinking about starting an AP with my current group (most likely Skull & Shackles) but I only have two players. Recruiting more is not an option right now. As I see it, I'm going to need to do some combination of the following:
-Start the characters at a higher level so that the CR's balance out.
-Letting each player control two PCs at once.
-Include a GMPC in the party
-Tweak the encounters to make them a little easier
-Use some kind of gestalt house rule
I'm nervous about gestalt rules or multiple characters, since my players aren't terribly experienced with this system. I worry about overwhelming them. On the other hand, I'm not really excited about tweaking every encounter in the AP. I'm usually a home-brew guy -- the main reason I'm looking at APs is because I don't have a lot of time for prep right now.
So... does anyone have advice for this situation? Have you tried something like this? What worked? What should I watch out for?
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Hi there,
I've run a couple of games for only two players before so here's a couple of other things you could try. It's typically easier to adjust the PCs instead of adjusting every encounter, so with that theory in mind...
~Let the players play monstrous races, not normally allowed because of their increased strength like noble drow, skeletal champions, or centaurs
~Give the players significantly better than usual stats 2d6+8 and even two player characters should be able to handle most combats okay
~Give the players a good bit of extra hp (since they'll individually take more dmg than if they were playing in a larger group) I would typically do something like Max Hp at first level + 6 (in addition to their other normal bonuses), along with half or better as they level (maybe max depending on how they do), and maybe toughness thrown in for free
~Except the players to solve more problems through role-play than usual
~Offer campaign traits + some other system of boosting characters at critical moments - I like the hero point system in the apg and the harrowing system in curse of the crimson throne - (on another note if you let your characters be mythic chances are they would quickly outpace the module in terms of strength even if there's only two of them)
~Give them extra feats. You could say offer them an extra feat they get on even levels or give them some of the more feat taxy feats like power attack / metamagic straight out
~Small groups of players are also a good place to encourage them to get animal companions/familiars/constructs/hirelings/cohorts to help them in combat as opposed to playing entirely other characters
You probably won't want to follow all of the suggestions on that list, or the characters will end up too strong, but it probably would be a good idea to approach it with multiple solutions instead of piling on all of the strength from one place (playing a changeling, with exceptional stats, and hero points would be a better choice then playing a Nosferatu with otherwise normal rules
On another note - it doesn't hurt for your changes to front load the increased power, since each character should end up getting enough wealth for two or three as the game progresses which will help them out as they level