It’s the cardinal sin of Dungeons & Dragons – Don’t Split the Party. This warning is usually one of the first pieces of advice new players receive. Anecdotally, splitting the party results in terrible injuries and even total party kills. But is splitting ꦉthe par🐬ty really that bad? Well, it depends.
The Dangers
It’s worth notin🔯g that “Don’t Split the Party” is a tip for both DMs and players. For players, it normally means something along the lines of “don’t wander off and do anything stupid.” This rule generally holds true for players.
D&D has three “pillars” that describe different aspects of the game. These pillars are Exploration, Social Interaction, and Combat. Theoretically, all these pillars are supposed to be equal. Mechanically, the Combat Pillar has many more rules surrounding it than any other pillars. Due to the strong mechanical focus, combat has to be balanced in a way that Exploration🃏 and Social Interaction do not. Since most combat encounte♔rs are planned beforehand, this can be a problem if the party is split. If three adventurers wander into a combat encounter meant for six adventurers, the results can be disastrous.
The dangers of a DM splitting the party are a little more complex. While it is not as dangerous as players splitting the party – since a DM can plan in advance if they intend to split up the party – there are still balancing issues. It is much harder to balance for very small groups, especially at higher levels. This is because 🦄small groups of player characters have abilities that can drastically change the course of a battle, but have a smaller collective pool of hit points between them. For example, a high-level wizard on their own still has access to spells like Hold Monster the same as if they were with a group, but they are also a lot more vulnerable to being smashed into individual atoms if the Hold Monster spell doesn’t work.
Planning a party split also can be difficult from a fun perspective. Ideally, everyone should be having fun playing D&꧂amp;D, but splitting the party can lead to long stretches of time where half of the players are doing nothing. As much as D&D is a group game, it’s still not that interesting to sit and watch other people fight a mimic that they stumbled into after the DM split the party up.
The Counterargument
One of the problems with splitting the part – the issue that half of the party ends up waiting for the other half to finish their half of the adventure – is unfortunately also one of the problems with not splitting the party. While combatꦕ involves the whole party, aspects of the game like conversations and other rolepl🔯aying can be limited to a few people at a time. There’s less mechanical focus on social interactions, which means that the there’s no balancing social encounters – it’s just as easy for one person to persuade someone as six. What barbarian hasn’t stood in silence while the bard and the rogue do the talking for the party?
Additionally, sometimes it is helpful for the party to split up between adven🐲tures. It still has the same issue that some players will be waiting for their turn to play, but generally things can go more smoothly if each player goes on their own errands instead of everyone going to the magic item shop, then the potion shop, then the material component shop, and so on.
Somဣe campaigns also have content that just doesn’t work with the whole party there. Intrigue campaigns include secrets and subterfuge, and in many of these situations three’s a crowd. Likewise, campaigns that include romance, and it can be difficult to woo someone with the party’s warlock watching over their shoulder.
One way to resolve some of these issues is to set up individual one on one sessions with players between each adventure. Players can do whatever they want with the group, but can also do things on their own. This can include romance and other things that are generally not group activities, but it can also be good for other things as well. Players can mail letters, buy things that they want to keep secret from the rest of the party, or do activities that would grind play at the table𝔍 to a grinding halt. It’s perfect for intrigue campaigns, where players might be taking actions and cooking up plans that are secret even from their own party members.
Ultimately, splitting the party is bad for players to do on their own, but DMs should be careful about splitting the party as well. Any♏ time that players could get into combat, it is generally better to keep the party together. Between adventures, splitting the party can be beneficial, and having separate individual sessions can help players develop their characters on their own.