QQ&A: Splitting the party

The standard advice for players is to never split the party. It dilutes their power, spreading them thin, while taking handy synergies off the table.

It’s dangerous, with little benefit.

That means it’s a useful tool for GMs to keep in our back pockets.

Splitting the party creates new challenges for the players. A barbarian with a cleric at their back can soak approximately a million HP. Separating those two can force the players to think in new ways.

It also adds some realism. In TTRPGs, there’s rarely any real time pressure. By default, taking two encounters at once offers no advantage over doing them one at a time. In an actual dungeon incursion, though, dawdling is risky. Every minute increases the chances that something will go wrong.

So you, as a GM, might want to build some minor time pressures in.

For example, fighting two groups at once stops one of them from summoning reinforcements. Splitting the party now might make it harder in the moment, but easier in the long-term.

Or one group of bandits is fighting to distract you, while another is setting up some traps. Engaging both forces them to fight instead of loading up something dangerous.

A few caveats around this, though:

First, you have to communicate this to the players. Make it obvious. They have to understand what their choices are – split the party for easier encounters, or don’t for tougher ones.

Second, forcing a split – by, say, having the floor give out under half the PCs – is a jerk move. I wouldn’t do this unless I had an excellent reason for it.

Third, use this sparingly. Splitting the party makes it even harder to keep all players engaged, it makes it more complex to track, and it can easily lead to quote-unquote unfair PC deaths.

Still, it’s a great way to shake up a party that’s fallen into a routine.