Running RotRL with 3 pcs and no healer

[Sir Loin of Beef 81]

I am about to begin GM'ing RotRL campaign, and I likely will only have 3 players (There is another player on the fence whether or not he wants to commit to regular sessions for an AP, but I am moving forward assuming he will not be playing). The three PCs rolled up a swashbuckler, a magus, and a gnome barbarian (I personally love this choice for RP!). I have GMed before, but it has been a very long time (think ad&d second edition).

To cope with the only 3 pcs and no healer issue, I was thinking of running a GMPC sacred fist warpriest. I think that would be a fun character to roleplay possibly as a drunken fool who likes to punch things for his god, or a stoic character who has taken a vow of silence, I have not decided yet. One could add some humor, the other would make it less likely to interfere with the pcs running the dialouge. Also, I think the sacred fist, while versitile, seems to be a slightly less than optimal melee fighter compared to standard monk builds and suboptimal divine caster. This choice is by design becuase I in no way want to outstage my PCs if I go this route.

I would prefer to not run a GMPC, as I will already have my hands full rping, you know, the entire rest of the world. But I only have 3 players and none want to be the healer. And I certainly do not want to force anyone to change who they want to play.

Any advice from GMs who have run this campaign before, under similar party makeup or not, about the percieved issue or my solution would be greatly appreciated.

[ckdragons]

I've completed running this AP years ago. Not having a healer it tough, but doable. I'd suggest a few things for you...

1. Make you GMPC a very background character, even in combat. Your Sacred Fist Warpriest is a great character concept, you're making your job as GM harder playing a character with so many options (swift actions, spells, abilities, etc.). I played a gnome Warpriest in another campaign and usually had 3-4 actions per round between my sacred weapon, sacred armor, movement, spells, and attacks. I'd stick with a simpler character. One of my players in my current campaign is playing a Life Oracle with Life Link. That is a character molded to keeping his friends alive.

2. Lower your encounters by 1-2 CR. This will require some pre-planning, especially with the one-enemy encounter.

3. Make wands of cure wounds usable by everyone without having to use Use Magic Device skill.

4. A fellow GM also has a house rule (Second Wind) that allows a character to heal 25% of his total hit points during combat as a swift action. This is allowed 1 time per combat, up to 4 times per day.

5. Use Hero Points from the Advanced Player's Guide.

[Sir Loin of Beef 81]

I like the idea of the life oracle. A lot. One of Brother zantus's acolytes has been aflicted with blindness and is suffering a crisis of faith. Serenae has unwillingly claimed him as her own, but his devotion to desna has harbored his wanderlust. His restlessness has started to irritate the other acolytes and Zantus promotes him traveling with the PCs as an opportunity to help the oracle find himself while helping restoring order within his church. I will shelve the sacred fist for another campaign.

Liberal use of wands is good too. Maybe I will promote taking UMD as a non class skill as a good idea to those who do not have it.

I did intend to use hero points. On that note, how do you feel about GMPCs use of hero points? Hero points allowing an oracle to cast breath of life at any time is a great safety net, but might be a little much.

[Ninja in the Rye]

If I were looking to add a NPC healer to the group, I'd convert Shalelu to a Ranger 1 or 2/Cleric of Desna X, since she becomes an important NPC who adventures with the party for quite a while later in the adventure anyway, and that way you'll be saving yourself the trouble of running an extra NPC during an alrady NPC heavy section of the adventure in Book 3.

[ckdragons]

Sir Loin of Beef 81 wrote:

I did intend to use hero points. On that note, how do you feel about GMPCs use of hero points? Hero points allowing an oracle to cast breath of life at any time is a great safety net, but might be a little much.

I see no downside to allowing the GMPC healer to use Hero Points.

[Latrecis]

Why not ask one or more of the players to run the "GMPC?" If you can run all the other NPC's/creatures in the world surely they can manage one additional character? One that's there to support them, etc.?

[The Shifty Mongoose]

Yeah! Then, at level 7, one of them can take Leadership, and make your NPC buddy full-on legit!

[Sean Mahoney]

My gut reaction would be to let the PCs figure out how they want to deal with the situation, though I would point out that Infernal Healing is on the magus spell list and would suggest that they make a wand of it a high priority purchase.

I strongly feel that there are ways around anything in the game and part of the fun is figuring out how to make it work for your group.

I would suggest using XP rather than just leveling up at story points (my favorite method) as they should get a bit ahead in levels so you don't have to do as much adjusting of encounters.

If you do decide to have a GMPC I would have the players take turns each session with who controls it in combat. You have enough to do in combat. But that would leave you with a mouthpiece you could use. Something like a Life Oracle would be great. Not only do you have a great healer who you could make not a great combatant, but you have a mouthpiece for strange prophecies and info dumps.

[Sir Loin of Beef 81]

I have settled on the life oracle. I will control him at first, with the PCs running him later when it igets a little more hectic.

Thorin was born and raised in Korvosa. He had a happy life with steady work as a member of the city watch and a small house who he shared with his wife and 2 children.

One night on his way home from his shift at the central market, Thorin came upon his home in flames. His wife had managed to get the children out of the house, but she and his son were mortally burned. His daughter was not breathing. He brought them to the local temple in the district and plead for the priests to heal them, but he could not afford the services and was turned away.

After the death of his family, Thorin was utterly destroyed. His overwhelming sense of loss and heated rage toward the temple led him to drown his sorrows in ale and spirits. It was not long before he lost his job with the watch and was living as a beggar on the streets. He would get enough coin to get drunk and then go to the temple yell insults at the priests and worshippers. He started speaking out about the corruption and greed in the temple and city itself. One of the acolytes approached him and tried to make him leave and Thorin struck the man. This act earned him 6 months in the city dungeon.

Every night, Thorin was plagued with nightmares of fire and screaming. At first the subject of these dreams were of his family, and he spiralled furthur into despair. However, over the months he spent in solitude, his dreams changed. He started seeing others in the fires, and the flames were no longer in his home. A small town on the coast appeared to him. A tall ruined tower by the ocean overlooked a town surrounded by bluffs. He sensed an overbearing evil prescence and the town would erupt into flames.

When his time was to be released from prison, the temple's influence had not been idle. Thorin was to executed for speaking out against the corruption in the city and the temple. Old contacts within the watch however, feeling sorry for thier old comrade, had him smuggled out of the prison and out of the city.

With no where else to go, he headed west toward the coast. He hired on for a one way trip with a caravan trading between Korvosa and Magnimar. Obsessed with his dreams in prison, he sought out among local cartographers the place in flames. His description immediately was recognized as the town of Sandpoint.

Upon arriving at Sandpoint, he knew the place instantly as the place from his dreams. Shortly after arriving, he learned that the town cathedral had burned to the ground as well as some other buildings in town about a year earlier.

The shock of his vision coming true unsettled the man, as well as the sense that whatever reason he had come here was pointless, as the fire had already happened. And good riddance to the church anyway. He could find no reason to stay, but every time he though about leaving, the dreams would return. Something full of rage would alight the town and he would wake with an overwhelming need to stay.

With no respite from the dread and need for salvation from these feelings, he once again started to drink. When he became especially drunk and restless, he would talk about the town burning to the ground. He spent his share of days sobering up in a cell of the town barracks.

A local priest named Zantus took it upon himself to help the poor man. Even though Thorin was not shy to let Zantus know what he thought about the gods or their desciples, Zantus convinced the foreman rebuilding the church to allow Thorin to help doing menial labor tasks. Thorin accepted as it kept him in drinking money.

One day a horse had gotten away from the stables and was charging through town, and trampled an small boy. Upon seeing these events unfold, Thorin had a waking vision, once again of the town in flames. He saw his son approach, burned from head to toe. He asked for him to help. Thorin said that he could do nothing to help him. And sat down and cried. In the height of his dispair, the boy put his hand on his father's shoulder. "Not me. You must help them." Instantly awaking to the sounds of sobbing and alarm, Thorin could no longer see. He could hear a mother crying. She said to get Father Zantus to help the boy, but he knew that Zantus was away in Magnimar. He stumbled and staggered to the sound of the boy's mother, somehow knowing that he must help the boy. "Get away from him you drunken fool!" She shrieked at him, but he pushed her aside and grabbed the boy. Gasps from all around were heard, as the boy opened his eyes and stood up, completely healed from his wounds. The mother was overjoyed and the townspeople spoke of the miracle he had performed.

Thorin never regained his sight, but he became accustomed to using his other senses to compensate unnanaturally fast. Overall, he has been reborn. He sees the loss of his sight as a fair trade. His sense of purpose had been restored, helping the wounded and sick. Although it is bittersweet, as his heart still aches that he could do nothing for his family.

Father Zantus was delighted at the miracle of Thorin's newfound ability to heal, but the rest of the acolytes and clerics in Sandpoint, as well as any in Magnimar that heard the tale, saw it as a threat, since Thorin worshipped no gods and healed without the aid of prayer or diety. He also would heal those who came to him without the need for a "donation". His name was slandered as a practicer of dark arts and it was said that his healing would bind your soul to evil. Thorin enjoys debating with acolytes and others who would claim his ability is nefarious. He has been known to, upon overhearing such comments, inviting himself to sit with the acolytes and buy them a round of drinks while they debate the issue, much to their displeasure. The town is about 50/50 on whether they trust Thorin's abilities.

He has started to train with his spear again, and will accompany hunting parties and patrols into the outlying areas looking for goblins and other vermin; tasks his friend Fathur Zantus has repeatedly advised against due to his blindness, but Thorin's new found will is unassailable.

Wow. That got long quickly. Sorry for the long winded post; once the writing starts...

[Yakman]

agree with the above: a GMPC should be really easy to run, stay out of the PCs way, and do nothing in terms of heroic moments. Pure healer/buffer and 100 % support.

You can be the wind beneath their wings, but nothing more. And when you convince player #4 to join in, you can retire gracefully.

[Sir Loin of Beef 81]

Well, The fourth player joined last minute. He played the oracle, and I do not think he enjoyed playing a blind healer. Enen though due to luck of the dice he pretty much decimated the majority of the goblins by himself and kept everyone else alive. Was the star really. The goblin commando had put his bow away and charged him with his horsechopper, seeing him as the main threat, and old blind man ran him through with his spear.

At any rate, I am going to have him roll up a new character before the next time we play, and if they still have no healer, they will just have to figure it out. I will make the NPC an available NPC companion if the PCs decide to enlist his services.

On another note, the PCs completely hated Foxglove right from the start for cowering while his dog was killed and refusing to help in the battkle. They called out in front of the town as a Fop and coward. And they checked the bodies before checking on anyone else in the towns safety. Awesome wrath play in chapter 2, and some solid greed points for the PCs. Fantastic.

[Bellona]

Is the blindness curse from another source? The standard Clouded Vision oracle curse allows normal sight out to a range of 30 feet, so some normal sight is possible.