Running some APs that were meant for 4-5 person, 15pt build parties
Read the section on CRs which mentioned parties of 3, much less 2, are probably an "average level" lower than encounters are made for
2 players for the game, and none of us are fans of excessive NPCs in the party, GM PCs, or multi PCs per player
I'd like to boost them, as opposed to me recalculating every encounter down one
First off, the PCs picked decent classes [support caster... druid but might get retconned to cleric, melee ranger]
I gave them 25pt buys (which they didn't min max, neither has lower than an 11 in anything, but they did priorities the right stat or two first)
We don't use hero points, but I gave them the "antihero" free extra feat at 1st level to help
They're also both smart players... they generally think before charging in
I'm debating giving them, at level 11
+ a free 2pt boost to a stat of choice (it will count as a racial bonus)
+ a free 2nd 'antihero' feat
+ a 3rd, possibly 4th trait
Between the initial boosts, and the L11 stuff, will this help make the two of them on par with a traditional 4 person 15pt build party? Will it make up for their biggest flaw, loss of actions? (Though animal companions, cohorts, and familiars may eventually come ino play as well)
Edit: my alternate idea was doubling wealth by level, unsure how that'd play out though.
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I wonder the same thing.
I have a 3 people party that just started in Carrion Crown yesterday. I gave them a few things extra:
25 pt buy
2 extra skill pts / lvl in Craft, Knowledge, Perform, or Profession
1 free feat at 1st level, but only from a short list of non-combat related feats (one player joked they were "only the useless feats that no one takes" which was pretty deliberate on my part) For instance, i offered Animal affinity, athletic, deceitful, run etc for free, since those would be useful, but players could normally not afford to take those.
I also changed the "infernal healing" spell somewhat, to create Infernal Healing I, II, III and IV versions that offer Fast Healing 1 - 4, respectively. Since I had the group start out of Cheliax they have access to devil blood (we're not following Carrion Crown exactly) This is because I saw no reason that all those versions didn't exist already, and also no one likes playing healers in the group.
Finally we also agreed to spend more time on the down-time portion of the character lives, to craft etc. Since we've been ignoring that in the past. So if the wizard wants to make things he can.
They have a bard, ranger, and wizard.
My thoughts:
1. Gestalt characters. In a 2 person or even 3 person party, this is the only time gestalt makes sense. Also encourage them to 'spread out' in their class choice. IE try to have classes chosen spread into more then one of the 4 traditional roles.
2. 25 point buy buy nothing over a 17 after racial modifiers. Gestalt characters are likely to be fairly MAD, so you want a fairly high point buy, but you dont want to end up with a 20's in key stats and nothing in the others. The game expects a 15 point buy, a 20 in a 15 point buy really hurts (18 plus ratial modifier) which is why I put the cap there.
3. Encourage one or more of them to include on of the pet classes. IE the druid, summoner, or one of the archetypes that has a companion from level 1. Action economy is crucial, and no matter how powerful the characters are, if one person gets knocked out in a 2 person party with no help, they are in alot more trouble then in a 4 person party.
I agree with Kolokotroni, gestalt is the way to go and the rest of his advice is very solid. He covered everything.