How to make up for "missing" player?

[Adumbration]

I'll be at some point DMing - for the first time, I might add - an adventure, "A Dark and Stormy Knight." It's a first level adventure, meant for 4 players. I have 3.

The questions is, how can I make up for the missing player? I've been looking at the Unearthed Arcana bloodlines. Maybe I should give a major bloodline each for free? It would also be a common factor between them. Or should I just stick with high rolling method, or make it so that everyone starts with certain amount of experience? Any other ideas?

[kamikasei]

Way #1: have at least one player with a non-sucky hybrid class. E.g., instead of both a wizard and a rogue, have a beguiler. Not as versatile, but can do a lot of what you need from both classes. This relies on the players being flexible in their builds.

Way #2: give them something to cover the niche. A healing wand to cover for the cleric, an item of knock for the rogue... actually, as I recall, there wasn't a huge amount of trap/lock action in that module, so a bit of caution should cover you.

Have the players expressed preferences yet as to what they'd like to play?

[Kizara]

1) Player 1: Druid

2) Player 2: Cleric

3) Player 3: Barbarian (I'd say wizard, but its a 1st-level adventure)

[Sstoopidtallkid]

1) Player 1: Druid

2) Player 2: Cleric

3) Player 3: Beguiler (I'd say wizard, but its a 1st-level adventure)

Fixed. You need a skillmonkey at every level, and the Riding Dog has melee covered.

[de-trick]

or you can make a NPC, dumb barbarian type, and has respect for the leader of the party and listens to them. Since he would have a low int and wisdom he would not make any major choices for the group.

[daggaz]

Just run it with three players, regardless of what they want to be. Its a very simple adventure designed for lvl one's anyhow, so there are no tricky places where you absolutely have to have skill X or spell Y.

Just maybe remove an orc or two from the beginning if you need, depends on how new your players are really.

[Kizara]

Also, just give your players a better point buy (I'd say about 20% higher then normal for your group). This will not only allow you to play your adventure with just 3 PCs, but said PCs will love this solution. :)

[crimson77]

Any other ideas?

Have an NPC join them that you control or give one of the PCs a henchman that they control.

Or do nothing and scale back the monsters a little bit if you see them having a problem.

I would not recommend you giving PCs a bonus power because you might regret that later.

[Jayngfet]

make an npc sorcerer, make him hotheaded and brash, prone to fits of rage

thanks to this he won't be able to make many decisions, and he's so squishy that he cant take away from combat much.

[Adumbration]

All right, I think I'll just give them high stats. But I also might give them some beginning xp, so that they'll level up at the end of the adventure. Is there anything wrong with that?

[Zincorium]

All right, I think I'll just give them high stats. But I also might give them some beginning xp, so that they'll level up at the end of the adventure. Is there anything wrong with that?

As to the leveling, not really, it adds a benefit of everyone learning about leveling up to the overall experience as well as making everyone tougher. The only thing that might come up is an expectation of leveling up every adventure. This may or may not be a problem depending on your DMing style.

The high stats may cause players to put high stats where they aren't immediately necessary, and while that may be good for well-roundedness, it doesn't change the character's power that much. The key is to not punish players for rounding out their characters, the mechanical reward is high enough that your input should be to encourage it if you're going to do anything.

[SoD]

Also, just give your players a better point buy (I'd say about 20% higher then normal for your group). This will not only allow you to play your adventure with just 3 PCs, but said PCs will love this solution. :)

We don't use point buy. We roll for stats. Unless this is going to be otherwise, Adum?

Note, I like the idea of a major bloodline, and also remember that if it's not going to be an ongoing one, we won't need to worry about taking a level in bloodline. Also, 3 gestalt characters are meant to be the equivilant of 4 non-gestalt of one level higher (or something like that).

[CrimsonShade]

:D, you could do what I do when you need to change things a bit in the PCs favor. Your dice rolls are secret anyway. Give the PCs a little preference. It's fairly simple to implement, doesn't break the game too much, and since you're short a player, they'll get more XP anyway, so it'll even out in the long run. Its also adjustable on the fly. You don't want to run the risk of weakening the monsters too much, or not making them weak enough, non?

[Da Beast]

My group plays a lot of gestalt campaigns for just this reason.