One Man Hand - Or "Why yes, I am insane, thanks for asking."

[Eno Remnant]

My bad puns and snark aside, I have a problem. Or, well, less of a problem, more of a situation where my relative DM inexperience requires me to ask for help.

So, if the pun didn't give it away, I want to run Red Hand of Doom with one player. Now, knowing my audience, allow me to preempt a few responses:


I am aware that one player is not a party.
I am familiar with action economy.
I am not a sa- I am not purposefully torturing my player.
I have read The 3.5 Red Hand Of Doom for DMs thread, in which no less than four DMs who've run this adventure recommend you don't play it with less than four players. It's an amazing resource for improving RHoD, and it'll be my go-to when I run this with a real party. For now, you can see why it might not be wholly relevant.
"Don't" is not an answer I will be accepting.
Comments regarding my sanity, see the title.


That done, let's move on to what I actually want to say regarding this madness.

The player in question is a good friend of mine, with a propensity for sneakiness and tactical thinking. He's never played more than one session of D&D, and that was 5e (long story short, Mythweavers broke and none of us cared to rebuild). So I wanted to bring him to a system I'm more familiar with, and give him an experience he'd enjoy and engage with - one that allows him to exercise his natural talent for covertness, while providing a long and rewarding challenge.

Why Red Hand of Doom? It's prebuilt, and I'm lazy. I'm only half-joking - putting together resources in Roll 20 is a nightmare.

I actually chose RHoD because I'm already familiar with it, because it has a significant time-span (both in and out of the game), and because it's a setting and a scenario my player will be right at home in. I believe he has the smarts and the ability to handle the adventure, numbers be damned.

That said, I'm not blind to the issues D&D presents in combat. The player will have two NPC allies (any more and he's just a tag-along in my story, which won't do), and himself be a gestalt (Swordsage//Rogue, with a homebrew ranged discipline intended for sniping. If that sounds like it's a terrible option for a solo career, congratulations, you can D&D. Have a cookie). I have every intention of putting him through his paces before the adventure even starts, to better gauge his ability to handle the encounters.

What I need is some constructive advice on making this entire situation tenable. What level should the player start at? What level should his cohorts be? What kind of adjusting will the earlier encounters need to stop them from stomping all over the party? Suggestions on classes for the cohorts are welcome, too, but I do already have a couple in mind that fit the player's style and support it without overshadowing him.

I am aware that what I'm asking sounds ridiculous (if I've not made that blatantly clear thus far), but I want to try it. So please, if it's within the Playground's range of ability, can we avoid the unhelpful comments and just try to make this work? If it actually does work, doesn't that sound like a fun potential future campaign journal?

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this, if not for actually contributing. Allowing me to waste your time is appreciated.

[Malimar]

Is the PC absolutely married to swordsage//rogue, or might they consider swordsage//scout? (Or even //scout/ranger (swift hunter), or at least //scout/rogue (swift ambusher))? Scout is much better for a solo ranged character, while potentially having much of the feel of a rogue. A ranged character has too few ways to trigger sneak attack, and even if they weren't ranged, a solo character still has too few ways to trigger sneak attack (though NPC allies, when present, can help by being flanking buddies). A ranged scout can easily trigger skirmish every round -- especially if they're also a swordsage and thus using Maneuvers, which are usually Standard actions, so they're losing full attack potential anyway, so might as well move and get skirmish.

I've been running a game (not RHoD) for a solo scout for awhile. The biggest problem (which will be the same even if your player insists on sticking with rogue) has been foes that are immune to precision damage. Luckily, my sense is RHoD doesn't have a huge number of those, mostly hobgoblins and dragons (which, if your player happens to go Swift Hunter, should give them some clues as to best choices of favored enemy). (I don't know all that much about RHoD in particular, I've been playing in a RHoD game for awhile but have never run it or read it or had much spoiled.) In the event that they do show up, you might consider importing Pathfinder's alteration that undead and constructs are no longer immune to precision damage.

I'd say start them at a bit higher level than the adventure calls for (maybe put the cohorts one or two behind the PC), and then use the XP rules. The XP rules are magic. A solo character will earn sufficient boatloads of XP that he can deal effectively with an adventure designed for a larger party. (You might consider using the cohort XP rules for the two NPCs, so they don't eat any of the PC's XP, but that might make the party too strong.)

Probably the two NPCs should be a melee tank (dedicated to keeping the foes from getting at the PC, not to dealing damage) and a buff-and-heal-bot, if that's not too obvious an observation. Perhaps Crusader for the tank, for some additional heals.

[Eno Remnant]

Scout is an interesting idea, but I think the player's preference will be concealed sniping (with the ability to perform a variety of moves in melee in an emergency), which all that movement will end up penalising.

I'll admit, I'm actually the one who devised the build, to throw something together that was very much his style, while synergising nicely (all that SA damage). As I recall, there's only one small section where sneak attack won't apply - and even then, it's a situation a party can talk/sneak themselves out of, so I'm not too concerned about it.

My thoughts for his cohorts had actually been, with his stealth style in mind, a Beguiler and a Thoughtsinger (psionic bard). Both are reasonably quiet classes that can provide solid support. I had considered a tank, but making a tank that can keep up with a swordsage's sneakiness is a fair amount of work, that can end up taking away from the important part: the tanking.

As for healing, which is always the big issue with solo adventures, I'll probably be applying a handful of houserules to make that easier on the player: drinking potions as a swift action and healing fully from 8 hours of rest are just two thoughts off the top of my head.

Thanks for the advice, Malimar, that really does help.

[zlefin]

just wanted to mention that pathfinder's path of war has a couple disciplines based on ranged combat. if you haven't fleshed out your homebrew discipline yet they might be worth looking into; otherwise, i'm sure your homebrew would be more on point.

If you have the player be +1 level over where they'd normally be throughout the adventure, with the cohorts not having that +1, then that should be around the right power level, as long as they play smart and have a solid build. (not that i'm familiar with rhod)

[Calthropstu]

Well, it doesn't matter what lvl he starts at... unless you split that xp between him and the npc's he will quickly level into the stratosphere if he can successfully pass the encounters. You will reach a point where he can literally solo the campaign without npcs because he's so high level.

[Mike Miller]

Have you considered having him control multiple characters? Is that out of the question because he is too new? Is that something he is not interested in?

[ExLibrisMortis]

The first, obvious, and recommended solution is to give the player multiple characters, be they cohort, minion, lackey, underling, flunky, gofer, or dogsbody.

They don't even have to be present. If you provide a full party of an artificer, an artificer, and an artificer, you can kit out your single agent in the field as if it's James Bond on Christmas Eve.

[Nifft]

They don't even have to be present. If you provide a full party of an artificer, an artificer, and an artificer, you can kit out your single agent in the field as if it's James Bond on Christmas Eve.

"Meet your new friends: their names are Cue, Arr, and Ess."

[Mr Adventurer]

If literally all you want from Rogue is the sneak attack, you'd be better off with the sneak attack Fighter variant.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

How about giving him the Dark Template? It's only +1 LA, but Hide in Plain Sight makes a ranged rogue build far more viable by giving him a good escape and reliably triggering Sneak Attack at range. Hence have to pump Hide, but that's not too difficult. And being sneaky is good for a solo character anyway.
And if he's a Swordsage, the Shadow Hand discipline fits right in with the Dark Template fluffwise!

[Mr Adventurer]

Swordsage manoeuvres can also give you the concealment or invisibility you need, I probably wouldn't bother with Dark.

[Pleh]

They don't even have to be present. If you provide a full party of an artificer, an artificer, and an artificer, you can kit out your single agent in the field as if it's James Bond on Christmas Eve.

"Meet your new friends: their names are Cue, Arr, and Ess."

This is awesome, but it was clarified earlier that the system was chosen for DM familiarity, not the player's.

If you pull up gadget makers like this, keep them under DM control.

Heck, you can even have fun using these tools as clues about how to get through the preplanned adventure, like how Bond movies always do.

[Eno Remnant]

just wanted to mention that pathfinder's path of war has a couple disciplines based on ranged combat.

If you have the player be +1 level over where they'd normally be throughout the adventure, with the cohorts not having that +1, then that should be around the right power level, as long as they play smart and have a solid build.

I had actually been working with a discipline I found via the Playground, but I had been thinking about PoW. I'll give it some consideration, run it by my friend and see what he likes.

As for the level, I think I agree with you on that front. A little more on that when I discuss the Dark template below.


Well, it doesn't matter what lvl he starts at... unless you split that xp between him and the npc's he will quickly level into the stratosphere if he can successfully pass the encounters. You will reach a point where he can literally solo the campaign without npcs because he's so high level.

My problem with this is that it can get out of hand to the point of triviality. If it turns out he's already effective against the enemies he encounters, burying him in experience is only going to make challenging him harder. I think I'll test the waters first, see how he does, and then choose how to award experience.


Have you considered having him control multiple characters? Is that out of the question because he is too new? Is that something he is not interested in?


The first, obvious, and recommended solution is to give the player multiple characters, be they cohort, minion, lackey, underling, flunky, gofer, or dogsbody.

I think I'll grant him control of one extra character, and relegate one as a DMPC. I can gently nudge with my superior understanding of the system and the adventure if it becomes absolutely necessary, and that way it feels less like he's just talking to himself all the time.


If you provide a full party of an artificer, an artificer, and an artificer, you can kit out your single agent in the field as if it's James Bond on Christmas Eve.


"Meet your new friends: their names are Cue, Arr, and Ess."

I know what I'm doing for my next pre-made party :smalltongue:

I think he'll do better with allies in the field, for the sake of action economy. The Red Hand's tactics are very much about numbers advantage.


If literally all you want from Rogue is the sneak attack, you'd be better off with the sneak attack Fighter variant.

Not a horrible idea, but Rogue's special abilities could come in handy. It provides a couple of extra skills too, notably including UMD - being able to use wands could prove quite handy for a solo character, even if it does take a few attempts to get your wand working (maybe I should give him a high point-buy, so he can be proficient with multiple abilities. Something to consider).


How about giving him the Dark Template? It's only +1 LA, but Hide in Plain Sight makes a ranged rogue build far more viable by giving him a good escape and reliably triggering Sneak Attack at range. Hence have to pump Hide, but that's not too difficult. And being sneaky is good for a solo character anyway.
And if he's a Swordsage, the Shadow Hand discipline fits right in with the Dark Template fluffwise!


Swordsage manoeuvres can also give you the concealment or invisibility you need, I probably wouldn't bother with Dark.

Mundane hiding is generally superior to concealment and invisibility. Better, Hide in Plain Sight requires some form of concealment to work, so the two synergise. I've already given the player the template, and he's quite happy with it.


This is awesome, but it was clarified earlier that the system was chosen for DM familiarity, not the player's.

If you pull up gadget makers like this, keep them under DM control.

Heck, you can even have fun using these tools as clues about how to get through the preplanned adventure, like how Bond movies always do.

This sounds awesome, but as I noted in the OP, my DM experience is relatively weak. I've run all of one campaign, and a handful of pre-made adventures that I didn't tinker too much with. Still, totally going to crib that for an adventure in the future.



You guys are a great help, this has taken a lot of my concerns and thrown them in the dryer for five hours. I could still use more advice, preferably from some DMs who've run the adventure (does anyone know if Red Fel has Red Hand of Doomed? It sure sounds like him, and he be a lot easier to summon than kjones or whoever). If anyone like that has been looking in, I urge you to contribute, for my peace of mind if nothing else.

If you think of anything more to add, don't hesitate to let me know. Everything helps, when your goal is utterly idiotic.

Thank you all for your assistance :smallsmile:

[Mr Adventurer]

Not a horrible idea, but Rogue's special abilities could come in handy. It provides a couple of extra skills too, notably including UMD - being able to use wands could prove quite handy for a solo character, even if it does take a few attempts to get your wand working (maybe I should give him a high point-buy, so he can be proficient with multiple abilities. Something to consider).

Those Rogue abilities might come in useful, sure - but are those abilities at 10th and every three thereafter really going to add much value over the Swordsage native abilities and manoeuvres?

And, is that amount of value worth trading out full BAB, and extra good save (completing the set), a Hit Die upgrade, and proficiency with martial ranged weapons?

The point is that there's so much overlap between Rogue and Swordsage that they're a poor gestalt match; to the point that Sneak Attack Fighter, of all things, might be better.

The point about UMD is a good one - if that's a play element the player wants to engage with - but that might be better served by either another class, or even a spellcasting class that doesn't need UMD.

[Endarire]

For the extra characters, what do they plan to be? How will you handle healing, crowd control, teleportation, and other things not normally available to tier 3 or 4 sneaky martial characters?

Perhaps start his party at level 6 (1 level above normal recommended) with an extra feat or 2 for him. Perhaps give him Able Learner automatically.

[Mr Adventurer]

If the game is going to be a series of episodic assaults/encounters, then Factotum can also work very well - if you have a short workday, those 1/day skill boosts really make your character look amazing.

[Eno Remnant]

Those Rogue abilities might come in useful, sure - but are those abilities at 10th and every three thereafter really going to add much value over the Swordsage native abilities and manoeuvres?

And, is that amount of value worth trading out full BAB, and extra good save (completing the set), a Hit Die upgrade, and proficiency with martial ranged weapons?

The point is that there's so much overlap between Rogue and Swordsage that they're a poor gestalt match; to the point that Sneak Attack Fighter, of all things, might be better.

The point about UMD is a good one - if that's a play element the player wants to engage with - but that might be better served by either another class, or even a spellcasting class that doesn't need UMD.

Point taken, regarding special abilities, but unless I'm very much mistaken, Swordsages are proficient with all martial weapons. That would naturally extend to martial ranged weapons. On the value of BAB, in the case of a sniper who will almost always catch their enemy flat-footed (even if they have to take Acrobatic Backstab and enter melee to maintain it), it's not worth quite so much - much the same can be said for hit dice. The full array of good saves? Where's the challenge if you don't have a weak spot?

The idea is not to make my player unstoppable, it's to give him the tools to cope in a situation that would generally be outside of his means, while still offering a challenge. UMD is certainly potent, but I'm not going to hold his hand regarding it, so I doubt he'll get too far on his own system mastery (which is probably about half of the PHB spells at most).

All that said, Rogue is probably the simplest option, which offers increased versatility via trapfinding, Disable Device, UMD, etc. But I will run the variant Fighter by my player, inform him of the merits to each, and see what he thinks.


For the extra characters, what do they plan to be? How will you handle healing, crowd control, teleportation, and other things not normally available to tier 3 or 4 sneaky martial characters?

Perhaps start his party at level 6 (1 level above normal recommended) with an extra feat or 2 for him. Perhaps give him Able Learner automatically.

The extra characters will be a matter of my own judgement and my player's preference. Healing is a simple matter of houserule to make bog-standard in-combat healing not-useless (and less hyphenated). Crowd control is achievable through a number of cheap magical items, and isn't always essential, provided you can pick and choose your terrain as a sniper (which the player intends to be) is wont to do. Teleportation, as is discussed in the thread I mentioned in the OP, is a good way to break Red Hand of Doom on a strategic level - tactical teleportation isn't too hard to acquire if one needs it, and I certainly don't mean to skimp on useful magic items if I feel the player requires them.

All the other little things can be addressed as we go on, with me as the DM seeing to the player's needs when appropriate, by means that don't coddle him. It's an important skill for a DM, to be able to keep things challenging yet fair, and I intend to meet that requirement.

The level is a no-brainer at this point, and I'll ensure the player has as many feats as necessary to make his build work. If he doesn't need more than he gets, I don't feel the need to give more. The point of a party is to address the weaknesses of each of its members, and to complement their strengths.


If the game is going to be a series of episodic assaults/encounters, then Factotum can also work very well - if you have a short workday, those 1/day skill boosts really make your character look amazing.

Factotum would probably do quite well in RHoD. I'll definitely consider it for one of the cohorts.

[Mr Adventurer]

Point taken, regarding special abilities, but unless I'm very much mistaken, Swordsages are proficient with all martial weapons. That would naturally extend to martial ranged weapons. On the value of BAB, in the case of a sniper who will almost always catch their enemy flat-footed (even if they have to take Acrobatic Backstab and enter melee to maintain it), it's not worth quite so much - much the same can be said for hit dice. The full array of good saves? Where's the challenge if you don't have a weak spot?

The idea is not to make my player unstoppable, it's to give him the tools to cope in a situation that would generally be outside of his means, while still offering a challenge. UMD is certainly potent, but I'm not going to hold his hand regarding it, so I doubt he'll get too far on his own system mastery (which is probably about half of the PHB spells at most).

All that said, Rogue is probably the simplest option, which offers increased versatility via trapfinding, Disable Device, UMD, etc. But I will run the variant Fighter by my player, inform him of the merits to each, and see what he thinks.

You are mistaken. Swordsages are not proficient with martial ranged weapons.

If you have more BAB, you can do more with it. Overcome more penalties. Make more attacks. Dismissing the advantage is spurious at best. Assuming the character will never make a full attack is a mistake, especially if they're a sniper.

Saves are typically passive and binary - especially Fort saves - so characterising a poor Fort save as a 'challenge' isn't appropriate, especially in such a glib way which ignores that challenge is fully scalable and that you, the DM, control it.

Skill Tricks are usable once per encounter; the use of one is an edge case.

Nothing I've suggested (or, indeed, could suggest) would make the player "unstoppable" so I'm not sure why you're implying that's the direction I'm pushing in.

A gestalt with a broader range of capability has more tools at its disposal than one with a lot of overlaps between its classes. A better Fort save means more risks can be taken with forced marches, with poor weather conditions, with long forays without supplies. More HP means more endurance in combat, which is invaluable when there are fewer targets to share incoming damage between, and better resistance to extreme weather.

The suggestion of Sneak Attack Fighter was if Sneak Attack was all that the player wanted from the other part of their gestalt. From what you are now saying, it seems like that is not the case; with what you've now started to talk about, I wouldn't make the same recommendation.

EDIT: I suggested Factotum because they are especially good in Gestalt, since all of their abilities complement other class abilities without competing with them for action economy.

[Eldariel]

Those Rogue abilities might come in useful, sure - but are those abilities at 10th and every three thereafter really going to add much value over the Swordsage native abilities and manoeuvres?

And, is that amount of value worth trading out full BAB, and extra good save (completing the set), a Hit Die upgrade, and proficiency with martial ranged weapons?

The point is that there's so much overlap between Rogue and Swordsage that they're a poor gestalt match; to the point that Sneak Attack Fighter, of all things, might be better.

The point about UMD is a good one - if that's a play element the player wants to engage with - but that might be better served by either another class, or even a spellcasting class that doesn't need UMD.

I'd get at least Rogue 3 for Penetrating Strike, given that Swordsage has an easy time generating Flanking condition. Well, unless I was running a spellcaster.

[Nibbens]

I'll chime in here. I find that +1 or -1 level per player above or below 4 is a pretty good number to work around.

I'll explain. If the PCs start at level 1 and the adventure is designed for 4 people, however you only have 3. Then you start all the players off at level 2 and go from there.

Secondly, don't give out XP. Instead, level them via story progression. In PFs APs they often have a "Players should be level X as they reach Y point." kind of thing. That makes it easy. Forgo the XP, rely on story based progression.

This should make the adventure doable. Although, I will admit that I've never done the RHoD, so my guidelines could be totally bunk for this.