Running for a small party [PF]

[Tanuki Tales]

So, I have an old friend coming home for the holidays and I'm planning to run a level 1 one-shot since he used to be an integral part of my local group before he went off to college. Unfortunately, it looks like the one shot will only be three people at best (and is looking to be just him and another of my players) and I've never GMed for a group of less than 4 and I usually have a group of 5 to 8.

I was just going to use this random dungeon maker I came across (Donjon is you're familiar with the site), so it's not going to be anything fancy or intensive storywise. But I'm pretty sure the generator assumes at least a group of four players and balances around that.

So far I've gotten these ideas for helping them out:
Let them gestalt
Make some NPCs to explore with them
Give them a small contingent of Commoners to command
Give them a higher WBL


The players also just want me to give them pre-generated characters and I'm having trouble finding any kind of random character generator for Pathfinder. I found a blog that's somewhat nice, but I wish I had one like they had for 3.5. I thought about maybe asking the playground to come up with some as a kind of challenge, but I don't want to come across as lazy.



Anyways, thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions/etc. given towards helping me with my conundrums.

[Raven777]

If you want pre generated characters, ain't that what the iconics are for (http://www.pathfindercommunity.net/iconic-characters/)?

[Zman]

Could always run a DMPC. Run it as if you are a PC, no unfair advantages, no meta gaming, and help fill in the gaps in the party.

[ngilop]

one or two NPCs would probably be the best choice.

for level 1 I don't think gestalt would help much in that regard, but I could be wrong.

That being said Donjon, while being a good dungeon generator, suffers from the WoTC CR problem. Wizards are just supposed to blast, clerics heal bot, rogues spend the first round getting into sneak attack position and fighter waltzes right up and started face checking.

So if your players play eve semi-decently 3 should be perfectly fine.

I had three players in one of my campaigns a couple years back, Ranger, Shaman, and Spirit Master (think wildshape and companion less druid with spirit abilities and PF summoner respectively for the closest approximation) they did fine

and cause I love you Pathfinder character generator (http://www.trovetokens.com/pathfinder.html)

[WbtE]

If you're going to hand over pre-gens, then you get a lot of control over the party. You could opt for a "classic" party of 3 back-line PCs, each with a Warrior (NPC Class) henchman to form a nice little shield wall in front of them.

[Tanuki Tales]

and cause I love you Pathfinder character generator (http://www.trovetokens.com/pathfinder.html)

I came across that site before making this thread, but it seems to be just a regular sheet generator. Did I miss a button or something?

[Alleran]

What you can do is give them a mythic tier as a safety net. Because mythic tiers and the gaining thereof are entirely story-based and thus in the hands of the DM, you can control how much they benefit.

[Tanuki Tales]

What you can do is give them a mythic tier as a safety net. Because mythic tiers and the gaining thereof are entirely story-based and thus in the hands of the DM, you can control how much they benefit.

Is Tier 1 Mythic that much a safety net?