Party with two players?

[Pastiche]

Do people already have experience with what the best way is to run published material (specifically Fall of Plaguestone) with a party consisting of only two people?

I don't want my players or myself to deal with the cognitive load of running helper PCs, and starting the PCs out at a higher level is probably not ideal either.

So, this means reducing the challenge of each encounter. If there are multiple enemies, reducing their number so that the XP budget fits is relatively straightforward. However, I'm a bit confused on what to do with fights against a single boss. I couldn't find a weakened template for PF2, nor how that would affect the XP of the boss.

Finally, would it be a good idea to give extra skills to my players, to make up for the smaller party composition? How many extra skills?

[Tiene]

The Bestiary has weak and elite templates. The weak one effectively lowers the creature’s level by 1. You can look it up specifically, but generally you just decrease every number by 2 except for HP which gets adjusted depending on the creature’s level.

For a published adventure, I wouldn’t change the XP granted.

I think a helper NPC could be easy though. Just use a fighter (or maybe a ranger, paladin, or other easy-for-you class) but without any feats (especially skill feats) and with maybe only one or two skills.

EDIT: alternatively you could give them an NPC animal companion or two. Like a guard dog from the Bestiary. Basically instead of it being a minion it’s just another full creature.

[Darksol the Painbringer]

Pastiche wrote:

Do people already have experience with what the best way is to run published material (specifically Fall of Plaguestone) with a party consisting of only two people?

I don't want my players or myself to deal with the cognitive load of running helper PCs, and starting the PCs out at a higher level is probably not ideal either.

So, this means reducing the challenge of each encounter. If there are multiple enemies, reducing their number so that the XP budget fits is relatively straightforward. However, I'm a bit confused on what to do with fights against a single boss. I couldn't find a weakened template for PF2, nor how that would affect the XP of the boss.

Finally, would it be a good idea to give extra skills to my players, to make up for the smaller party composition? How many extra skills?

I'd consider giving them Gestalt benefits. Basically, they pick two classes, take the better progressions and trained skills, as well as access to features of both classes. I'd give them double the feats and skill increases as appropriate as well to keep them feeling pretty powerful, since action economy will be a big factor here.

[Tiene]

Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

Pastiche wrote:

Do people already have experience with what the best way is to run published material (specifically Fall of Plaguestone) with a party consisting of only two people?

I don't want my players or myself to deal with the cognitive load of running helper PCs, and starting the PCs out at a higher level is probably not ideal either.

So, this means reducing the challenge of each encounter. If there are multiple enemies, reducing their number so that the XP budget fits is relatively straightforward. However, I'm a bit confused on what to do with fights against a single boss. I couldn't find a weakened template for PF2, nor how that would affect the XP of the boss.

Finally, would it be a good idea to give extra skills to my players, to make up for the smaller party composition? How many extra skills?

I'd consider giving them Gestalt benefits. Basically, they pick two classes, take the better progressions and trained skills, as well as access to features of both classes. I'd give them double the feats and skill increases as appropriate as well to keep them feeling pretty powerful, since action economy will be a big factor here.

Thinking of action economy, another potential adjustment is just giving both of them two turns in the initiative order and doubling their HP and number of spell slots: effectively doubling the number of characters there are.

[ChibiNyan]

If you only have 2 players, the least disruptive solution would be to give each 2 characters! More work for players but you ensure all of the game balancing and encounter design works as intended without any jank house rules or systems. You wouldn't even have to modify encounters at all!

[Pastiche]

Tiene wrote:

Thinking of action economy, another potential adjustment is just giving both of them two turns in the initiative order and doubling their HP and number of spell slots: effectively doubling the number of characters there are.

This is brilliant! I like this a lot! That way my players don't have to learn two different classes.

I'll probably still give them more skills, too.

[Tiene]

Pastiche wrote:

Tiene wrote:

Thinking of action economy, another potential adjustment is just giving both of them two turns in the initiative order and doubling their HP and number of spell slots: effectively doubling the number of characters there are.

This is brilliant! I like this a lot! That way my players don't have to learn two different classes.

I'll probably still give them more skills, too.

Quick addendum: probably double the shield hp and bt for any shield wielded by a player with shield block as well.

EDIT: and of course double focus points and probably reactions as well

[Wheldrake]

Sure, you can juggle numbers all you want.

Or, you can approach it from a design perspective.
- Do all your adversaries need to use optimal tactics? Make them inattentive, busy doing other things, or even fighting amongst themselves for whatever reason.
- Reduce the numbers of adversaries
- Stagger the arrival of adversaries (part of them are off somewhere, sleeping, playing at dice, taking a dump, whatever)
- Make some or all of the adversaries less bloodthirsty. Maybe they don't really like their boss. Maybe they're more worried about their own skin. Maybe they see an opportunity to get out of a bad job situation.
- For animals and vermine, have some or all of them not be very hungry right now. Maybe they just chowed down on another group of adventurers. Maybe they just want to go home. Maybe they had a bad scrape with similar foes, and they're skittish or even afraid of your group.

Any combination of similar effects will ramp down the challenge potential of listed encounters in a pre-printed adventure. And many of these options can open up non-combat skill-based solutions instead of straightforward murderhobo tactics.

I played a game 2 weeks ago with two players, and it went fine. They had a great time. I strongly suggest you leave their statistics and rules implementation alone, at the baseline. They'll never learn how to play the game if you fiddle with the rules too much.

You can also try being extra generous with hero points. Hero points can overcome a host of problems, if you want to let them.

[Edge93]

An interesting note, if you had a party of two characters and upped their levels by 2 you'd have a CR-equivalent to a party of four at the initial level. That said, it might not work in practice as APs tend to throw in below-level enemies and having your levels up could potentially make those encounters less than trivial even with the enemy numbers advantage.

I liked the two turn idea someone had though.

[Malk_Content]

For the two turns idea I'd make their second turn happen at -5, as guarenteedback to back turns are very potent.

[Pastiche]

I was actually planning not to have their two turns back to back, but right after the regular turn of the other PC. That would also keep them engaged more frequently, and reduce the waiting.

[Varun Creed]

Another option is to both give them an Animal Companion, and make the Command action count as a Free Action once per round.