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Hey all, I've recently had an idea over this "epidemic" that keeps a lot of people from meeting. To have a semi competitive tower of tournaments held in 1 on 1 sessions.
As I've never run solo adventures before, what do you guys think would be good class suggestions for me to give the players?
The way I see it working is, that each floor has a "dungeon" of some variant. I'm envisioning 40 floors, 2 floors per level. Mid to late levels will have the PCs playing a roll as s Big bad, mechanically speaking. With action economy against them, but level/HD/power in their favor. So a level 5 character would likely encounter mostly level 2-3 enemies. With a big boss of equivalent level every few levels or so.
I plan to run them each through the same dungeon, with no changes. Unless a character dies. Then they have to start from scratch at level 1.
So, again, what do you think some good solo adventuring classes to suggest would be?
Hmm, maybe something like one of these:
Monster Tactician Inquisitor?
Arsenal Chaplain or Divine Commander Warpriest?
Is gestalt allowed? I have a number of full BAB, all good saves, 9th level casting builds...
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The floors will be varied, some will have lots of enemies, some will have traps, some will have skill challenges. I doubt your ordinary 7 str 20int wizard would survive the first floor or two.
I'll probably give a 25 or 30pt buy.
Each player would get a chance to sell and purchase items and gear at the infinite city between each floor. However they cannot leave a floor until it is finished.
No gestalt
Sad.
Most full casters with 3/4 bab and an animal companion will perform the best. Any martial that gets nailed with a condition will very quickly die. It also depends on how much you can rest.
Reincarnated Druid with an animal companion or Druidic Herbalism is my personal pick.
In a solo adventure, action economy is the real killer. Gestalt doesn't give you any more actions, just gives you more options for the precious few actions you already have. Allows you to fill some holes, and hopefully build a more well-rounded character.
Hunters might be a pretty good option. Self-buffing options, some healing spells, decent armor and weapon options, an animal companion that can scout or help with fights, and bonus teamwork feats that are auto-shared with the companion.
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So it’s going to be all combat? No diplomacy, skill challenges, or traps?
I think inquisitor is probably going to be a really good choice. Probably an archetype that gives up solo tactics. They can put out a good amount of damage, get great buff spells, and get some pretty good defensive abilities with judgment and stalwart. Plus they can take healing spells. Including, eventually, heal.
Warpriests are a very similar choice to the inquisitor. Slightly better at doing damage, and can swift action heal, but not quite as strong on the defensive front.
Paladin is another strong candidate. Great saves and one feat (Fey Foundling) makes them nearly impossible to kill with HP damage. Going to be slower at doing damage, though.
Oracles (battle, especially) would do well with the full set of cleric spells to choose from as well as revelations.
I think what I’m saying is that I would really strongly suggest divine classes.
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Issues with solo play: It's all or nothing.
In a normal game, failure isn't a big issue because you're part of a team. In most instances, some members of the team will succeed and some of the team will fail at any given challenge. The success will outweigh the failures and propel the group onwards. Only one person needs to be able to get through the locked door to proceed. Only one person needs to spot the trap for nobody to fall in it. Only one person needs to climb the cliff to lower a rope for everyone else. In an ambush, some players may spot it, so part of the group still gets to act. Solo you lose all your turn or none of it. Against sleep, color spray, a ghoul, or a harpy, you only lose a part of the group, with the remainder possibly being able to help those disabled. Solo, such things become save or die.
Luck is going to rule the day. In a group, you end up with many rolls spread out between many different characters. Streaks of crits or fails can hurt, but aren't usually game ending due to the nature of being diffused among all the actors. Solo, it's all concentrated.
The one thing that works better solo: Stealth. Stealth is the oddball out, where everyone has to succeed, one failure equals failure for the entire team.
Conclusion: Druid. Hands down. Companion, healing, summons, aoe spells, combat prowess, good perception, good will.
Optional: Take a trait to get stealth as a class skill. Take stealth synergy with you and your pet. If you make it to level 10, divine interference will be incredibly powerful.
That said, there's a lot of builds that could be super fun if you know you're going to mainly be one guy against many. Like a flowing monk, or an Azatariel swashbuckler, where you get to make the enemies hit each other.
Kensai Magus VMC Monk... almost sounds terrible except you can always just fight with your sword and unarmed strikes without wasting spells or arcana, your unarmed strikes follow the damage equal a Monk of your level -2 . Armor restrictions align, and you get a nice Dodge bonus at later levels. You get a level depentent Ki Pool (not Wisdom-based) that shows up about the same time you can take Ki Arcana, which gives you an extra resource for endurance. Bonus feats make up for VMC. Be a Half-Orc with all the Endurance and Fate's Favored fun stuff, worship a god that offers fun stuff for Deific Obedience...
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The floors will be varied, some will have lots of enemies, some will have traps, some will have skill challenges.
Usually it will be a mixture.
OK, I’m definitely adding alchemist and investigator to the list of suggested classes. Both are pretty good combatants and have good skills. Plus the versatility of extracts (and the ability to prepare one in just one minute if you left a slot open). I’d personally probably favor the investigator, just for fear of running out of bombs as a low-level alchemist.
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This list should be pretty much every 3/4 BAB, 6th level "casting" class there is... what else do you bring?
I'd take an Alchemist/Bard/Inquisitor/Magus/Warpriest in this scenario almost 100% of the time. Sure, there's 3/4 BAB, 9th level casting classes, but screw that... we still want this to be fun, right?
I would even choose a Small race, to make life interesting. Like a Halfling Eldritch Scion Magus VMC Sorcerer, double stacking Arcane Bloodlines, with Desna's Shooting Star. Not that it's powerful, but it should at least be fun. Or a Kobold Divine Commander Warpriest VMC Sorcerer (Draconic), with Scaled Disciple, going into Dragon Disciple, with a Deinonychus mount/Boon Companion...
That's the thing with these sorts of challenges... still having fun.
I can build an Aasimar Lantern Lighter Ranger, abusing Heavily Radiance if I must show up full BAB at late levels... what level range are we talking about here?
From one? 6+? 11+? 16+?
All the way to 20 is why I mentioned VMC. Normally, you seldom see the benefits of VMC unless you purposefully choose a munchkin madness combo from the start...
If you choose a well-structured chassis to begin with, especially something that offers Bonus Feats, then high level VMC suddenly sucks less...
That's the thing with these sorts of challenges... still having fun.
*flexes Gauntlet*
"Fun isn't one considers when in a thread titled 'What is the best solo class?'...but this does bring a smile to my face."
That's the thing with these sorts of challenges... still having fun.*flexes Gauntlet*
"Fun isn't one considers when in a thread titled 'What is the best solo class?'...but this does bring a smile to my face."
Vine-Leshy Reincarnated Druid 5/Herbalist Alchemist 10/Brewkeeper 5... you're welome.
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For those of you interested in this. either as players, or, hopefully, as GMs. I have made a thread in the recruitment section seeking help.
This is not something I am comfortable running in PbP, for a plethora of reasons, however, I see a chance to get some actual data. So check out the recruitment post.
There's a recruitment section...?!?!
I went to Meet-Up for my Kingmaker campaign...
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Why not give the players a way to work together?
Perhaps they all have a ring of sending tuned to the other rings. The wearer of the ring can use sending 1/day as a free action to all the other rings or to a specific ring.
Or it could be Clairaudience-Clairvoyance instead of sending if that makes more sense.
This will let the players coordinate and help each other and come and rescue each other.
give all of the parameters listed above, I would choose Arcane Trickster( TWF Knifemaster/Caster of your choice)
while the "fighting ability" is less as a rogue, it makes up for it with skills and spells. and once it can cast invisibility, the damage output skyrockets, and get insane once you gain the greater invisibility class feature.
give all of the parameters listed above, I would choose Arcane Trickster( TWF Knifemaster/Caster of your choice)
while the "fighting ability" is less as a rogue, it makes up for it with skills and spells. and once it can cast invisibility, the damage output skyrockets, and get insane once you gain the greater invisibility class feature.
I think that by level ~14, enough things have access to See Invisibility that your gimmick isn't nearly guaranteed. And, nothing is ever guatanteed with a 1/2 BAB class further taking TWF penalties.
Bloodrager or Child of War Fighter VMC Rogue can make for a fun Arcane Trickster. It takes 7-8 levels and Accomplished Sneak Attacker to pull it off, but it at least it has some BAB for if you want to actually involve yourself in melee.
give all of the parameters listed above, I would choose Arcane Trickster( TWF Knifemaster/Caster of your choice)
while the "fighting ability" is less as a rogue, it makes up for it with skills and spells. and once it can cast invisibility, the damage output skyrockets, and get insane once you gain the greater invisibility class feature.
I think that by level ~14, enough things have access to See Invisibility that your gimmick isn't nearly guaranteed. And, nothing is ever guatanteed with a 1/2 BAB class further taking TWF penalties.
Bloodrager or Child of War Fighter VMC Rogue can make for a fun Arcane Trickster. It takes 7-8 levels and Accomplished Sneak Attacker to pull it off, but it at least it has some BAB for if you want to actually involve yourself in melee.
After playing for 30+ years of various Adventure Paths and Modules, I can count the number of times "See Invisibility" (or things like Tremor sense etc) has been available to the bad guys one probably just one hand. In my experience, Greater Invisibility is fairly reliable.
Pretty much anything with minions/summons is a good plan. Conjurorer, Summoner, Cleric with Animal Domain, Druid.
I'll echo the sentiment that a Summoner/Druid/Cavalier/etc would be amazing simply because you're turning a solo adventure into a group adventure - essentially cheating the system. Obviously any other class/archetype(/feat) that gets an animal companion or similar would be added to this list.
What I'd pick though is an Occultist. You can use this to make a full-BAB 6/9 caster, with access to some higher level spells as SLAs. You're also 4+INT skills per level on an INT-based class, so you'll rival the skills of a Rogue. You can even make a competent (though not top-tier) summoner.
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Unchained Rogue. Allowing a single skilled rogue to run loose without worrying about the tank giving away their position or worrying about making the most of out Full-Attacks and you find out why Batman is so scary to the villains of Gotham.
A single player allowed to control the tempo of a fight, where hit and run tactics would reign supreme would be a surprisingly strong contender since everyone seems to discount the rogue.
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Many years ago, the local pfs group did a similar event, where they paired off and one player ran, the other player played. Using existing pfs characters, and playing pfs modules that were a couple of tiers lower then their level. The event was a resounding success, people loved it, and talked about it for years after.
If it were me I would go with the Reincarnated Druid archetype.