One-shot for a lvl 2 Barbarian

[Tegu8788]

So, I'll be running a one-shot for a friend next week. He's a level 2 Rageblood Barbarian, one of the flying dragonborn. Got a heavy religious bent, and I'd like to give him the "trails" that Paladins go through.

I can weave a story, no problem. What I need some advice on, is how to run a fight against a single level 2 character. I'd like to challenge him, but not kill him. This is intended to be an event in the past, after all, that he survived.

How do you build a fight around a single PC? Free healing between fights makes sense, or plenty of healing potions. I don't want to just throw minions at him, because he's got Foe to Foe, and I'd like to let him exploit it, even if it's only for this session. Do I just have him fight things that XP balance to 125 XP, or is there something else?

My other option is to let him puppet a few companions, and balance them in to raise the budget? What is the playground's advice?

[Epinephrine]

I DM for my kids sometimes, and there are only two that like to play, so it's often just 2 PCs against the enemies. The problem with low numbers of PCs is variance; a single character can easily roll a miss several rounds in a row, while in a party it's unlikely that everyone is rolling misses. Likewise, a few hits in a row in a party situation aren't nearly as problematic as in a single player situation. I would try to de-MM3 the enemies; while the MM3 is great to make combat more deadly for a group of players, you really can't take that kind of risk with a single PC.

For my money, in a one-shot flashback, I'd play with stats. Assume you want him to go at it for 5 rounds and burn an action point; that's likely 6 attack rolls at low level (7 if he can get a breath weapon off, too). If you set defenses to give an 80% chance to hit (I'm making it easy to hit to reduce the variance a bit) he has a 90% chance of getting 4 or more hits in 6 swings (binomial probability distribution). Enemy HP of roughly 4 times his average damage is thus good for a 5 round combat. Similarly, figure out how much punishment you want to dish out. Setting the number of attack rounds higher will reduce the 95% confidence interval, making it easier to predict, it might help it feel more epic - a 9 round battle (10 swings plus his breath weapon) would give an 88% chance of 7 hits at 80% accuracy (you can fudge ways to give combat advantage to get him to 80% if you'd rather - he knows that it fears X, so he can stay near it (sunlight, water, something).)

If you want him to use his second wind, figure a way to let him do so; second wind only makes sense if the per-round damage is less than his healing surge value. A long combat (either consistent low damage hits, or less frequent high damage hits) would work; if you want a long combat, I'd go with frequent, low damage hits - again, the variance is much lower. Figure out how much damage you want to do to him (on average), and work it out. To give it a sense of danger, have obstacles/terrain play a part in it - the enemy could have a slide 2 on his attacks, and be trying to knock the barbarian into things that add a few points of damage (nothing too swingy, just enough to keep him on his toes and avoiding standing next to stone pillars that can be toppled onto him, or thorn bushes, or whatever you elect to use).

If you want the enemy to seem deadlier, have it assault him and deal a pile of damage, with a reason it can't finish him off (let him squeeze through a gap in a cave wall or something that the creature can't get through?). Next time he faces it, he can use a (potion/martial training/something) that he burns a surge for, but grants him DR (enough to make the attacks much less threatening) versus its attacks.

[Jormengand]

Use things like, but not as annoying as, Tucker's Kobolds to keep the encounters interesting.

[Tegu8788]

As someone that does not have much in the way of lore knowledge, what, exactly, are Tucker's Kobolds? I've seen mention of them before, but not an actual explanation of what they are.


And Epinephrine, I'll take a special look at his stats, and built things to those exact specifications. A level 4 Minion he can hit on a 10, or would that be too swingy?

[Epinephrine]

Well, it's a numbers game. If you use things that he hits on a 10 it's a 55% chance of hitting, which means that he could swing at it for three straight rounds and miss each time about 10% of the time.

You could use "super minions" - they are bloodied on the first hit, killed on the second. Make them easier to hit, and it takes two swings. A minion you have a 50% chance of hitting has an expected life of two rounds with you swinging at it; a super minion that you hit 80% of the time has an expected lifespan of 2.5 rounds, so it's a bit tougher, but probably more satisfying than whiffing half the time.

[Yakk]

Use half monsters.

A half monster deals half damage and has half HP and is worth half the XP.

Three half level 1 monsters is a solid challenge for a barbarian.

At some point, throw the barbarian an ally -- you could stress the Primal nature, and make it the barbarian's totem spirit. It should be a level 2 companion character (not a leader).

*That* fight should be against a level 4 Elite, and both the victory and defeat paths should be interesting. Remember, being reduced to 0 HP is not death, just defeat.

[Lord Haart]

As someone that does not have much in the way of lore knowledge, what, exactly, are Tucker's Kobolds?http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/

[allonym]

You also might want to look into the player's build. Barbarians have a certain amount of self-sufficiency, with high HP and surges, but giving him a few more ways of coping - either through build advice or free extras - may help. I'd consider Dwarven Armour and the Feral Rejuvenation utility power as daily heals, which should help if you accidentally overstat an encounter (or he just gets unlucky).

If the player has a decent amount of Constitution - and therefore healing surges - giving them the Skill Power feat as a bonus feat, for Iron Resurgence, may not be a bad idea, as well as switching out the terrible Foe to Foe power for Recuperating Strike.

Otherwise, offer the opportunity for the player to use skills, rather than just fighting, in encounters, since they won't have the range of skills for a full-on skill challenge. By the same token, remember their weaknesses in that area - they probably won't have much in the way of Perception, for instance, so keep the DCs low and don't make failure too much of a problem.

[Angel Bob]

I voice my support for companion characters. I ran a campaign for two friends once and gave them a full roster of interesting little lackeys to round out the roles. They were totally in charge of the lackeys mechanically, while I took care of their personalities and banter. Pretty great symbiosis, I would recommend it to anyone.

[Tegu8788]

I thank you all for the advice, and if anyone has any more, feel free to share. Half monsters sound smart, and having an ally wouldn't hurt. I can always use him as an NPC later. A healer companion should do fine.

He's already got his gear and powers picked, though since I'm offering free rebuilds for a little bit, this might help him get some ideas. He's very Con heavy, so I might target Fort instead of AC.

Halfing monsters, that should be pretty easy. I assume that defenses should stay in place. I'm already using super-minions at the groups request, so those he will be used to. I hope a few uses of Howl of Fury can knock out a few minions.

His powers are all based around upping his maul damage, Avalanche Strike and Life-Ending Strike, so I'm not afraid of him failing to kill anything he hits. Primal Vitality is going to be replaced sometime soon I suspect.

Having a failure, well, that just means that he gets a head's up on big bad that's coming up in the future. In my mind, a failure needs more rewards, to keep players moving forward. Yes, you are defeated, yes, you lose some shiny thing, but now, you know who's hunting you...

[windgate]

Minions are really the answer here:

1 standard Monster + 2-3 Minions

Have the Minions go after a secondary target (such ass fleeing villagers) or serve as a barrier to getting to the barbarians real threat (the standard).

Minions will also let him get that free action charge on a regular basis.