I’m planning on attempting to run a sandbox campaign through my homebrew world, thing is there’s only going to be one player. I’ve DMed before, though admittedly I’m not the best at it. So I wanted to see if anybody had any advice on how they would balance encounters or any other events that normally would be solved with a standard party.
For information, the single party member has multiple personalities, each one represented through a different class (a rogue, sorcerer, fighter, and a bard), so each day could be a ‘different person’ facing the current objective. I’m not so much worried about how they’ll know what’s going on, as I am about making the adventure either too easy or too hard.
I understand everyone’s input on the worry that as soon as they go down the whole campaign ends, and that particularly at low levels that’s a problem. As such I have workaround to make it easier, each ‘personality’ is its own character. When one goes down another takes its place, there’s more to it than that of course but that’d take a long time to explain, to sum it up it’s a form of divine magic, not simply DID.
Why just one player? It’s something that my wife and I wanted to try together. My world is also far from fleshed out, so it’ll help me to create more details (and quite frankly make a maiden voyage through it) at our own pace.
Use a NPC sidekick that either you control or the player controls. This can be in the form of a hired henchmen or just a good friend that's tagging along on the adventure. You can have other NPCs join more difficult encounters but then leave off on their own when it's done. Maybe they find a prisoner and help them escape, or a lone bounty hunter needs some help bringing in a suspect. You would still let the player make the decisions, the NPCs would just be there for backup. Tasha's has rules for sidekicks if you need it.
The multiple personality/class issue is far more difficult for a DM - build a day's encounters for a rogue, and they might not work for a sorcerer or fighter.
Off the top of my head, to address the "multiple personality" thing, let the character build four different characters using the same stat array and race (so for instance they all allocate a 17, 16, 14, 12, 12, 8, but each version distributes those differently) At the end of every long rest, they can choose which one they're playing that day (or roll a d4 to determine randomly?). Tons more work for the player, and for you, but that lets them build "bob the fighter, bob the rogue, bob the cleric, and bob the wizard," all of which are built in a way to make that version of bob effective, without the player needing to find "the one multiclass character to rule them all!" that can perform all those rolls.
There's an old D&D 3.5 alternate rule called "Gestalt" characters, which lets you take two classes every time you level up, getting the benefit of both. In 5E it would be even easier to let your player use Gestalt classes than it was at 3.5: they get all the features of both, but anything that overlaps (like say, what hit dice do they use for the new level's HP?), just have them pick the better of the two. A level 10 Gestalt Fighter/Rogue would be a level 10 character, with the class features of a level 10 fighter and a level 10 rogue simultaneously... way too overpowered for normal play, but possibly a good way to empower a solo player. Then, they don't need to mechanically get different powers every day, they just need to roleplay differently every day.
Or, just tell them to play an Artificer, since Artificers are tanky and skilled and magical all at once, and have access to plentiful items to patch any shortcomings.
Balance-wise, you'll want to keep in mind throughout play that if there's only one party member, no matter how many "personalities" they have (... without getting into how bad that DID representation sounds), there's always going to be the limiting factor of one (1) body.
This means
No one to heal the downed character
No one to press a lever while the other goes to press a different switch/into the room the lever opens
No one to do damage to the enemy, or help the PC, if the PC is Stunned or otherwise afflicted
No one to help pull up the PC if they fall into anything, like a pit trap or down a mountain slope
No one to break the PC out of jail if they get incarcerated
So you'll need to design encounters around the idea that even something as simple as an Unconscious/Downed condition or a Stunned condition could be the end of the game, unless you have minions/hirelings/another traveler.
One option could be to give the PC a traveling companion who is not a warrior or even a classed character, but who has reasonable HP and can defend themselves in battle, but is along for their own gains. A cartographer looking to map the region, for example, or a squire looking to earn their knighthood from apprenticing under the PC, or an NPC who was an "escort mission" turned into a sidekick or longer-term escort mission (ie The Last Of Us 1). Then part of the game will become helping build this NPC up to take care of and fend for themselves, possibly mentoring them in levels of a class, having them hold onto key items like potions or curatives to help bring the PC back up, etc. This could be in the form of anything, including but not limited to a familiar spirit, a fey entity that slips in between the realms as they see fit (aka as the plot requires of them), a regular ol humany human, a wind-up automaton, etc.
Also remember that hoards of enemies can really break combat even for a multi-bodied party, so you'll want to keep your big bads to just themselves, maybe 1 minion in a fight, and your hoards to no more than 3. Even if an encounter says it should be reasonable, the action economy just won't add up in the PC's favor basically ever.
Honestly, for the amount of work it takes to homebrew a campaign, put in the time to find more players. An online game with 3 players is better than an in-person game with 1. I have both run and been a player in a solo campaign before, and compared to any group game it is simply lacking.
The major issues for solo campaigns are:
If you go to zero hit points, you are dead and the campaign is over.
If you never get close to zero hit points, there is no real threat, and therefore no real need to roll any dice to determine anything.
If the sole character fails an ability check, or combat, or anything else, then that's it - they fail at whatever they're trying to do.
Combat in D&D is very boring if there's only one player character.
If you go to zero hit points, you are dead and the campaign is over.
If you never get close to zero hit points, there is no real threat, and therefore no real need to roll any dice to determine anything.
If the sole character fails an ability check, or combat, or anything else, then that's it - they fail at whatever they're trying to do.
Combat in D&D is very boring if there's only one player character.
None of this is true.
A character with zero hit points can be stabilized and captured by the enemies, or left for dead to be rescued by someone else or a myriad of different options as has been seen in books, movies and other tsorytelling media.
There can be other threats to the PC other than just "losing hit points". The PC can risk losing items, status or money. Friends and relatives of the PC can be in danger and so on.
There are more than one way to skin a cat. Just because you fail to pick the lock to the door doesn't mean you can't sneak in through the window.
Just as combat can be fun in one player computer games, one player combat in D&D can also be fun.
But back on topic. If the multiple personailty thing isn't something that you and your wife really, desperately want to do, I'd avoid it at all costs. If you are worried about the PC not being able to handle certain situations there are better ways to solve that problem. A few suggestions.
Followers or NPCs that help them out. They don't have to stick around for a long time but if the PC is a bard they'll get help finding their way through a forest by a ranger. When they are safely out of the forest the ranger will go back to their duties.
Playing a class that can do pretty much everything. I'd say artificer or bard is probably the best way to go. With the added bonus that a Battle Smith Artificer gets a sidekick in the form of the steel defender.
Make a Gestalt character.
Switch PCs. Since you won't be following the same character through the whole campaign (since you'll in effect switch between different characters as you switch personalities) you can let each character (the fighter, the sorcerer, the bard and the rogue) have their own separate part of the story,
I'm running a similar campaign with my two kids. Like another has suggested, making NPCs that they can roleplay has helped with bigger fights. They really have enjoyed taking on a different role while playing their own characters. While DMing, I also have a playable character that is in purely a supportive role...I don't steer any direction or make any decisions...I'm just a damage sponge that interacts with them. We've all been having a blast so it's working pretty well...
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I’m planning on attempting to run a sandbox campaign through my homebrew world, thing is there’s only going to be one player. I’ve DMed before, though admittedly I’m not the best at it. So I wanted to see if anybody had any advice on how they would balance encounters or any other events that normally would be solved with a standard party.
For information, the single party member has multiple personalities, each one represented through a different class (a rogue, sorcerer, fighter, and a bard), so each day could be a ‘different person’ facing the current objective. I’m not so much worried about how they’ll know what’s going on, as I am about making the adventure either too easy or too hard.
I understand everyone’s input on the worry that as soon as they go down the whole campaign ends, and that particularly at low levels that’s a problem. As such I have workaround to make it easier, each ‘personality’ is its own character. When one goes down another takes its place, there’s more to it than that of course but that’d take a long time to explain, to sum it up it’s a form of divine magic, not simply DID.
Why just one player? It’s something that my wife and I wanted to try together. My world is also far from fleshed out, so it’ll help me to create more details (and quite frankly make a maiden voyage through it) at our own pace.
Use a NPC sidekick that either you control or the player controls. This can be in the form of a hired henchmen or just a good friend that's tagging along on the adventure. You can have other NPCs join more difficult encounters but then leave off on their own when it's done. Maybe they find a prisoner and help them escape, or a lone bounty hunter needs some help bringing in a suspect. You would still let the player make the decisions, the NPCs would just be there for backup. Tasha's has rules for sidekicks if you need it.
The multiple personality/class issue is far more difficult for a DM - build a day's encounters for a rogue, and they might not work for a sorcerer or fighter.
Off the top of my head, to address the "multiple personality" thing, let the character build four different characters using the same stat array and race (so for instance they all allocate a 17, 16, 14, 12, 12, 8, but each version distributes those differently) At the end of every long rest, they can choose which one they're playing that day (or roll a d4 to determine randomly?). Tons more work for the player, and for you, but that lets them build "bob the fighter, bob the rogue, bob the cleric, and bob the wizard," all of which are built in a way to make that version of bob effective, without the player needing to find "the one multiclass character to rule them all!" that can perform all those rolls.
There's an old D&D 3.5 alternate rule called "Gestalt" characters, which lets you take two classes every time you level up, getting the benefit of both. In 5E it would be even easier to let your player use Gestalt classes than it was at 3.5: they get all the features of both, but anything that overlaps (like say, what hit dice do they use for the new level's HP?), just have them pick the better of the two. A level 10 Gestalt Fighter/Rogue would be a level 10 character, with the class features of a level 10 fighter and a level 10 rogue simultaneously... way too overpowered for normal play, but possibly a good way to empower a solo player. Then, they don't need to mechanically get different powers every day, they just need to roleplay differently every day.
Or, just tell them to play an Artificer, since Artificers are tanky and skilled and magical all at once, and have access to plentiful items to patch any shortcomings.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Balance-wise, you'll want to keep in mind throughout play that if there's only one party member, no matter how many "personalities" they have (... without getting into how bad that DID representation sounds), there's always going to be the limiting factor of one (1) body.
This means
So you'll need to design encounters around the idea that even something as simple as an Unconscious/Downed condition or a Stunned condition could be the end of the game, unless you have minions/hirelings/another traveler.
One option could be to give the PC a traveling companion who is not a warrior or even a classed character, but who has reasonable HP and can defend themselves in battle, but is along for their own gains. A cartographer looking to map the region, for example, or a squire looking to earn their knighthood from apprenticing under the PC, or an NPC who was an "escort mission" turned into a sidekick or longer-term escort mission (ie The Last Of Us 1). Then part of the game will become helping build this NPC up to take care of and fend for themselves, possibly mentoring them in levels of a class, having them hold onto key items like potions or curatives to help bring the PC back up, etc. This could be in the form of anything, including but not limited to a familiar spirit, a fey entity that slips in between the realms as they see fit (aka as the plot requires of them), a regular ol humany human, a wind-up automaton, etc.
Also remember that hoards of enemies can really break combat even for a multi-bodied party, so you'll want to keep your big bads to just themselves, maybe 1 minion in a fight, and your hoards to no more than 3. Even if an encounter says it should be reasonable, the action economy just won't add up in the PC's favor basically ever.
Honestly, for the amount of work it takes to homebrew a campaign, put in the time to find more players. An online game with 3 players is better than an in-person game with 1. I have both run and been a player in a solo campaign before, and compared to any group game it is simply lacking.
The major issues for solo campaigns are:
Tip: Don't split the party
"Not all those who wander are lost"
None of this is true.
But back on topic. If the multiple personailty thing isn't something that you and your wife really, desperately want to do, I'd avoid it at all costs. If you are worried about the PC not being able to handle certain situations there are better ways to solve that problem.
A few suggestions.
I'm running a similar campaign with my two kids. Like another has suggested, making NPCs that they can roleplay has helped with bigger fights. They really have enjoyed taking on a different role while playing their own characters. While DMing, I also have a playable character that is in purely a supportive role...I don't steer any direction or make any decisions...I'm just a damage sponge that interacts with them. We've all been having a blast so it's working pretty well...