2-Player Adventures/Modules

[Cheesegear]

I'm looking at running (or writing) some 2-player modules in the near future. Every module that I own is 3+ or 4+ players. Does anyone have any examples or recommend some 2-player content?

That being said, what are some good 2-player parties? I'm guessing a combination of any '[X] that can also heal themselves'.

[Misterwhisper]

I'm looking at running (or writing) some 2-player modules in the near future. Every module that I own is 3+ or 4+ players. Does anyone have any examples or recommend some 2-player content?

That being said, what are some good 2-player parties? I'm guessing a combination of any '[X] that can also heal themselves'.

Good 2 person teams:

Ranger archer and cleric melee. Probably deepstalker and arcana

Celestial warlock half elf and hexblade half elf.

If you really want to RP it up and don’t mind taking the combat a little easy, a lore bard and a swashbuckler rogue.

If you are ok with multiclassing lots of options work.

[Cheesegear]

If you are ok with multiclassing lots of options work.

I'll be DMing relative beginners. So I wont start any higher than Level 2 or 3, and I'd prefer to start at Level 1. But that might be a bit...Lethal. If there are only 2 players.
But, I'm hoping to get late into Tier 2 before quarantine lifts and we go back to real parties.

[Misterwhisper]

I'll be DMing relative beginners. So I wont start any higher than Level 2 or 3, and I'd prefer to start at Level 1. But that might be a bit...Lethal. If there are only 2 players.
But, I'm hoping to get late into Tier 2 before quarantine lifts and we go back to real parties.

I would go a more RP heavy story for at least level 1.
Everyone but like a barbarians is one lucky roll from being unconscious.

I have seen entire teams almost get wiped out by one well rolled burning hands spell.

If you want some good dungeons google Donjon map maker.

It can make any kind of maps you want for whatever level and number of people. It does tend to really like traps and locks though.

Start at level 1 and have them rp into a mission and fight some commoners and solve things with planning until 2.

[Man_Over_Game]

You'll want to recommend characters with a lot of versatility. They should have potential in all ranges of combat, despite having specialties. So no Wizards or Barbarians.

They should also solve different problems. Paladin and Cleric are fine, since they both do vastly different things (for the most part, anyway). Fighter and Warlock, Rogue and Cleric, Bard and Ranger, etc.

When writing content for fewer players, include more NPCs and more hints. When you have 5 players, only 1/5 needs to get the right answer. However, with two players, that's now 1/2, or over twice as much of the normal party. So with half as many players, make the information twice as obvious (or half as subtle).

Don't have too many rigid decisions, since having half of the pool of available abilities are available. So don't have a door that can only be opened with magic, or a scenario that demands stealth. Rather, make those things, but then allow other means of solving a problem, and make punishments for poorly solving a problem (like kicking down a locked door before enemies know you're in their dungeon) a lot less punishing ("the enemies are running towards the door, but they sound somewhat distant"). You might have to improvise more, but the game will be overall a lot more predictable (so improv is a lot easier).

Try to plan out information and NPCs in advance. With only two players, they're going to be interacting with NPCs when they'd otherwise be interacting with other party members. This means that your NPCs need to be a little bit more fleshed out, or you'll find yourself scrambling to make that info when you don't want to.

Lastly, try to tie in more things that are relevant to your players' backstories. With fewer players, you can afford to focus a little bit more around the players. This also has the consequence of getting the players to interact with one another, which otherwise rarely happens with fewer players. The more you can get players to interact with one another, the less work DMing is, since the content you create stretches out a lot more.

[Griswold]

I've found that most published D&D adventures aren't that hard, even with only 2 players.

From experience, I ran the entire Eberron Embers of the Last War adventure series with two players who were relatively new and definitely not optimizers. They played a Fighter and a Ranger.

The only modifications I made were: I ran all of the adventures on "very easy" for the first few levels (which is the recommendation for 3 underleveled characters when I had 2 at-level), and I ran a few side quests so that eventually they were 1-2 levels above the expected level by the end of the campaign.

I even ran one or two adventures on hard mode, and they mostly breezed right through it.