Balancing 1 player D&D [Archive] - Wizards Community

Balancing 1 player D&D [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Flopfoot
12-17-07, 11:14 PM A friend and I like to play D&D, so I was trying to figure out how we could play it with only one player character.
One thing I noticed on the encounter level table is that if you double the number of enemies, it increases the encounter level by 2. For example, one ogre is a level 3 encounter, two ogres is a level 5 encounter, and 4 ogres is a level 7 encounter.
So wouldn't it then make sense, that if you half the number of player characters, they can only take on half as much stuff, hence you need to lower the encounter level by 2?
Four level 7 characters can take on four ogres (EL 7), so two level 7 characters can take on two ogres (EL 5), and one level 7 character can take on one ogre (EL 3). In other words, I estimate the appropriate EL for a solo PC to be the PC's level minus four.

We are going to try it out in practice... he is making a level 6 ranger and I am going to throw level 2 encounters at him. Do you think this would be balanced? If not, what do you think would be an appropriate encounter level for a solo player character?
B4_life
12-17-07, 11:18 PM No. while it is true that that EL rule is fine, the way youve used it doesn't work. Don't forget a level-appropriate encounter is supposed to use 1/4 of a party's ressources for the day. This means that a CR4 creature will use 100% of a single PCs ressources (and the player has a 50% chance of dieing).

In the present case, CR2 is much too low. at that level, he has two attacks per round, 3 if he uses TWF. He would probably kill that monster in a round, maybe two.

EDIT: and this would probably be best in thew DMing section.
khyron1144
12-17-07, 11:40 PM NPC buddies to adventure with the lone PC can really help balance it, if you steer away from the because I'm the DM and I control this guy, he's god-like syndrome.

Then just use the CR and EL systems as per normal because you did everything to give him a fighting chance.
Flopfoot
12-18-07, 01:25 AM So if EL 2 is too low, what EL is high enough to provide a challenge but not so high that it will kill him?

If an EL 6 encounter would use 100% of his resources, how much of his resources would an EL 2 encounter use up?

He would have 4 attacks a round if he uses two weapon fighting, but not every attack will hit.
metalmayhem80110
12-18-07, 04:26 AM Honestly, it depends on the player. Because my builds tend to be able to drop encounters that are cr+2 of him, without a sweat, solo.

But I know people who get owned in these situations, so it REALLY depends on the player, and his build.
Rulebook
12-18-07, 11:51 AM feel your player out. set up a number of encounters of increasing difficulty and see how he handles them. that'll give you a good range of how well he handles encounters.

one of my old characters used to solo cr+5 without much problem, while another couldnt do cr= without stopping to recuperate between each
BlaineTog
12-18-07, 03:03 PM Maybe use Gestalt rules. If the character is extra-ripped, you'll have more leaway.
Shiftkitty
12-18-07, 03:28 PM In 1 on 1 D&D, I DMPC the rest of the party if needed. Very rarely has my player been the only PC. I don't scale anything down, though, if I'm using a published adventure. If the player wants to take a big bite out of life before it takes a big bite out of him, that's fine by me.

Special builds or not, any solo character who is taking down CR+5 without breaking a sweat isn't getting hit hard enough. Defeating CR+2 should be an effort, CR+3 should leave them wondering if they should have taken that job flipping rothe burgers at Happy Elf instead of adventuring, CR+4 and higher should be something that doesn't happen often, IMO.

Still, though, if you can make the rolls, more power to ya!
hitorijun
12-18-07, 06:50 PM Personally I would though the option out of letting him play 2 characters and add a NPC or 2 to even things out a bit.
Garandene_Lyrandar
12-19-07, 04:23 AM If you look at it like two monsters fighting each other, the party which 2.5 was created for is about four players. Now say the party is sixth level, a balanced encounter for them is CR6. Now imagine that party is a group of monsters. They are all CR 6 so (the rules aren't very clear on this part) you add 2 to the CR every time you double the number of monsters (I go by this rule in my campaign) so that means that party of level 6 adventurers are a CR 9 encounter. So technically a lone 6th level adventurer should be facing monster with an average CR of 3 but can go from 1-6.

To look at it from an experience point of view. A party of sixth level adventurers gets about 450 XP from a CR 6 monster. A single PC of sixth level would get 1800 XP from the same encounter. So the lone PC should be getting 450 XP and this is supplied by defeated a CR 2 monster.

So the PC should be fighting a CR 2 monster. Of course this assumes you only need to burn %25 of your level appropriate resources. If you give him loads of tresure he could be fighting a CR 6 monster, but this would need to be LOTS! of treasure so its best just to stick to CR 2-3.

Hope I helped :D
Joe Khol
01-17-08, 08:09 AM I don't think you can balance a solo game systematically. The CR system is based around a balanced party with a full range of abilities and even then it doesn't always work well - two monsters with the same CR can still vary between speed-bump and TPK.

With a solo game, you have to cater the whole game to that single character and design things with their individual abilities (and inevitable weaknesses) in mind - it's much more than calculating the right CR and flicking through the MM for something that fits.

It can work and can work very well though - some of my best games have been running for a single character (one very James Bondish rogue comes to mind). You just have to throw out a lot of the preconceptions about how you build an adventures/campaigns and how you play then rather than simply try to scale down what you'd normally do.

The advantage is that there are lots of fun things you can only do (or only do well) with a single character and the DM-player dynamic is interestingly different.
Eldritch_Lord
01-17-08, 08:28 AM When I was teaching a friend of mine to play with a solo campaign, I started him off with 1-on-1, and then as he got more experienced, I'd have him control 2, 3, and then 4 PCs, so instead of them being DMPCs he could use them all. It really helped him learn how to play, because he was doing 4x the number of actions, and it let him try out several classes to see how he liked them. It removes the balance problem, but I can't say how well it would work for your friend; you'll have to try it out in a one-shot or something to judge.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Flopfoot 12-17-07, 11:14 PM	A friend and I like to play D&D, so I was trying to figure out how we could play it with only one player character. One thing I noticed on the encounter level table is that if you double the number of enemies, it increases the encounter level by 2. For example, one ogre is a level 3 encounter, two ogres is a level 5 encounter, and 4 ogres is a level 7 encounter. So wouldn't it then make sense, that if you half the number of player characters, they can only take on half as much stuff, hence you need to lower the encounter level by 2? Four level 7 characters can take on four ogres (EL 7), so two level 7 characters can take on two ogres (EL 5), and one level 7 character can take on one ogre (EL 3). In other words, I estimate the appropriate EL for a solo PC to be the PC's level minus four. We are going to try it out in practice... he is making a level 6 ranger and I am going to throw level 2 encounters at him. Do you think this would be balanced? If not, what do you think would be an appropriate encounter level for a solo player character?
B4_life 12-17-07, 11:18 PM	No. while it is true that that EL rule is fine, the way youve used it doesn't work. Don't forget a level-appropriate encounter is supposed to use 1/4 of a party's ressources for the day. This means that a CR4 creature will use 100% of a single PCs ressources (and the player has a 50% chance of dieing). In the present case, CR2 is much too low. at that level, he has two attacks per round, 3 if he uses TWF. He would probably kill that monster in a round, maybe two. EDIT: and this would probably be best in thew DMing section.
khyron1144 12-17-07, 11:40 PM	NPC buddies to adventure with the lone PC can really help balance it, if you steer away from the because I'm the DM and I control this guy, he's god-like syndrome. Then just use the CR and EL systems as per normal because you did everything to give him a fighting chance.
Flopfoot 12-18-07, 01:25 AM	So if EL 2 is too low, what EL is high enough to provide a challenge but not so high that it will kill him? If an EL 6 encounter would use 100% of his resources, how much of his resources would an EL 2 encounter use up? He would have 4 attacks a round if he uses two weapon fighting, but not every attack will hit.
metalmayhem80110 12-18-07, 04:26 AM	Honestly, it depends on the player. Because my builds tend to be able to drop encounters that are cr+2 of him, without a sweat, solo. But I know people who get owned in these situations, so it REALLY depends on the player, and his build.
Rulebook 12-18-07, 11:51 AM	feel your player out. set up a number of encounters of increasing difficulty and see how he handles them. that'll give you a good range of how well he handles encounters. one of my old characters used to solo cr+5 without much problem, while another couldnt do cr= without stopping to recuperate between each
BlaineTog 12-18-07, 03:03 PM	Maybe use Gestalt rules. If the character is extra-ripped, you'll have more leaway.
Shiftkitty 12-18-07, 03:28 PM	In 1 on 1 D&D, I DMPC the rest of the party if needed. Very rarely has my player been the only PC. I don't scale anything down, though, if I'm using a published adventure. If the player wants to take a big bite out of life before it takes a big bite out of him, that's fine by me. Special builds or not, any solo character who is taking down CR+5 without breaking a sweat isn't getting hit hard enough. Defeating CR+2 should be an effort, CR+3 should leave them wondering if they should have taken that job flipping rothe burgers at Happy Elf instead of adventuring, CR+4 and higher should be something that doesn't happen often, IMO. Still, though, if you can make the rolls, more power to ya!
hitorijun 12-18-07, 06:50 PM	Personally I would though the option out of letting him play 2 characters and add a NPC or 2 to even things out a bit.
Garandene_Lyrandar 12-19-07, 04:23 AM	If you look at it like two monsters fighting each other, the party which 2.5 was created for is about four players. Now say the party is sixth level, a balanced encounter for them is CR6. Now imagine that party is a group of monsters. They are all CR 6 so (the rules aren't very clear on this part) you add 2 to the CR every time you double the number of monsters (I go by this rule in my campaign) so that means that party of level 6 adventurers are a CR 9 encounter. So technically a lone 6th level adventurer should be facing monster with an average CR of 3 but can go from 1-6. To look at it from an experience point of view. A party of sixth level adventurers gets about 450 XP from a CR 6 monster. A single PC of sixth level would get 1800 XP from the same encounter. So the lone PC should be getting 450 XP and this is supplied by defeated a CR 2 monster. So the PC should be fighting a CR 2 monster. Of course this assumes you only need to burn %25 of your level appropriate resources. If you give him loads of tresure he could be fighting a CR 6 monster, but this would need to be LOTS! of treasure so its best just to stick to CR 2-3. Hope I helped :D
Joe Khol 01-17-08, 08:09 AM	I don't think you can balance a solo game systematically. The CR system is based around a balanced party with a full range of abilities and even then it doesn't always work well - two monsters with the same CR can still vary between speed-bump and TPK. With a solo game, you have to cater the whole game to that single character and design things with their individual abilities (and inevitable weaknesses) in mind - it's much more than calculating the right CR and flicking through the MM for something that fits. It can work and can work very well though - some of my best games have been running for a single character (one very James Bondish rogue comes to mind). You just have to throw out a lot of the preconceptions about how you build an adventures/campaigns and how you play then rather than simply try to scale down what you'd normally do. The advantage is that there are lots of fun things you can only do (or only do well) with a single character and the DM-player dynamic is interestingly different.
Eldritch_Lord 01-17-08, 08:28 AM	When I was teaching a friend of mine to play with a solo campaign, I started him off with 1-on-1, and then as he got more experienced, I'd have him control 2, 3, and then 4 PCs, so instead of them being DMPCs he could use them all. It really helped him learn how to play, because he was doing 4x the number of actions, and it let him try out several classes to see how he liked them. It removes the balance problem, but I can't say how well it would work for your friend; you'll have to try it out in a one-shot or something to judge.