Wht should I do. DM help. Game is in 2 hours. The after math.

[Throne12]

So I'm getting ready to run Descent into Avernus. Now my problem is I only have 3 pc's. Which makes the encounters even more tough. So I would like to add another party member and I was thinking have my PC's create a npc together that I'll control or have the find a tome of clay golem and cut the price down a lot or have them find a shield guardian amulet then they spend a small side quest to find the guardian.


So what would be the better option


Oh sorry the party is goliath paladin, atherborn druid, ? Bloodhunter.

[strangebloke]

To be honest?

3 adventurers should be fine. Even the "super hard" modules aren't that bad. See if they're up to the challenge, letting them know that you think it will be really hard.

Otherwise having them roll up a sidekick is totally fine.

[Goldlizard]

have an NPC spellcaster. or an arcana cleric. i would recommend the NPC, controlled by you

[GlenSmash!]

Just have a lowl CR NPC join the party for a bit. I assume there is one form the adventure that would have a decent reason for joining up. Otherwise just grab a Guard stat block and give it some personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw.

[Dork_Forge]

So I'm getting ready to run Descent into Avernus. Now my problem is I only have 3 pc's. Which makes the encounters even more tough. So I would like to add another party member and I was thinking have my PC's create a npc together that I'll control or have the find a tome of clay golem and cut the price down a lot or have them find a shield guardian amulet then they spend a small side quest to find the guardian.


So what would be the better option


Oh sorry the party is goliath paladin, atherborn druid, ? Bloodhunter.

3 PCs isn't too bad, you can just be a little generous with potions and other consumables to compensate. If you're going to add a PC then Life Cleric would help keep them alive and be pretty simple for you to run, only give players an NPC to run if they feel confident running multiple characters in combat.

[Throne12]

I was thinking about using my life cleric concept.

Name: H3A1B0T
Race: warforge
Class: life cleric
Wields 2 shields. If he isnt casting a spell he uses the defend action. This action gives disadvantage to any weapon attack targeting any creature with in 5ft of the defender.

[stewstew5]

There's an unearthed arcana (Sidekicks) that introduce sidekick classes, A way of having NPC's that progress at a similar rate as a PC while not being quite as powerful that are supposed to be controlled by a player. Take a look at it, introduce the idea to your party

[strangebloke]

I was thinking about using my life cleric concept.

Name: H3A1B0T
Race: warforge
Class: life cleric
Wields 2 shields. If he isnt casting a spell he uses the defend action. This action gives disadvantage to any weapon attack targeting any creature with in 5ft of the defender.

Hah. Seems fine.

Don't even bother with class, TBH. Just give him a bucket of HP and high AC.

[jaappleton]

Play the enemies as 'dumb'.

Maybe an encounter of 6 Flameskulls don't lead off with 6 Fireballs?

[stoutstien]

I was thinking about using my life cleric concept.

Name: H3A1B0T
Race: warforge
Class: life cleric
Wields 2 shields. If he isnt casting a spell he uses the defend action. This action gives disadvantage to any weapon attack targeting any creature with in 5ft of the defender.

8!E$$b0t make em a forge cleric and give the magic weapon to they who hits hardest.

[strangebloke]

Play the enemies as 'dumb'.

Maybe an encounter of 6 Flameskulls don't lead off with 6 Fireballs?

Disagree. Speaking as a DM, playing monsters as stupid feels really boring and unfun. If the DM's not having fun, no one is having fun. Except for that one player. You know which one.

[J-H]

Run the adventure as written, and if the first few encounters are too tough, scale it back. I assume that a pre-written adventure won't start out with a Very Deadly encounter, so you'll have time to calibrate.
Boost their loot a bit. More HP, AC, etc., goes a long ways.

[barakas]

I've got three PCs in my Saltmarsh campaign at the moment. I ran the first adventure soft (specifically, I made a game time decision to see how many baddies they would encounter, skipped a couple environmental effects like a collapsing ceiling and surprise rot grubs) to see how they stacked up. As predicted, they're generally undergunned as a party of three. So, I devised a simple sidequest for them to gain a level and go into the next adventure more beefy. I use milestone leveling, so this was an easy solve by sending them on a quick fetch quest, gaining them a magical item and a level.

[Kane0]

Sidekick caster that only heals and buffs.

Or allow potions to be used as a bonus action

[Throne12]

Run the adventure as written, and if the first few encounters are too tough, scale it back. I assume that a pre-written adventure won't start out with a Very Deadly encounter, so you'll have time to calibrate.
Boost their loot a bit. More HP, AC, etc., goes a long ways.

The first encounter is deadly the boss guy has like 3 attacks and 4 buddies with him. With 2 extra guarding the door willing to jump in.

[Jophiel]

The first encounter is deadly the boss guy has like 3 attacks and 4 buddies with him. With 2 extra guarding the door willing to jump in.
I'd scale it back to two buddies and have the other two come in mid-fight if the players are cruising through the battle.

[ThatoneGuy84]

Run them all with max hp for there class. Treat all level ups as max hp.
You will have zero problems and they will feel tough as nails

[Tawmis]

So I'm getting ready to run Descent into Avernus. Now my problem is I only have 3 pc's. Which makes the encounters even more tough. So I would like to add another party member and I was thinking have my PC's create a npc together that I'll control or have the find a tome of clay golem and cut the price down a lot or have them find a shield guardian amulet then they spend a small side quest to find the guardian.
So what would be the better option
Oh sorry the party is goliath paladin, atherborn druid, ? Bloodhunter.

I think a DM controlling an NPC that is going on an Adventure is a bad idea. There's going to be a time where your DM controlled NPC is going to do some critical hit, or kill a big bad, and take that away from the players.

I'd say just reduce the HP of the encounters. Leave them with whatever powers they have; just make them easier to kill health wise. So they're a threat due to their powers, but their health isn't as high as expected for whatever the norm is for that module (don't own it so I don't know what the ideal party size is for the module).

[Throne12]

I think a DM controlling an NPC that is going on an Adventure is a bad idea. There's going to be a time where your DM controlled NPC is going to do some critical hit, or kill a big bad, and take that away from the players.

I'd say just reduce the HP of the encounters. Leave them with whatever powers they have; just make them easier to kill health wise. So they're a threat due to their powers, but their health isn't as high as expected for whatever the norm is for that module (don't own it so I don't know what the ideal party size is for the module).

Party size for the module is 6 pc's.

[Tawmis]

Party size for the module is 6 pc's.

Yeah; so since you have 3... try reducing HP around 25 to 30%. See how the party does with the first fight. If it was too difficult still, scale down a little more for the next fight.

[Vessyra]

Probably either:
#1 Scale back encounters (previous post mentioned decrease hit point, which works, as does small enemy numbers)
#2 Add healing potions
or
#3 add in consumable items that allow the user to cast sleep

While at most levels 3 PCs is fine, at very low levels (1-2) action economy and low hit points means a missing PC can severely weaken a party. Sleep spells can make low-level encounters far easier, and healing potions will be vital, if the module is as tough as suggested. However, these sorts of modifications are only necessary at the very start; at levels 3-4, the party won't notice the power difference as much, and by level 5+, it'll be nearly imperceptible.

Although, this advice is taken from when I played with 3 PCs in Phandelver, which had party numbers of 4-6, not 6, so the effects of imbalanced encounters may be more severe. The above advice still applies, though.

[Throne12]

Thanks for the advice the encounter went ok. The npc they needed to get info from and protect was rolling ****y and didnt hit once. Luckily the bandit captain was rolling ****y to so he did do too much damage. They ended up kill all 6 of his lackeys. As I had them Trickle in not over whaling them. By the end of the encounter the warlock(was going to be blood hunter) was the only pc standing. The goliath paladin pass his death saves 3 to 2. But unfortunately the aerialborn druid died do to rolling a nat 1 then rolled to 2 successful saves but failed the last one killing him. The warlock killed the pirate caption aka bandit captain with a nat 20 on a attack of Opportunity attack.

So the encounter is set up for the party to fight one bandit captain and 4 bandits with 2 left guarding the door.

I had them roll 5d4x5 for starting gp on top all the starting equipment from there class. Then I talked them about buying health potions. But left them to decide wht to spend that gp on. They all had enough gp each to buy 2 potions each. But non of them bought a single potion.

[Tawmis]

Glad the adventure went well. May the companions mourn their druid friend.

[Safety Sword]

Killing a PC in the first encounter is not ideal.

Descent into Avernus is pretty rough at the start if you run it by the book. Also, killing a PC makes the new character feel a bit contrived because of the "shared secret" mechanic.

Oh well!