How to Play 5e Solo: A Guide for One Player

Games and systems · 4 min read

Fifth edition was built for a group with a game master, but it plays well alone once you change a few habits. This guide covers who to play, how to keep fights fair, and when to roll a DC instead of asking the oracle.

One hero or a small party?

A single hero is the easiest to follow and makes the most personal story: every choice is yours and every scene is about them. A party of two to four makes fights fairer and gives you characters to argue with, but it is more to track and the story can lose its centre. Start with one. If fights keep going badly, add a companion before you add more heroes.

Some character types handle being alone better than others. Anyone who can heal themselves, fight at range and in melee, or talk their way out of trouble will do fine. A hero who depends on others to protect them will struggle until they have a companion.

Why fights tilt against one hero

Fifth edition fights are balanced around a group of heroes taking turns together. Alone, you get one turn while every foe takes theirs, so even a fight that looks easy on paper can go wrong in two rounds. The fix is rarely to make your hero stronger. It is to change the fights.

1. One strong foe instead of five weak ones. The same danger with far fewer enemy turns, and a clearer scene. The solo encounter helper shows how strong that one foe can be at your level.
2. Let foes run. Most creatures do not fight to the death. When a foe is badly hurt, roll its morale with the Enemy Tactics Roller; a fleeing enemy is a story, not a lost fight.
3. Give your hero a companion. A hireling or an animal friend from the companion generators who acts on your turn adds a second set of hands without a second character sheet.
4. Soften dying. Decide before you play what three failed death saves means. Captured, left for dead or losing something precious keeps the story going; a lone hero's death ends it.
5. Fight on your terms. Ambushes, chokepoints and running away are good tactics, not cowardice. Read it is okay to run away for more.

A DC or the oracle?

Two questions come up all the time in solo play, and they need different tools. If the question is whether your hero manages something, such as climbing the wall or spotting the trap, it is a check: set a DC with the DC helper and roll. If the question is about the world, such as whether the guard is awake or whether the bridge is still standing, nobody is making a check: ask the yes/no oracle.

Set the DC before you look at your bonus. If you choose the difficulty after seeing your character sheet, you will drift toward numbers you can beat, and the world stops pushing back.

Resting and pacing

A group rests when its weakest member needs to. Alone, you will want to rest after every fight, and the adventure loses its tension. Two simple rules help: a long rest needs a safe place, which you have to find or make, and every rest moves time forward, so ask the oracle whether something changed while you slept. The Scene Tracker can raise the tension each time you stop.

Spellcasters alone

A lone caster runs out of spells quickly and has nobody standing in front of them. Pick a few spells that solve problems outside fights as well as inside them, keep a way to defend yourself when the slots are gone, and lean on the oracle to find clever routes around danger. A companion who can hold a doorway helps more than any spell.

A worked example

My hero, a ranger travelling alone, reaches a ruined watchtower at dusk. Is anyone inside? That is about the world, so I ask the oracle on 50/50 and get Yes. I roll a monster and get a single ogre sleeping by a fire: one strong foe, which suits a lone hero.

Sneaking past it is a check. I judge it Medium, so DC 15. My ranger has +5, which the DC helper shows as a 55% chance, about the same as asking the oracle on 50/50. I fail by two. The ogre wakes, and I decide it is groggy, not angry. I ask the oracle "Will it talk before it fights?" on Unlikely and roll Yes. The scene becomes a nervous bargain by the fire instead of a fight my hero would probably lose.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Solo RPG Dungeon is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.