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View Full Version : How to run a (Rogue) solo session? (3.5)



The Glyphstone
2008-08-19, 06:29 PM
I'm trying to put together a short mini-adventure for one of the players of my group, who's missed the last few regular sessions with his character thus 'sidelined'. To compensate, I'm planning to run a short one-person session for him to cover what his character was up to during the party's regular adventure, but I don't want to screw it up.

Backstory 101:
The character in question is a Human Rogue with the Intermediate Gold Dragon Bloodline - specifically, a Rogue 7/Dragon Devotee 2/Gold Bloodline 2, ECL11 altogether. If you haven't guessed, he likes dragons.

No ranks in UMD. In a previous session, the party managed to free a Shadow Dragon from magical stasis, and in typical draconic fashion, it decided to reward them by allowing them to become its minions/servants. Thus spawns a side-quest arc with the main party running around the Plane of Shadow recovering hoards the dragon concealed long ago before its capture, and meanwhile, the rogue in question is chosen to stay behind for 'education' (effectively making him the Shadow's Exarch, though I don't intend for the Great Game to play any role beyond a passing mention). The end result of this will be to exchange his Gold Bloodline for the Shadow Creature template out of Lords of Madness.

Now that that's out of the way...how exactly do I go about designing a short adventure for a solo rogue? He's not going to have any healing support on his own besides potions, and he's a bit fragile due to mediocre CON and a long string of bad HP rolls.

CASTLEMIKE
2008-08-19, 06:33 PM
Adventure designed for a level 6-8 party might work tweaked for a single PC.

The Ghost's of Ariel could be tweaked with a Gold Dragon and Elf theme. (Success could empower his Bloodline to Major without costing him a level or grant him the +1 LA Draconic Bloodline paid down (+2 ST, Con and Char to help those poor ability and hit point rolls). I use a house rule that the Dragon Claws can be psionic/spell-like and usable 3/day but a shifter mechanic also works.

Hasken's Manor could be interesting perhaps with a Pseudo Dragonet and some other mischievous fey.

Shoals of Intrigue could be interesting.

The Ministry of Winds could be used for a campaign hook.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b

de-trick
2008-08-19, 06:37 PM
make him use skills, let him use those 8+int skill points

Dr Bwaa
2008-08-19, 07:42 PM
give him a largely RP, political or intrigue session. The best DM I know once made up a murder mystery on the spot for a friend and I as a "short side quest" while there were only the two of us, a gnome bard and a halfling rogue (ECL about 14). This "short side quest" of his lasted a little over 11 hours of RL time, and was killer the whole way through. He developed a murder mystery and a few important NPCs and an actual plot for the thing, and off we went. We ended up enlisting the aid of a tentacle-fetish duergar and his homemade Adamantine Golem, as well as a prototype flying tank named the OmniGorgon5000, in order to fight off a huge band of druidic were-bear/treant eco-terrorists who nearly managed to sink Lantan. That was after we'd spent a bunch of time trying to actually figure out who was stealing from this inventing company and sabotaging projects, investigated a strange cult of squirrels (turned out to be associated with the terrorists), learned a thing or two about inventing ourselves, and so on. It was one of the best sessions I've ever had (plus, it culminated in huge statues of us being built in town square, and the ability to enlist The Darvish (what the duergar called himself) anytime we needed to. If that bard ever needs a new cohort or an instant army of followers, she knows where to get it).

The Glyphstone
2008-08-20, 09:15 AM
Ok...I'm not looking for a Gold/Elf type theme on this so much as a Shadow theme - the goal is to play out the process of him becoming a Shadow Creature and 'formally' bonding to the shadow dragon's service - effectively a test of sorts for said dragon to make him prove his worth.

Using a prefab adventure for low-level characters isn't a bad idea, I'll look in to those.

Wreckingrocc
2008-08-20, 09:24 AM
1st: Don't roll for HP. Use standard (Max first level, half for every other level (2.5 for d4, 3.5 for d6, 4.5 for d8, 5.5 for d10, 6.5 for d12) and round down).

2nd: Have a quest involving spying and stealth. Don't include much combat, unless he attacks someone (who should be alone) or is found.

Maybe an assassination would be cool.

He could kill the leader of a cult devoted to an enemy being of the dragon. (Ex: the half-dragon/dragonborn [who everyone thinks is descended from the gods {the evil dragon}] leader of a cult who follows another evil dragon)

Why did he give himself low Constitution? It has a monopoly in 3.5 (as does Intelligence).

Rogues should have:
Highest Dex
2nd Highest Int
3rd Highest Con
4th Highest Str
5th/6th Wis/Cha based on skill selections.

Another_Poet
2008-08-20, 09:35 AM
1st: Don't roll for HP. Use standard (Max first level, half for every other level (2.5 for d4, 3.5 for d6, 4.5 for d8, 5.5 for d10, 6.5 for d12) and round down).

That's worse than rolling.

I hope what you meant to say was full at first, then take half, rounding down on even levels and rounding up on odd levels. That gives exactly average hp after first level, whereas what you wrote gives below-average hp.

CASTLEMIKE
2008-08-20, 09:57 AM
Ok...I'm not looking for a Gold/Elf type theme on this so much as a Shadow theme - the goal is to play out the process of him becoming a Shadow Creature and 'formally' bonding to the shadow dragon's service - effectively a test of sorts for said dragon to make him prove his worth.

Using a prefab adventure for low-level characters isn't a bad idea, I'll look in to those.

FRCS has the +1 LA Shadowwalker template for followers of Mask who undergo a ritual.

To bad there isn't a Shadow Bloodline perhaps the Gold Dragon Bloodline could be changed to a Major Shadow Dragon Bloodline:

1st +2 Hide
2nd Alertness
3rd +1 Dex
4th Cold Resistance 5 or 5 +1/HD
5th Shadow Affinity +2
6th +1 NAC
7th +2 Move Silently

The Glyphstone
2008-08-20, 11:52 AM
His Con isn't that miserable...I think it's a 12 now. Its so low because he also rolled his stats, and got a bad spread. The game's been going for a while (Started at Lvl1, 10 levels later over 9 months or so), and when it started, everyone (me included) was new, so we rolled everything including stats and HP.

On the bloodline substitution - thats a neat concept, but I'm going to end up giving him the Shadow Creature template out of Lords of Madness. Has some nice goodies, including Hide in Plain Sight outside of direct sunlight (very useful for a rogue).


The assassination quest I like quite a bit, actually...Shadow Dragons are Usually Evil, this particular one is nothing unusual, the character himself is Neutral with some Evil tendencies, and it fits quite well with the idea of the dragon trying to re-establish himself in the Game's heirarchy. Going after a rival dragon's Exarch works nicely.

The Glyphstone
2008-08-21, 10:56 AM
Alright, I've settled on using and adapting the Shoals of Intrigue (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030228a) (8th level adventure) - now I need to decide how to boost the character, temporarily, so he can survive it.

A temporary DMPC is the last resort - he'd have more fun doing it on his own. I'll probably just tone down the various encounters and give him a bunch of consumables to help out...

It's underwater, so a few potions of Underwater Breathing and Freedom of Movement will go a long way towards evening the odds. Maybe some Invisibility potions, and of course a bunch of Cure potions...any other suggestions? Non-potion wondrous or mundane stuff to give him?

Another_Poet
2008-08-21, 12:11 PM
Have his Shadow Dragon mentor/boss give him some kindof blessing - effectively Bear's Endurance, Longstrider, Cat's Grace and Resistance on him for the duration of the quest. Or a fixed time period, if you want to make him hussle.

If it's too weak add Haste; if it's too strong drop the Cat's Grace and maybe Resistance.