Hi everyone!

I'm planning to run Lost Mine of Phandelver for a party of only 3 players, using the 2024 (5.5e) rules.

Would you recommend using

haluz.org/lmopsite

to rebalance encounters, but keeping the updated 2024 monster stat blocks or would it be better to stick with the original number of enemies and their stats as written in the adventure, considering that PCs are generally more powerful in 5.5e?

Edit: I'd prefer not to add an NPC sidekick to help the party, so I'd like to balance the encounters in a way that keeps things challenging but fair for just 3 players.

Thanks everyone!

So the final encounter with the Black Spider as written is: Nezznar, four giant spiders, two bugbears. My party is four level 5 players using 2024 rules. So I adjusted it to: Nezznar is the CR6 Mage, one bugbear warrior (Nezznar's bodyguard), one hobgoblin captain (Nezznar's lieutenant), and four giant spiders.

Let me tell you, it was a good fight! The spiders locked the players down for a round or two right at the hallway leading to the temple before they killed all four. They killed the bugbear easily. The captain attacking with advantage downed a player before being killed. That left Nezznar the Mage.

He threw a fireball on the second round and idk how nobody went down. His arcane burst attacking three times per turn hit way harder than I expected. Counterspell and shield were invaluable. But after another few rounds, he wasn't even bloodied, still had a fireball and cone of cold, and was staring down battered 3 PCs. So he fell back to gather the 5 bugbears. One PC chased after him and went down for it. Eventually, Nezznar fled with two bugbears in tow and the party broke contact as well to end the session.

They're going to go back the way they came, where they'll run into the rejuvenated flame skull. I'm gonna let them short rest before getting there, and have Nezznar and his bugbears set up an ambush at the entrance to the cave. Again, he still has a fireball, a cone of cold, a counterspell, an invisibility, and a misty step, and is not bloodied. This could get very rough, but I do like how I adjusted this encounter for 2024 rules. Hopefully my party will learn not to stay so clustered up against a Mage boss. But this adventure is far from over.

I’m a first time dm preparing to run lmop. I’m thinking of changing the Wyvern Tour enemies to something more connected to my player’s backstory and throwing the orc scouts at them on their way back from the banshee. I was looking up the encounter difficulty to determine 1) how hard to make my new enemies and 2) how to buff the orc encounter if I take the ogre away as I don’t think the orcs should be dragging an ogre with them on raids. For a party of 4, even at level 4, the orcs are considered a deadly encounter even without the ogre! My impression was that Wyvern Tor is generally played at level 3. Is this a tpk? How did your party handle the encounter?

I'm a first time DM running Phandelver & Below, but I'm a bit disappointed in Chapter 3: The Spider's Web. To me, the sidequests don't feel connected to the main story at all, let alone to The Spider. It does not feel like a web.

Here's my situation:

• My players completed Redbrand Hideout by either chasing out or killing all of the Redbrands.
• Glasstaff escaped, they didn't even get a look at him because they spent a ton of time in his workshop while he made a run for it. They have figured out he's Iarno Albrek, he's betrayed the Lord's Alliance and is in cahoots with The Spider.
• They picked up the Agatha, Old Owl Well and Wyvern Tor sidequests (didn't really change the description of these yet, although I've kept it very general) and are looking to do them in our next session.
• They know the Wyvern Tor bandits might have an Ogre so they're kind of antsy about it, but they're confident they can complete the Agatha quest by trading the silver comb. They have no idea what to expect at Old Owl Well.
• They haven't heard about Thundertree yet, although I put a warning sign on the notice board that a dragon has been sighted around the Neverwinter Woods.
• They have no idea where Cragmaw Castle is yet.

So, what I'm looking for is to basically tie these loose ends together or at least give parts of it a better connection the overall story. I remember reading some blog with tips on how to make Kost a bit more integral to the story, but I can't find it any more.

I also kinda want to bring Glasstaff back into the story sooner rather than later. He feels like a threat now so I want to keep it that way.

Any and all ideas are welcome!

Hi! I'm a first time DM with very little experience playing D&D. I'm DMing the campaign for my friends who have never played D&D before. We had a session 0, which turned into session 1 because they were eager to start playing. Our next session is in a few days, we're playing every other week.

I spent a lot of time learning the rules and now the past week and a half I'm learning the storyline for LMoP. I want to tie in the Black Spider earlier on and am adding the puzzle box suggested by Matt P. I was also thinking of ways to invest the PC's a bit more into the storyline and give them opportunities to shine during the campaign. I want it to be fun for everyone and for everyone to have their moments.

I talked to a few of my players individually last night about ideas I have for their backstories to connect to NPC's and to ask for any more ideas they have for their backstories. We're using the pre-made character sheets. They're playing the halfling rogue, the elf wizard, the human noble fighter, and the dwarf cleric. I added that the halfling rogue is Quellin's niece from Phandalin and the human noble's family used to employ Sildar Hallwinter as a sell sword, before he left to join the Lord's Alliance.

However, many (3 out of 4) of my players want their character to have a messy, gay ex-situationship in their background. I'd like some feedback on my ideas on how to incorporate these and any ideas y'all have as experienced DMs or players would be useful as well.

• The Human Noble had a relationship with someone they grew up with who trained them. It lasted 2-3 years and they never had the "what are we" conversation. After that time, their ex ghosted them. Left town and they never heard from him again. It's been 8 years.
  • I was thinking of making this ex join the dragon cultists and have an encounter when they visit Thundertree, possibly having Sildar mention the family of this person for intrigue. I don't see any issue with this, it is the least of my concerns for running.
• The Halfling Rogue was dating someone in the Redbrands who know some magic. This person was the one who betrayed them and ratted them out to the Redbrands, and why Glass Staff has it out for the rogue. (I had them roll to see if they knew for sure it was her who ratted them out, she rolled a 16 so I said that it was a rumor she heard that definitely seemed to add up.)
  • My idea here is to make this character's ex turn out to be Nezznar the Black Spider. My main concern for this is it's such a big role and would be more of a main-character arc that I doubt any of my other players would have a problem with, but I can see the imbalance so I'd love feedback here.
• The third and biggest "I have no idea how to make this happen for you" is the Wizard Elf. Her backstory with her ex is straight-forward. She left to pursue knowledge and the ex wanted her to stay. The ask that my player has is that her character learns how her (sometimes selfish) pursuit of knowledge can have a negative effect on the people around her. My idea for this is basically:
  • Give her a cursed tome or something that causes Bad Things to happen to her friends as a direct result of her using it.
  • Past this, I don't know how to help her with this character development other than let her roleplay it so I would love love some more ideas here, as it's the most complicated request IMO, especially for someone who has never Dm'ed before.

Thank you in advance, I really appreciate all the resources I've found here and reading everyone else's questions and answers. I hope my question helps someone else build out their campaigns as well, as your questions and answers have done for me.

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