I’ve had six PC deaths in the first chapter of RotRL…
Oh boy, so the title is pretty straightforward and it has been weighing quite heavily on me as a DM. The party were all level 3, now level 4 as they’ve reached the conclusion of Burnt Offerings, but I am seriously worried about burning them out from potentially even more deaths later on. The group consists of 3 newer players (1 yr of experience at most for the 3) and 2 more seasoned members (near 6 yrs of experience for both), but it hasn’t gone as smoothly as I expected for them.
Should I lower the difficulty of some encounters going forward? The group really struggled with >!Malfeshnekor on the bottom floor of Thistletop!< having led to 3 out of the 5 party members dying. They also struggled with >!Koruvus in the Catacombs!< before all of this when the group was only 3 party members, 1 of which died in that encounter as well.
Or should I continue to play the content as normal and allow them to adjust + grow over time? I don’t want to make the campaign itself a cakewalk, but I also don’t want to sour everyone’s experience.