This afternoon, I created my character, a 1st level Scyllaean wizard of the school of philosophy. I then started reading Fate of the Oracle. The adventure is intended for five 1st level characters, and I only have one. I am thinking that I have two ways of dealing with this, the first is to level ‘Helios the Seer’ up to make him capable to surviving, or to give myself a sidekick/second NPC. My go to solution would be both, create two second level characters, giving me a total of 4 levels.
I think that two second level characters are less tough than five first level characters, simply because ist level characters start with maximum hit points and second level characters are unlikely to have max hits, the five first level characters would get five actions and five bonus actions (and reactions) in a round, the two characters will only get two of each, and so on.
The other option is to try and scale encounters downwards, face less opponents, reduce the potency of traps and such. I am less keen on this approach simply because somethings simply don’t divide, you cannot have half a harpy and a fifth of a Medusa. It also can make heroic battles feel a bit insipid. A horde isn’t a horde if it just a few guys with clubs.
Right now, this is a problem I haven’t decided how to solve, but it isn’t a difficult problem either.
I started reading the adventure, I read the background and only abut 3 pages in before it starts throwing spoilers at you. This is a pet peeve. I know D&D adventures, especially beginner adventures, tend to be railroads, telling me exactly what I will be doing in the next five sessions or more, before I have even started my first scene is frustrating.
I have skipped the rest of the adventure outline section. It may be interesting to see what happens and then compare it to what was supposed to happen, and how much fixing I have to do if I diverge from the expected path.
All the joys of running a published adventure.
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