Our party was originally six members, but just before our game began (Jade Regent) three members had to drop the week we started. The remaining players are:
Human winter witch
Human mindchemist alchemist
Human flying blade swashbuckler
We went ahead with three and the first session was kinda rough with no real melee character. Which character would you suggest switching out and what would you suggest switching them to? Right now we have knowledges and spells covered with the alchemist and witch, and face and damage covered with the swashbuckler... Maybe we'll be alright?
Any and all suggestions welcome!
In a very small party, summoning becomes a much better option. I would recommend the alchemist switching to a Monster Tactician Inquisitor.
If you just wanted to make them a little tougher, you could give them each a mythic tier. If you are worried that will be too powerful, you could choose their mythic options yourself.
I guess I should mention that the GM has heavily customized our game and the first book is mostly Burnt Offerings. I'm not sure if that impacts the caravan NPCs at all, but we did select RotRL campaign traits.
I was under the impression you were the DM. In the case of being a player, you should talk with the DM about how he'd prefer to handle the situation. He may prefer to simply lower the difficulty.
He is a very narrative focused GM who is more into the storytelling aspect of the game. I'm pretty sure he doesn't care what we do, we're just trying to shore ourselves up a bit.
You're probably right, though. In the goblin raid he definitely played up the mischievous angle of the goblin attackers, having them running around and causing havoc as opposed to outright attacking us.
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Jade Regent isn't one I am familiar with, but most APs are easily playable with 3 PCs with a moderate level of optimization. Most encounters in most of the books that I have seen are on the easy side.
Of course, there are the 'killer' encounters that pop up every once in a while, and even a fairly easy encounter can go south real quick in a small party if someone totally fails an important save, but for the most part I think three can do it fine.
You would have to have strong team tactics though. Class doesn't say much, but usually alchemists and swashbuckers are both focused on damage with Witch's having the battlefield control role. That leaves you short on someone who is buffing and supporting your party. With three that isn't horrible, especially if the alchemist passes out some extracts ahead of time and the witch is set up for dual roles, but you have to plan for that sort of thing, not just hope that it happens.
That's just what Goblins do.
As of right now it looks like the alchemist might be switching to a druid of some sort to shore up the front lines with a beefy companion as well as provide some summoning and control/support.
He should take a summoner, if you're thinking a companion will cut it in melee. Just
heavily optimize the eidolon for close combat and you have a close range combatant a lot tougher then a animal companion (If you want to seriously optimize your eidolon, take a baby hecatonceirs type build). Plus unlike with an animal combanion, you can fall back on a boatload of summon monsters if your eidolon is killed.
We had a long skype call last night and ended up deciding to recruit a fourth player. The alchemist still might switch us his class/build choices, but I'm glad we have a plan to move forward. Thanks for all your help and suggestions.
