So, if you are playing with just one player what should you do? I assume they would be a gestalt character but it might still be too hard for them. Should you have them start higher than the recommened level or what?
|
Well for one player you'd start with an APL of 1/6th at level one I think
so encounters would be roughly work out as the following.
Easy: 1/8 CR
Average: 1/6 CR
Challenging: 1/4 CR
Hard: 1/3 CR
Epic: 1/2 CR
There might be a lack of Role Playing and more Dice rolling in a one on One game, but depending on the game play and Story teller it should be fine.
Adventure Paths would have to be toned down in the encounters and types, as depending on the character type would also change the types that could challenge but not railroad a player into not being able to do anything.
What I've found useful for solo players is to provide them with two NPC / DMPC sidekicks with different talents, attitudes and goals. Maybe they don't even like each other. The contrast between them makes it easier to role-play them. Because they frequently disagree it falls to the solo player to make the decisions. Make sure each of them is wrong from time to time, so they don't just represent DM knowledge. Give each one areas of expertise.
Even if my solo player is gestalt, I usually just make the followers single class. It keeps things simple and makes the hero extra special.
You can also keep a simple tally for each character's affinity / opinion of the PC and adjust their attitudes as you go, maybe having one make trouble or desert if they're ignored often enough.
If you've ever played Knights of the Old Republic (The single player star wars video game, not the online one) it's like the followers there.
Contrasting / arguing NPCs is an easy way to keep the role play up in a solo game.
I've run many, many successful campaigns with a solo player playing 2 PCs in which I would play 2 "GMPCs" of the same level. I would treat the GMPCs pretty much the same as PCs, except that they wouldn't make decisions based on my GM omniscience.
First thing to do is to write your own adventure and not use a published AP. A solo game is not that hard to run, as long as it was written for the character. Find out what you player wants to play and tailor the adventure to that. You may not even need to go gestalt, but if you want to that would be fine also. As others have suggested a side kick may be a very good idea.
Encourage the player to play a class with some depth instead of a hack and slash class. Fighter would probably be the worst class if you are not going gestalt. Surprisingly a rouge would actually work well for this. Since the adventure will be tailored for the character the rogues usually weakness are not as important and his strengths are actually more useful.
Give XP for overcoming the opponent no matter how the character does it. So if the character can talk or trick his way around a monster give him full credit for it.
Disregard the CR system completely and carefully judge what your player can handle. The CR system is a very rough guide and with this number of players is too far out of alignment to be useful.
Also what gestalt combo would be best for a solo pc? I was thinking a melee class+cleric or oracle.
You might try using Hunter and gain an animal companion. They're useful for scouting and fighting.
One of the best gestalt combinations is inquisitor and unchained monk. Both of them get a lot of benefit from a high WIS and Both classes synergies well. You get full BAB, all good saves, lots of skills and special abilities. You get both evasion and stalwart so you can pretty much ignore spell if you make your save. Flurry of bane can deal out a ridiculous amount of damage.
The inquisitor gets a lot of abilities that can be tailored to the situation. There spell list is actually incredibly versatile. They have enough healing on their spell list to get by especially if they use wands and scrolls. They also get a fair number of utility spells that will work very well for a solo character. Adding invisibility to a character that already has a good stealth roll means they will be very good ad sneaking around.
The unchained monk provides most of your combat ability including a lot of defensive ability like diamond soul. The extra combat feats are also helpful and can provide a lot of defensive abilities. Feats like dodge, combat reflexes and mobility may not be fancy but it will keep the character alive which is the import part.
Another combination that could work well is a paladin/bard. If you go for the archeologist bard you end up with another very versatile character. This combination ends up being kind of like Batman. The paladins lay on hands will probably be all the healing you need. Choose your mercies well and your spells will take care of the rest. The bard spells are utility and some buffing.
@ glass
I did something like that in a P6 game. It was a variant multi class system where the players could level up as many core classes as they liked, independently, up to level 6. Rather than stacking abilities we gestalted them.
It worked wonderfully. We had the advantages of P6 (faster gameplay, less lookup, etc) while still having other paths to advancement.
How many levels above the recommended level for the module should they be/ (remember gestalt characters are +1 for level purposes.) BTW, anyone else think gestalts should get more points for increasing ability scores than normal? I do, since they almost always have more important abilities than regular characters.
UnMonk/Inquisitor or UnMonk/Warpriest will provide good survivability and solid offense. Both offer a decent use of your action economy, as well.
Make sure the character has their running shoes on, because not every encounter is going to be the kind they will be able to chop their way through...
How many levels above the recommended level for the module should they be/ (remember gestalt characters are +1 for level purposes.) BTW, anyone else think gestalts should get more points for increasing ability scores than normal? I do, since they almost always have more important abilities than regular characters.
It depends on how much you want to encourage your player(s) to choose classes that depend on the same ability scores. How generous you are with initial ability score points and later ability score increases will have consequences, so you need to decide which consequences you want.
Summoners are one of the best classes for solo campaigns in Pathfinder, especially with the Master Summoner Archetype. If you're going to do a solo Gestalt campaign, consider going Master Summoner + Any class you want. Basically summon a small army whenever you want and start smashing/melting faces. It's not uncommon for a Master Summoner to have between 5-10 summons active at any given point in time, and for cheap too. Like, cheapy cheap.
Since Summoners are Cha based, maybe do Swashbuckler, Paladin, or Sorcerer, or even Oracle of Battle, depending on how much you want to melee or cast spells. But the more you pump up your Cha, the more times you can use that delicious Summoning Mastery ability from Master Summoner archetype.
You could also just forget about doubling down on Charisma if you don't want to be a summoning fanatic (but still summon well) because Summoners don't really "need" a super high Cha for overcoming DC's. You could go with a ranged-focused build, like a Ranger, Slayer, or Gunslinger.
I dunno, what kind of a "feel" are you looking for with this particular character?
I'm not looking for any particular. It's more if I'm the DM as I usually only have one person to play with.
I'm not looking for any particular. It's more if I'm the DM as I usually only have one person to play with.
Well, as far as DMing a solo campaign, I think Michael Talley 759 hit the nail on the head as far as what CR's you should be offering your player. At least you can use that as a baseline "gauge" to whether you need to make an easier or harder encounter.
If I may offer some advice about starting level, I'd recommend lvl 3 or higher. If you crit on a level 1 or 2 solo player, there's a good chance you'll kill him.
I would try to embrace the chance you're offered, instead of wasting it on gestalt and GMPCs. There are a lot of things that are theoretically supported by the system, but don't really work well in a party; for example stealth, sneaky kills, social stuff, pursuits, honorable duels, and just about anything intended for the Vigilante. Many obstacles, especially mundane ones, work better for a single PC, too - when only one PC needs to climb something and then can lower a rope, or when a chasm can be overcome by one PC having some spell that handles it, it's not really interesting (and the other players often feel left out), but in a solo campaign, it's both more challenging, and more rewarding. A lot of survival stuff works better, too.
A single player is also far more likely to follow the intended campaign instead of comign up with exceedingly outlandish and crazy ideas, so it shouldn't be too hard to creature and run such a campaign.
Derklord, I agree that this is an awesome opportunity and that it shouldn't be muddled by GMPC's... but Gestalt makes sense to give a single player a larger toolbox.
You can be a vanilla Fighter, but throw in some Archaeologist Bard... now you have skills and utility magics and all good saves and a little bit of luck.
I love how you can tell a story with the classes/archetypes you choose to Gestalt. Sometimes the two sides synergize so well, it builds itself, and just flows like poetry.
You can be a vanilla Fighter, but throw in some Archaeologist Bard... now you have skills and utility magics and all good saves and a little bit of luck.
Or you just pick Archaeologist Bard instead of a Fighter in the first place!
Still, I see what you mean. I think you shouldn't necessarily gestalt, but rather see what the player wants; but for some characters, especially martial classes, gestalt might be a a good option. You need a certain toolbox size for the whole concept to work well. Edited.