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Hashmir
2009-11-02, 03:58 AM
So, Thanksgiving's coming up. My girlfriend and I aren't going home. Our roommates will be gone. It's just gonna be the two of us, trying to find something, anything to pass the time. Five whole days, all alone. And I've got a little idea...

That's right, we'll be playing Dungeons and Dragons. At least, I'd like to. I know she's game (we've been known to play Axis & Allies: D-Day, and we were in a Hackmaster group that eventually got too big), but I'm not sure how exactly to make sure the combat's interesting/balanced.

So, I was wondering if anyone's had any experience with solo combat, and if anyone has any insight to offer. It's worth noting that my girlfriend is new to 4e, though she's dabbled a tiny bit in 3.5e and Hackmaster Basic. I've never DM'd before, but I'm more than capable of running combat. The real question is: How do I set up appropriate encounters and ensure that the focus stays on her character, rather than my billions of monsters?

Thoughts I've had so far:
New player means keeping it simple. I'll obviously be starting at level 1, and the class will presumably be a striker or defender, probably martial.
Single player means something well-rounded. Keeping in mind that there will probably not be skill challenges and/or non-combat adventuring, I'm considering the following classes as candidates:
Great Weapon Fighter (good defense, good self-buffs and heals, good damage)
Avenging Paladin (similar, with social skills if needed)
Two-Blade Ranger (more damage output, with knowledge, perception, and maybe thievery -- very useful)
Brawny or Trickster Rogue (lots of non-combat potential, if it comes to it; I suspect it won't)
Rageblood Barbarian (the newbie character of choice in 3.5, it seems to have gotten a bit more complex now)
This is probably going to be more interesting the closer it is to being a board game. No reason to make her wade through a rule book just to pass some time -- the barrier to entry should be negligible, and the pace should be fast. Ideas for balancing and running combat:
Buff her character slightly, allowing more flexibility in character design. I'm thinking a human with +2 in three stats, rather than one.
Provide a cohort under her control. He or she would be pretty simple: a walking sack of HP that hits things. I don't know if this would be more interesting or just one more thing she has to keep track of -- I suspect the latter. Could still be interesting once she's familiar with the combat system.
Provide multiple minions under her control. As above, with similar problems at the beginning.
Reduce the number of opponents. This one's pretty much a given; not only do encounter levels need to be scaled down dramatically, but I have no intention of having her sit through 8 kobolds' turns for every one of hers.
I am leaning heavily towards making a Human Great Weapon Fighter with houseruled stat buffs, for several reasons. Humans don't have weird things to track, and they give more powers. Martial classes tend to be the least complex (except warlords), and fighters are nicely balanced for this sort of thing. No implements, just swords, shields, and armor.

So, what do you guys think? Can I get away with just balancing all of the fights for Encounter Level -1? Is there anything else that could help make combat more interesting without doing strange things to the rules? Can I finally go to sleep now? :smallbiggrin:

Rixx
2009-11-02, 04:26 AM
So, Thanksgiving's coming up. My girlfriend and I aren't going home. Our roommates will be gone. It's just gonna be the two of us, trying to find something, anything to pass the time. Five whole days, all alone. And I've got a little idea...

Ahaha! Luckily, nobody knows how to run a one-on-one adventure like I do! See, first you have to-


That's right, we'll be playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Oh! Dungeons and Dragons!

Well, uh... hrm.

Nightson
2009-11-02, 04:42 AM
Greatweapon fighter is a good choice.

Let her use second wind as a minor action, let her be a bit stronger mechanically then normal. Weapon expertise, weapon focus, and superior weapon proficiency all for free maybe.

The key to running solo fights in 4e is simple, minions, minions, minions. A normal monster plus four minions is a L+1 encounter for her actual XP value. Given the buffs and fighter cleaviness you can probably increase the number of minions.

That's the mechanical side of things, but I really suggest you don't focus on the combat too much. One on one sessions with a significant other are great for a beginning roleplayer. With just one player, you can make the story all about her. Throw some skill checks around, maybe she needs to roll some athletics checks to chase a bad guy through a city. Let her find a magic sword, maybe she'll rescue someone and in they decide to stick around as a companion character (a great way to have some in character NPC-PC interaction).

Of course after writing all this I reread and see that you guys were both in a Hackmaster group so this presumably isn't her introduction to roleplaying. Oh well, let this be advice to any other would be DM out there with a significant other ready to sit down and play.

Ceaon
2009-11-02, 04:55 AM
Great Weapon Fighter (good defense, good self-buffs and heals, good damage)

I think this is the best option. For a solo adventure, the fighter is best. Even though his mark is useless, selfhealing, selfbuffing and high damage and defenses mean the fighter can stand his own. If social encounters come up more often than expected, a few Skill Trainings or a switch of the wisdom and charisma scores can remedy a bit.

Kurald Galain
2009-11-02, 04:56 AM
Note that "buffing her character slightly" is not going to make any difference whatsoever in gameplay. Giving +2 to two more stats, or free weapon expertise, or something like that, is neither going to make her perceive the game differently, nor does it allow her to go up against bigger foes.

Giving her an ally (preferably one that can heal her) or some minions is a much better idea.

Of the characters you mention, the ranger is the easiest to play, followed by the fighter. Note that several paladin and fighter powers won't apply if the character is alone; and note that the rogue will have some trouble getting sneak attack damage if he doesn't have anyone to flank with. I would not recommend a barbarian as a solo; not because it's too complex, but because barbarians can be lacking in defense without a party to back them up.


That's the mechanical side of things, but I really suggest you don't focus on the combat too much.
This. Very much.

greenknight
2009-11-02, 06:31 AM
Ranger's pretty good. A good number of skills, generally multiple attacks per round, decent in both ranged and melee combat. Healing can be a problem, but 4e allows complete healing between encounters so it shouldn't be too bad. I suggest you give the character a couple of free healing potions, and perhaps Thievery as a bonus skill. Elf is a good racial choice from the PHB1, but you might want to allow her to use a Longtooth Shifter instead (from the MM, and also PHB2).

Guinea Anubis
2009-11-02, 06:51 AM
So, Thanksgiving's coming up. My girlfriend and I aren't going home. Our roommates will be gone. It's just gonna be the two of us, trying to find something, anything to pass the time. Five whole days, all alone. And I've got a little idea...


That's right, we'll be playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Kids these days..... :smallconfused:


I would say you have the right idea on buffing her guy a little. I would be prone to buff the ranger a little since it can dish out good damage from both range and melee. Maybe let the ranger swap between the bow and the melee weapons for free.


But one thing you will have to keep in mind is that you may need to NOT use some of the things the monsters can do or you will overwelm her in no time. Minions would be good for this since they are one shot on kill most of the time.

Tiki Snakes
2009-11-02, 10:42 AM
Note that "buffing her character slightly" is not going to make any difference whatsoever in gameplay. Giving +2 to two more stats, or free weapon expertise, or something like that, is neither going to make her perceive the game differently, nor does it allow her to go up against bigger foes.

Giving her an ally (preferably one that can heal her) or some minions is a much better idea.


I pretty much agree with this. To make a significant difference, the buffs would have to be silly. Having another body around will make the fighter much more likely to survive and allow her to actually do more of the fighters stuff.

But an 'ally' doesn't have to be a second character...

Give her a Mount. If it's level or below, you don't even have to increase the difficulty of the encounters, really. Perhaps she could aquire a more powerful mount along the way, or after a search. Something cool that will really justify the existence of the mounted combat feat.

It has the added bonus that, depending on how you rule it at least, The fighter's class ability should work in reguards to the creature. If someone attacks her mount, she gets to be all defendery about it. In return, it gives her some extra options, maybe even new way of moving.

(Note, if you go the powerful-mount route, it's probably worth just including it as an extra creature, and increasing difficulty as appropriate, but it should do what's needed with the same-level-or-lower and sharing-actions route.)

Then just load her up with a few potions, or a wand-of-cure-light-wounds or something. The fighter is nice and sturdy, the only problem is accessing those healing surges. Some items (not too many) to allow her to do so in combat is all that's needed.

LibraryOgre
2009-11-02, 11:57 AM
The answer is, of course, Bard.

A low level Bard can cover a good number of situations (I like giving them a Rogue Multiclass so they can go a little striking, though Ranger is also good, especially if you let Quarry last until the end of the encounter). As Leaders, they can heal themselves as minor actions twice per encounter (dwarves can only manage one and, as a bit of a stereotype, I've noticed women tend not to play dwarves). They've got the skills to be able to do a wide variety of things.

Simply put, Bard is the answer.

Hashmir
2009-11-02, 02:21 PM
Hey, lots of replies! Ok, let's see...

I think you guys are right about having an extra character or mount. My reluctance to add one is largely because I don't want to overwhelm her with mechanics -- this whole thing is my idea, and I really don't want to start off by making her slog through the rules minutiae. I might package the character in the monster format at first, so she can jump right in without having to track where all the numbers come from.

I'm thinking of possibly having a quick tutorial fight or two against one or two opponents before anything else happens. After she's passably familiar with combat, I should be able to give her the real sheet and possibly add a second party member in condensed form (who will stay in condensed form). This would allow her to have access to, say, a fighter and a bow ranger or crossbow rogue, which should provide combat balance and some non-combat skills.

...

Actually, I just looked at the Escape from Sembia adventure. I think I'll just use that adventure and those character sheets to start, and then I can level them myself later. That way I can pretty much let her pick her two characters. I think I'll still run the tutorial battle, though, because she'll need to be managing two characters. But on the whole, I think this is pretty doable, and not as complicated as I had thought.

Tiki Snakes
2009-11-02, 02:32 PM
The advantage of a mount as opposed to a second character is that it is much simpler, just a monster stat block. It has the added advantage of not taking story-focus from the real main character.

Hashmir
2009-11-02, 02:56 PM
The advantage of a mount as opposed to a second character is that it is much simpler, just a monster stat block. It has the added advantage of not taking story-focus from the real main character.

But does a mount actually add any tactical gameplay? I mean, I think I'll probably give her a mount at some point anyway (she's studying to be a vet, and she loves horses), but isn't it still just one person in the battle, who is now on an animal?

Kurald Galain
2009-11-02, 03:03 PM
But does a mount actually add any tactical gameplay?

Barring some specific combos, no, it does not.

It mainly means you now take up 2x2 spaces instead of just one, and can use the mount's inferior basic attack instead of your own powers.

Mr. Mud
2009-11-02, 03:04 PM
Giving her Free Mounted Combat feat might be helpful, depending at what level you give her the mount, and how essential you make it in the plot.

Alternatively/Additionally, you might want to try requesting a DM for a 4E game, right here on GitP. I'm sure someone will jump on the opportunity (Hell, I might even DM one, if you're willing, depending on how simple you want it).

Asbestos
2009-11-02, 04:43 PM
I'm sure that people will disagree with this but... how about a hybrid? The rules for them are pretty simple and it'll allow greater versatilty.

Failing that a Shifter (the Str/Wis one) Beastmaster Ranger might do well. Bear/wolf/lizard to help out and the 1/encounter regeneration and they'll be fine.

Tiki Snakes
2009-11-02, 05:00 PM
Barring some specific combos, no, it does not.

It mainly means you now take up 2x2 spaces instead of just one, and can use the mount's inferior basic attack instead of your own powers.

Depends on the mount.

For example, with mounted combat; The Riding Lizard now gets to make an attack every time the fighter does. It also has a climb speed of 4, even without the feat. All this at level 6.

Featwise, even a warhorse is okay. +5 to damage on a charge.

They almost universally are faster than most players, and in the case of a heavily armoured fighter, are giving an effective minimum +2 to speed.

Basically, it's a pretty nice and legal way to slightly increase player power for an occaisionally modest investment of money.

In this situation, expanding it to get it's own set of actions is quite valid, (though it would in theory mean adding the creatures points total to the difficulty of the encounter, to balance).

Frankly, if you're going fighter, and the game will make mounted combat a viable thing to invest in, mounted-combat might as well be one of the feats to take, free or otherwise.

Mr. Mud
2009-11-02, 06:12 PM
I'm sure that people will disagree with this but... how about a hybrid? The rules for them are pretty simple and it'll allow greater versatilty.

Failing that a Shifter (the Str/Wis one) Beastmaster Ranger might do well. Bear/wolf/lizard to help out and the 1/encounter regeneration and they'll be fine.

It'd take some tactful coaching on Hash's part, but this might work. Make sure you have her get a thorough graps of the rules and elements of the hybrid, though.

Kurald Galain
2009-11-02, 06:22 PM
I'm sure that people will disagree with this but... how about a hybrid?
I wouldn't recommend hybrids to beginning players. What, concretely, would a hybrid offer that a multiclass wouldn't?

Hashmir
2009-11-02, 07:00 PM
Well, I'm inclined to avoid the hybrid. Largely because she won't need to know the mechanics behind the character's stats and abilities at first, and then when she does, it might as well be really simple. Hence the human fighter.

On that note, I've been thinking about ways to keep the combat simple but engaging. Here's my basic idea:
There is a single character that is definitively hers.

This character will be alone at first, and will be the first character to have a proper sheet.

This will probably be a fighter.

The campaign will revolve around her.

After the tutorial battles (and shortly before the "real" adventure starts), a cohort will join the party.

This will be a utility character that complements the main character's abilities in and out of battle -- probably a ranged rogue or ranger.

This character will have very limited powers -- 1 at-will, 1 encounter, 1 daily. The idea is to even the odds and add a little bit of tactics, not to give her two characters' worth of choices to figure out.

I might make the rogue or ranger the main character with the fighter as backup, as the fighter will have much less in the way of conversational/interaction skills. Alternately, I may simply eschew charisma-based skill challenges entirely, in favor of "running from the guards"-type challenges. This lets the secondary character's skills come into play without having them inexplicably doing all of the talking, and forcing her to spend all the non-combat time roleplaying the character that is not hers.

There may be guest stars that function like the cohort for a single encounter or quest. Probably controllers with the same kind of limited skill set as the cohort, like a friendly wizard who needs help getting his scrolls back from goblins.

There may be groups of friendly minions in certain encounters, like adding some guards to the Raid on Loudwater in the FRCG. They do nothing but attack, defend, and die, and they would give her a chance to move a bunch of little minions around without adding complexity.
Thoughts?

Asbestos
2009-11-02, 07:17 PM
Since hybrids do less of both, I think that one might actually be mechanically simpler than a full class. What does a hybrid get that an MC doesn't? Well a warden|warlord gets substantially more healing per day than a warden/warlord and is noticably more durable than a warlord/warden. Basically they are less than the main class of a MC character, but significantly more than the MCed class. The hybrids that have features that only work with X classes powers should either be passed over or modified/simplified so those features work with both/any class power that meets the standard class feature prerequisite.

Asbestos
2009-11-02, 07:32 PM
Also, I disagree with your race choice. Dwarf is likely simpler than human because it's racial power is really just a modification of a standard mechanic. The 3 at-wills of the human adds an unnessecary choice to the equation. Most races with a 1/encounter racial power probably work better than humans in terms of simplicity IMO.

Kurald Galain
2009-11-02, 07:34 PM
The 3 at-wills of the human adds an unnessecary choice to the equation. Most races with a 1/encounter racial power probably work better than humans in terms of simplicity IMO.

I concur...

Hashmir
2009-11-02, 08:00 PM
Actually, you're probably right. I was concerned about all of the odd modifiers, but those won't really even come up 90% of the time, and even then it's not a conscious choice. Looks like a dwarf fighter.

As for feats, I'm thinking of giving implied mounted combat and proficiency with all weapons. This way, I can take care of all the item details without her having to read through the item guide and plan ahead. I think I'll start her off with a club and leather armor, and then let her decide what kind of weapon she wants when she gets to town. If I let her buy the weakest of that kind of weapon, then I'm free to leave increasingly good weapons of that type as treasure as we go along, and choose feats accordingly. Same with the mount -- I'm free to drop in a warhorse as a reward whenever I like, and pesky feat-picking need not play into it.

It's worth noting that I'm particularly interested in drawing out the power scaling for the items she has as much as possible. With a party of five, it's not terribly difficult to consistently boost the party's power, because there are some fifty item slots to fill. With a single player, I think it would be better to make it very gradual.