Adventures for just one player/character?

Hi, I am teaching my boyfriend D&D (3.5 edition) and given our
schedules and his newness I've decided the easiest way to do this is to
run one-on-one games for him.

I am not a very experienced DM myself and am short on time so I'd
prefer to use published adventures in an already developed campaign
setting. But it seems almost all of them are written for a party of
several characters. I don't want him to play several characters
because I think it would be too confusing and discourage role-playing,
and I don't want to run a bunch of NPC companions either.

Initially I thought I'd start him out with a 1st level character in an
adventure designed for just one character, so I bought the Thief's
Challenge adventures from RPGNow.com, but they are for 2nd edition and
it looks like a lot of work to convert them to 3.5. Since I don't have
lots of time, I'd much rather find a published 3.5 edition campaign
setting and series of increasingly higher level adventures so we can
get started without a lot of prep time.

What do y'all think about starting him off with a higher level
multi-class character instead, but in adventures designed for a party
of lower-level characters? Which classes and levels do you think his
character should start with to be able to handle most adventures
designed for a party of 1st level characters? How much do I need to
modify the adventures to keep him advancing at an appropriate rate so
that he can handle the next adventure for a higher level character?
Any suggestions for good published 3.5 edition campaign settings and
series of adventures?

Thanks!

Jacqueline

Jacqueline Passey wrote:
> Hi, I am teaching my boyfriend D&D (3.5 edition) and given our
> schedules and his newness I've decided the easiest way to do this is to
> run one-on-one games for him.
>
> I am not a very experienced DM myself and am short on time so I'd
> prefer to use published adventures in an already developed campaign
> setting. But it seems almost all of them are written for a party of
> several characters. I don't want him to play several characters
> because I think it would be too confusing and discourage role-playing,
> and I don't want to run a bunch of NPC companions either.
>
> Initially I thought I'd start him out with a 1st level character in an
> adventure designed for just one character, so I bought the Thief's
> Challenge adventures from RPGNow.com, but they are for 2nd edition and
> it looks like a lot of work to convert them to 3.5. Since I don't have
> lots of time, I'd much rather find a published 3.5 edition campaign
> setting and series of increasingly higher level adventures so we can
> get started without a lot of prep time.
>
> What do y'all think about starting him off with a higher level
> multi-class character instead, but in adventures designed for a party
> of lower-level characters? Which classes and levels do you think his
> character should start with to be able to handle most adventures
> designed for a party of 1st level characters? How much do I need to
> modify the adventures to keep him advancing at an appropriate rate so
> that he can handle the next adventure for a higher level character?
> Any suggestions for good published 3.5 edition campaign settings and
> series of adventures?

A single character is considered approximately equal to a party of 4
levels lower. So if you want to start with 1st level adventures make
him 5th lv.

It's going to be rather rough though. He'll breeze thorugh some things
that would challenge a party, and get killed by others that wouldn't be
much of a problem - because he doesn't have the support.

What I would suggest is a party of two. You play an NPC healer -
unless he's playing a healer - then you play an NPC fighter. In the
case of a 2 person party is about equal to a party of 2 levels lower.
So 2 3rd lv characters would be good for a 1st lv. adventure.

In any case a pet can really help. A ridding dog isn't very expensive,
especially if you are starting higher than 1st, and really worth the
extra help it can provide when trained for war.

- Justisaur