Less than 4 party

[Tief]

I have recently started a Pathfinder campaign with some friends who are all new to the game.
The problem is there are only 3 of them and when we tried the beginner box they had problems...
Their party consists of Paladin, Ranger and Sorcerer. I'm trying to DM the Rise of the Runelords adventure path, but I'm thinking they will have some problems, what are some good solutions to making it abit easier for them?
I would rather not modify the encounters as I'm not too confident in doing that myself :\

[Sliver]

A DMPC is always a welcome addition to a party that is lacking manpower.

As long as you don't give the NPC special treatment and little to no screentime is devoted to him, it should be fine.

[Peebles]

The DMPC in this case could be a Cleric, as the Paladin can't hold up healing duties for the party on their own. Plus, the extra body could prevent the small party from being overrun in encounters, whilst leaving the RP to the actual PC's. Having a passive DMPC, or even a Cleric who the players can use 'by committee', is probably the best approach if you're not up for scaling the encounters back a little.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You could give the paladin a squire, the ranger an animal companion (and allow them to trade away the standard ranger companion) and/or the sorcerer an apprentice or familiar companion. There's plenty of reasons to join a party that you could spring on a hapless NPC :smalltongue:. DMPCs also work, go with something boring, practical and single-classed, who doesn't get in anyone's way - the cleric healbot suggestion is a good one.

[atemu1234]

A 4 person party is expected to have 4x the resources of a 1 person party, 2x that of a 2-person one, and 1.5x that of a 3-person one. Therein, the DM could make up for the deficit with magic items or a dmpc.

[sideswipe]

just pit them against a slightly lower CR. they will then gain about the same exp as if they were a party of 4 pitted against equal CR

[endur]

I would rather not modify the encounters as I'm not too confident in doing that myself :\

Modifying the encounters will be a lot easier than role playing an additional NPC.

Just wherever the monsters in the encounter are X, I'd change that to 3/4 of X.

If there is only one monster, I'd just leave it as one monster.

i.e. 1 or 2 monsters= 1 monster
3 monsters = 2 monsters
4 monsters = 3 monsters
etc.

[Tief]

Great, thank you for the suggestions all. I'll try to reduce enemies power a little and see how they get on, should they still have some trouble I'll either use a dmpc or add some followers for them.

[ksbsnowowl]

Great, thank you for the suggestions all. I'll try to reduce enemies power a little and see how they get on, should they still have some trouble I'll either use a dmpc or add some followers for them.

Rather than alter the encounters and the power level of the creatures within those, why not just delay starting the adventure path for a level?

If the adventure path is set to start at 2nd level, wait until the party is 3rd level before you do so, etc. Just make up a low-level side quest unrelated (or barely related) to the adventure path to give them the experience they'll need given their lower numbers.

Also, give them something to deal with the fact they have less resources. The paladin and the ranger should be able to use wands of Cure Light Wounds or Cure Moderate Wounds, even if they are 1st level.


Spell Trigger: Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it's even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Spell trigger items can be used by anyone whose class can cast the corresponding spell. This is the case even for a character who can't actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin. The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
From: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems.html

[SinsI]

Gestalt is one of the traditional ways of handling incomplete party.

[Sliver]

Gestalt is one of the traditional ways of handling incomplete party.

I don't think gestalt is optimal for a party of complete beginners.

[Flickerdart]

A simple way of modifying encounters to make them weaker is slapping a negative level on everything - take off 5 HP, and apply a -1 penalty to attacks, saves, skill checks, ability checks, and any level or HD-dependent attacks.

As mentioned before, you could just give them more stuff. I would recommend basic staples that everyone likes, since figuring out custom items can be very tedious. +2 ability boosting items and +1 magic weapons or armor will skew things in favor of the party by a few points.

[Brendanicus]

Don't just give them a DMPC, give them a cohort or two! That way they have agency over the NPC! Maybe make the NPC's actions be decided by the entire party's consensus.

The biggest concern I'd have about a 3-person party is what happens when somebody can't show up. I'm DM-ing a 6-person party and usually at least one person is busy.

EDIT: actualy, given your current party layout, that would really work out quite nicely. Just give your Sorcerer Improved Familiar for free, let your Ranger have access to the Druid's animal Companion list/abilities, and give the Pally a cohort. Everyone's happy and the action economy is rebalanced. Just be sure to balance your encounters properly.

The Pally cohort could be an extra meatshield, or even a low-level cleric or Favored Soul, as that in particular could be nice for the party to have.

For real fun, have the party select a cohort from a list of potential applicants. Tell them that they could take on as many as they want, but you would have to split treasure accordingly, so one is probably best.

[Elder_Basilisk]

You've got two related problems:

1. A small party
This presents a number of problems for the PCs.
A. Unable to cover the classic roles. With three characters, you can't have a fighter, a cleric, a rogue, and a wizard. You can combine two of those roles (and your party actually does--paladin can handle some of the cleric roles and ranger can handle most of the rogue roles) but you still can't do both at the same time and you always end up missing some capabilities.
B. Action Economy
Three characters only have 75% of the actions that 4 characters have.

2. A party of beginners.
This is not necessarily a problem as published adventures tend to be aimed low on the optimization scale. On the other hand, combined with a small party, it may require some adapting.

Potential solutions.
Gestalt has been suggested. That would potentially solve 1A but does nothing for 1B. It is also problematic with 2 since one presumes that beginners will not get the maximum game-breaking potential out of gestalt (as needed to make up for the action economy deficit).

DMPC has been suggested. That can work to solve both 1A and 1B but it can also become a crutch or a mechanism for deus ex machina when the DMPC pulls their fat out of the fire with heretofore unknown capabilities or when the DMPC is (rightly or wrongly) seen as the voice of the DM when (s)he participates in party discussions. Some other possibilities:
a. Rotating NPC slots. Maybe they recruit local NPCs for every adventure or sometimes NPCs join them as a part of a plot hook. Since the NPCs change regularly, it is less of a crutch and they are more likely to have their own agendas which mitigates their perception as the voice of the DM.

Making this acceptable also solves some of the "you're the heroes; you do it--we won't help" problem that the RPG genre suffers from in general. The NPCs will do and it will help--they just expect a cut of the loot. Heck, sometimes they're doing the recruiting and the PCs are the help who are in it for a cut of the loot.

b. Communal 2nd PC. There is an NPC with the party, but the players run the NPC at all times--maybe alternating, maybe not. This takes some of the work off the DM's shoulders and makes sure the NPC is not the DM's voice--unless you want to have a voice.
c. Later on: leadership feat. This is like having an NPC/DMPC in the party, but it's within the core rules as a player available ability.

Another suggestion people have made is give the players another level. I like this suggestion as a solution to problem 2--an extra level puts the game on slightly easier mode without requiring the DM to do a lot of adaptation. That is especially important for encounters where you can't just eliminate 25% of the monsters and still have the encounter work. The extra power could also provide a solution to problem 1.

So, if it were me, I'd give them the extra level and let them recruit NPCs freely as the situation warranted. Most would be reasonably trustworthy. Some would not be. Many will be lower level than the PCs. Occasionally, some will be higher level though they will need to be careful not to overshadow the PCs.

[SinsI]

I disagree that gestalt does nothing to improve action economy. Sure, you are missing 1 action out of 4, but since every character can fulfill two roles, the actions you take are more appropriate - caster wouldn't waste his turn firing crossbow into melee after running out of spells, and if the rogue is not in a position to sneak attack he can, say, buff himself.

Same with "party of beginners" problem. Even if you play it at its worst, gestalt gives a much, much better chassis, which allows much more leeway in the control of your character - so it is much better for beginners than, say, an extra level.