I am new to D&D just as the other 2 players. I am going to be DM. I asked both players what character they would like to play. First one chose Wood Elf Druid, second chose Wood Elf Ranger. My main concern is if they will be able to play smoothly (fights, checks..). This is the smallest possible party so I will place creatures and challenges accordingly. I'd like to avoid NPCs helping out (aside from plot ones) - no permanent NPC party member - and definitely no one-player-two-characters. I would consider giving a possibility to obtain some sort of creature as an ally - with basic control and maybe some more over time (so the players don't get fuzzy and confused). Some sort of "backdoor" to change stats and make it more powerful/add skills or attacks would be nice if players decided they'd like to progress through campaign with it.
Right now Druid has decided to have Proficiency in Medicine and Nature (from Class) as well as Arcana and History (from Background (Sage) - I wonder which background would give him Arcana and Investigation) and has came up with backbone of his story. As for Ranger, for now, she only specified Race and Class and that she doesn't want to cook. I think I will have to help her a lot with backstory. They currently have no idea what character will be played by the other player. Generally I should be able to do short RP with each of them, make them meet and than start first session together - I have a few ideas.
Also I have some general questions:
Is it possible for Druid to unlearn Cantrips and learn new? How would you handle that?
What are the black marks with, what appears to be, letters "C" or "R" next to spells name?
Is there something in Polish I can give to read so the player understands what and how to play? One of the players doesn't speak English. We can explain and translate some things on the fly but would be nice to just give her one (not too long) thing to read and just jump right into the game. Or do I have to write it myself?
Normally a Druid cannot replace Cantrips, but it is now an optional rule if you purchased Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Even if you have not purchased that book, you could still allow it and let them replace one Cantrip whenever they level up.
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything also has rules for sidekicks (including non-humanoid creatures) and improvements to many Ranger class features, so that's another reason to consider that book. But if you're on a budget and want to give the group a monster companion that improves with the players, you can just give it a Hit Die, Ability Score Improvement and higher Proficiency Bonus whenever the players get that too.
@IamSpostaThanks. I am confused with all these short forms and there's no explanation when I hover over it.
Is it how it works in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything or is there something else to it? I would be more into replacing it with logic-ish explanation rather than just "you can replace it when you level up"... Just as I probably will with gaining Features like Fighting Style, Spellcasting or Wild Shape. "Well.. You level up and can now turn into a beast" sounds lame...
I don't think I will ever purchase the Player’s Handbook in digital, because it's already in free account. I'll just look for Basic Rules in Polish or sth I guess.. For now I'll just buy dice and see if we like it. Than I'll get additional monsters and items.
@InquisitiveCoderIs it how Tasha's Cauldron of Everything handles sidekicks? How is it explained that they are controlled and how player can interact with them? I am on a budget (For now I'll just buy dice). Isn't Hit Die and the rest already in monsters stats? Eg Wolf has d8 and Dire Wolf has d10.. I just roll and add like with levels and use some Proficiency Bonus table.. I'll most likely get some expantions if we like D&D.
It’ll work if you think of it more like a buddy cop situation, and less like a stage production. Tailor your encounters to be able to provide scalability, especially downward scalability. Also, since you only have two players this is good, if one of them is a prima Donna type and likes to talk a bunch. If not, you might find yourself running a puppet show more often. That can be a great way to getting more shy role players to open up. So go for it, have fun!
Yes this will work quite well, both from a role playing perspective but also interns of abilities, both classes have access to healing magic eventually so both can support the other, the Druid with wild shape can tank, or melee well while the ranger provides long range cover, alternativly the ranger can get up close and the Druid support from afar with magic.
The Druid can outfit spells daily and so can be fairly flexiable in terms of what there setup is for the circumstances. Both being elves means they have dark vision so can sneak around at night/underground and get the drop on enemies.
My other suggestion for a 2 player party is house ruling that drinking a potion can be done as a bonus action or an action meaning that they can stock up on healing potions and not waste an attack/spell casting opportunity while also quickly healing up. This way they become a bit more durable and you can go slightly harder on them in combat.
Ranger and Druid provides for a lot of tactics and utility regarding travel, combat, and stealth - I think it could work. Two wood elves gives you good maneuverability, and some cool Feats like Prodigy, Wood Elf Magic, and Elven Accuracy.
Depending on the subclass, you could enhance that even more.
I think ranger-druid would work since those are pretty similar in terms of mindset. You can focus on role-playing their similarities in terms of how they both respect and protect nature, and you can get some good adventure themes from that. In terms of gameplay and combat, rangers are pretty strong offensively and they also gain spell effects at 2nd level and beyond. Druids can hold their own in combat and have better spellcasting ability, with some good offensive spells as well. They can both work with melee roles or ranged roles as well. This means they would work for combat, and you can always adjust the encounter difficulty if needed, or give extra magic items. The two wood elves are a good thing because they both get features like Darkvision and Mask of the Wild that would be less useful if only one character had them.
Overall, I think this would be a good combo for mechanical purposes and even more so role-playing.
@InquisitiveCoderIs it how Tasha's Cauldron of Everything handles sidekicks?
For the most part. The main difference is that Tasha's adds 3 stripped down classes specifically for sidekicks: warrior, expert and spellcaster. The latter two require language, so you can't have a pet wolf that casts wizard spells. Each level in the class adds another hit die to the monster's stat block (e.g. a wolf gets another d8) and since the rules tell you start with a low CR creature, their proficiency bonus won't change until they hit level 5+, at which point you just increase their attack rolls, saves and skills by 1.
If you want to throw in some class features but stick to the Player's Handbook, the warrior is basically a Champion Fighter without Action Surge, the Expert is similar to a Thief Rogue without Sneak Attack, and the spellcaster basically has no class features outside of Spellcasting and is limited to the same number of spell slots and spells known as a Ranger. They basically get just enough passive features to feel like they're on par with what the players can do for free, but none of the flashy features that'd let them upstage a player.
Who controls the sidekicks and how they go about befriending it is totally up to you.
Any combo can be done. The main issue isn't the classes but the party size being small. It will mean smaller encounters than the normal type of encounters that expects 4-5 PCs rather than 2.
I don't recommend sidekicks if you are new. One PC at a time is hard enough for new players and just running the bad guys will be hard enough for the GM.
Instead, I would suggest doing some things to help avoid disaster. For example, instead of rolling hit points or taking the average, take the maximum on the die at each level. In the PHB rules, when you level up, you can get an attribute increase OR take a Feat. I'd consider allowing both (let them go up by +2 in an attribute, AND take a feat of their choice, every 4 levels)... but you probably need the PHB for most of the feats (and some appear in other books like Xanathar's).
I'd also suggest, rather than using the optional rule to let the Druid change a Cantrip once per level, or the Ranger change a spell once per level, allow it one cantrip or spell per long rest. This will help make up for the fact that they don't have several other party members to lean on to cast spells and will help them cover for any skills they are missing.
Finally, at character creation you might want to use an improved stat array. I have had luck with 17-15-13-12-10-8 instead of the standard one. It'll bump their stats a little and make them more survivable at low level.
These things will not dramatically overpower the PCs, but will make up for the lack of team-mates.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thank you all for your input. They have written their backstories and have almost finished dealing with stats etc. There's Wood Elf Druid armed with Club and Shield 10STR, 12DEX, 14CON, 12INT, 16WIS, 11CHA with proficiency in Arcana, History, Medicine, Nature and Perception and there's Wood Elf Ranger armed with Longbow and two daggers 10STR, 17DEX, 10CON, 12INT, 15WIS, 11CHA with proficiency in Animal Handling, Insight, Nature, Perception, Stealth and Survival.
We got confused a bit when we went to choose Favored Enemy for the Ranger. She has chosen Beasts but than popped up "choose a language" and I have no idea which is adequate. I mean she could choose Orcish but it makes no damn sense!
My other suggestion for a 2 player party is house ruling that drinking a potion can be done as a bonus action or an action meaning that they can stock up on healing potions and not waste an attack/spell casting opportunity while also quickly healing up. This way they become a bit more durable and you can go slightly harder on them in combat.
I don't think they have any bonus actions. So what you're suggesting is that they could draw weapon and attack/cast a spell/dash/disengage/doge/help/hide/help (as action), than use movement, than open some door, than take potion out of their backpack and drink it, all while they shout sth? And all this in about 6s (1 turn)? Or alternatively they could drink two potions (1 action + 1 bonus action)?
I don't recommend sidekicks if you are new. One PC at a time is hard enough for new players and just running the bad guys will be hard enough for the GM.
Instead, I would suggest doing some things to help avoid disaster. For example, instead of rolling hit points or taking the average, take the maximum on the die at each level. In the PHB rules, when you level up, you can get an attribute increase OR take a Feat. I'd consider allowing both (let them go up by +2 in an attribute, AND take a feat of their choice, every 4 levels)... but you probably need the PHB for most of the feats (and some appear in other books like Xanathar's).
I was planning on using fixed value rather than rolling. Basically just as if druid always rolled 8 and ranger always rolled 10. I'll consider giving them both +2 attributes and 1 feat. As for sidekicks I'll see how it goes and than figure it out I guess...
I'd also suggest, rather than using the optional rule to let the Druid change a Cantrip once per level, or the Ranger change a spell once per level, allow it one cantrip or spell per long rest. This will help make up for the fact that they don't have several other party members to lean on to cast spells and will help them cover for any skills they are missing.
Makes sense. Probably I'll require some additional time (like 1h) after long rest (it's only 4h for them) to make it happen. Depending on how I decide to explain it. I don't even have idea if druid should know all 0 and 1st level spells and how both of them would gain new spells. I think this needs another forum thread tho.
Finally, at character creation you might want to use an improved stat array. I have had luck with 17-15-13-12-10-8 instead of the standard one. It'll bump their stats a little and make them more survivable at low level.
I decided to go with point buy. Do you suggest giving them like 4 more points to spend (without exceeding base score of 15) or sth?
Any combo can be done. The main issue isn't the classes but the party size being small. It will mean smaller encounters than the normal type of encounters that expects 4-5 PCs rather than 2.
So for example Young Red Dragon would be fine (hard, but fine) for 4 PC at level 8, but 2 PC would have to be at 12lvl
The problem you can run into is when there are too many enemies and they just get too many chances to attack compared to the PCs; this is the idea of action economy. One skill you will want to learn is to make the encounters scalable. This is important for low level parties and new players in general, but especially when the party size is small. I have a group of 2 players I DM for, and I will often start a fight with only 2-3 enemies (depends on enemy CR of course) then if the fight is going too easy, guess what, another orc just came crashing through the door. If they seem to have their hands full as it is, then fine. This lets you tweak the challenge to the right level. Nobody wants a TPK but you also want the fights to be memorable and at least a little challenging.
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Hi,
I am new to D&D just as the other 2 players. I am going to be DM. I asked both players what character they would like to play. First one chose Wood Elf Druid, second chose Wood Elf Ranger. My main concern is if they will be able to play smoothly (fights, checks..). This is the smallest possible party so I will place creatures and challenges accordingly. I'd like to avoid NPCs helping out (aside from plot ones) - no permanent NPC party member - and definitely no one-player-two-characters. I would consider giving a possibility to obtain some sort of creature as an ally - with basic control and maybe some more over time (so the players don't get fuzzy and confused). Some sort of "backdoor" to change stats and make it more powerful/add skills or attacks would be nice if players decided they'd like to progress through campaign with it.
Right now Druid has decided to have Proficiency in Medicine and Nature (from Class) as well as Arcana and History (from Background (Sage) - I wonder which background would give him Arcana and Investigation) and has came up with backbone of his story. As for Ranger, for now, she only specified Race and Class and that she doesn't want to cook. I think I will have to help her a lot with backstory. They currently have no idea what character will be played by the other player. Generally I should be able to do short RP with each of them, make them meet and than start first session together - I have a few ideas.
Also I have some general questions:
Is it possible for Druid to unlearn Cantrips and learn new? How would you handle that?
What are the black marks with, what appears to be, letters "C" or "R" next to spells name?
Is there something in Polish I can give to read so the player understands what and how to play? One of the players doesn't speak English. We can explain and translate some things on the fly but would be nice to just give her one (not too long) thing to read and just jump right into the game. Or do I have to write it myself?
Any advice? ;)
Normally a Druid cannot replace Cantrips, but it is now an optional rule if you purchased Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Even if you have not purchased that book, you could still allow it and let them replace one Cantrip whenever they level up.
The black marks with the C and R stand for “Concentration” spells and “Rituals.”
Rituals: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/spellcasting#Rituals
Concentration (explained under “casting time”):
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/spellcasting#CastingaSpell
You can purchase the Player’s Handbook in Polish in hardcopy, but not in digital.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything also has rules for sidekicks (including non-humanoid creatures) and improvements to many Ranger class features, so that's another reason to consider that book. But if you're on a budget and want to give the group a monster companion that improves with the players, you can just give it a Hit Die, Ability Score Improvement and higher Proficiency Bonus whenever the players get that too.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
@IamSposta Thanks. I am confused with all these short forms and there's no explanation when I hover over it.
Is it how it works in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything or is there something else to it? I would be more into replacing it with logic-ish explanation rather than just "you can replace it when you level up"... Just as I probably will with gaining Features like Fighting Style, Spellcasting or Wild Shape. "Well.. You level up and can now turn into a beast" sounds lame...
I don't think I will ever purchase the Player’s Handbook in digital, because it's already in free account. I'll just look for Basic Rules in Polish or sth I guess.. For now I'll just buy dice and see if we like it. Than I'll get additional monsters and items.
@InquisitiveCoder Is it how Tasha's Cauldron of Everything handles sidekicks? How is it explained that they are controlled and how player can interact with them? I am on a budget (For now I'll just buy dice). Isn't Hit Die and the rest already in monsters stats? Eg Wolf has d8 and Dire Wolf has d10.. I just roll and add like with levels and use some Proficiency Bonus table.. I'll most likely get some expantions if we like D&D.
Back to main topic: Is party Druid-Ranger going to work?
It’ll work if you think of it more like a buddy cop situation, and less like a stage production. Tailor your encounters to be able to provide scalability, especially downward scalability. Also, since you only have two players this is good, if one of them is a prima Donna type and likes to talk a bunch. If not, you might find yourself running a puppet show more often. That can be a great way to getting more shy role players to open up. So go for it, have fun!
Yes this will work quite well, both from a role playing perspective but also interns of abilities, both classes have access to healing magic eventually so both can support the other, the Druid with wild shape can tank, or melee well while the ranger provides long range cover, alternativly the ranger can get up close and the Druid support from afar with magic.
The Druid can outfit spells daily and so can be fairly flexiable in terms of what there setup is for the circumstances. Both being elves means they have dark vision so can sneak around at night/underground and get the drop on enemies.
My other suggestion for a 2 player party is house ruling that drinking a potion can be done as a bonus action or an action meaning that they can stock up on healing potions and not waste an attack/spell casting opportunity while also quickly healing up. This way they become a bit more durable and you can go slightly harder on them in combat.
Ranger and Druid provides for a lot of tactics and utility regarding travel, combat, and stealth - I think it could work. Two wood elves gives you good maneuverability, and some cool Feats like Prodigy, Wood Elf Magic, and Elven Accuracy.
Depending on the subclass, you could enhance that even more.
I think ranger-druid would work since those are pretty similar in terms of mindset. You can focus on role-playing their similarities in terms of how they both respect and protect nature, and you can get some good adventure themes from that. In terms of gameplay and combat, rangers are pretty strong offensively and they also gain spell effects at 2nd level and beyond. Druids can hold their own in combat and have better spellcasting ability, with some good offensive spells as well. They can both work with melee roles or ranged roles as well. This means they would work for combat, and you can always adjust the encounter difficulty if needed, or give extra magic items. The two wood elves are a good thing because they both get features like Darkvision and Mask of the Wild that would be less useful if only one character had them.
Overall, I think this would be a good combo for mechanical purposes and even more so role-playing.
For the most part. The main difference is that Tasha's adds 3 stripped down classes specifically for sidekicks: warrior, expert and spellcaster. The latter two require language, so you can't have a pet wolf that casts wizard spells. Each level in the class adds another hit die to the monster's stat block (e.g. a wolf gets another d8) and since the rules tell you start with a low CR creature, their proficiency bonus won't change until they hit level 5+, at which point you just increase their attack rolls, saves and skills by 1.
If you want to throw in some class features but stick to the Player's Handbook, the warrior is basically a Champion Fighter without Action Surge, the Expert is similar to a Thief Rogue without Sneak Attack, and the spellcaster basically has no class features outside of Spellcasting and is limited to the same number of spell slots and spells known as a Ranger. They basically get just enough passive features to feel like they're on par with what the players can do for free, but none of the flashy features that'd let them upstage a player.
Who controls the sidekicks and how they go about befriending it is totally up to you.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Any combo can be done. The main issue isn't the classes but the party size being small. It will mean smaller encounters than the normal type of encounters that expects 4-5 PCs rather than 2.
I don't recommend sidekicks if you are new. One PC at a time is hard enough for new players and just running the bad guys will be hard enough for the GM.
Instead, I would suggest doing some things to help avoid disaster. For example, instead of rolling hit points or taking the average, take the maximum on the die at each level. In the PHB rules, when you level up, you can get an attribute increase OR take a Feat. I'd consider allowing both (let them go up by +2 in an attribute, AND take a feat of their choice, every 4 levels)... but you probably need the PHB for most of the feats (and some appear in other books like Xanathar's).
I'd also suggest, rather than using the optional rule to let the Druid change a Cantrip once per level, or the Ranger change a spell once per level, allow it one cantrip or spell per long rest. This will help make up for the fact that they don't have several other party members to lean on to cast spells and will help them cover for any skills they are missing.
Finally, at character creation you might want to use an improved stat array. I have had luck with 17-15-13-12-10-8 instead of the standard one. It'll bump their stats a little and make them more survivable at low level.
These things will not dramatically overpower the PCs, but will make up for the lack of team-mates.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thank you all for your input. They have written their backstories and have almost finished dealing with stats etc. There's Wood Elf Druid armed with Club and Shield 10STR, 12DEX, 14CON, 12INT, 16WIS, 11CHA with proficiency in Arcana, History, Medicine, Nature and Perception and there's Wood Elf Ranger armed with Longbow and two daggers 10STR, 17DEX, 10CON, 12INT, 15WIS, 11CHA with proficiency in Animal Handling, Insight, Nature, Perception, Stealth and Survival.
We got confused a bit when we went to choose Favored Enemy for the Ranger. She has chosen Beasts but than popped up "choose a language" and I have no idea which is adequate. I mean she could choose Orcish but it makes no damn sense!
I don't think they have any bonus actions. So what you're suggesting is that they could draw weapon and attack/cast a spell/dash/disengage/doge/help/hide/help (as action), than use movement, than open some door, than take potion out of their backpack and drink it, all while they shout sth? And all this in about 6s (1 turn)? Or alternatively they could drink two potions (1 action + 1 bonus action)?
I was planning on using fixed value rather than rolling. Basically just as if druid always rolled 8 and ranger always rolled 10. I'll consider giving them both +2 attributes and 1 feat. As for sidekicks I'll see how it goes and than figure it out I guess...
Makes sense. Probably I'll require some additional time (like 1h) after long rest (it's only 4h for them) to make it happen. Depending on how I decide to explain it. I don't even have idea if druid should know all 0 and 1st level spells and how both of them would gain new spells. I think this needs another forum thread tho.
I decided to go with point buy. Do you suggest giving them like 4 more points to spend (without exceeding base score of 15) or sth?
So for example Young Red Dragon would be fine (hard, but fine) for 4 PC at level 8, but 2 PC would have to be at 12lvl
The problem you can run into is when there are too many enemies and they just get too many chances to attack compared to the PCs; this is the idea of action economy. One skill you will want to learn is to make the encounters scalable. This is important for low level parties and new players in general, but especially when the party size is small. I have a group of 2 players I DM for, and I will often start a fight with only 2-3 enemies (depends on enemy CR of course) then if the fight is going too easy, guess what, another orc just came crashing through the door. If they seem to have their hands full as it is, then fine. This lets you tweak the challenge to the right level. Nobody wants a TPK but you also want the fights to be memorable and at least a little challenging.