As an adult I find it hard to schedule D&D games with multiple people. Everyone works different schedules and has different obligations. I have one close friend that I spend much of my free time with anyways so we play D&D 3.5 with one player and one DM. For those who find themselves in a similar situation I’d like to give pointers on best practices.

The Player: Since it is only me and my friend I ask him a few question about what type of game he is interested in playing. Typically it goes: player’s character ideas > DMs setting ideas > refine player’s character > create hook > create NPCs with player input. Sometimes my setting ideas comes first, but I find that my player’s characters help inspire my world creation.

The Party: D&D is created with 4-5 player plus DM in mind. I’ve never bothered to attempt four full time NPC party members. At the most I’ve controlled the thoughts and personalities of three NPC party members. It is a lot of work to do well. I personally recommend two NPC party members. Their classes are a combination of what the party needs and what sounds interesting and not overly complicated. For example I don’t use the Druid for this reason because they have spells, shifting, animal companion, and summons. That is tons of stuff to keep track of in combat. Sorry I still have to keep track of enemy too. The usual party consists of tank, healer, arcane, and skill monkey. I try to fill three of these slots typically. So if my player grabs a Scout class. I give him an arcane gish tank (wizard/fighter/PrC) and if stealth remains important another stealthy class like rogue, monk, or ranger. I could use a cleric or another healer like paladin or ranger (druid are complicated). I don’t want him to have a ranger because it very similar flavor to Scout and your player needs to shine or make the ranger a 2 weapon ranger to create difference between his archery build. Out of core classes cleric is looking pretty good. Alternatively, if I scrape the gish I could give him a polearm barbarian or fighter and a wizard or sorcerer. Player feedback is important to a point, but you have to be willing to say no. If he wanted two full spellcasters I’d probably decline.

NPC Personality: After creating the character’s stats I think about their motives, background, and a few personality traits. One time I created a wizard NPC that was easily frightened and liked to draw. So in his down time it was easy to give him a task in the story. When asked about what he thought the group should do his answers were always short of let’s get out of here. My player spent roleplaying time convincing the wizard that he would be safe in the back and that it would ‘be okay’. Create a bombastic trait that give you something to fall back on in roleplaying situation. A former soldier fighter might like to boast or constantly complains about being a grunt. A rogue might enjoy flirting with strangers. A bard with performance anxiety. Backgrounds can be useful for progressing the plot. A wizard’s old colleague might have work for him. I had an NPC agent once that lived in his father shadow and took his training and mistakes very seriously. If you’re a great roleplayer by all means fully flesh out the characters, but if you’re having multiple NPC to control it helps to have a defining feature.

Combat and Problems: Typically combat and problems goes like this. I let my player decided or command the group. Different NPCs may offer up different opinions on tactic or solutions in line with their character sometime good sometime bad. Sometime I plan for a certain character to shine just like I would a player. So the rogue picks a lock, the wizard knows a piece of useful information, and the cleric turns undead. My player typically directs the NPCs actions and roles for them in combat unless I fill the need to. Sometimes we will dived up NPCs between us to control. I know my player prefers to have me control everything that’s not him. He may bark orders like provide covering fire or attack the caster, but wants the NPCs to use their intuition. This is something you will have to discuss between you. Some players may love control all the members of the group or might wish to be immersed in only their character. I have actually made my player control 10 militia in a battle before. I think it stressed him out. He lost numerous troops. He was almost the solo survivor, but I gave him heal checks on his comrades after combat so only half died. Pace combat around what kind of heals are available and treat most Challenge Ratings about 1 or 2 lower for a party of three. Typically you can use the appropriate CR if you don’t use multiples. So if you have a party of three level 3 characters you can use an ogre, but using two will likely get them killed and adding a bunch of minions will overwhelm them unless they have great tactics like web spell or something.

edits: formatting