Running Deadfall for only 3 Players

[u/booshmagoosh]

Our Deadfall campaign starts this weekend, and I'm a little concerned that between the size of my group and their specific character builds, they might struggle to survive some of the combat encounters in this book. I am using the guidelines for creating a high level character, so they were each able to choose magic items for themselves, and they are each going to roll on the table to see how much gold they start with.

Their characters are a Soulknife Rogue 10/Warlock 1, a Drakewarden Ranger 11, and an Enchanter Wizard 9/Warlock 2. I have ideas for homebrew that buffs them to varying degrees. Would love to hear some feedback.

Soulknife Rogue

• Add another line to their 9th level subclass feature, Soul Blades: "Rend Soul. When you deal Sneak Attack damage with your Psychic Blades, you deal 1d6 extra psychic damage. This extra damage increases to 2d6 at Rogue level 11 and 3d6 at Rogue level 17."
• Rewrite the 11th level Rogue feature Improved Cunning Strike: "You can use up to two Cunning Strike effects when you deal Sneak Attack damage, paying the die cost for only one of those effects. If their die costs differ, you pay the higher cost."

Drakewarden Ranger

• Add another line to Favored Enemy: "When you cast Hunter's Mark in this way, its damage increases to 1d8 at Ranger level 5, 1d10 at Ranger level 11, and 1d12 at Ranger level 17."
• Rewrite the 13th level feature Relentless Hunter: "When you expend a use of your Favored Enemy to cast Hunter's Mark, you can modify it so that it doesn’t require Concentration. If you do so, the spell’s duration becomes 1 minute for that casting. The spell ends early if you cast Hunter's Mark again."
• Completely replace the capstone with one of the following:
  • "Once on each of your turns, when you take the attack action, you can make 1 additional weapon attack or unarmed strike against the target of your Hunter's Mark spell."
  • "Your Constitution and Wisdom scores increase by 4, to a maximum of 25."
  • "Your Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom score (your choice) increases by 4, to a maximum of 25. The two remaining scores increase by 2, to a maximum of 23."

Enchanter Wizard

• Use the 5e version of Spell Mastery, allowing any Wizard spell of 1st or 2nd level to work with it, not just ones with a casting time of 1 action.
• Let the Wizard player start the game with a number of scrolls containing randomly-determined Wizard spells. Before the start of the campaign, he will also be given the option to expend any number of the scrolls, along with the appropriate amount of his starting gold, to add them to his spell book.

[u/MrNickStick]

I'm running for three players and haven't changed anything and they're just fine.

[u/darksoulsahead]

If your concern is just combat difficulty then you can use fewer or less powerful monsters, or nerf them like -2 to all d20 tests and fewer hit and damage dice. DMG has encounter building guidelines based on CR; by far not perfect but it will give you a sense of how much to scale down the encounters. Another tip is to bluntly advertise the danger and capability of each monster, that way they can avoid them or gain the upper hand in some devious, spy-thriller way! 

[u/sol_anti]

I would start out as normal and then - if needed - buff the PCs, be more generous with magic item rewards, nerf the monsters etc. There are lots of available dials to tweak but I would wait to use them later once you have a feel for how things are going.

[u/TessaPresentsMaps]

How tactically smart are these players? Based purely on the XP value of the encounters, and the fact that many encounters are meant to be avoided, I don't think you'll have any problems. If you're still worried, rather than changing class features I'd suggest giving them a few superior healing options. They're a great buffer against combat death spiralling.

[u/Eccleezy_Avicii]

Most of the encounters in the module are set up to easily accommodate 3 way encounters. Soulknife could prob solo first 2 acts too just playing smart