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Eldmor
2007-06-05, 09:55 AM
So, my girlfriend wants to play a solo campaign under me. I suggest the gestalt variant, and she likes it. She's going to be playing a CHA-heavy Rog/Bard Changeling.
I know I'll have to make more "social encounters" and stealth missions, but CR still deludes me. Any advice on CR-appropriate challenges, or general tips for stealth campaigns? :smallconfused:

JaronK
2007-06-05, 10:08 AM
Assume the CR is about the same as a normal campaign with just one person. Rogue//Bard is barely more powerful than straight rogue or bard, and certainly less powerful than many non gestalt optomized builds.

JaronK

Green Bean
2007-06-05, 10:09 AM
Well, in terms of one party member, CR means "same level". CR is equal to class level. Basically, a level 1 character going up against a CR 1 monster will have a 50% chance of dying. Obviously, keep it lower than that.:smallbiggrin:

Toliudar
2007-06-05, 10:17 AM
Rogue-bard is a fairly suboptimal gestalt - so many overlaps in the classes' strengths - but in a solo adventure, optimization isn't really that important, since everything needs to be so tailored to THAT character. You're quite right, that the social and skill-based adventure elements will need to be foregrounded.

Combat will be a last resort, fast and deadly. If she's still fighting on the third round, she should be retreating. Steal from movies.

Avoid any situation where a single failed roll effectively takes her out of the game - hold person, sleep effects (depending on the level you're playing), some of the nastier poisons.

Sidekicks and contacts she can go to when she's stumped - a brother who's a cleric, her friend in the city guard, etc - help to fill in gaps. They don't need to travel with her, but are sort of on call.

If you haven't already developed a scenario for her, here's a few possibilities off the top of my head:

A murder mystery in which she's using guile and breaking & entering to gather evidence and put the pieces together.

A wedding ceremony and reception at which she has to identify and stop the assassin. Lots of knowledge and bard lore options, stealth and social interaction.

Freeing a kidnapped/stolen McGuffin from a bunch of thieves/thugs holed up in an abandoned warehouse/city sewer/docked galleon.


And good luck!

JoeFredBob
2007-06-05, 10:56 AM
You might consider looking at Sherlock Holmes for adventure ideas, depending on the specific skill set that the character chooses.

Jimp
2007-06-05, 11:23 AM
So, my girlfriend wants to play a solo campaign under me.
Innuendotastic

ZeroNumerous
2007-06-05, 11:42 AM
If you're having a problem with CR, remind her that it's possible to hire soldiers/bodyguards. Maybe let her hire one. Then she can flank and gain her sneak-attack abilities as a rogue. What hireling she picks up is fairly unimportant as long as they have a d8 or higher hit die.

As for stealth campaigns..

Theres always the aspect of being a spy sent into a foreign nation to gather intelligence before her homeland begins a large invasion. Rogue/Bard Changeling just screams spy.

weenie
2007-06-05, 04:45 PM
It would be a good idea for her to take the leadership feat. Nothing better than a fighter cohort for a solo campaign. Or you could get her an elemental summoning ring or something. You may need to homebrew things a bit though.

I actually also have an adventure that I designed for solo play, but I'm kinda drunk and it would take some traslating to write it down, so I can write it down tomorrow or something if you're interested.

Jayabalard
2007-06-05, 05:54 PM
InnuendotasticI'm glad that I'm not the only one who thought of that.

Eldmor
2007-06-05, 10:18 PM
I actually also have an adventure that I designed for solo play, but I'm kinda drunk and it would take some traslating to write it down, so I can write it down tomorrow or something if you're interested.

Once you sober, that would be great.
She rolled her stats and got 10/12/12/12/10/17. I'll definitely throw her some +DEX gear in lower levels and give her access to a for-hire merc service. Adventurers for adventurers. =P
She wants to take levels in Mountebank [CompSco], but she already has Alter Self at will thanks to Changeling. Any changes that could keep the flavor of the class without it being gimped?

Ninja Chocobo
2007-06-05, 10:29 PM
Changeling gets Disguise Self, not Alter Self. But I know nothing of the Mountebank class, so I can't offer further advice.

Yechezkiel
2007-06-05, 10:38 PM
Make sure you award xp for diffusing/escaping certain situations, and she's aware that you will... a Brd/Rog would probably adopt the "those who fight and run away, live to run away again" way of life.

Pink
2007-06-05, 11:22 PM
Indeed, an encounter just has to be survived or bypassed in essence. If you can talk your way out of it or sneak past, you should still get the exp for it.

Eldmor
2007-06-06, 09:01 AM
Changeling gets Disguise Self, not Alter Self. But I know nothing of the Mountebank class, so I can't offer further advice.

Gah! I missed that. I also just figured out that she could Alter Self to some beefy guy (Bugbear and Troglodyte looks good) and then Disguise Self into something else. Although having a Bugbear as an alter ego seems a tad odd. :smalltongue:

Quietus
2007-06-06, 01:20 PM
Gah! I missed that. I also just figured out that she could Alter Self to some beefy guy (Bugbear and Troglodyte looks good) and then Disguise Self into something else. Although having a Bugbear as an alter ego seems a tad odd. :smalltongue:

Remember that Alter Self doesn't change her physical stats. It only gives things such as natural armor, movement modes, and the like.

weenie
2007-06-06, 03:54 PM
Ok, here it goes:

This adventure was originally designed for a lvl3 wizard, therefore I'll probably have to make a few adjustments. Comments are welcome.

Part one:
The character travles into foreign lands for some reason(depends on campaign). The road is fairly well traveled, but is known to host all sorts of criminals and such. The weather starts to get worse rapidly and it looks like a storm is on it's way. Your character now sees what seems to be a cave not far from the road(you should suggest that taking shelter would be a good idea, perhaps via a lightning bolt striking a tree near the road). So the character goes to the cave and hides in it. It's a shallow cave, and the walls and roof are all covered in undergrowth and other plants. Raindrops start to fall.

Part two:
A dc 20 spot check will let the player's character notice that a group of 5 orcs is aproaching the cave. In a few minutes they enter the cave to take shelter from the storm. In case the char didn't hide or they got a good spot check they notice the char, but do not attack/approach her. They all look like wariors though and one of them is really big. (their boss, a lvl3 barbarian - the only one that speaks common)
There's a local "rule" that during storms(which are very frequent and violent in the area) you shouldn't attack people who are taking shelter with you and it's commonly respected by everyone.(you shouldn't explain this little detail to the player, it's suposed to build intrigue) The orcs are therefore not going to attack her, unless she provokes them or something.
After some time the rain gets heavier and the lightning becomes louder. An elf enters the cave now(lvl3 wizard). He's covered with a cloak that he takes of and starts shaking when he comes in. It is obvious that he was in a rush and didn't pay enough attention to notice that others are in the cave. When he stops shaking(i'm not sure if the expression is corecct, he wants to get water off of it) the cloak he turns around and notices the others in the room(unless your player is hiding, spot check in that case). He looks surprised, but he doesn't say or do anything, except moving a bit further into the cave, since the rain is getting even worse.
None of the npcs tries to start conversation in any way.
The rain is pouring from the sky and suddenly a bolt hits a tree on the cave entrance, causing it to collapse with a great rumbling sound. It is completley dark. The elf casts light and the character sees that the entrance to the cave is blocked. One of the orcs got caught in the mud, but the others manage to pull him out alive. There are a few rocks in the mud(search 15) with all edges square, and it appears obvious that they were actually man-made. You should kinda hint that they look like stone bricks, if the message doesn't get through. The others start looking for a way out, but it seems that the passage is comletley blocked. The orcs start excavating a tunnel out, but the mud is still fresh and it looks like it could take days. If she doesn't perform a search check, the elf notices something strange on the end of the tunnel(racial ability). And it turns out to be a heavy stone door. There's a writing on it saying:
There once was a king, and he was mad. One day he ordered his six generals to bring all of their legions to his castle. They all did as he said, but the king felt, that one number of legions brought before him did not belong amongst the others. So he ordered that one general to be imprisoned and his legions to be disbanded.
Underneath the writing are six buttons with the following numbers on them: 43 26 50 37 17 82 (one number per button of course). the number 43 opens the doors, the others are trapped. (all the others are the square of a number plus one - if your gf isn't good with maths this could take a while, you may need to find another puzzle or have the elf solve it if it takes too long) the biggest orc comes closer to see what is going on, but cannot read and doesn't want to appear stupid, so he just watches quietly.

In some time the doors should open and before the trio lies a stairway that goes down in a spiral...

Ok, that was enough writing for one day. If you find the story interesting i'll write down part three.