Eberron for smaller groups [Archive] - Wizards Community

Eberron for smaller groups [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Eriedm
03-11-07, 03:40 PM I'm starting an Eberron game and may only have two or three players. If I run the "adventure path" starting with The Forgotten Forge I'm curious as to how I lower the difficulty of the adventures, besides reducing enemy combatants.
Korhal IV
03-11-07, 05:26 PM You could amp-up the characters by using gestalt rules - that's what they're for, after all. You can find gestalt rules in Unearthed Arcana or the SRD. Alternately, let them hire Deneith mercenaries, perhaps? Two first level warriors might not be too much (and perhaps give control of them to the players).

A party of 2 adventurers should face CRs of (level -2), so that's basically your eyeball guess for where to put encounters.

In Forgotten Forge, personally, I'd ditch the swarm encounter - it mauls full parties, let alone half of one. Replace it with a more conventional monster; most of the difficulty is just from the way swarms tend to be strong against low-level parties. The iron defenders should be toned down, the shifter ambushers should probably be eliminated (leaving, uh, Saber, right?). That should be sufficient to let them survive, though I tend to run fairly murderous campaigns.
Millenia
03-11-07, 08:20 PM I would also suggest toning the horrendous rats to just one... or nerfing their natural armor by about 3.
UnderworldLord
03-12-07, 12:26 AM My group is about fourth level, and I'm modifying the adventure to work in Passage, Aundair. I only have two active players, as per my last session however, so I'm going to test them out by putting them up against a plain encounter.

In place of the wf barb I'm thinking a qausit or another demon. Little do they know, my players will be royally ******* off the Lords of Dust throughout all their adventures :D .
Raziel_Brokodar
03-12-07, 07:18 PM Maybe have the players run gestalt (UA) characters, that's what I plan on doing as soon as I can organize everyone (reducing the party to three on purpose, to increase the chances of everyone being able to play/less people to have stuff to do to get in the way)
cancerousmango
03-13-07, 12:47 AM Have smart players. I never play with more than 2-3 players.
icote
03-17-07, 03:26 AM Add an NPC Hireling to round out the party to 4.
Jetsam
03-17-07, 04:05 AM Ah I remember the first time I ran my players through that game. After digging out my ECS, I came up with some ideas to help you out to reduce the difficulty of the adventure.
Reduce the HP of the opponents. For example: Saber is listed as having 28hp. Maybe he rolled bad on his hp and only has 20 hit points. So reduce all enemy hit points by 25 to 40%.
Give all your players Toughness as a bonus feat. Like the regional feats of FR. Whats an extra three hit points?
Lessen the DC of the Horrid Rats disease to 11, the sewer valves to 12, and give the shocking grasp trap a save of 13.
Put some Cure Light Wounds potions on random encounters. Or Repair Light Damage if the group is a bunch of warforged.
Have Lady Elyadren give the players some potions, alchemists fire, sunrods.
You use a DMs Screen right? Fudge your rolls. What happens behind the Screen, stays behind the Screen. ;)
Hope this helped. Good luck. :cool:
jonci
03-17-07, 04:59 AM I joined a game where we only have 2 characters in the party to start, picking up a third eventually. It didn't go well, though I doubt the DM weakened the enemies to account for it.
So just dump in the hireling or drop the AC/HP/TAB of the enemies to account for the lack of players.
Arcane Guyver
03-17-07, 06:51 AM I recommend a hireling. As much as I dislike DMPCs, they can be useful for rounding out a party and giving you a voice in the game (to give tips, introduce plot-hooks, or to mislead the party intentionally). Just make sure the hireling doesn't steal the thunder from the real characters. In my current game, the hireling is a goblin Cleric...guess what he spends most of his actions doing?

The only encounters you should worry about is the swarm (which really isn't that big a deal if you somehow emphasize the importance of torches, alchemists fire, and other grenade weapons), the horrid rats (due to the fact that template is broken as hell; just use dire rats), and the auto-resetting traps can be non-fun hit point drainers (as a rule, a puzzle that is too easy has much less chance of wrecking fun as one that is too hard...err on the side of caution and give extra hints).
Endless_Helix
03-17-07, 07:03 AM Frankly, the amount of magic items in that particular campaign arc is more than enough to balance out a three-PC party...

In my experience, three-man parties do just about as well, but tend to take a little more damage than the traditional four-man team. Two person parties tend to actually need some monkeying around with the encounters, mostly just to spin it to the party's strengths. If you've got a wizard and a crowd control fighter, hordes aren't as difficult as they would be for a rogue and a Hexblade.
Millenia
03-17-07, 07:04 AM the auto-resetting traps can be non-fun hit point drainers (as a rule, a puzzle that is too easy has much less chance of wrecking fun as one that is too hard...err on the side of caution and give extra hints).
Just to add to this, you can have the old man's book have hints for the puzzle... or even have the puzzle solved in the book. That's what I did in my campaign, and my players didn't seem to mind.
PlaDeDump
03-20-07, 03:29 AM I agree with those who say add a hireling or two to round out the party. Whether they are under the DM's control or the player's should be the question that's important. There are bonuses for both choices. I vote for having them under the DM's control but I realise that this adds more work for the DM. Having them under player control would be good in combat situations but in roleplaying situations they wouldn't be much help to the players. Maybe a mix of the two would be in order.
Kid SixXx
03-20-07, 07:41 AM I agree with those who say add a hireling or two to round out the party. Whether they are under the DM's control or the player's should be the question that's important.

I tend to keep the DNPC under my control, lest the hireling become the healbot (if the party is light on divine spells) or the sword caddy (if he is a fighter).

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Eriedm 03-11-07, 03:40 PM	I'm starting an Eberron game and may only have two or three players. If I run the "adventure path" starting with The Forgotten Forge I'm curious as to how I lower the difficulty of the adventures, besides reducing enemy combatants.
Korhal IV 03-11-07, 05:26 PM	You could amp-up the characters by using gestalt rules - that's what they're for, after all. You can find gestalt rules in Unearthed Arcana or the SRD. Alternately, let them hire Deneith mercenaries, perhaps? Two first level warriors might not be too much (and perhaps give control of them to the players). A party of 2 adventurers should face CRs of (level -2), so that's basically your eyeball guess for where to put encounters. In Forgotten Forge, personally, I'd ditch the swarm encounter - it mauls full parties, let alone half of one. Replace it with a more conventional monster; most of the difficulty is just from the way swarms tend to be strong against low-level parties. The iron defenders should be toned down, the shifter ambushers should probably be eliminated (leaving, uh, Saber, right?). That should be sufficient to let them survive, though I tend to run fairly murderous campaigns.
Millenia 03-11-07, 08:20 PM	I would also suggest toning the horrendous rats to just one... or nerfing their natural armor by about 3.
UnderworldLord 03-12-07, 12:26 AM	My group is about fourth level, and I'm modifying the adventure to work in Passage, Aundair. I only have two active players, as per my last session however, so I'm going to test them out by putting them up against a plain encounter. In place of the wf barb I'm thinking a qausit or another demon. Little do they know, my players will be royally ******* off the Lords of Dust throughout all their adventures :D .
Raziel_Brokodar 03-12-07, 07:18 PM	Maybe have the players run gestalt (UA) characters, that's what I plan on doing as soon as I can organize everyone (reducing the party to three on purpose, to increase the chances of everyone being able to play/less people to have stuff to do to get in the way)
cancerousmango 03-13-07, 12:47 AM	Have smart players. I never play with more than 2-3 players.
icote 03-17-07, 03:26 AM	Add an NPC Hireling to round out the party to 4.
Jetsam 03-17-07, 04:05 AM	Ah I remember the first time I ran my players through that game. After digging out my ECS, I came up with some ideas to help you out to reduce the difficulty of the adventure. Reduce the HP of the opponents. For example: Saber is listed as having 28hp. Maybe he rolled bad on his hp and only has 20 hit points. So reduce all enemy hit points by 25 to 40%. Give all your players Toughness as a bonus feat. Like the regional feats of FR. Whats an extra three hit points? Lessen the DC of the Horrid Rats disease to 11, the sewer valves to 12, and give the shocking grasp trap a save of 13. Put some Cure Light Wounds potions on random encounters. Or Repair Light Damage if the group is a bunch of warforged. Have Lady Elyadren give the players some potions, alchemists fire, sunrods. You use a DMs Screen right? Fudge your rolls. What happens behind the Screen, stays behind the Screen. ;) Hope this helped. Good luck. :cool:
jonci 03-17-07, 04:59 AM	I joined a game where we only have 2 characters in the party to start, picking up a third eventually. It didn't go well, though I doubt the DM weakened the enemies to account for it. So just dump in the hireling or drop the AC/HP/TAB of the enemies to account for the lack of players.
Arcane Guyver 03-17-07, 06:51 AM	I recommend a hireling. As much as I dislike DMPCs, they can be useful for rounding out a party and giving you a voice in the game (to give tips, introduce plot-hooks, or to mislead the party intentionally). Just make sure the hireling doesn't steal the thunder from the real characters. In my current game, the hireling is a goblin Cleric...guess what he spends most of his actions doing? The only encounters you should worry about is the swarm (which really isn't that big a deal if you somehow emphasize the importance of torches, alchemists fire, and other grenade weapons), the horrid rats (due to the fact that template is broken as hell; just use dire rats), and the auto-resetting traps can be non-fun hit point drainers (as a rule, a puzzle that is too easy has much less chance of wrecking fun as one that is too hard...err on the side of caution and give extra hints).
Endless_Helix 03-17-07, 07:03 AM	Frankly, the amount of magic items in that particular campaign arc is more than enough to balance out a three-PC party... In my experience, three-man parties do just about as well, but tend to take a little more damage than the traditional four-man team. Two person parties tend to actually need some monkeying around with the encounters, mostly just to spin it to the party's strengths. If you've got a wizard and a crowd control fighter, hordes aren't as difficult as they would be for a rogue and a Hexblade.
Millenia 03-17-07, 07:04 AM	the auto-resetting traps can be non-fun hit point drainers (as a rule, a puzzle that is too easy has much less chance of wrecking fun as one that is too hard...err on the side of caution and give extra hints). Just to add to this, you can have the old man's book have hints for the puzzle... or even have the puzzle solved in the book. That's what I did in my campaign, and my players didn't seem to mind.
PlaDeDump 03-20-07, 03:29 AM	I agree with those who say add a hireling or two to round out the party. Whether they are under the DM's control or the player's should be the question that's important. There are bonuses for both choices. I vote for having them under the DM's control but I realise that this adds more work for the DM. Having them under player control would be good in combat situations but in roleplaying situations they wouldn't be much help to the players. Maybe a mix of the two would be in order.
Kid SixXx 03-20-07, 07:41 AM	I agree with those who say add a hireling or two to round out the party. Whether they are under the DM's control or the player's should be the question that's important. I tend to keep the DNPC under my control, lest the hireling become the healbot (if the party is light on divine spells) or the sword caddy (if he is a fighter).