Lost mine of Phandelver - too easy?

[Pinjata]

So I've always been playing with competent groups and I have a plan of my next group exploring this during our next short campaign. They will probably start at level 3(they have reached level three in last campaign and I donot want to take this from them) but as I am reading the module I am wondering if I should give them any adittional levels at all? They are good, exceptionally good (I even go to such lenghts tomake the world very low magic and replace all magic items with consumable potions. they will eventually get magic items at level 10) and they still make exceptional work from these. I just wonder if Phandelver will be waaay too easy for my group if I bestow adittional lvl 4 and 5 on them? as I've been reading, there is a single thing that could actually kill them: adult green dragon in Thunderthree. As for the rest i do not see them even significantly denting PCs hp.

What is your advice, playground?

[Gastronomie]

Phadelver can get lethal for a group of level 1 characters, especially the first bugbear encounter (it could kill most level 1 characters with an unlucky crit, or in certain cases, even a normal attack).

For those starting level 2, it's probably "bit easy".

Starting at 3 will obviously make it easy for almost any group.

That said, it's not that difficult to alter the difficulty by adding extra monsters.

[Cespenar]

So, to summarize, you're asking if a very competent group of 3rd level characters are fit for a campaign that is meant for beginner-level players of 1st level?

The question answers itself.

Still, though, as said above, it'd be easy to balance encounters to their level if you know what you're doing as a DM.

[Herobizkit]

Add two pairs of extra monsters (the same or mix in some different ones of around the same CR) if the encounter is below their average level.

Add one (or two, if the party is five or more players) monster to each encounter equal to or greater than their average level. In the case of the dragon, throw in some low-CR chump minions, or a pair of beefy Ogres.

Run as is.

This isn't really balanced math-wise, but it will save you some work. :)