Have you considered Gestalt?
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Gestalt is a good suggestion for small groups; I would have recommended that, too, if Umbral hadn't.
However two people still can be overwhelmed, and they'll still only have two actions.
Since they plan on setting up an organization anyhow, though, you can introduce allies, henchmen, and this is also a good campaign for the Leadership feat.
For example: If they each had one ally, they'd have a four-person party.
With gestalt and leadership already covered, I''ll suggest classes that come with friends out of the box, ie animal companions, eidolons etc.
That said, it sucks to be boxed as to what classes you should play because of outside factors. I'd personally rather go with leadership and let each player run two PCs. Assuming your players are ok with that of course :)
Another option, if you and your players are comfortable with it, is to have each player run 2 PCs.
Anyone else have any thoughts on what I could do or allow for our PCs to make them more powerful than the standard adventurer without making them ridiculous?
- Full HP / Level
- More Heropoints (+hero point feats)- 2 Standard Actions / Round (or Fullround-Action + Move)
- 1 trait / 2 level (or 1 Feat / Level)
- 1 Abilitybonus / 3 Level
- skillpoints x2 / level
building for the Kingmaker AP
- give them 1-2 NPCs for the PC-group
+1 to the Gestalt idea. We use it in our 3 player game, and it seems to be working ok.
A Summoner can BE a party, and you can make an Eidolon look like anything you want, so the urban environment issue shouldn't be a problem.
Animal companions don't have to lions or tigers or bears (oh my!) A dog will do quite well (just look at Bill Sikes and his dog Bullseye!)
Maybe that wasn't the best example for roleplaying the good guys!
If you're willing to wait a month for the book to come out, part of the point of the Mythic ruleset is that it will make it easier to run small parties. Give the players a Mythic tier would increase their survivability quite a bit.
1. Gestalt, as mentioned.
2. Give high FIXED point buy, not rolls. 30 point buy or higher.
3. Maxed hp.
4. Consider giving some bonus skill points and feats.
5. Make sure they're at least at wealth by level for their level in general, preferably above it by ~20%. And the wealth should actually mean something. If a player really wants a keen sword but can't find one or someone to make it, it doesn't matter how many thousands of gp he has, he still doesn't have the sword he wants. "Magic Walmart" is not your enemy.
I mean do all of these by the way, not pick 1. A 2 man party is much weaker and more fragile than a normal party.
I have run the majority of my D&D games with only two players--usually with no spellcasters, either.
It works just fine, and I don't know why you're concerned. I mean, yeah, you have to throw CR totally out the window (but I did that anyway because I also run no magic items except macguffins) and you can't use modules or whatever (which I also didn't want to do--I am never satisfied with other people's stories, and I can't stand railroads).
As someone with only two players myself, I tend to cater benefits based on the classes they wanna play (they once played a druid and summoner, I keyed my benefits back a bit for that). The first thing as others have stated, max health is key here. Another thing that turned out surprisingly well is granting 4 feats at first level. It helps players to shore up a lot of weaknesses, for example most fighters I saw in my group picked up quick draw, combat reflexes, and iron will. They players especially like it because they can still specialize where they like. You will also have to look at where your players current classes are lacking. In my current campaign, I have a rogue and druid. To help somewhat with their combat utility I gave them martial weapon proficiency. It's a small benefit, but it does significantly open up their combat options. Since you are using an AP, I would recommend that you increase the level rate (perhaps 1 additional level between every third level point). Alternatively, as others have said you could go gestalt. If you have experienced players this is a totally viable way to shore up characters. However, it can be alot for newbies to handle, so then the first suggestion would be preferable. Of course a significant portion of this is me adapting to my particular players gaming style, so it may not be perfect for you. I do hope this helps.
I would not use 2d6+6 for stats. You can still end up with mediocre stats that way very easily. I'd recommend a high point buy of 25 or even 30.
I use 35 myself, but I limit ability scores to 18 before racials.
Master Summoner and a Druid or Undead Lord Cleric.
Your DM should tailor the opposition's strength to yours, not vice versa.
Standard rule characters can work... it's just the campaign that needs adjustment. Because you really can't make up for the lack of action economy of four characters with two unless you make some major changes to the game system.
I don´t think SuperJebba should change the campaigne, because it´s better to change the group (give them NPC etc.). If you begin to change the campaigne, you can make a complete own kampaigne and don´t need to buy one.
Thanks, Der Origami Man, for your suggestions. I'll probably use a lot of those.
We play the (book 1-2, until now) with 3-4 PC´s (90% with 3 PCs), but we use a homebrew of the Lorefinder-Skillrules, actionpoints, Plot-Twist-Cards and I think the GM make the foes a little bit easier, too.
Most of the time we could handle hard situations with the action points and the plot twist cards, but sometimes we nearly died, because he didn´d change the random foes (and I think we have only survived because he let them die with HP left) ... and on the other hand he made other foes toooo easy for us (he couldn´t believe it).
So, better change the party-power and not the campaigne-power ;-)
A summoner and a druid. Play the AP as written, and let them to take the full experience of the encounter, they'll level up fast.
they'll level up fast.
That is a good, point - perhaps you only need to give them a good/better start, because they will faster level up and become more powerfull themself. Later they can get more/powerfull NPCs over the Leadership Feat, too.