I'm planning running a couple friends through the Abomination Vaults soon, it'll be my first time GMing Pathfinder. I know 4 is the recommended party size, but we really want to try keeping this a small party, and I'm wondering how I should modify things to make this doable.
I was thinking I would start them out at third level to make them less squishy and bring their power level comparable to a party of 4 starting at 1st. They are not interested in running 2 characters each. Would the higher level be enough to get them through the Abomination Vaults? Will having less characters leave too many gaps in the party skillset? I could offer them the free Archetype as well but we haven't discussed that yet.
I'm planning running a couple friends through the Abomination Vaults soon, it'll be my first time GMing Pathfinder. I know 4 is the recommended party size, but we really want to try keeping this a small party, and I'm wondering how I should modify things to make this doable.
I was thinking I would start them out at third level to make them less squishy and bring their power level comparable to a party of 4 starting at 1st. They are not interested in running 2 characters each. Would the higher level be enough to get them through the Abomination Vaults? Will having less characters leave too many gaps in the party skillset? I could offer them the free Archetype as well but we haven't discussed that yet.
I ran a playtest gunslinger solo through AV volume 1, starting at level 4. With the extra levels, you should be fine. Be liberal with hero points; with fewer characters, a smaller number of bad rolls can wreck a party.
You could also try the Dual class or Free Archetype variants as Kazimir mentions; I don't find that characters are especially more powerful, but do become more versatile.
With 3 I would just give an extra level and free archetype for so e extra variety.
Two extra levels if they like having an easy time of things.
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One more modification: I would give your players a free Recall Knowledge action at the beginning of each combat (which can trigger stuff that builds into Recall Knowledge like Ranger and Investigator feats). That action cost is a lot higher with smaller parties, AND they are less able to just brute force their way through encounters.
One more modification: I would give your players a free Recall Knowledge action at the beginning of each combat (which can trigger stuff that builds into Recall Knowledge like Ranger and Investigator feats). That action cost is a lot higher with smaller parties, AND they are less able to just brute force their way through encounters.
I didn't find there to be much of a challenge when I ran Extinction curse book 1 with a party of 3 casters, although given that they had to take a more measured approach to combat and everyone had knowledge skills of some kind might have helped.
One more modification: I would give your players a free Recall Knowledge action at the beginning of each combat (which can trigger stuff that builds into Recall Knowledge like Ranger and Investigator feats). That action cost is a lot higher with smaller parties, AND they are less able to just brute force their way through encounters.
The action cost issue affects the whole system, not only Recall Knowledge checks. Buffing and debuffing lose a lot of their potency for example.
In my opinion, small parties are way more able to just brute force their way through encounters. Incapacitation spells are far more potent in their hands and the increase chances to hit and higher damage allow martials to treat every problem like a nail, as even third attacks will now have high chances to hit.
So, in my opinion, you have to play less tactically when you have few players as every action used on anything but damage is strongly reducing your efficiency.
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I used to run a LOT of adventures growing up for a small party, often just a single player (my younger sister) or a single friend since I grew up in a pretty low-population area and there just wasn't a lot of other gamers to play with. I found that the best way to do small groups like this is for the GM to run a few NPCs as companions to the player; this not only gives you an in-world place to drop hints and to build in role-play opportunities at all times rather than just when the player meets an NPC while in the adventure, but also lets you custom build the companion NPC or NPCs to shore up areas where the player's character is deficient. They're also great safety nets for when a bad roll might turn something into a TPK.