Very much a noob here so shoot me down in flames if I've missed a trick. I'm trying to run a one player + GM game and my player is struggling with the monsters. Now I could drop the monsters to lower level ones but then xp takes too long to accumulate. I don't want to just boost xp of lower creatures as that strikes me more as "cheating". To over come this I have decided to add a special shield to the cleric (evil) the shield works as the following. On command it can summon a Worg trapped inside the shield. If the worg dies it returns to the shield and the shield must be left out for a night in direct moonlight to recharge. Else the worg can come and go from the shield as it pleases.
The idea is for the worg to act as a tank whilst the cleric gets a few levels.under her belt.
I'd be very grateful if you guys could let me know if this is a good idea or if there are better ways of running 1 on 1. Full disclosure I plan on gming and running a Witch at the same time.
If you are giving one character a CR1 encounter instead of 4 characters, they should get 4 times experience.
Basically their are several problems with 1 player games. One is just that one character is generally just 1/4 as tough as 4 character, which you are running into. Reducing the challenge range of encounters can help with that, but their are still problems. 4 characters aren't just tougher, they are also more varied and can deal with things in different ways. Dealing with opponents at range, swarms, traps, etc is things that a party can be expected to do, but a single character might have difficulty with. Finally, even if you fix everything else, luck can be a bigger deal for 1 character. A natural 1 one a save can result not just in failure, but in the entire party (of 1) being wiped out.
There isn't any simple answers for the above, but adding things to a PC, as you are doing, isn't a bad way. I wouldn't do it exactly like you are doing it though, rather I'd think about giving the PC a 'free' animal companion class feature (as if they were a druid) and also lowering the encounters a bit. I'd give out XP for 'story' reasons i.e. at X point in the plot give a level, typically every 3-4 sessions works out well for me.
Having a GM run a PC is also something that can cause trouble (although you are certainly correct that it does help with the single PC problem.) Making sure that you are a fair GM (and are perceived to be fair, which might not be the case even if you are) when you are both running one of the characters an all of the opposition can be tough even for very experienced GMs. I'd strongly recommend against it. I don't love having one player run more than one character, but I'd do that before I would run a PC as the GM.
Perhaps allowing a super gestault game? Allow them 3-4 different classes instead of just the one they are currently using.
Dave brought up some excellent points. Are you running a 'PC' or do you have an NPC that will be tagging with the player? It can be very easy for it to be perceived that DMPCs are favored, regardless of if it is actually true. To alleviate this you might consider having hireling type characters made closer to normal NPCs that can be changed between adventures as needed as opposed to a full on NPC party member.
Something else to consider is action economy. There is a reason that many DMs discourage 1 big monster encounter design. Unless you are so powerful that the enemy isn't really a threat, having a 3:1 or 4:1 action disadvantage can be a death sentence. There are lots of ways to add minions to the clerics arsenal; hirelings, summons, and bound outsiders at higher level. Heck maybe just give them leadership from level 1 as a bonus feat.
What is the general arc of the story and what level is your cleric? Easier to give more appropriate advice.
The player is looking for a general sandbox sort of game. The PC I was intending to run is essentially a minion for her to boss around so swapping to an NPC isn't a problem. She just wants to go for a wandering adventure feel .
Oh and she is evil, our first run through I'd prepped a npc to give out a quest. She bullied him into giving half the money up front and then just left the town... (Hence a conversation afterwards on what she was actually looking for from the game!)
My personal thought is throw some NPCs in her path and make them interesting. A road encounter with a ranger, sharing a campfire for the night. A wandering gypsy fortune teller (witch). A few loud drunks in a bar (fighter and thief duo, chaotic stupid). Some guy in a robe muttering under his breath how he's "going to show them all" (wizard). Let her talk to them and decide if she is going to try and convince any of them to come along or not. Also if she is going to betray or backstab them.
You could even decide that a few of them will try to rob her after an adventure (like the chaotic stupid bros who are 'kind' enough to wait till they are within sight of town to demand she strips and give them 'the good stuff'. Or maybe by this time they are so afraid of her they try to get away? Just because you have a plan doesn't mean you should stick to it. Especially with NPC 'party members'.
It shouldn't be more profitable to rob NPCs that go into dungeons. Don't give the NPCs magic gear and hardly any coin. Less than 1g in the purse should convince her the barfly she lured into an 'adventure' isn't worth mugging before an adventure happens.
It is a one player game, do a lot of role playing.
You could have the church send her a holy warrior or two to serve as meat shields as well, make it clear that they are favoured of the church so any shenanigans on her part would be highly frowned upon by the church and possibly the god/ess as well. And NPC a couple fighters or Barbarians or whatever, make them useful to her so she doesn't want to just abandon them, make them save her life or make one her brother, give her a reason to want them around.
I ran a 2 players, my wife and me as a DMpc, that worked fine but it was because I was a really well built wizard and she was a fighter with excellent high rolls. For a single player game, you need some variety in options and the DM needs to account for the setup. Fewer monsters, better point buy, gestalt if you want to allow for variety of player abilities, a cohort or npc or DMpc to improve action economy, Homebrew that she get a second initiative at init-10 so she goes, some of them go, she goes again, they finish going and it's back to her first init.
There's loads of ways to handle the setup, but you're going to have to go into the realm of DM with this and decide what kind of campaign you want to run with her. If it's only her, you want to make sure her character is well equipped for every challenge you throw at her. This can mean telegraphing your encounters levels in advance so she builds towards what she needs to win, giving her gestalt or even more so she has access to more options, or catering the adventure towards the skills she needs so she just happens to be exactly the solution to every problem.
Basically, it's a game made for 3+ party members and you will have to adapt it to the unique challenges of single player mode.
Single player games are tough but can be done. The biggest problem is that a single character is not going to have all the resources he needs. No one class can do everything, even a wizard. The second problem is going to be the action economy. With only one character he will not have enough actions to accomplish what he needs. But despite the problems a single player campaign can work.
I would suggest doing two things. First use the gestalt rules to give him more versatility. While that migrates some of the lack of abilities it does not completely solve the problem and does nothing for the action economy problem. Several people have suggested using an NPC, but my suggestion is to allow your player to play two characters. This eliminates the perceived favoritism of having a DMPC, because the player is controlling both characters. Have both of them use the gestalt rules, and suggest at least one if not both use a class that get a companion of some sort.
Fantastic guys that's loads of ideas. I'll probably go with a blend of options. Animal companion, extra PC and maybe an NPC or two. And of course a pretty well tailored story if I can work out what she is going to buy into!
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