D&D: How To Build a Small Party With Three or Fewer Players
What do you do when adventure calls but your party only has a handful of adventurers willing to answer it? Here’s how to build a smaller party.
D&D is a game that’s built on things “everyone knows.” Everyone knows, for instance, that you adventure in a party—and that an adventuring party consists of a group of heroes (the game recommends 4-6) that do different fantasy things to accomplish whatever they set out to do. Usually fighting monsters and finding treasure. If there’s an iconic D&D party, you might think it’s something like “Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard” and that would be understandable since that’s what WotC typically says.
Actual play tends to be a little bit different. Players look for weird combinations of classes. Or they multiclass. Or they just decide to play something that feels like a better vibe. So you end up with a party of a Hexblade Paladin or a Swords Bard Fighter with a Barbarian thrown in for good measure.
But what if you have a smaller party? What do you do when you only have a couple of heroes? It can be tricky with a small numer. But here are some things you can try…
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
With a smaller party, things can get be a little harder. Your party will have fewer actions to spread around, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means you’ll want to figure out how to use your actions together for the best synergy.
And one of the best ways to do that is to pick a party that can play well with each other. From the ground up, you can pick a spate of characters that play well together. Some classes have that built in naturally, like Bards with their built-in buffing mechanics. But others combo well once you dig in, like World Tree Barbarians who can help your healer by protecting party members at range.
Versatility: Wear Many Hats, Kill Many Foes
Another good option is making sure to have a versatile roster. When you pick a selection of classes that can do two or three or more things well, you’ll have the bases covered and then some. Take Clerics, for instance.
Clerics are one of the most versatile classes in the game. They can do everything, they have some of the best, most sustainable spells, they do a lot and their options tend to help them coordinate the party even if they’re focusing on attacking enemies. When you can use a bonus action for “healing word” it just gets easier to keep your party up, even if you’re hitting things with a massive magical blessed hammer.
But in 5.5E lots of classes have a “versatile” option. Battlemaster Fighters, Path of the World Tree Barbarians, Druids of the Circle of the Land. The list goes on. But when building a smaller party, consider having a few different jacks of many trades.
Spotlight Sharing and Skill Issues
When you only have a max of three players, everyone’s going to have more time in the spotlight, so you’ll want to make sure that you all have something to do when the spotlight is on you. Typically a party will pick a “face” to handle talking to people, but your party might be served by splitting that duty up. Someone’s good at intimidation, another good at lying, and another at outright helpful persuasion.
You won’t want to rely on one character doing all of the skill checks because there’s fewer of you. So cast your nets wide—make sure you have someone who can help you in a dungeon, in the wilderness, in the urban jungle… basically look at what tools you have outside of combat as well. Because everyone in D&D is at least okay in a fight.
And with a little planning you can stack the odds in your favor. Bring a Paladin or a Warlock who can really hit hard with smites or spells or hexblade shenanigans, and look for how you can combo off of that. If you bring a rogue, look for ways to make sure they can have advantage. In smaller parties, characters like Barbarians or Rangers get a chance to shine because they often can do a little bit of everything and in a party where you don’t necessarily have someone who specializes in skills or spells or hitting really hard, that can be a huge boon.
What does your party look like?
