Questions about Solo Play in 3.5

[MandibleBones]

I have this vision for a 3.5 game, but I want to play in it, and nobody wants to run it. Additionally, the Scheduling Beast is CR30 and I cannot defeat it. I've seen friends have great luck with solo play in 5th edition, as well as another using OSRIC to do older content, but I thought, "3.5 is the system I know the best, and a lot of the things I want to do and the feel of the game I want to play work best in it." So beyond the ever-useful d20srd and random encounter tables in the DMG and elsewhere, does anybody have any tried and true resources for 3.5 Solo Play? Has anybody else had success using the system we know and love for adventures without other players?

[pabelfly]

There are the various 3.5-based video games that are available. Some of them have modding tools if you want to make your own module.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?650267-Opinions-on-the-video-games-based-on-the-3E-DnD-ruleset

[Particle_Man]

Are you going to play a single PC alone, a single PC with a group of NPC allies, or a group of PC allies (albeit all run by you)?

[MandibleBones]

I am fine with playing any of those, but ideally would start off as a single PC and gather allies along the way from encounters and the ability to hire people.

[Biggus]

So beyond the ever-useful d20srd and random encounter tables in the DMG and elsewhere, does anybody have any tried and true resources for 3.5 Solo Play? Has anybody else had success using the system we know and love for adventures without other players?

What kind of resources are you looking for?

There's a couple of websites which discuss it here:

https://catsanddice.com/play-solo-dnd/
https://dndsolo.com/posts/solo-dnd-guide/

[Thane of Fife]

Just to lead off, I'll be honest and say that I think most iterations of D&D are hard RPGs to play solitaire. D&D is generally heavily focused on problem solving, and solo RPGs don't do that very well (it's hard to randomly generate an interesting problem, and it's no fun to make up a problem and then solve it). Thus, solo D&D games, in my experience, have a tendency to focus on just combat and skill checks, which are the less interesting parts of the game. That's not to say it can't be done, but it's not playing to D&D's strengths.

Disclaimer over, you may want some kind of oracle and some kind of GM emulator. An oracle is something which gives you abstract or metaphorical answers to questions and a GM emulator helps to guide what happens. Probably the classic example is the Mythic GM Emulator, which does both, but there are examples like 9 Questions or Perilous Intersections which are just GM emulators, and you can use a Tarot deck or just randomly flip through a dictionary for an oracle (there are lots of examples of both of these things, those are just a few that came to my mind).

Alternatively, if you're looking for a simple game, just using a random dungeon generator that you roll up as you progress can be sufficient.

[Biggus]

Just to lead off, I'll be honest and say that I think most iterations of D&D are hard RPGs to play solitaire. D&D is generally heavily focused on problem solving, and solo RPGs don't do that very well (it's hard to randomly generate an interesting problem, and it's no fun to make up a problem and then solve it). Thus, solo D&D games, in my experience, have a tendency to focus on just combat and skill checks, which are the less interesting parts of the game. That's not to say it can't be done, but it's not playing to D&D's strengths.


What do you mean by "D&D is generally heavily focused on problem solving"? How is D&D more suited to problem-solving than other RPGs?

I'm curious because in the games I've been involved in, the thing that stands out about D&D compared to other RPGs is the heavy combat focus rather than anything else.

[pabelfly]

So here's my question - when I run combat as a GM, I have full control of difficulty. I have full control of what encounters I choose, and if that's too hard, I can decide who to target in combat, what abilities or spells to use, how enemies move and trigger AoO and so forth.

Now if I'm GMing myself, how well I that going to work, knowing exactly how easy I am being on myself against my player-characters?

[MandibleBones]

What kind of resources are you looking for?

There's a couple of websites which discuss it here:

https://catsanddice.com/play-solo-dnd/
https://dndsolo.com/posts/solo-dnd-guide/

Thanks; I've seen both of those and they are extremely helpful as far as system-agnostic information goes. That said, they tend to focus more on 5E-specific resources, which don't address any particular pitfalls or concerns that might arise in a 3.5 solo game. I'm mostly looking to see if anyone has done solo 3.5, and whether there are any sites, actual plays or other resources specific to that system.

I did a couple searches before I posted here, but even searching for 3.5 specific stuff just kind of brings back more 5E, and the answers to similar questions asked by others have broadly come back in two ways:

1. "Play 5E; it's better and also there's a ton of solo play resources."
2. "Don't play D&D; play some other system, because it's better for solo play."

I admit the "just play the 3.5-based computer games and maybe build an NWN mod" from earlier in this thread is a new answer, though I am extremely not interested in building an entire adventure in a mod builder and then playing through it; that kind of takes the fun out of it. (I am currently playing Wrath of the Righteous, and while it's a fun game, it's not scratching the particular itch I have just at present.)

But I do appreciate the answers.

[pabelfly]

I admit the "just play the 3.5-based computer games and maybe build an NWN mod" from earlier in this thread is a new answer, though I am extremely not interested in building an entire adventure in a mod builder and then playing through it; that kind of takes the fun out of it. (I am currently playing Wrath of the Righteous, and while it's a fun game, it's not scratching the particular itch I have just at present.)

But I do appreciate the answers.

I'd suggest checking out Low Magic Age. Its a new 3.5 game with optional rule adjustments, still in Early Access and they're adding content each month. The combat basics, a decent variety of racial options, PHB classes and a few prestige classes are in place, but it is fun and rather cheap.

[Thane of Fife]

What do you mean by "D&D is generally heavily focused on problem solving"? How is D&D more suited to problem-solving than other RPGs?

I'm curious because in the games I've been involved in, the thing that stands out about D&D compared to other RPGs is the heavy combat focus rather than anything else.

I don't mean to say that it's unique to D&D (and certainly not to 3.x D&D). It's hard to explain, but I guess I would say that a lot of D&D is that you're faced with a problem (there's a deep gorge blocking you, you're trying to rescue someone from a manor house, you're looking for treasure in a dungeon) and you use specific resources to try to overcome that problem (you cast fly, you cast speak with animals to talk to a dog and get intelligence, you make a map and search for secret doors in likely places). In my experience, these sorts of things often fall flat in a solo RPG because you're kind of trying to out-think yourself.


Thanks; I've seen both of those and they are extremely helpful as far as system-agnostic information goes. That said, they tend to focus more on 5E-specific resources, which don't address any particular pitfalls or concerns that might arise in a 3.5 solo game. I'm mostly looking to see if anyone has done solo 3.5, and whether there are any sites, actual plays or other resources specific to that system.

One other thing that comes to mind is that I believe there's a series of products called Avalon Quest (or something like that) which are made for solo play in Pathfinder 1e. I would expect they are reasonably back compatible to 3e.

I have done some amount of solo 3.5 myself, running four characters through a series of the old 3e modules that Wizards used to have on their site. I'd say it's really easy to burn yourself out writing up stat blocks or trying to learn a new subsystem or something like that.

Is there a specific kind of game you're interested in? A dungeon crawl, a linear story, and a one-shot story can all call for very different resources when playing solo.

[MandibleBones]

Is there a specific kind of game you're interested in? A dungeon crawl, a linear story, and a one-shot story can all call for very different resources when playing solo.

Something resembling a hexcrawl/dungeon crawl would be what I most want, and I realize a lot of that can be done with dungeon generators and random encounter tables plus some kind of an oracle. What I really want is a kingdom-building game, but short of just trying to run myself through PF1's Kingmaker adventure path (at which point I really would just play the computer game), I'm not holding my breath for that.

[Elves]

GPT-3 baby

[Biggus]

I don't mean to say that it's unique to D&D (and certainly not to 3.x D&D). It's hard to explain, but I guess I would say that a lot of D&D is that you're faced with a problem (there's a deep gorge blocking you, you're trying to rescue someone from a manor house, you're looking for treasure in a dungeon) and you use specific resources to try to overcome that problem (you cast fly, you cast speak with animals to talk to a dog and get intelligence, you make a map and search for secret doors in likely places). In my experience, these sorts of things often fall flat in a solo RPG because you're kind of trying to out-think yourself.


Ah OK, that makes sense.


What I really want is a kingdom-building game, but short of just trying to run myself through PF1's Kingmaker adventure path (at which point I really would just play the computer game), I'm not holding my breath for that.

Not sure if this would be helpful but there's a list here (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/random-events-list.236727/) of random events from Civilization 4. Could be used a sort of random encounter table for a kingdom-building D&D game.

[Anthrowhale]

On the character side, solo players are inherently more fragile since they are one disabling save away from death. This promotes a less risky style of play where you emphasize intelligence & stealth. It also suggests more robust characters. As an example, a Bariaur has a move of 40' (good for running away!), spell resistance of 11+class level (roughly doubling the odds of surviving magical attack), and darkvision (good for sneaking without lights) at LA+1 (easily paid off). A lesser bariaur cloistered cleric with the Kobold and Trickery domains could sneak and avoid traps with a full assortment of cleric spells for recovery. Eventually, they could get access to Greater Spell Resistance in Dragon #304 to give themselves effective magic immunity.

[pabelfly]

As an example, a Bariaur has a move of 40' (good for running away!), spell resistance of 11+class level (roughly doubling the odds of surviving magical attack), and darkvision (good for sneaking without lights) at LA+1 (easily paid off).

I just checked BoED and it has Bariaur at LA +2. Is there something I'm missing to have it at LA 1?

[Anthrowhale]

I just checked BoED and it has Bariaur at LA +2. Is there something I'm missing to have it at LA 1?

Planar handbook, page 8.

[Biggus]

On the character side, solo players are inherently more fragile since they are one disabling save away from death. This promotes a less risky style of play where you emphasize intelligence & stealth. It also suggests more robust characters. As an example, a Bariaur has a move of 40' (good for running away!), spell resistance of 11+class level (roughly doubling the odds of surviving magical attack), and darkvision (good for sneaking without lights) at LA+1 (easily paid off). A lesser bariaur cloistered cleric with the Kobold and Trickery domains could sneak and avoid traps with a full assortment of cleric spells for recovery. Eventually, they could get access to Greater Spell Resistance in Dragon #304 to give themselves effective magic immunity.

In this vein, gestalt would be a good fit for solo play. Also not starting at level 1...

[QuadraticGish]

I've been doing a solo 3.P game for a while. My tool of the trade have been the Mythic GM Emulator and the Solo Adventuring toolkit. The biggest change I have is that the PC gets triple max HP as a way of dealing.

[Yahzi Coyote]

If you want to randomly generate an entire world, and then wander around it defeating monsters and taking over kingdoms, you could use my Sandbox World Generator (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/217951/Sandbox-World-Generator).

At least it's a whole backdrop to play against.

[Crake]

What you're describing is called writing a novel. "Solo RPG" is basically just a roundabout way of saying "telling a story".

Now, while on the surface, that might seem rather different, it depends on your approach. If you write a story with a planned outcome, yes it's rather incredibly different. If you, however, write a story that naturally develops as you write it, making decisions for the characters moment to moment by stepping into their shoes, then the story itself could develop in ways you could never have possibly predicted on the outset.

Now sometimes you might write yourself into a corner with this method, but if you're just doing it as a creative outlet, then let that be what it is, and just enjoy the journey while you're going down it. If you want to roll some dice along the way to help you determine the outcome of various contests between characters, then by all means, keep the dnd spirit alive and roll some dice, but you don't need to, if you just want to tell a fulfilling story.

Of course, if your goal is instead just to play the game for the sake of playing the game, and not for the narrative experience that an RPG presents, then well, playing solo you're not gonna have a great time.


What do you mean by "D&D is generally heavily focused on problem solving"? How is D&D more suited to problem-solving than other RPGs?

I'm curious because in the games I've been involved in, the thing that stands out about D&D compared to other RPGs is the heavy combat focus rather than anything else.

Combat is a kind of puzzle to be fair. Finding a way to overcome your opponents with minimal expenditure of resources on your own behalf.

[JyP]

On my side, I have done a solo play during D&D 4 - from level 1 to level 23. Basically with a ranger able to shoot at long distance, throw axes at medium distance, and melee combat with or without shield according to circumstances. First levels were with random dungeons through the tools provided in D&D4 DMG, then with a generic random dungeon solution, then a tailored story where I had to work with the PC strong points - some completely random monsters would have resulted in TPK too much.

It was interesting at the time, because any questions I had on rules were answered by D&D 4 support line, and I could adapt a bit each time a new D&D4 book was released. But then I feel D&D4 was constrained enough to allow me to create encounters and resolve them, sometimes with NPC allies alongside the PC. D&D 3.5 has so much books and possibilities that I feel it would be too much for me to do both encounters designs and then encounters resolution.

Another fun thing to do in solo would be to play the old Warhammer Quest board game (4 PCs) from level 1 to level 10. Well, I only got to level 9...

[Alabenson]

I actually run 3.5 solo a fair bit as a way to test the various homebrew classes I've created. Essentially I create 5 sample PCs and run them through a 1-20 adventure path to get a feel for how the classes perform in actual play.

So, solo play is doable, but it really depends what you're looking to get out of it. I'd say it works best with a pre-published adventure or something with a similar level of planning, and you're mostly going to get the mechanical aspects of play, rather than any sort of RP, but it is doable.

[MandibleBones]

So a couple things, now that I've gotten into it:

I literally write for a living. There's an enormous difference between "chronicling the life of a roving D&D character as he/she/they seek(s) adventures" and "writing a novel." Plot structure, for instance. If you have to compare it to an existing writing form, it's like a series of interconnected short stories, or a television season, and as with all mediums, those will have their varied forms as well. Additionally, while I greatly appreciate that the answers here seem to be in good faith, for future reference, if someone asks "How do I do X?" or "What resources are there for X?" an answer that boils down to "Don't do X" is never, ever helpful. To anybody.

I extremely appreciated the oracle recommendations; I actually ended up going with the One Page Solo Engine (https://inflatablestudios.itch.io/one-page-solo-engine), as it met my needs (I actually bought Mythic, and I may use it in the future, but not for doing existing content). I'm looking forward to seeing whether incorporating that Sandbox World Generator that Yahzi Coyote built works for hex-crawling next.

As for character, I built a level 4 gestalt character (Forestlord Grey Elf Abjurer 3 / Master Abjurer 1 || Ranger 2 (with literally every feature replaced with an ACF / Duskblade 2 with the dragon magic armor ACF) and ran him through The Burning Plague, which purports to be an adventure for 1st level characters. It had some combat tactics written into the adventure for the mobs, and I made liberal use of the oracle for the town ("Does the town have a cleric?" "Yes." "Does that cleric sell healing potions?" "Yes but..." "Oh, he only has 1d6 of them, so 3."). As a sidebar, that adventure is brutal and I would only recommend it for a 1st-level party played by veterans. Con damage is a hell of a thing.

Recap: The Burning Plague, by Miguel Duran. Spoilers for that adventure.

Ariath stands outside the entrance to the cavernous mines in Duvik's Pass, beneath the Serpentcoil Mountains.


A cool breeze drifts down from the towering peaks of the Serpentcoil Mountains as you behold the entrance to the caverns. The frost-rimed ground is littered with tools, picks and shovels, some of which protrude from soft banks of snow. A single darkened shaft leads into the depths of the mine ahead. The dirt path beneath its wooden support structure is covered with stone debris, a few pieces of which occasionally glint with the slightest hint of ore. No light issues forth from the tunnel. Burnt-out torches are strewn across the floor, their brackets torn from the shaft walls. Behind you, the worn road leads back through the crags to the valley below. Aside from the quiet whistling of the wind, complete silence fills the small clearing within the mountains.

Unable to fully see in the darkness of the mines, he draws his longword, Silverlight, which, true to its names, shines with a silvery light.



The tunnel opens into a small, roughly rectangular chamber. Scattered chunks of silver ore surround an overturned pair of wooden carts. The lower half of what appears to be a human body juts out from beneath one of the cart’s edges. It shows no signs of movement. Dried blood is smeared across the northern wall in several places. Exits lead to the west and the east.

Ariath has no idea how the man died or, indeed, who he is, but he searches the body anyway. He finds and disables a crude trap, salvaging chunks of silver ore worth 200 gp and a thunderstone from the trap. Finding nothing else of interest, he decides to go left, or west.

Moving quietly down the hallway, he listens at the door, hearing the doglike yapping of nervous kobolds afraid to disobey a commander. There are too many of him to risk bargaining, so he bursts through the door like a storm and cuts down one of the Kobolds before they know he's there. Then the battle begins!

Ariath's draconic husk is thick, and the Kobolds cannot find purchase in his armor without excellent luck. There is a comedy of errors as everybody tries to swing and hit each other, before a Kobold does manage that excellent luck, scoring a line across the elf's shoulder with its halfspear.

With a thought of 'To the Hells with that guy in particular,' Ariath cleaves the kobold's head from his shoulder, and the fracus continues. From there, Ariath's victory is a matter of attrition: He takes a few minor scrapes, none as harmful as that first hit that reminded him he is not invincible, but soon the floor is littered with Kobold heads and the elf has a chance to explore the room.


This large, square room houses four long wooden tables, each with a bench on either side. On top of the tables lie a number of wooden bowls and eating utensils. In the southeast corner of the room, a small stewpot steams over a fireplace carved into the floor. A pungent odor hangs in the air.

In addition to the treasure, Ariath finds a small iron key on their bodies. Trying it in the lock he finds at the end of the following corridor, he finds that it fits perfectly... too perfectly. He begins to regret not bringing any healing potions and hopes to find some later on.


This long, narrow room is lined with shelves loaded with foodstuffs and supplies. Heavy burlap sacks are piled atop one another in the corners of the chamber. A few have been torn open, leaving spills of oats and flour along the floor. Several barrels stand in a cluster near the far northern wall.

On edge already because of the earlier trap and the presence of Kobolds, Ariath quickly but carefully finds another in this new room: A sharp wire connected to a ripcord would trigger a flour cloud. What he doesn't see, until it leaps out at him, is the dire weasel hiding behind the flour sacks!

Bitten by the weasel, Ariath finds it attached to his arm, and stabs deep with his sword, but not quite killing it. He feels it leech some of his precious fluids the next moment before he can finally decapitate it and remove it from his arm. The treasure he finds, not least among which is a potion of invisibility, does not seem worth the risk of plague and the damage to his constitution, something he cannot fix on his own.

Without aid, he leaves the mine and returns to the village, feeling lightheaded from his wounds. Thankfully, the town has a cleric of Pelor (3rd level) named Amun, who will cast Lesser Restoration for 60 gp, as well as two castings of Cure Light Wounds for 30 gp each, which Ariath gladly pays. He also sells Potions of Cure Light Wounds, but only has 3 of them. Arath buys them all. He makes a joke about it being too bad the cleric is unable to cast cure disease, but Amun simply takes it as a sincere sentiment and agrees.

Revitalized, Ariath proceeds back to the mind, this time turning right (east) at the fork.


This enormous cavern extends upward for at least 100 feet, climbing high into the bowels of the mountain. Glowing blue-green lichens creep across the rough walls and man-sized stalagmites protruding from the ground in this area, their faint light growing and then diminishing again every few seconds. The illumination occasionally highlights small flecks of silver, which glitter in the face of the great western wall of the cave. Several cables hang down from the edge of a wide hollow within that wall. The hollow penetrates deep into the west face of the cavern and begins about 20 feet above where you stand. The air here feels cool and damp.

Searching carefully, he finds and disables a pit trap that would have been painful to fall into. Guessing their may be kobolds ahead, Ariath casts invisibility, and finds that the kobolds are waiting in an ambush for intruders, led by a leader wearing the robes of a spellcaster.

Not taking any chances, Ariath stabs twice at the leader as the invisibility fades off him, revealing himself to the rest of the kobolds, and then the battle begins anew. Unfortunately, these kobolds are armed with crossbows, and better shots than spearmen. Ariath finds himself deflecting several bolts with his lesser deflection ability, and still some get through, and he finds himself in pain and pincushioned by the time the Kobolds are defeated. The healing potions take care of his wounds, but now he is without them.

Exploring the kobold camp, he finds some treasure, and also two Kobold children, Drac and Krak, whom he tells to stay there (speaking Draconic), as they probably have the plague. He ensures there is food and water left for them and suggests he'll be back later. Terrified, they agree. Ariath again curses that he is terrible with people and wishes he had brought a hireling or something on this quest, and resolves to do so the moment he can afford to do so: Perhaps the conflict with the kobolds was not inevitable after all.


Waves of heat wash through the cave, thickening the air and making breathing difficult. This small, bowl-shaped cavern’s floor is littered with humanoid corpses. Rats skitter through the sea of bodies within the sunken floor, pausing occasionally to nibble at a choice morsel. A host of their brethren lie nearby on their backs, some of them still twitching with a few remnants of life. A tunnel’s opening is visible in the eastern wall of this chamber and, in the distance, the sound of rushing water can be heard.

Moving on, he begins to encounter bodies: Human, kobold, rats, and worse. Clearly Ariath is going in the right direction to find the plague's origin, as this place is a cesspit. He runs through, holding a cloth over his face, hoping to drown out the smell, but misses that there are four zombies amongst the corpses.

Ariath manages to cut one down as they move to surround him, but one does land a slam or to his back, and he can feel the plague begin to set in. The concentrated plague within the room very nearly makes things worse, but Ariath is able to leave before it overcomes him, venturing into the lair of the thing the Kobolds called a demon. Thinking quickly, he quaffs the invisibility potion before entering the room.


A single, jagged pillar of rock lined with glowing blue-green moss emerges from the depths of the pool within the center of this cavern. Water courses down its side from a font near its tip, cascading into the pool below. The pool feeds a wide stream that flows rapidly along the length of the room and then under the rock wall at the southern end of the cave. Several glyphs are carved deep into the stone face of the pillar, their outlines just visible beneath the light of the moss. An eerie sense of discomfort pervades this place.

Sneaking up on the orc, and it is an orc, proves a good idea, as Ariath begins their fight within melee range. However, it looks as though the orc is a comedy character, as Ariath misses his two attacks. The orc attempts a spell, but this time, Ariath strikes true, nearly cleaving the orc in two with his blows. With what may be his final breath, he breathes out a spell of disease, inflicting mindfire on the elf.

Ariath can feel his intelligence slipping away thanks to the magical disease, and answers with his most reliable spell: More stabbing. With the orc's death, the plague is cured and hope restored. The hero of the town, Ariath is able to recuperate from the mindfire there after five days, and also convinces the elated villages to adopt the two orphaned kobold children, who are basically victims in all this. Upon his recovery, the elf finds himself with new confidence, and begins his journey upon the road.

Ariath went from 6,000 xp to nearly 12,000 with the encounters in the adventure, and became level 5 at the end of it (another level of Master Abjurer || Duskblade gained him an extra abjuration spell, another wizard spellcasting level, and finally arcane channeling, which is what this whole build is about). He also gained about 6,500 net gold, which I have yet to spend, between the actual treasure and the trade goods.

It took about three hours, and I had a lot of fun with the adventure.

I do think compiling some resources into a single post for 3.5 solo play may be a good idea for the future, so when I'm not at work, I'll edit what we've got so far into the first post and change the title. Thanks to all who engaged in good faith, and if people want to add more to this thread, I'll try to work those in too!

[Remuko]

So a couple things, now that I've gotten into it:

I literally write for a living.

I extremely appreciated the oracle recommendations; I actually ended up going with the One Page Solo Engine (https://inflatablestudios.itch.io/one-page-solo-engine), as it met my needs (I actually bought Mythic, and I may use it in the future, but not for doing existing content). I'm looking forward to seeing whether incorporating that Sandbox World Generator that Yahzi Coyote built works for hex-crawling next.

As for character, I built a level 4 gestalt character (Forestlord Grey Elf Abjurer 3 / Master Abjurer 1 || Ranger 2 (with literally every feature replaced with an ACF / Duskblade 2 with the dragon magic armor ACF) and ran him through The Burning Plague, which purports to be an adventure for 1st level characters. It had some combat tactics written into the adventure for the mobs, and I made liberal use of the oracle for the town ("Does the town have a cleric?" "Yes." "Does that cleric sell healing potions?" "Yes but..." "Oh, he only has 1d6 of them, so 3."). As a sidebar, that adventure is brutal and I would only recommend it for a 1st-level party played by veterans. Con damage is a hell of a thing.

Recap: The Burning Plague, by Miguel Duran. Spoilers for that adventure.

Ariath stands outside the entrance to the cavernous mines in Duvik's Pass, beneath the Serpentcoil Mountains.



Unable to fully see in the darkness of the mines, he draws his longword, Silverlight, which, true to its names, shines with a silvery light.



Ariath has no idea how the man died or, indeed, who he is, but he searches the body anyway. He finds and disables a crude trap, salvaging chunks of silver ore worth 200 gp and a thunderstone from the trap. Finding nothing else of interest, he decides to go left, or west.

Moving quietly down the hallway, he listens at the door, hearing the doglike yapping of nervous kobolds afraid to disobey a commander. There are too many of him to risk bargaining, so he bursts through the door like a storm and cuts down one of the Kobolds before they know he's there. Then the battle begins!

Ariath's draconic husk is thick, and the Kobolds cannot find purchase in his armor without excellent luck. There is a comedy of errors as everybody tries to swing and hit each other, before a Kobold does manage that excellent luck, scoring a line across the elf's shoulder with its halfspear.

With a thought of 'To the Hells with that guy in particular,' Ariath cleaves the kobold's head from his shoulder, and the fracus continues. From there, Ariath's victory is a matter of attrition: He takes a few minor scrapes, none as harmful as that first hit that reminded him he is not invincible, but soon the floor is littered with Kobold heads and the elf has a chance to explore the room.



In addition to the treasure, Ariath finds a small iron key on their bodies. Trying it in the lock he finds at the end of the following corridor, he finds that it fits perfectly... too perfectly. He begins to regret not bringing any healing potions and hopes to find some later on.



On edge already because of the earlier trap and the presence of Kobolds, Ariath quickly but carefully finds another in this new room: A sharp wire connected to a ripcord would trigger a flour cloud. What he doesn't see, until it leaps out at him, is the dire weasel hiding behind the flour sacks!

Bitten by the weasel, Ariath finds it attached to his arm, and stabs deep with his sword, but not quite killing it. He feels it leech some of his precious fluids the next moment before he can finally decapitate it and remove it from his arm. The treasure he finds, not least among which is a potion of invisibility, does not seem worth the risk of plague and the damage to his constitution, something he cannot fix on his own.

Without aid, he leaves the mine and returns to the village, feeling lightheaded from his wounds. Thankfully, the town has a cleric of Pelor (3rd level) named Amun, who will cast Lesser Restoration for 60 gp, as well as two castings of Cure Light Wounds for 30 gp each, which Ariath gladly pays. He also sells Potions of Cure Light Wounds, but only has 3 of them. Arath buys them all. He makes a joke about it being too bad the cleric is unable to cast cure disease, but Amun simply takes it as a sincere sentiment and agrees.

Revitalized, Ariath proceeds back to the mind, this time turning right (east) at the fork.



Searching carefully, he finds and disables a pit trap that would have been painful to fall into. Guessing their may be kobolds ahead, Ariath casts invisibility, and finds that the kobolds are waiting in an ambush for intruders, led by a leader wearing the robes of a spellcaster.

Not taking any chances, Ariath stabs twice at the leader as the invisibility fades off him, revealing himself to the rest of the kobolds, and then the battle begins anew. Unfortunately, these kobolds are armed with crossbows, and better shots than spearmen. Ariath finds himself deflecting several bolts with his lesser deflection ability, and still some get through, and he finds himself in pain and pincushioned by the time the Kobolds are defeated. The healing potions take care of his wounds, but now he is without them.

Exploring the kobold camp, he finds some treasure, and also two Kobold children, Drac and Krak, whom he tells to stay there (speaking Draconic), as they probably have the plague. He ensures there is food and water left for them and suggests he'll be back later. Terrified, they agree. Ariath again curses that he is terrible with people and wishes he had brought a hireling or something on this quest, and resolves to do so the moment he can afford to do so: Perhaps the conflict with the kobolds was not inevitable after all.



Moving on, he begins to encounter bodies: Human, kobold, rats, and worse. Clearly Ariath is going in the right direction to find the plague's origin, as this place is a cesspit. He runs through, holding a cloth over his face, hoping to drown out the smell, but misses that there are four zombies amongst the corpses.

Ariath manages to cut one down as they move to surround him, but one does land a slam or to his back, and he can feel the plague begin to set in. The concentrated plague within the room very nearly makes things worse, but Ariath is able to leave before it overcomes him, venturing into the lair of the thing the Kobolds called a demon. Thinking quickly, he quaffs the invisibility potion before entering the room.



Sneaking up on the orc, and it is an orc, proves a good idea, as Ariath begins their fight within melee range. However, it looks as though the orc is a comedy character, as Ariath misses his two attacks. The orc attempts a spell, but this time, Ariath strikes true, nearly cleaving the orc in two with his blows. With what may be his final breath, he breathes out a spell of disease, inflicting mindfire on the elf.

Ariath can feel his intelligence slipping away thanks to the magical disease, and answers with his most reliable spell: More stabbing. With the orc's death, the plague is cured and hope restored. The hero of the town, Ariath is able to recuperate from the mindfire there after five days, and also convinces the elated villages to adopt the two orphaned kobold children, who are basically victims in all this. Upon his recovery, the elf finds himself with new confidence, and begins his journey upon the road.

Ariath went from 6,000 xp to nearly 12,000 with the encounters in the adventure, and became level 5 at the end of it (another level of Master Abjurer || Duskblade gained him an extra abjuration spell, another wizard spellcasting level, and finally arcane channeling, which is what this whole build is about). He also gained about 6,500 net gold, which I have yet to spend, between the actual treasure and the trade goods.

It took about three hours, and I had a lot of fun with the adventure.

I do think compiling some resources into a single post for 3.5 solo play may be a good idea for the future, so when I'm not at work, I'll edit what we've got so far into the first post and change the title. Thanks to all who engaged in good faith, and if people want to add more to this thread, I'll try to work those in too!

idk if id be able to have fun playing something like that, but god was reading about it fun! what a tale!

[Seward]

OK, a bit of history for me. I was heavily involved in playtesting Living Greyhawk modules for several years, including writing a couple scenarios that got played locally and being a significant part of training judges (GMs) up on the new modules before each convention.

As part of how I prepared to run modules, and to playtest them, I had a pool of generic characters from each iconic class, leveled at each level between 1 and 16, with WBL appropriate gear of the sort easy to obtain in Living Greyhawk. I then randomly assembled parties, randomized their levels around the expected party level, with 4 person parties being a bit stronger on average, and 6 person parties a bit weaker compared to expected character level.

Living Greyhawk created modules all had statblocks for expected levels from 1 (intro modules), then even numbers. You lost XP and gold if you played outside of a 2 level bracket. So to see which battles were unusually difficult to run (as in might cause player deaths or TPKS with the wrong party - in real life mustering was fairly random, and balanced tables were rare), I would play a 4, 5 and 6 person party for each level tier the module supported before running it for fellow GMs or for players.

To facilitate this I created spreadsheets to run the games for me, with abbreviated statblocks for characters and critters, sometimes maps if I couldn't hold it in my head. And yes, this meant that I had to play both sides, as players and characters. Part of how I managed keeping it real was that the characters were basic, unoptimized designs and I assumed they'd be a bit weaker on average, but that my tactical skill would be above average for a typical real world party. This evened out well enough for my purposes.

And yes, I used these same modules to playtest character ideas to see if they played out ok between level 1-16, as I don't like my characters to be unable to contribute well to a table at any level. So I would build leveling arcs out of these adventures, using the real rewards etc and built parties out of my real characters (I had over a dozen of various levels, a few made it to 16 before the campaign closed).

I'd also done a lot of this as a kid with 1st edition tournament modules (GDQ series, Slave Lords and Temple of Elemental Evil in particular). It took longer to do, as I had to play it out with dice. My spreadsheets could run a 4-5 hour adventure with 3ish hours of combats in less than an hour, although initial prep to understand how a party would handle the noncombat challenges took longer the first time around. Back in the day, it was faster than a real game (because I made all the decisions) but time involved was more similar to real play.
=====================

Anyway to answer the OP question....

1. Build an adventure path for yourself out of published modules. That is the easiest way, in the level ranges you prefer.

2. You will have to build your own party. You can do this as a constructed group or make a game out of recruiting NPCs from the published modules to support your protagonist, making this part of your introduction to each story arc. (way back in 1st edition, I did this to prep the Temple of Elemental Evil, using the NPCs from Village of Hommlet for other party members at times). So you can have a Baldur Gate (protagonist+helpers recruited) or Icewind Dale (entire party created at level 1) CRPG experience with 3.5 modules.

3. Find a way to roll the dice faster. Be it spreadsheets or innovative die rolling strategies (my characters with many attacks have colored attack dice and damage dice that match, and can be rolled in a gigantic handfull, and years of playing Hero Games got me good at rapidly adding up dice), you will want the mechanics to be smooth for yourself before tackling the fun part.

4. You will have to firewall the information your characters don't have, and be realistic about interactions with NPCs. This means you really need to know your character or characters, what they would likely really do given the situation presented in the module. Or you can let the characters develop in play, just listening to your first instinct on each action and then being consistent that such behavior is normal to that character in future similar situations.

That last one is not as hard as it sounds, but like any skill it gets better with practice. Learning how to separate the metagame knowledge from character knowlege is a valuable skill as a player or GM in the normal game. Doing it for yourself in a solo game is just an extension of the same idea. The only person you cheat is yourself, so finding "fair" character behaviors for both PCs and NPCs is part of the fun of the entire process. You are both the GM and the player. It's easier than playing chess against yourself, because the options are much richer, plus the dice may foil what you expected to have happen.

As a solo activity, this sort of thing can be really fun, much more compelling than, say, Solitare. But it takes practice to do it well, like any other thing. I got good at solo games because when I first played D&D, I did not have the opportunities to play the "big modules" in real life, I had only a few other players around and those would only get played if I learned them and ran them myself. As an engineer, the best scale model is 1-1, so preparing to run for real humans, for me, was greatly enhanced if I had a party of my own bumble thorugh the entire story arc first. This served me very well later in life when I did have plenty of players and other GMs around. After over a half century on the planet, those times come and go. If it is your cup of tea, solo games can be pretty fun, and there is a silly amount of 3.5 content out there, including all those Dungeon Magazines etc. You should be able to find enough to make a fun story arc, try it out and see how much you enjoy the process.

[Melcar]

Thanks; I've seen both of those and they are extremely helpful as far as system-agnostic information goes. That said, they tend to focus more on 5E-specific resources, which don't address any particular pitfalls or concerns that might arise in a 3.5 solo game. I'm mostly looking to see if anyone has done solo 3.5, and whether there are any sites, actual plays or other resources specific to that system.

I did a couple searches before I posted here, but even searching for 3.5 specific stuff just kind of brings back more 5E, and the answers to similar questions asked by others have broadly come back in two ways:

1. "Play 5E; it's better and also there's a ton of solo play resources."
2. "Don't play D&D; play some other system, because it's better for solo play."

I admit the "just play the 3.5-based computer games and maybe build an NWN mod" from earlier in this thread is a new answer, though I am extremely not interested in building an entire adventure in a mod builder and then playing through it; that kind of takes the fun out of it. (I am currently playing Wrath of the Righteous, and while it's a fun game, it's not scratching the particular itch I have just at present.)

But I do appreciate the answers.

I have run myself through a few published adventures… that was actually fun enough even though the format having to flip between story pages and combat annexes was annoying!

[DrMartin]

Additionally, while I greatly appreciate that the answers here seem to be in good faith, for future reference, if someone asks "How do I do X?" or "What resources are there for X?" an answer that boils down to "Don't do X" is never, ever helpful. To anybody.



You are 100% correct on this, but to be fair, 3.5 as a solo game is the kind of "how do i fit a square peg in a round hole" kind of question that will invite these kind of answers :)

now to something maybe more useful.

I´m taking Ironsworn as my golden standard of solo rpg, as 1) it´s a system designed from the ground up to be played solo, and 2) I´ve played it just for the heck of it to try out and it´s been fun.

Ironsworn comes from the PbtA / Forged in the Dark kind of games, where players are by design more active in directing where the story goes than in games like d&d and such, where you mostly react to a situation the GM presents. But you still have a GM, whose role is "making moves" in reaction to the players´.

Ironsworn takes the GM role and packs it into it´s oracles, which go beyond providing a basic yes/no answer. "Ask the oracle" is a defined move within the game, and is called as a consequence for many actions. It requires to formulate a question and then pick one (or more) oracle tables to roll on. Oracle tables are divided by theme: There´s "event oracles", "theme oracle", "region" (tied to the setting), "location" (setting-agnostic places), etc. - there´s about 20 in the core book and lots more that folks have made and published online.

Point is, in the game you don´t use the oracle to come up with a "yes/no" answer - you use the system engine to adjudicate success and failure, and use the oracles to enrich that pass/fail with enough information that the consequences and the next steps and decision point for you character emerge organically.

So, aside from suggesting you give Ironsworn a quick try to get a feel for how that works once it is set in motion, the way I´d go about running a solo game in 3.5 is trying to keep the prep to a minimum. You don´t want to railroad yourself, and having prepared a cool set piece battle is a sure fire way to auto steer yourself and your game toward playing that, even to the detriment of what should happen in the story.
Start with a theme, a setting with a few starting location, some contacts and rivals your character has ties to, and some big bads hatching evil plans in the distance, and take it from there. I would take Red Tide´s process for creating and managing a Sandbox game as a guideline here, and maybe something Beyond the Wall lifepath generation (or any other lifepath system) to come up with starting "ties" to the setting.

The tricky part of 3.5 is that a lot of the "how hard it is to do the thing" is left to the GM. On the surface a lot of skills have solid guidelines in fixing the DC, like Jump - but in the end how wide the chasm is it´s determined by the GM. Sometimes it´s clear from the settings and the established "assets" of the story how wide the chasm is, but more often then not is the GM making things up on the spot.

One way to go about it is setting a baseline DC - which might be based on your character level, if you want to emulate one of those RPG where the monsters level up with you like skyrim, or the location you are adventuring in if you want a more "naturalistic" feel, the distance from civilization for a "points of light" settings, or a mix of those. If you have a big looming end of the world event coming up your character is set to stop you could have that affect the "global DC", representing the world getting suckier as the doomsday device is about to be triggered.

You then consult an oracle to modify that base DC, which would tell you if your level 3 character is about to face a "troublesome", "dangerous" , or "epic" encounter (adjust scale to taste). With the implicit premise that you wouldn´t waste time with anything less than "troublesome" - if it can´t be a bother it´s not a challenge and should not require either a die roll or any of your time.

Now some of the oracles i´ve been using with solo play:

https://ironsworn.glitch.me/

https://jamesturneronline.net/game-masters-apprentice/

https://stories-with-dice.github.io/solo-roleplaying-toolkit/

Hope some of this helps.

Let us know how it went!

[MandibleBones]

You are 100% correct on this, but to be fair, 3.5 as a solo game is the kind of "how do i fit a square peg in a round hole" kind of question that will invite these kind of answers :)

Yeah, and indeed I saw a lot of this on other forums as well (Ironsworn in particular was presented multiple times as 'a better alternative', which it probably is, but also not the question I asked? But I do appreciate your getting into why you like Ironsworn for solo play; the others I've seen were basically like 'It's PBtA' as their sole reason for it being their go-to).


The tricky part of 3.5 is that a lot of the "how hard it is to do the thing" is left to the GM. On the surface a lot of skills have solid guidelines in fixing the DC, like Jump - but in the end how wide the chasm is it´s determined by the GM. Sometimes it´s clear from the settings and the established "assets" of the story how wide the chasm is, but more often then not is the GM making things up on the spot.

This is very true of D&D, particularly 3.5 and 5E. I do have the benefit of having years of experience as a DM for this game, too, so I can ask myself "what would I do if a player in my game were asking that question?" and pair that with the oracle for pretty good results.