Any advice for Lost Mine of Phandelver? (Obviously, LMoP spoilers)

[jaappleton]

So my home group is reforming, and they've never really played 5E. I've been playing since its release, and I will be DMing for them. I haven't DMed in quite some time, to be brutally honest.

I figure what better way to get started that to run LMoP. I've always heard its quite well done, especially as an introduction to 5E.

That said, I've actually NEVER run a published adventure.

Been reading through it to familiarize myself. I've made photocopies of the bestiary, photocopies the maps of the dungeons to hand out at the table (Unless that's a bad idea?), I think I'm pretty well prepped as far as logistics.

Here's the party makeup, starting at level 3:

VHuman Oathbreaker
Half Elf 2H EK
Dragonborn Sorc 1 / Monk 2
Warforged Ghostslayer Bloodhunter TWF
???? (Likely a Ranger)

To compensate for them being 3rd Level, I’d planned on beefing up the goblins in the first encounter a bit. They’ll have more HP, hit a bit harder and there will be a few more.

So, ANY advice on anything? Is there anything in LMoP that I may not realize my first read through? I did notice Venomfang, which seems... A bit excessive... Not really sure how to handle that. Don't think a Green would really be willing to listen to the party or ally with them for any reason, but I admit my Dragon type knowledge is a bit rusty.

I did notice the party doesn't really have a healer. I thought about turning Sildar into a Cleric so the party could have a bit of healing available, but I'm not sure.

[Theodoric]

The first adventure of Phandelver is aimed at first-level characters. Five L3 characters will go through the first parts like a hot knife through butter.

Your players have some out-there builds, too. Not sure those are the best to learn 5e with.

[Nidgit]

Advice? Don't allow Oathbreaker.

Five players will cut through Venomfang easy too, especially if they're overleveled when they get to him.

[Expected]

Five players will cut through Venomfang easy too, especially if they're overleveled when they get to him.

I agree. As already mentioned, the module is meant for a reasonable number of level 1 players--if you have too many players or if they start at too high of level, then it will be too easy.

[ATHATH]

I second the "bring them down to level 1" idea. If this is your first module that you're GMing for, you likely won't properly balance the scaled-up encounters.

[ATHATH]

Advice? Don't allow Oathbreaker.

Five players will cut through Venomfang easy too, especially if they're overleveled when they get to him.
Why shouldn't Oathbreaker be allowed?

[CaptAl]

Why shouldn't Oathbreaker be allowed?

Mostly because it doesn't come online until level 3 and 5 level 3 PCs will eat through the first half of LMoP pretty easily. In addition, it's kinda over tuned for a PC unless you're playing a high power game. You can do what you want, of course, but be prepared to have to do major changes to the adventure as written if you go the route you're planning now.

[jaappleton]

Mostly because it doesn't come online until level 3 and 5 level 3 PCs will eat through the first half of LMoP pretty easily. In addition, it's kinda over tuned for a PC unless you're playing a high power game. You can do what you want, of course, but be prepared to have to do major changes to the adventure as written if you go the route you're planning now.

I'm getting the Oathbreaker to swap to Vengeance.

He initially scoffed at Paladin, wanting to be a Hexblade. I cautioned against how outside of short rests, he could feel like he wasn't able to contribute. I suggested Oathbreaker as a way to view the Paladin as something besides the cliche knight in shining armor, and now that he sees that, he likes Vengeance a lot more.

So Oathbreaker Pally is now Vengeance. :smallbiggrin:

[ATHATH]

Mostly because it doesn't come online until level 3 and 5 level 3 PCs will eat through the first half of LMoP pretty easily.
Why is that specific to the Oathbreaker and not all Paladin subclasses?

[username1]

Personally I don't like Phandelver. I know its well written, but none of my players have every liked the story. If you are running it make sure to stress its a sandbox game. Also its not an easy adventure to run, make sure your prepared.

[Sagitta]

I would recommend starting at first level, not only to make the game a reasonable challenge, but also to let the players get accustomed to the rules.


Don't think a Green would really be willing to listen to the party or ally with them for any reason, but I admit my Dragon type knowledge is a bit rusty.

All dragons love treasure, so that's an obvious way to get Vemonfang's attention. And green dragons love minions, so he might spare the lives of their enemies. When I ran the adventure, he defeated the party (they were all split up except one who was paralysed, so not a difficult fight for the dragon). He then announced he was Lord of Thundertree, and demanded the surviving PCs find him some serfs. They decided to take him to the orc bandits, and slipped away while he was admiring his cool band of underlings, like a Warhammer player with a new army.

The characters sorted out the mine and levelled up a bit, then returned to find Vemonfang and his new henchmen had kidnapped most of the population of Phandalin. So they went back and killed him.


I did notice the party doesn't really have a healer. I thought about turning Sildar into a Cleric so the party could have a bit of healing available, but I'm not sure.

I recommend having some healing in any 5e party. But a paladin should be sufficient.

[MilkmanDanimal]

Echoing everyone else; bring everybody down to level 1. Otherwise, my advice is to bring pillows and blankets, because it's going to be so un-challenging and boring everybody will be napping 20 minutes in.

Five level 3 characters against goblins is going to be utterly laughable. The adventure comes in the starter box set where they hand you five pre-made level 1 characters, and that's what it's designed for.

[BurgerBeast]

I have a bit of a experience with Phandelver and I have some real criticisms of it. Some of it is personal taste, but much of it is legitimate.

I am considering running it again and I will be completely re-writing most of it.

My three biggest complaints are:

1. I hate the hook and the initial encounter. It doesn’t make any sense to me for the goblins to behave the way they do.

2. Part II is sort of cool in terms of how they laid out the town to be explored and provided hooks to speak to individuals, but the behaviour of the Redbrands is just stupid. I can’t reconcile their behaviour toward the PCs with their relative success as bandits.

3. Part IV is a pretty contrived smorgasbord of monsters that don’t make a lot of sense, and this is true of the entire adventure generally as well. It’s like they tried to cram the whole Monster Manual into one adventure.

All of this being said:

The adventure provides plenty of varied material. I think you could flesh it out into a full 15-level campaign if you elevated the side quests in Part III into subplots and wove them into the larger plot.

[strangebloke]

Just ran through this with a brand-new DM.

What everyone's saying about level 3 being too easy is very very true. I was the 'raid leader' for our group and we annihilated that module starting at level 1. Killed venomfang, killed the red wizard quest guy....

Good times.

Big advice I would give? Make the monsters move within the dungeons. If a bunch of hobgoblins hear something, have them meet up in a big hall and fight together. If a couple goblins flee a battle, have them set an ambush for the party later.

Reactive behavior like that is what makes those drawn-out combat into their own mini-stories.