I am going to be running the short campaign "The House of Lament" (the one in Van Richter's Guide to Ravenloft), but do not have enough players not fit the suggested 4 to 6 (I only have 3). What should I do?
Depends on the group - honestly a party of 3 well balanced characters - Paladin / Sneaky Bard / Cleric come to mind - should be fine - particularly if you either let them roll their stats on D&D beyond until they have a strong character or start them with heroic array. Beyond that I would just run with it.
Now if its a party of 3 wonky sub optimal classes well - maybe do a few one shots to get them to level 3 then run them through that adventure as their levels will make up for the numbers of players and their poor party composition (probably)
Thank you! Do you have any suggestion on what level they start at (the adventure suggests lvl 1)? Cause the adventure is essentially a more interesting dungeon crawl with battle after battle after battle, and my players tend to die very quickly, as in rolling death saves 4 rounds in against a CR 2 creature.
Thank you! Do you have any suggestion on what level they start at (the adventure suggests lvl 1)? Cause the adventure is essentially a more interesting dungeon crawl with battle after battle after battle, and my players tend to die very quickly, as in rolling death saves 4 rounds in against a CR 2 creature.
This is likely because a single CR2 monster is considered a Deadly encounter for three level 1 characters. A TPK is certainly a likely outcome depending on exactly which CR2 is involved.
A Bandit Captain for example is a CR2. They have AC15, 65 hit points and 3 attacks/rd doing an average of 17 damage if all three attacks happen to hit. This is enough to take out a level 1 character and leave them rolling death saves in the first round (if the three attacks happen to hit) and unless they roll a 20 or someone uses an action to heal them ... they won't be rejoining the fight.
Basically a CR2 against 3 level 1 characters is generally a DM mistake unless the DM knows the players are good at tactics and strategy and they have optimized their characters ... even then, a bit of bad luck, even against an optimized party, would be a TPK. In tier 1, level 2 makes a huge difference in survivability.
A CR2 against a party of three level 2 characters is considered a Hard encounter so the party is much more likely to survive - though the CR2 might still be able to permanently kill a character if they finish them off when they go down.
Thank you for this advice, though you might have misunderstood. What I was wondering was what a good equivalent level would be if 3 players are playing a 4 - 6 person level 1 campaign. (i.e. level 4). (though I doubt that would be good).
To answer both posts David42 is absolutely correct from a pure CR vs party POV he is 100% on point.
That said - generally speaking I wont have a mob at low levels keep hitting a pc after they are down. Furthermore as a house rule prior to level 10 I generally give players a pass on the first round of death saves - so if the healer or a player that can heal is up they get to get bounced back up before even making a save.
To answer RRRogue16's question - if your players are a group of un-optimized pc's I think 3 level 3 pc's running a level 1-4 campaign is fair. Clearly they are not min maxers and playing for the RP... so let them have 2 levels (IE getting to level 3) so they can more easily deal with the adventure and have fun doing it.
I am going to be running the short campaign "The House of Lament" (the one in Van Richter's Guide to Ravenloft), but do not have enough players not fit the suggested 4 to 6 (I only have 3). What should I do?
Overjoyed follower of Jeff, the Evil Roomba!
Depends on the group - honestly a party of 3 well balanced characters - Paladin / Sneaky Bard / Cleric come to mind - should be fine - particularly if you either let them roll their stats on D&D beyond until they have a strong character or start them with heroic array. Beyond that I would just run with it.
Now if its a party of 3 wonky sub optimal classes well - maybe do a few one shots to get them to level 3 then run them through that adventure as their levels will make up for the numbers of players and their poor party composition (probably)
Thank you! Do you have any suggestion on what level they start at (the adventure suggests lvl 1)? Cause the adventure is essentially a more interesting dungeon crawl with battle after battle after battle, and my players tend to die very quickly, as in rolling death saves 4 rounds in against a CR 2 creature.
Overjoyed follower of Jeff, the Evil Roomba!
This is likely because a single CR2 monster is considered a Deadly encounter for three level 1 characters. A TPK is certainly a likely outcome depending on exactly which CR2 is involved.
A Bandit Captain for example is a CR2. They have AC15, 65 hit points and 3 attacks/rd doing an average of 17 damage if all three attacks happen to hit. This is enough to take out a level 1 character and leave them rolling death saves in the first round (if the three attacks happen to hit) and unless they roll a 20 or someone uses an action to heal them ... they won't be rejoining the fight.
Basically a CR2 against 3 level 1 characters is generally a DM mistake unless the DM knows the players are good at tactics and strategy and they have optimized their characters ... even then, a bit of bad luck, even against an optimized party, would be a TPK. In tier 1, level 2 makes a huge difference in survivability.
A CR2 against a party of three level 2 characters is considered a Hard encounter so the party is much more likely to survive - though the CR2 might still be able to permanently kill a character if they finish them off when they go down.
Thank you for this advice, though you might have misunderstood. What I was wondering was what a good equivalent level would be if 3 players are playing a 4 - 6 person level 1 campaign. (i.e. level 4). (though I doubt that would be good).
Overjoyed follower of Jeff, the Evil Roomba!
To answer both posts David42 is absolutely correct from a pure CR vs party POV he is 100% on point.
That said - generally speaking I wont have a mob at low levels keep hitting a pc after they are down. Furthermore as a house rule prior to level 10 I generally give players a pass on the first round of death saves - so if the healer or a player that can heal is up they get to get bounced back up before even making a save.
To answer RRRogue16's question - if your players are a group of un-optimized pc's I think 3 level 3 pc's running a level 1-4 campaign is fair. Clearly they are not min maxers and playing for the RP... so let them have 2 levels (IE getting to level 3) so they can more easily deal with the adventure and have fun doing it.
Lets not forget D&D is about having fun.
Thank you. I am running it now starting at 3rd level.
Overjoyed follower of Jeff, the Evil Roomba!