Okay so I'm running a Reign of Winter campaign for one player, a solo campaign if you will. There isn't really a question here - just thought some of you might be interested to see how we revised things for a one player setup.
To keep him on his feet and able to fight I've allowed him to play an Ulfen Barbarian and choose build options which give him an edge to surviving cold environments. I'm also giving him max HP at new levels and he started play with his usual feats and traits, plus two extra freebie feats. - Generally speaking he hasn't struggled massively (Although the Tatzlwyrm almost killed him), which makes me wonder if the early sections of this adventure path aren't a little too easy for a group of 4+?
Anyway he started out as normal and all was going well, then early in the adventure he met the three Fey with their colour spray ability - they had no problem knocking him out and would have been able to kill him but instead I had them tie him up (not sure what they used...) and fetch Rohkar's bandits, so he awoke in the cellar at the lodge with Lady Argentea.
He was able to break out of his bonds and then subdue a bandit when he brought them food. We agreed it was night at this time and most of the bandits upstairs were asleep by the fire, and the others were distracted at the windows watching the Eastern approach to the lodge. With a few lucky stealth checks he was able to retrieve his greatsword, kill both the sleeping bandits and sneak up to the two left awake, although he failed to dispatch either before they spotted him.
He killed one on his first turn and the other ran into the room with the sickly bandits, alerting them. Anyway the fight played out quite well and left him on low hit points surrounded by rooms and possible threats, in the end he went back to the cellar and tried to rest up. Rohkar and Two-Penny heard the sounds of fighting but remained in hiding, the three bandits who were out and about returned and surprised him while sleeping but he dispatched them and returned Lady Argentea to town successfully without encountering Rohkar or Two-Penny. I had him avoid the encounters he'd skipped on the way to the lodge at this point except at the icy crossing which wasn't a problem for him. (although he'd killed the three bandits now anyway, so was just a few Fey which were skipped)
Here's where it gets interesting. After he returned Lady Argentea I had the Fey he had skipped - the first three and the one with the talking stag, regroup outside the lodge so he had to fight them all at once. However this time I had them 'skip' using colour spray as other than killing him once unconscious they would have had little recourse.
Once he'd killed them I had the scene inside of the lodge re-arranged quite extensively... Rohkar, left to his own devices with numerous corpses, had lost the plot. He'd set up six of the dead bodies at the dinner table with Two-Penny bound and gagged at one end while he stood and spoke at the other end - all part of some grotesque tableau. My only mistake was forgetting to have the two skeletons present. But otherwise it made for an excellent fight, Rohkar was able to bring his zombies into play and because the Barbarian was dropping their full hit points each strike (he deals epic damage) I had Rohkar direct his channel negative energy against the player, which is bad form really as he's supposed to use it defensively to heal his zombies but it made it a close fight.
The player stabilized Rohkar rather than letting him die and tied him up and interrogated him. Of course while he was doing this Two-Penny drank her potions of invisibility and the one which makes her untrackable for an hour and fled.
Then we had quite a cool twist. The player stuck a tied-up Rohkar in the cellar while he decided what to do with him and went and found the Fey in the cage upstairs. He agreed with it that he was a mercenary and that it's boss Teb Knotten should reward him for it's safe return. They planned to travel to see Teb together but then as they went downstairs the Fey scored a natural 20 on a perception roll, spotted dead Fey littering the ground outside, and heard Rohkar cursing in the basement.
The Fey 'pretended' to see movement in the stables outside and freaked out because it had no little Fey bow or sword and was terrified (having been held captive for so long - think PTSD). It's bluff won out over his perception so he found himself going out to inspect the stables. When he got to the door though he scored a good intelligence check and realized that there was just wall and door forming the stables, no windows or transparent surfaces - it would be impossible to see anything inside! - He'd been had!
Rather than rushing back to the lodge he opened the door, stepped inside and watched and waited. Thinking the Fey would have to pass close by him if it was to flee back towards Teb, a bit of a miscalculation on his part as a few minutes later the Fey flew up out of the chimney and disappeared towards Teb, well out of reach the whole time. I rolled for the Fey at lock picking - with a small bonus as it could literally put it's tiny hands into the lock and manipulate the mechanism directly. It succeeded and so when the player returned to the lodge the Fey had gone down into the cellar and slit Rohkar's throat as vengeance for imprisoning it.
The adventure continued as normal for awhile until the player reached the guardian doll. Being slightly superstitious and having heard stories of Irissen's guardian dolls before (being an Ulfen)after he experienced the vision of the girl he skirted the hut altogether and continued.
He then triggered the ward in the clearing and was forced to rest up. That night though the doll came into his camp and woke him up. She used her charm person to get him to like her and then through their conversation learned the following; Ulfen often leave gifts with the dead out of respect. It was his plan to kill the giant weasel that the hunter had died tracking and leave it's tail with him in an Ulfen burial mound, along with one of the traps which had wounded it.
The doll formed a simple plan, get him to track the weasel and then convince him it would be super heroic to fight it without his greatsword in an attempt to get him killed. (admittedly this ALMOST breaks the rules of Charm Person, but he wanted to fight the weasel anyway and we decided we would get him to roll against her when the time came anyway)
Finding the weasel was going to take two hours I decided, so she had to top up her Charm Person one hour in. (it's 3 per day) she failed the first one and realized he was coming back to his senses so she cast her third and last use. It also failed but by now he was alert enough to attempt a bluff to fake being charmed. He failed this, so she attempted a bluff to pretend that she had been tricked and succeeded. So... he wasn't charmed but acted like he was, but she really knew he wasn't.
When they found the giant weasel she immediately turned on him and he had to kill her & the weasel. She shrunk him and his weapon, and he just about survived the encounter. Straight afterward he cut open the giant weasel and slept inside it, as he had done with the tatzlwyrm.
Of course Izoze was coming to ambush him, as well as the wind elemental she was supposed to get I gave her a few more free Fey, and the captive from the lodge - and had them ambush him before he had full HP. The wind elemental had it's awesome tornado spell but he got lucky and avoided it, and it accidentally killed some of the other Fey.
He got to the portal and easily killed hommelstaub, Teb and the other Fey, although Hommelstaub did see him coming and use one of his thunderstones to make the encounters all trigger at once - it still wasn't really very difficult. Although I think we might have spotted a a bit of an oversight. The thunderstone deafened the player for an hour so when he met the black rider they were unable to communicate which was actually quite amusing.
In the end he helped the black rider to Teb's cave and let it rest for a few hours until his hearing returned.
Once he had his mantle he stepped through the portal and... that's where we're at so far.
Thanks for reading, will update soon...
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It sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun. If I might make a suggestion, perhaps you should allow him to convert his character to gestalt so that he has a bit more versatility. Imagine, if you will, a barbarian that can also find traps and open locks with the ease of a rogue. Also, is he getting the full XP rewards? If he is he must be well into 3rd level at this point.
Maybe have Nadya accompany him into the White Tower as a 'sidekick'?
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I also agree with the gestalt option. We regularly play with only two PC's and as gestalt characters we rarely have serious problems. This takes away the need for a GM PC and lets the GM (me right now) focus on getting the story telling right and not getting overly focused on one NPC.
Edit: Not telling you how to run your game or anything. I just realized you didn't ask for advice or anything so I'm just sticking my nose in. I just don't want my players to miss cool skill challenges or monsters that they can't deal with because they don't have a lot of skills or magic or whatever.
There's always the Godless Healing feat.
I like this. Has a very Conan feel to it - a lone barbarian vs. the world.
Huh. Re: Gestalt - if you decide to do it, have it come with the Black Rider's Mantle. That would be cool.
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Re: Gestalt - if you decide to do it, have it come with the Black Rider's Mantle. That would be cool.
That would be a really cool way to introduce it.
I certainly wasn't trying to tell you how to run a game either. I have found that it makes 1-3 player parties much more fun and eliminated the need for me to run an NPC, which I freaken hate doing, and was just throwing out my opinion.
All told though, I quite enjoyed the read and look forward to hearing more about his adventures.
Personally, I enjoy running a GMPC. It's when I'm running SEVERAL that it gets annoying (ie, Cohorts). Fortunately, only one group is high enough level to have Cohorts and they seem to enjoy jumping in and playing followers and the like (one character came with a maid and two men-at-arms because she's a noble and rich - took the "Rich Parents" trait). No doubt when they start recruiting Cohorts they'll drive themselves schizophrenic taking turns. ^^;;