My wife's been curious about my D&D hobby for a while and she's finally expressed interest in playing with me! Hooray!
Understandably, she doesn't want the commitment of joining the regular group I DM for. After all, she's still just dipping her toes into the game and the idea of roleplaying is something she's still getting used to. So, instead, I'm prepping a short, simple duet adventure for us to play. I'm really looking forward to it.
The trick, of course, is balancing. Rather than using the classic "sidekick NPC" or DMNPC, I was considering starting her off at Level 1 with some kind of CR 1/4 animal companion she could control. Figured that would tackle some of the combat balancing issues without having to figure out how to sketch out and RP a fully fleshed out additional party member.
Anyone have any thoughts on this alternative? Good idea? Bad idea? Any mechanical issues I might not be seeing.
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DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
If you're planning to DM it, consider some of the beginner L1 one-shots out there.
Level 1 is a great place for new players to start because there are often far fewer rules and abilities to think about. Even for spellcasters, the limited number of spells make it simple.
One of my favorites is a L1 adventures for a Wizard from the "One Page Mage" which sees a wizard start with some travel and simple ability checks, followed by some village interactions and ability checks to get more guidance, then a small fight on the way to a dungeon, a simple dungeon puzzle, another boss room fight for the MacGuffin and journey home.
Being a spellcaster means she can learn the very beginnings of spells and magic.
what's worked great for me (DMing a campaign for my fiancee) was (inadvertently) letting her become a bit overpowered.
In summary, she is both a Swarmkeeper ranger and a Beastmaster Ranger.
This way she has a sidekick beast and a boost to her own attacks, and also has a horse.
I mainly focus on the problem solving and storytelling side of things, as a good fireball could wipe her and her beasts out (and result in me sleeping on the sofa). Combat is definitely present but I avoid anything too powerful because it wouldn't be fun - multiple smaller enemies with a task to complete besides "kill them all" has proven much more fun!
Doing similar with my wife ( although she isn’t a brand new player and has some experience). I’m running Waterdeep Dragon Heist for her, which is nice because it’s not a combat heavy adventure if you dont want it to be, it’s all about investigating and RP.
We did go the route of her running two characters, she has a rogue/bard as her primary and then a paladin/cleric as her secondary. For her paladin, we are playing it that they are basically her taciturn, no nonsense best friend that is there to support her, but doesn’t want to interact with people, to relieve the RP pressure of two fully engaged characters.
I also had her start her characters at level 3 instead of 1 and gave her a few pieces of starting loot to plug some of the gaps in skill sets having only two characters leaves. It seems to be working well balance wise so far, since the adventure is supposed to be for 4-5 characters starting at level 1. I’ll need to make some adjustments in the future as the adventure catches up to her character levels, but so far is a good balance, challenging but not impossible.
There’s the sidekick rules in Tasha’s. Give her one to shore up her character’s weaknesses.
And as someone who’s been through a very similar situation, my wife didn’t quite get how fun the game is until she played with a larger group. So I’d suggest you explain that while a duet might give her a sense of the game mechanics, it’s really not the full picture until there’s 5 people at a table all trying to figure out out to get a horse up a 50’ cliff before the goblins notice them.
I like that idea of using, essentially a silent sidekick PC. Starting off at a higher level is a good way to go. What I might do is start her off with L3 hit dice at Level 1 just to keep her alive but still keep the regular Class Feature leveled limits so she can learn the mechanics step-by-step.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
And as someone who’s been through a very similar situation, my wife didn’t quite get how fun the game is until she played with a larger group. So I’d suggest you explain that while a duet might give her a sense of the game mechanics, it’s really not the full picture until there’s 5 people at a table all trying to figure out out to get a horse up a 50’ cliff before the goblins notice them.
That makes a ton of sense.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
it’s really not the full picture until there’s 5 people at a table all trying to figure out out to get a horse up a 50’ cliff before the goblins notice them.
I don't recall giving permission for outsiders to spy in on my party's sessions!!
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Hi Smart Folks!
My wife's been curious about my D&D hobby for a while and she's finally expressed interest in playing with me! Hooray!
Understandably, she doesn't want the commitment of joining the regular group I DM for. After all, she's still just dipping her toes into the game and the idea of roleplaying is something she's still getting used to. So, instead, I'm prepping a short, simple duet adventure for us to play. I'm really looking forward to it.
The trick, of course, is balancing. Rather than using the classic "sidekick NPC" or DMNPC, I was considering starting her off at Level 1 with some kind of CR 1/4 animal companion she could control. Figured that would tackle some of the combat balancing issues without having to figure out how to sketch out and RP a fully fleshed out additional party member.
Anyone have any thoughts on this alternative? Good idea? Bad idea? Any mechanical issues I might not be seeing.
DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
If you're planning to DM it, consider some of the beginner L1 one-shots out there.
Level 1 is a great place for new players to start because there are often far fewer rules and abilities to think about. Even for spellcasters, the limited number of spells make it simple.
One of my favorites is a L1 adventures for a Wizard from the "One Page Mage" which sees a wizard start with some travel and simple ability checks, followed by some village interactions and ability checks to get more guidance, then a small fight on the way to a dungeon, a simple dungeon puzzle, another boss room fight for the MacGuffin and journey home.
Being a spellcaster means she can learn the very beginnings of spells and magic.
Click here to get this adventure in PDF for FREE!
what's worked great for me (DMing a campaign for my fiancee) was (inadvertently) letting her become a bit overpowered.
In summary, she is both a Swarmkeeper ranger and a Beastmaster Ranger.
This way she has a sidekick beast and a boost to her own attacks, and also has a horse.
I mainly focus on the problem solving and storytelling side of things, as a good fireball could wipe her and her beasts out (and result in me sleeping on the sofa). Combat is definitely present but I avoid anything too powerful because it wouldn't be fun - multiple smaller enemies with a task to complete besides "kill them all" has proven much more fun!
Currently she is on the way to a Heist.
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Doing similar with my wife ( although she isn’t a brand new player and has some experience). I’m running Waterdeep Dragon Heist for her, which is nice because it’s not a combat heavy adventure if you dont want it to be, it’s all about investigating and RP.
We did go the route of her running two characters, she has a rogue/bard as her primary and then a paladin/cleric as her secondary. For her paladin, we are playing it that they are basically her taciturn, no nonsense best friend that is there to support her, but doesn’t want to interact with people, to relieve the RP pressure of two fully engaged characters.
I also had her start her characters at level 3 instead of 1 and gave her a few pieces of starting loot to plug some of the gaps in skill sets having only two characters leaves. It seems to be working well balance wise so far, since the adventure is supposed to be for 4-5 characters starting at level 1. I’ll need to make some adjustments in the future as the adventure catches up to her character levels, but so far is a good balance, challenging but not impossible.
There’s the sidekick rules in Tasha’s. Give her one to shore up her character’s weaknesses.
And as someone who’s been through a very similar situation, my wife didn’t quite get how fun the game is until she played with a larger group. So I’d suggest you explain that while a duet might give her a sense of the game mechanics, it’s really not the full picture until there’s 5 people at a table all trying to figure out out to get a horse up a 50’ cliff before the goblins notice them.
I like that idea of using, essentially a silent sidekick PC. Starting off at a higher level is a good way to go. What I might do is start her off with L3 hit dice at Level 1 just to keep her alive but still keep the regular Class Feature leveled limits so she can learn the mechanics step-by-step.
DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
That makes a ton of sense.
DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
I don't recall giving permission for outsiders to spy in on my party's sessions!!