darni
2019-02-12, 10:07 AM
I run a regular homebrew campaign game for 4 PCs, and sometimes if one of the players can't make it I just play with the other 3. However if 2 players drop, I'll skip the game because I don't want half the people to miss the storyline.
Recently we discussed about having a separate game for those situations where we have just 2 players and I decided that I can manage that as long as I run an existing campaign (so I don't have to juggle the planning for both). But most existing modules are heavily balanced towards 4 PCs, and readjusting the challenge is more work than the one I want to invest in these backup campaign (especially since most of these games, I will know that I'm running them when someone drops last minute and I don't have a lot of prep time). So I was thinking about using this house rules to rebalance things a bit:
PCs have double hit points than usual
Each player rolls initiative twice, and gets 2 turns each round (on each of the initiative counts); with their action and bonus action, and reaction
Players still get the same amount of movement per round (example: they have a speed of 30 and spent 20 on the first of their turns, they have 10 left on the second)
(Maybe) If PCs are below half their HP, they lose one of their initiative counts (the next one that comes)
In my head this sounds like a reasonable way for balancing, and I actually tried some of these rules once and players seem to like it; I'd like to hear what you think about these rules, and the following questions around them:
Do you think this actually gets the ability to face combat encounters of this party to a level comparable to a 4 player party?
Do you see scenarios I should take care about where this is severely underpowered?
Do you see scenarios where this can be heavily overpowered, or easy to abuse?
Recently we discussed about having a separate game for those situations where we have just 2 players and I decided that I can manage that as long as I run an existing campaign (so I don't have to juggle the planning for both). But most existing modules are heavily balanced towards 4 PCs, and readjusting the challenge is more work than the one I want to invest in these backup campaign (especially since most of these games, I will know that I'm running them when someone drops last minute and I don't have a lot of prep time). So I was thinking about using this house rules to rebalance things a bit:
PCs have double hit points than usual
Each player rolls initiative twice, and gets 2 turns each round (on each of the initiative counts); with their action and bonus action, and reaction
Players still get the same amount of movement per round (example: they have a speed of 30 and spent 20 on the first of their turns, they have 10 left on the second)
(Maybe) If PCs are below half their HP, they lose one of their initiative counts (the next one that comes)
In my head this sounds like a reasonable way for balancing, and I actually tried some of these rules once and players seem to like it; I'd like to hear what you think about these rules, and the following questions around them:
Do you think this actually gets the ability to face combat encounters of this party to a level comparable to a 4 player party?
Do you see scenarios I should take care about where this is severely underpowered?
Do you see scenarios where this can be heavily overpowered, or easy to abuse?