So I'm very familiar with running a campaign with 5-8 players, but recently with changes in work schedules, players moving and conflicting gaming schedules, I have a party of 3.
One of these players is only able to attend once in a while, but the other two want to play a campaign with 2 players and have the3rd jump in when he can.
I'm not very familiar with running for small parties, and this one has no spellcasters at all. I was wondering if anyone has any advice?
Have one of the regulars who can be there every time run 2 PC's.
We started running two games with two players and a DM (one game in Athas, the other in Golorian.) One player in each game ran two PC's for a party of three total.
It was the first time I had ever played PF, first time I ever played in the Dark Sun world, and those PC's are doing fine (6th level now.)
It is also the first time the other player in the other game has played PF, and he runs a Gunslinger and Ninja.
After six months one of the groups got so big we split into two more groups.
I have run small parties of two and even one PC, it was a little more work on my part but here are some suggestions.
1) Run more urban settings, granted you will have to put more work into npc's as well as interacting with them. The larger the city the better. I am very new to Pathfinder so there are those here who could point you in to the right direction far better than I could at this time.
2) Play up to their streangths. If they are playing martial classes then let them hire out as caravan guards. Of course at low levels you will have to tone down a bit on the number of adversaries that attack said caravan. Or give them a chance to team up against the leader of (insert villain group) while the npc guards take the minions. Let some of the npc guards die so they dont rely on them for help to much. It's a fine line but rweek with it to see what works in your game.
3) I generally homebrew so I don't know of any mods you could play. I will leave that up to those who do, to offer any suggestions. You might find something that you could alter slightly to accomidate the small party size.
4) the opposite of suggestion 1 would be to start them in a small town or village that is being threatened by low lvl bad guys. Allow them to possibly negotiate first with the baddies. Or you could follow the 7 samurai route and your characters could help train the villagers to defend themselves. If the village wins than accolades all around to the pc's. If it goes badly they may have to slink off in shameto get away from angry survivores or their guilt for getting every one killed.
5) Of course you will have to find a balance for running such a small group. There will be some trial and error. Good luck I hope this helps some.
Small parties can be a good change of pace from large ones. It opens a lot of possibilities, including having more time to focus on the story of these PCs, roleplaying and throwing more complex storylines (see: more intrigue, puzzles, politics, nuances).
My suggestion is to create some NPCs around the party that they can take with them from time to time. A bit like traditional RPG computer games. Allow them to roll for the NPCs and give them a "condensed" stat block (AC,Hp,Hit,Dmg,strong skills), but you as a GM roleplay them but let your players decide what they want these NPCs to do. This breaks the really dangerous prospect of introducing "GMPCs".
I currently run a group of three players, with rare "guest appearances" by other players when they can make it. The party consists of a Psion Telepath, a Pugilist (3rd party unarmed fighter) and a Bard with the Investigator archetype. Most of my adventures tend to be heavily skill based, though the three are quite capable of doing a lot of damage if combat arises.
Most of the games are urban based, all set in one major city in my homebrew world, though lately they've done some traveling via a teleportation device they acquired. They're not a hack and bash sort of group, with the current campaign taking a turn toward setting up trade between a backwards island nation, a Gnomish tree village, and a different city than the one they're based in. Lots of roleplaying and talking things through; not what everyone would enjoy. But these guys really get into it.
Both players are playing martial characters, one a slayer and the other a Brawler with the strangler archetype, and both are very stealth focused. They took the Stealth Synergy feat, and we're doing a campaign based around stopping an Orc invasion from the Hold of Belkzen.
Most encounters start with them stealthing up behind a group of enemies, and disabling them one at a time until they're noticed. A lot of the campaign was based around both players being bery into the game Shadow of Mordor, so I'm having to do some research into the game and it's story while planning this campaign.
The idea of having one or both of them run two characters is actually pretty good, as one player is very experienced and the other is at least comfortable with the system.
The third player has officially dropped out, but for very understandable and legitimate reasons.
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2nd for having them gesalt. Two gesalted characters still won't be as potent as 4 regular characters due to HP not doubling, and more importantly action economy not doubling. However, they can fill all of the standard roles.
I would also strongly encourage the brawler not to be a grappler. Grapplers make great 5th wheels - but they specialize in taking one opponent out of the fight at a time. With only two of them - they'll need to be able to deal with groups.
I personally don't like the two character solution. If you are focused on the game as tactical combat, it is workable, but if you want much role playing and character development it is pretty hard to do with a player controlling two characters.
Gestalt can be a good option to allow characters to cover everything. Adding to magic would be a definite help, but action economy doesn't change with Gestalt, so the game still requires some adjusting.
If you decide you must have more characters in the party, I'd suggest giving the two main PCs a free leadership feat and having them control each others cohorts. This lets the main characters be the players focus and lets them role play the relationship with their cohorts as well.
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Gestalt can be a good option to allow characters to cover everything. Adding to magic would be a definite help, but action economy doesn't change with Gestalt, so the game still requires some adjusting.
Action economy hurts - but there are a few things that you can do with a gesalt that you can't do with two seperate characters, especially defensively. A barbarian with mirror image and aimed at dragon disciple, or a wildshaped druid with monk AC bonuses etc.
I'd guess that two well built gesalts with a 25pt buy could deal with what an average built 4 person 15pt buy party can without too much trouble.
When we have people call out sick/busy/etc. I tend run as normal, with adjusting CRs down, and it's also a great time for me to make use of things like environmental effects and traps.
Puzzles, mazes, anything that helps create the atmosphere of the "normal" game while still providing challenge really assists in making sure the players don't get bored, while making sure they're not overwhelmed.
It also means you can focus on a single bad guy instead of bad guy with mooks, as the action economy isn't as much in the player's favor.
You have lots of options, and with no healing that means lots of lower level fights will seem that much more deadly as it uses up what resources they have. You'll want to make sure there are plenty of Cure Potions in the treasure you place, so that they won't feel the "well we had one encounter, better head home and rest for a week" problem. Alternatively, ensure there is plenty of healing to be had for a price. Local clerics, alchemist, etc.
Just my two cents
