don't split the party

[aart lover]

don't EVER split the party. i learned that lesson the hard way. i was the fighter. our party comprised of a fighter(me), ranger, wizard, rogue, and a cleric. we were good (aligned) adventurers delving into yet another dungeon to increase our wealth. we found ourselves at a fork in the path, so naturally we split up. i took the ranger with me, and and wizard, rogue, and cleric went right. me and the ranger walked for a bit, and were confronted by two death knights guarding one of the treasure rooms. we fought them for 2 rounds b4 he took an unholy flames to the face, and died. yelling " YOU BASTARDS!!!" i pwned them in a few more rounds, leaving me wounded, but not dead. the other half of the party wasn't faring much better. the wizard failed his reflex save trying to dodge a trap, and was subsequently vaporized. the cleric put his ashes in a jar b4 moving on. the trap had an area effect so the cleric and wizard were on the brink of death as well. the hub-bub resulted in the alert of a few dozen hobgoblins we had previously sneaked past. we eventually fought them off, but it was close...really close... so close it almost resulted in complete party annihilation. we met up and kept moving forward toward the objective. so we loaded up on treasure(about 30,000 gp worth ). well the ranger and wizard were eventually raised, but we never forgot the lesson we learned, NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY!!! well actually it was pretty funny, but still...i mean, unholy flames to the face? hilarious! anybody else care to share their adventuring mishaps?

[Elric VIII]

I just got back from a session today, where we split the party. It went a bit better than that. We were in a seaside village that was being attacked by pirate yuan-ti. There were two large battles that we saw. One with the yuan-ti Sorcerer, hurling fireballs everywhere, and his escort. The other was described as awkwardly shambling humanoids (we assumed that the DM meant undead). Our Warblade/Dervish and Swashbuckler/Rogue went after the Yuan-ti, the Warblade was enervated for 4 levels, which stuck around while also being attacked by demons. The other battle was covered by the Sorcerer and me, the Cleric. What we found wasn't undead, it was a group of flesh golems. The Sorcerer couldn't deal any damage to them, which left me to Divine Power, Divine Favor, Law Devotion myself and slowly pick off the golems as the charged the Sorcerer and nearly killed him. The Rogue and Warblade made it our very hurt, but alive. The moral of the story: Spell Immunity can suck my Divine Power.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Man, that's one of The Rules. Don't split the party, don't sunder treasure, don't touch the statue, and KITE THE OOZE.

[Oracle_Hunter]

A handy tune to remind you of this simple rule

[Dr.Epic]

Man, that's one of The Rules. Don't split the party, don't sunder treasure, don't touch the statue, and KITE THE OOZE.

What about get ye flask?

[RandomLunatic]

What about get ye flask?

Do not be silly. Everybody knows you cannot get ye flask.

[grimbold]

also dont turn on everybody else in the party for some shady guy you just met ;)

[Rapidghoul]

In my first campaign we had six characters. A bard (me), fighter, ranger, rogue, wizard, and druid.
I got sucked into a portal. The fighter jumped in after me, followed by the wizard and ranger (all good aligned). The rogue and druid (neutral aligned, though played more evil) stuck around the dungeon, thinking it "too dangerous" to follow us. They then wander around and go into another portal where one nearly dies. The other gets captured by warring factions of whatever realm they went to, and the nearly dead one somehow made it back to where we started.
Meanwhile, in our portal that was "too dangerous", I convinced two mephits (with a bit of luck, a ridiculous high Diplomacy check, and bard magic) to not only not attack us, but had them lead us around the dungeon, safely bypassing all the monsters and leading us to the magical macguffin we needed to get out. The mephits got to leave the dungeon, our part of the party got out safely, and the other two members nearly died.
We never found out what happened as the group broke up before we went to get the captured druid, but yeah, splitting up the party didn't work out so great.

[Escheton]

Make sure the scout is both sneaky and durable.
Oh...and fast, so he/she can flee the scene and cower behind the meatshield asap.

[aart lover]

Make sure the scout is both sneaky and durable.
Oh...and fast, so he/she can flee the scene and cower behind the meatshield asap.

hey! i resent that! now get behind me while i fight these guys!

[aart lover]

A handy tune to remind you of this simple rule

yes, never let the rogue out of sight! they'll rob you blind! lol

[tahu88810]

As a DM, I've had the players split the party, and I've purposefully split the party, on multiple occasions. It isn't that difficult to run a game in that manner, it just requires a lot of effort. It also isn't difficult for the players to survive, provided they -and- the DM acknowledge the fact that they aren't at full strength when away from the group. Usually, the party consists of around 5 people.

Currently the party consists of 2 characters, and there's actually a small plotline coming up in the game I'm currently running where one person will be going to Calimshan while the other remains in Waterdeep.

[Tyndmyr]

Party splitting is viable, but only when done for a practical reason.

"Wait here, while the stealthy guys sneak ahead to check it out" is a practical reason for splitting up.

"Huh, a fork in the tunnel. Lets half of us go each way" is not. No more so than "Well, gee, one of us just died terribly. Rather than getting help, I'll go check it out alone. You, go take a shower or something."

[aart lover]

yes, that is true. i shouldn't have been so broad. i should've said " be smart about splitting the party", instead.

[Shade Kerrin]

Actually, in my games we have split the party several times, and it tends to go well for us. One especially good case was "We need to deliver this message ASAP, and I have enough stealth to laugh at the -10 penalty for moving too fast." Goblins are fun...

[Koury]

Aside from sending forward scouts, my group has a strong aversion to splitting the party.

I still managed to Dominate two of them with that vampire.

[Escheton]

Which is a great way of splitting a party, then have the split party duke it out.
Maze and other hostile transportation spells are also a good way of spitting the party. As are certain types of traps.

[Koury]

Which is a great way of splitting a party, then have the split party duke it out.

Yes, yes it is.

The party was pretty confused when, upon initiating combat with the vampire (they didn't know he was a vampire, just that he had some explaining to do) the battlefield control Wizard laid out where she was casting her Glitterdust (sculpted even!).

"What? You'll get me there! You're not even catching the guy in the spell!"