How to adjust for a single player?

[FiddleForge]

I've DMed only a couple of times so my grasp of the mathematics is loose for making adjustments. My wife recently agreed to play a solo campaign because I've just been wanting to play again (not due to lockdown, we just don't have friends anymore and I work nights). However, I'm afraid that she'll be overwhelmed by combat encounters since she's just one player and also inexperienced. How would you recommend I make it work for us? I'm thinking of giving her a DMPC partner to assist during the difficult bits but even two players could be tough. I know it could very easily become way too hard but I also don't want to overcompensate the other way and offer her no challenge whatsoever. Thoughts?

[MaxWilson]

I've DMed only a couple of times so my grasp of the mathematics is loose for making adjustments. My wife recently agreed to play a solo campaign because I've just been wanting to play again (not due to lockdown, we just don't have friends anymore and I work nights). However, I'm afraid that she'll be overwhelmed by combat encounters since she's just one player and also inexperienced. How would you recommend I make it work for us? I'm thinking of giving her a DMPC partner to assist during the difficult bits but even two players could be tough. I know it could very easily become way too hard but I also don't want to overcompensate the other way and offer her no challenge whatsoever. Thoughts?

Let her hire some NPCs and run them during combat, while you roleplay them outside of combat.

E.g. start off with the town drunk, a retired guard named Elmo who is brave and loyal but half-daft. He'll gratefully join her adventures if she'll pay to get his armor and sword out of the pawnshop and give him a half-share of any treasure they find. :) (He doesn't outright tell her this up front, he just wistfully tells her that he wishes he could do what she does if only he didn't have money problems. She has to connect the dots for him and provide the initial cash.)

[prabe]

This site appears to be dedicated to this style of play: https://dndduet.com/

As far as just balancing the combat, I found this: https://slyflourish.com/balancing_combat_for_one_on_one.html

Hope those help. Good luck!

[KorvinStarmast]

get a side kick.

[CTurbo]

I am also looking to run a 1 on 1 campaign with my wife, and am considering on how to go about it. I do know that I'm going to let her pick and create her character, and I'm going to make a standard Champion Fighter that is going to be her personal bodyguard/friend/servant that I will probably let her control if she wants. I will control if she prefers though. Also, I will probably let her start with a pet Mastiff. Not a "companion",.. a pet.

I would be willing to let her run 2 distinct characters if she wanted.

Either way, 1 or 2 character parties want to mitigate ways of being surprised while adventuring or sleeping. The greater you can increase the action economy, the better. You want face skills AND perception. Also you certainly want Wis save proficiency and probably Con saves too. The Alert feat, Find Familiar Spell, and rituals in general would all be extremely helpful.

[Diego]

I've DMed only a couple of times so my grasp of the mathematics is loose for making adjustments. My wife recently agreed to play a solo campaign because I've just been wanting to play again (not due to lockdown, we just don't have friends anymore and I work nights). However, I'm afraid that she'll be overwhelmed by combat encounters since she's just one player and also inexperienced. How would you recommend I make it work for us? I'm thinking of giving her a DMPC partner to assist during the difficult bits but even two players could be tough. I know it could very easily become way too hard but I also don't want to overcompensate the other way and offer her no challenge whatsoever. Thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoJMNkgEqKA is a good source.

Be aware when you are making your adjustments that you aren't just adjusting numbers downwards because 1 or 2 person parties have less HP and less damage output - but also that small groups are VASTLY more exposed to luck, both good and bad. To use an extreme example - an orc that crits at level 1 can easily knock a PC unconscious. In a 4 or 5 person party, this is bad luck, its scary. In a 1 person party, the game might well be over if you're not ready. Any time you call for a roll, either planned in advance, called for by a module, or on the fly, you should be thinking about what is going to happen if they *don't* make the roll, and how can you move the game forward in an interesting way while still acknowledging that they didn't pass that specific check. This may mean you make fewer skill checks - more "oh, you're trained in that skill - you just know xyz", and lean on a more OSR approach of arbitrating player description of action rather than d20 rolls against numbers. All that is probably good GMing practice anyway but especially so for very small groups.

[Damon_Tor]

I've DMed only a couple of times so my grasp of the mathematics is loose for making adjustments. My wife recently agreed to play a solo campaign because I've just been wanting to play again (not due to lockdown, we just don't have friends anymore and I work nights). However, I'm afraid that she'll be overwhelmed by combat encounters since she's just one player and also inexperienced. How would you recommend I make it work for us? I'm thinking of giving her a DMPC partner to assist during the difficult bits but even two players could be tough. I know it could very easily become way too hard but I also don't want to overcompensate the other way and offer her no challenge whatsoever. Thoughts?

Make the character explicitly super-human:

Quadruple HP, four turns per round (rolls initiative four times). 4X all expendable resources (spell slots, ki, rages, etc).

Then just run adventures like normal.

[heavyfuel]

Shameless plug: I and some other forum member have been working on how to best update the Gestalt character rules to 5e over at the Homebrew forum.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?612626-Updating-Gestal-Rules-(PEACH)&p=24517440

Gestalt characters are, putting simply, a single character with two classes. They are great for when you have only one or two players because these characters can fill multiple roles in the party.

For a single player, I'd suggest the PC get a Gestalt character in addition to the side-kick that was recommended (who may or may not be a Gestalt character)