Hello everyone! This is my first time posting so hopefully it doesn't sound too incohesive. This is my second campaign that I have attempted to run, but I have also run a handful of One-Shots as well.

I am currently running TSO for a few friends. I have a lot of ideas that I think would be really cool, but I also would like some feedback or suggestions on how to make it either run smoother, or if it is an idea that people like, to maybe expand on it a bit more to help with player experience.

I think it would be very interesting if Daran Edermath was already dead. I know in the module that he is the Order of the Gauntlet "contact" for the party if you choose to run the Factions. I was thinking that since The Spider and Glasstaff are working together, Daran actually put two and two together prior to the party making their way to Phandalin. Then he "comes out of retirement" and investigates Tresendar Manor on his own, to try and figure out what their true intentions are. Unfortunately for him, he ended up being spied on by the Nothic and eventually Redbrands are sent to his house to deal with it. Then, when the party meets "Daran", they are actually meeting The Spider for the first time unbeknownst to them. This is his way of spying on the party, but also trying to send them to their doom by telling them about Old Owl Well.

Hamun Kost is a bigger part of the story and that he, The Spider, and Glasstaff are actually working together. I ran LMoP for a group during COVID and I thought it was very weird that Hamun was introduced as a Red Wizard of Thay and then vanishes. So, when The Spider sends them to Old Owl Well, he is actually trying to get rid of them at the hands of Hamun. But, Hamun is smarter than that. He understands that they can be useful. So he feigns like he's a helpless wizard stuck in this tower being attacked by all of these undead. Even though they are his zombies, he wants to see what the party is capable of. He pretends to be a wizard of the Many-Starred Cloak (using Disguise Self) who was sent here to investigate the tower to try and get it back up and running to help give Neverwinter another point of defense. In reality, he is trying to get the tower up and running due to the dormant magic that kicks off after Wave Echo Cave. And he tasks the party to kill the raiding party at Wyvern Tor so he can resurrect them later in his army.

Edit: Hamun is Tsernoth. Tsernoth is the necromancer that Agatha, the Banshee in Conyberry, gave Bowgentle's Spellbook to a long time ago. I thought it would be fun to have Hamun just be Tsernoth. As the party returns to Hamun after dealing with the enemies in Wyvern Tor, he is simply reading a spellbook, Bowgentle's to be exact. And if the party investigates, they can make this discovery. And if so, he would drop the ally persona and immediately teleport them to be killed by Venomfang in Thundertree. This both "protects him", even though he would most likely be able to kill the party on his own, but also have the party get to Thundertree without the tedious travel and what not to eventually learn the location of Cragmaw Castle. And the reason for not just killing the party is that he, along with Glasstaff and The Spider still haven't figured out how to return the Forge of Spells to its former glory and reawaken the magic in the region and he needs them since the party has a piece of the puzzle.

Glasstaff is tasked with reinvigorating the tower at Thundertree. When I ran LMoP before, Glasstaff was able to escape from Tresendar Manor. Before, since he really isn't mentioned after the fact if he escapes, I had the party fight him and The Spider at the same time as a finale. This time, Glasstaff is tasked with figuring out how to activate the dormant magic from the tower in Thundertree. He bribes Venomfang to keep watch over the tower and keep out unwanted intruders. Coinciding with Hamun at Old Owl Well, once the towers activate if/once they complete Wave Echo Cave, the two towers become the perfect flanking points for keeping Phandalin under attack by undead and psionic enemies.

Glasstaff, The Spider, and Hamun end up becoming Chishinix, Hashutu, and Voalsh. I know this one is easily the biggest stretch, and I am not even close to getting anywhere near the end. But, Knowing that there are three evil wizards and three mind flayer fanatics at the end of the campaign, I thought it would be a perfect way to help tie the campaign together a little more and also add that callback factor. Obviously I have plenty of time for this to even come into play, but this is the part where I am struggling to connect. Like were they just already infected with a mindflayer tadpole and then once the Forge of Spells gets reopened and reawakens all of this dormant magic in the region, they transform into mindflayers then? Should I even have them become the mindflayers or should I keep them separate?

Thank you in advance!

the text says to reference the "Food, Drink, and Lodging" section in the rule book for prices, but i can't seem to find it in the rulebook.

does anyone have the prices or know where i can find them

​Hello fellow adventurers and game masters! I wanted to share my last Lost Mine of Phandelver session (with a few homebrew tweaks). It was the classic "I have a plan" situation.

​Spoiler alert: they kinda did , but having only the first half of a plan is definitely not a way to finish a dungeon.

Well, here we go. I'll lay out the details, and I want to hear from you guys: did I overdo it, or did they reap what they sowed?

​The Party and the Context

​My group consists of:

- ​Duergar War Cleric (Durin)

- ​Gnome Druid (Lira)

- ​Half-Elf Rogue (Raku)

- ​Half-Elf Bard (Elan)

​They didn't know the exact location of Cragmaw Castle because they had ignored previous clues. I had even replaced Reidoth the Druid in Thundertree with a gnome caravan tied directly to Lira’s backstory, but they didn’t bite. All they had was a general map stating the castle was somewhere within the Neverwinter Wood.

​Round 1: Indecision exacts its first toll

​To help them find the castle, I ran a Skill Challenge. They passed, but they accumulated failures along the way and arrived there with one level of exhaustion. They got terrified of this. So, they decided to head back to Phandalin to rest, (I don't allow long rest in uncomfortable places to cure exhaustion) since they now knew the exact coordinates.

​I allowed it. However, as they were preparing to retreat, I decided to inject a sense of urgency: they spotted Vyerith (the Doppelganger) shape-shifting in a nearby clearing.

Something was clearly about to go down at the castle.

​Even so, they froze. They spent 30 to 40 minutes in real-time arguing whether they should attack or stick to the retreat plan. Time kept ticking, they remained paralyzed by indecision, so I rolled a random encounter to move things along: got a 19. (it was happening!)

A Goblin patrol led by a Goblin Boss. They won, but they burned more precious HP and spell slots. During the interrogation of the surviving goblin, they discovered that King Grol was about to sell Gundren and the map to the Black Spider's envoy. If they went back to town, they would lose Gundren—the whole reason they were there.

​Round 2: The Plan (and the worst execution possible)

​After an hour and a half of pure indecision, the Cleric's player lost his patience and marched straight toward the castle. The rest of the party followed—exhausted, drained of resources, and completely unprepared.

​The plan actually made sense on paper, it was something I could work with: The Bard and the Cleric would draw attention at the main entrance (front), while the Rogue and the Druid sneaked in through the back to locate Gundren and try a stealth rescue.

​The Bard approached the front door and tried to persuade the goblins behind the arrow slits. He failed, took a few arrows (which missed), threw his hands up in surrender, and shouted that he had a "very important gift for the King." He rolled a subsequent Persuasion check and passed. The goblin went inside to report.

​Here is where I might have gone too heavy-handed: the goblins weren't going to bother King Grol for some random stranger at the door, so I sent the muscle. I brought out all 7 Hobgoblins that were in the castle, plus the 4 Goblins at the arrow slits aiming at them from the door. And what did our two "geniuses" (Bard and Cleric) do in front of a firing squad more than capable of wiping them out? They started verbally abusing and insulting the Hobgoblins.

​I held my patience for a bit. I asked for checks that became increasingly disadvantaged to see if the Hobgoblins would tolerate the insults. At first, they did, but soon they failed. We rolled initiative, and all hell broke loose.

​Round 3: Chaos inside, Sacrifice outside

​While they were distracting a whole platoon out front, I cut the scene to the back. The Rogue and the Druid managed to stealth their way into King Grol’s chambers right as the negotiations were happening. Seeing the intrusion, Vyerith acted instantly: he assassinated Gundren on the spot and stole the map, which was his only goal.

​The Rogue and the Druid (already battered and weak) tried to fight King Grol by themselves. Realizing they were going to die, I had Grol order his wolf to hunt down the treacherous Doppelganger, easing the fight for them. And yet, they dice were terrible, so the Druid Wild-Shaped into a horse, the Rogue mounted up, and they fled the dungeon, leaving King Grol behind screaming that they were cowards.

​Cut back to the main entrance: the Bard and Cleric were about to suffer a PPK (Partial Party Kill lol) against the Hobgoblin squad. Desperate, the Cleric made a drastic call: he used his action to grapple the Bard and launch him right over the enemy lines so he could escape.

​The Cleric's player fully accepted the sacrifice. He used the rest of his movement to provide cover. As a DM, seeing the player’s resolve to sacrifice himself and the sheer heroism of the act, I directed all the Hobgoblins attacks at him. The Cleric went down.

I actually considered taking him prisoner, but after spending minutes insulting a highly militaristic and proud platoon of Hobgoblins, it made no narrative sense (for me) for them to show mercy. The Duergar died right there.

​The Aftermath

- ​Gundren is dead.

- ​The map is in the Black Spider's hands.

- ​Half the party ran away.

- ​The War Cleric is dead at the entrance.

​I feel a bit bad wondering if I overdid it by bringing all the Hobgoblins to the door, but I honestly feel like the players dug every single inch of this grave through sheer indecision, terrible resource management, and insulting an army while massively outnumbered.

​What do you guys think? As much as I feel bad, I don't think I was unfair.

I'm Dm'ing for the first time on Wednesday with two players, (I'm only DM because I know how to make a character sheet). I've barley played but I know the rough story of this campaign.

BUT, I have no idea how to actually DM (I can play NPCs and to skill checks at most) but how on earth do I keep track of enemy health. Ranges for ranged attacks and how much to scale it down so two people don't instantly get railed by goblin arrows?

Also keeping track of players that have never ever played and have no idea how to level up ect.

Also do I need a map and all that and what should go behind my DM screen?

Should I make it more relaxed where I judge how far enemy's are away or should I be strict with specific distances and so on?

I made backgrounds for everyone tying them to Gundren in some way or fashion. Five players and only three even read them(but they loved them so there’s that). Started them meeting Gundren and Sildar at a tavern in Neverwinter. G&S are headed out immediately and the party is to pick up the wagon at a nearby stable in the morning and follow out.

This party is absolutely demolishing everything. Only one person has played before and they are ripping everything to shreds. Ambush in the woods, wiped. Cave entrance, wiped. The ridiculously high stat barbarian rolled a natural crit to befriend the wolves(I made him roll again to see if they would follow the party, he flubbed that so the wolves just left.)

They find the rubble going up to H8 and everyone makes their checks. So right to Klarg we go. I put some extra goblins in the room to try to make some kind of challenge for the party. One of the players had to leave so we ended after the first round of combat with the barbarian surrounded by goblins, Klarg on the throne and everyone else ready to do ranged attacks near the rubble crevice they came in from.

Everyone seems to be having fun and the feedback has been great. They still have to find Sildar, so I may make Yeemik the big bad now. It’s all gonna depend on how this fight goes.

I haven’t DM’d in forever so it’s fun to be back in the drivers seat. Still, I want to make the party sweat a bit. They can’t just run around crushing everything they see. I need somebody to get shot. In the neck.

Not sure if the right flair.

My party encountered the redbrands last session. I had 2 redbrands flee so the party could track them to the mansion but the party killed them before any direction was seen.
The session ended about 4 hours (game time) later with the party having knowledge that the redbrands hang out in the sleeping giant.

Trying to think of the scenario inside Sleeping Giant.
Do I have 12 redbrands hanging out, unaware of the slaying of there brethren.
Do I have a small group enter looking for info as to who killed their guys?

Hey all

So one of my players for Shattered Obilisk is a warlock and we spoke about the character which is briefly: dwarf traveler that goes around and cures corrupted forests.
Now the idea is that they were at some point blessed by the forest spirit. This blessing gave them their powers and though they are playing a warlock, we thought it would be cool if they don’t know if the blessing is from the forest or from the corruption ( aka good vs evil blessing).
How can I best incorporate this into the story. My player knows I rolled a dice to determine whether it was the blessing or curse that gave them the power (I didn’t roll, it is the curse lol) so now it’s about slow dripping the reveal into the game.

Idk if this all makes sense but if you have suggestions I’m open!

TLDR: my player in shattered Obilisk is playing a warlock and I want the story to connect their power to the plot.

This is probably quite an easy one for more experienced DMs, but I've been going back and forth on the title question for a while

My PCs assaulted the Redbrand Hideout and after interrogating a Redbrand, discovered that Glasstaff's quarters were in the north west. They then managed to get there by only killing the bandits sleeping by the entrance and negotiating with the Nothic. They subsequently captured Glasstaff and left him with Halia

Given that less than half of the Redbrands have actually been killed and the Hideout is so close to town, I was considering having Halia make a play to become Townmaster by turning the remaining Redbrands into a form of town guard (the surviving Redbrands and Halia would blame all the nasty stuff on the dead Redbrands and Glasstaff. They'll return the prisoners as a gesture of good will and will need to roll to convince the town of their change of heart)

My doubt surrounding the above plan is whether it may reduce the fun factor for my players by essentially saying "Yeah, you cleared the dungeon, but you didn't do it well enough". So, my question is; do you guys have unkilled enemies continue to play a role, or hand wave them away?

Hello im about to start lmop, my plan is for my players to meet Gunden on a tavern in Neverwinter, he is going tu suffer an attack from a bandit, and my players are supposed to help him, then Gunden is going to offer them the job of driving the cart to phandalin, and he is going to leave saying that he has important buisnes to attend at phandalind. My problem is that i dont know what to do with my players in the way to phandalin before the goblins attack. The travel its supposed to last about 2 days and i dont want to put another fight just before the goblins. Any ideas please?

My players got smart, and interrogated a Goblin to get confirmation of the castles location. Inspired by the random encounter info in the module one of the Goblin's they killed on the road had the wanted poster with one of the adventurers pictures in it with a reward listed.

I can't decide how much the captured Goblin knows about the castle defenses, number of inhabitants, or alternate entrances. I'm thinking the Goblin has a general idea of "at least a dozen guards" and "the castle is crumbling so it may have more ways of entry than a castle usually has" but perhaps a Goblin who has been there and worked there would know even more than that?

My players already routed Glassstaff from the Redbrand hideout and know who he is and that he is in league with the Spider. But perhaps more import for the Castle, the player characters all stole Redbrand cloaks and plan to try to show up at the Castle with ONE of their party in tow as a prisoner, and the rest in Cloaks. In theory some Redbrands may have shown up at the castle from time to time?

I am inclined to let this ruse possibly work, with a skill check, though at this point, the castle inhabitants are on alert since Glassstaff showed up talking about the adventurers having attacked his hideout in town, and some of the Goblin party whom they didn't kill or capture on a road in the woods managed to escape and go straight to the castle to warn them.

I suppose I let role playing influence the DC of the subterfuge encounter. Seems like a Charisma: Deception, Performance, or Persuasion roll? Seems like the guards they are trying to fool would need to roll a Wisdom: Insight, or Perception, check that exceeds the PC's roll on the particular Charisma skill they used when lying about be a RedBrand and having captured the wanted PC?

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My players have been wiping the floor on recent fights, so I'm thinking the missing Glassstaff may show up at the Castle during the battle if the players are having too easy a time with their characters defeating the crew.

I'm thinking their MAIN goal is to save Gundren. That is likely to go badly.

Their secondary goal would be to find out the location the Wave Echo Cave. That could be from the fabled map, Gundren if he doesn't die, or perhaps a captured foe at the castle.

At the very least, then, they will realize that two of the missing brothers are not here at the castle, and they "must" be at the Cave, so we got to go save them. Sildar is traveling with the party at this point, so he is pushing them on the urgency of saving Gundren at the castle, and could push the party to go the caves to save the other brothers, if there is hesitancy (assuming he survives the castle battle).

-----

My questions then are:

1. How can I make the deception plan to enter the castle difficult -- not just a high DC kind of thing, but narratively challenging?

2. Without completely nerfing the prisoner situation, how can the captured Goblin give them useful stuff (beyond confirming the castle location, which he has done) so they feel like keeping him alive was useful.......but he doesn't just tell them in detail things about the castle and it's occupants and defenses to the extent that it becomes a cake walk?

3. Am I missing any other good plot hook potentials to draw the players to the Wave Echo Caves upon completion of the castle?

I'm very inexperienced when it comes to anything but low level DMing. My players have just finished up WEC, and are going back to Thundertree to get Venomfang. They had an encounter back at level 3 where he stripped them of all their gold in return for letting them leave his tower alive, and they've been talking about getting revenge constantly since then. It's the last thing left to do in this adventure before I move on the the Shattered Obelisk, and I want it to me memorable.

They are level 5 now (Berserker, Elemental Warrior, Psi Warrior, Devotion Paladin, and Necromancer), with all of their magic items that you would expect from the adventure except the MM wand. I want the fight to be difficult and deadly, but not unwinnable, and it will be their first fight since reaching level 5 so I'm having a hard time trying to guess how to scale it to their new power level.

With how much damage they've been able to pump out before, I dont see venomfang lasting very long, but I'm going to make him summon a bunch of twig blight minion every round to harass the characters to try keep their distance. I'm also wondering if I should have the dragon cultists be a part of that fight too, or have them as a seperate encounter before venomfang. I would obviously have to buff them up a bit so they dont get immediately stomped.

I'd imagine most of our collective expertise is stacked in the earlier chapters, but I'm curious about the ratio.

Specifics and stories welcome in the comments!

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This is first campaign I am dm. My group will be entering Phandelver and I only want to handle chapter 2 stuff. I have seen in videos & forums that some have prepped both 2 & 3. That is overwhelming to me . My question is: if I limit info to just chapter 2 stuff how does my group get info for upcoming chapter 3 stuff. Worried if I give chap 3 info they will not be at proper level to succeed. Sorry for long winded question. Thanks for any advice.

I have this question is because when my players raid the Hideout, they are too slow and before they reach his room he already run away, and join Cragmaw to interrogate Gundern and warn him and the shapeshifter trouble is coming.

Now my players successfully distract the goblins and edge out a brutal fight in the boss room against the trio.

Since Cragmaw is dead, while the shapeshifter is at death door, I rule that being a self reserve PoS, Glasstaff will finish off the shapeshifter and surrender to the party, giving him a better position when negotiate since he is the last lead they have. My party love the way this play out, and in next session they will decide how to deal with the devil

Which make me wondering, beside the ordinary get caught > send it to Sildar, or simply KIA, did your Glasstaff choose a different path in your game?

Hi everyone,

I'm running the starter set with six players, and it looks like my group is headed to Thundertree next session! A little background on the group is that one of the PCs is a human sorcerer, looking for the origins of her powers.

When I was reading through the module, I found the corrupted nature in Thundertree a little but more interesting than the rest. I'm thinking of doing some rewriting in my campaign so that a dragon, one of Venomfang's ancestor, died in Thundertree and that its blood corrupted the region, turning some of the villagers into "zombies". Venomfang would come back to "reclaim" the village as its lair. Regarding my sorcerer PC, maybe her herbalist mother used some plants from the region when she was pregnant and thus gave her daughter her draconic bloodline. Either way, her powers would be tied to the plants of the region. I also just kind of enjoy the idea of plant creatures roaming the village instead of zombies lol, and I think this set up may lead to some interesting interaction with Reidoth, as he's sent to "purify" the village sort of. Because i'm leaning so much into the nature aspect to it, I'm wondering if I should scrap the dragon cult altogether.

I got a lot of help on this sub regarding how to tie my PCs backstories into the module a couple of months ago, so now I'm wondering if anyone also leaning heavily into the corrupted nature of Thundertree in their run of the campaign, and how it worked out? Any ideas and comments would be appreciated :) Have a good one!

Hi! I’m a first time DM running P&B: TSO. My thought was “it’s just a game if it works out great, if it doesn’t hide away forever”

Anywho.

I had my players start at level 3, and now I’m not sure how to go about leveling up so they’re ONLY at level 5 when we start TSO.

Any advice?