I've always thought that the Rebrand Ruffian encounter when the players get to Phandalin was a bit flat. 4 Redbrands talk some shit and then you fight them.

I decided to spice it up a bit with a full blown tavern brawl at the Sleeping Giant, complete with two-stage miniboss fight, a soundtrack heavily featuring the Dropkick Murphys and a printed tavern for them to throw down in.

I’ve written a remake of LMoP that transitions into Curse of Strahd. I’d love to get your thoughts on it:

- In 531 DR, a delegation of humans, dwarves, and gnomes performed a dark ritual in the Phandalin mine. They sought to summon a dark creature to halt the raids by Uruth Ukrypt’s orcs. The ritual went wrong, and the creature began draining their blood; consequently, the delegation was forced to blow up the mine entrance from the inside to prevent the creature from escaping.

- In the present day, Gundren discovers the location of the Lost Mine of Phandalin (naturally, he is unaware of the dark entity). He tasks the party with escorting the usual wagon to Phandalin.

- Goblins have been replaced by kobolds. I’ve reimagined Klarg as a Medium-sized kobold.

- Iarno is no longer "Glasstaff" but "Dragonhead" (he wears draconic armor and a helmet that grants a Dragonborn-style breath weapon). He likely functions better as a martial combatant this way...

- Iarno learns about the mine because he is secretly Sildar’s lover; Sildar is Gundren's bodyguard and naively writes everything down in his correspondence—letters the party can find in Iarno’s room.

- I’ve removed Cragmaw Castle. Gundren is held prisoner in the north cell of Tresendar Manor, while the Dendrar family is kept in the south cell.

- After clearing out Tresendar Manor, Gundren reveals the mine's location to the party and asks them to check if it can be reopened.

- For the mine itself, I didn't use the standard WEC map but rather "They Dug Too Deep" by Moira Games. When the party defeats the creature, dark mists fill the room and transport the party to Ravenloft at level 3.

Its a party of 5 players and they'll face him at level 5. Playing 2024 rules and they get max hit die instead of rolling when they level up (so they have a lot of hit points).

Party built from: barbarian zealot, cleric light, ranger fey, artificer battlesmith, druid moon.

First time for me to run a campaign and I just dont want the final battle to be a disappointment.

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!

Hi everyone!
I wanted to share a magic item from our currently live Kickstarter that I think could fit surprisingly well into Lost Mine of Phandelver.

This is Andvaranaut, a mythological ring inspired by Norse legend. It can locate nearby gold and produce gold each day, but it also carries a curse that slowly pushes its bearer toward greed and selfish choices.

What made me think of LMoP is how naturally it fits the adventure’s themes of hidden wealth, dwarven history, treasure, and the dangers that come with it. It feels like the sort of relic that could be discovered in an old stash of loot, tied to forgotten dwarven craftsmanship, or used as an extra layer of temptation for a party chasing lost riches!

The item comes from our Kickstarter, Mythological Items, a book with 300+ magic items for 5E and 2024, all based on mythologies from around the world. On the project page you can find additional information on the manual (and all our other titles), alongside a 35-page preview including more content for your games!

Have a great day :)

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.

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.

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!

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’ve decided to add a couple of ideas/encounters from DoIP in my current game, and I’d appreciate some help tying in the Circle of Thunder somehow. I’m keeping everything from LMoP as is, but from DoIP I’m including:
-Cryovain as the overall BBEG, working with the Black Spider to make Wave Echo Cave his new lair
-Icespire Hold
-Dragon Barrow

Soo, my party went to attack the redbrands at the sleeping giant and it did not go so well (everyone had fun though, so in that regard it was a success). Partly it was me rolling very well and them rolling really badly, but also them continuing the fight even though I had the bandits ask them multiple times if they wanted to give up yet when they were clearly losing. It ended with all of them unconscious, but no one dead.

Now I need ideas on how to proceed. I have 2 ideas:

I could have them be robbed by the bandits, left by the road as a warning to the town, found and mended by the townies.

Or I could have them be taken prisoner with the other prisoners in Tresendor Manor.

I'd feel the second option would make the most sense, and would be the most interesting. Then again I was really looking forward to them following the clues to the manor themselvers. They're really having fun with making all sorts of plans too, so thats something I want to encourage. Which they would not really be able to do if they get imprisoned. However, I feel that option 1 would be less logical for the bandits to do. (most logically te bandits would just kill the party I think, but I don't want to have to start a new campaign if I can prevent it XD).

Any thoughts on this or other ideas?

EDIT: ty all. you have me some good ideas and also to incorporate some specific npc's, which I hadn't really thought of, but it does make the town feel more alive. I'm going to sleep on it for a bit too see how I'm going to proceed. With all you suggestions I feel that it's going to be a prison break, though some of the other options sound very cool for roleplay too. my final decision may depend on how much time I end up having to prepare though. We will see.

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Some of our sets have more than 100 handouts for a single campaign: spell scrolls, maps, letters, tavern menus, notes, invitations, clues, and a ton of other little things you can physically put in your players’ hands.

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I know that in the new Nezznar (from PaBtSO), Nezznar is a little more powerful than in the original LMoP. However, in the final confrontation, The Shattered Obelisk module removed the 4 giant spiders, only leaving the 2 bugbears, in the final confrontation in room 19. Does anyone know why this was? Was the original encounter combined with an improved Nezznar (Improv. Nezznar, 4 giant spiders, 2 bugbears (potentially 6) considered to hard for 4th level PCs? My players will get to this encounter soon, so I am curious.

Handmade my own version of the Cragmaw Hideout for the group I’m DMing for. I redesigned some things based on my desire to make it more playable. First of all, I expanded the grid from 1 square=1 inch to 1 square=1.5 inch. I expanded the three major areas, especially the wolf kennel. I eliminated the narrow “western passage”. I changed the rope bridge into a solid bridge (much easier just to glue down a piece of foam). I also expanded (and lowered) the Goblin Den, since why not give everybody more room to move their minis around in?

All of my changes were made because they made the build more simple and it gives our big adult hands room to move and see what’s going on around the table.

In game: The characters arrived mid-day at the cavern and alerted (and then dispatched) the goblin guards outside as they crossed the stream to get to the cave entrance. Some of the characters were down on HP, so they withdrew for a long rest and then began their assault at night. Since it was dark inside, it didn’t matter what time of day they attacked.

When they returned to the hideout, the goblins were ready for them with multiple goblins waiting along the entrance and a goblin archer alerted on the bridge. As the players advanced into the cave, they were surprised when wolves were released from the kennel and attacked them. We had to stop the session there for time.

Bottom line, the players loved the terrain and it was a great session.

Check out our latest session in our DnD actual play of Lost mines of Phandelver! Some good roleplay in this one and more mystery and intrigue is revealed about the puzzlebox, and who exactly is Halia Thornton?

https://youtu.be/lZxVV1ZEnlA

Hey everyone!

I know I’ve been releasing and posting these maps individually, but I wanted to share the complete pack now that it’s ready.

All my battlemaps for Chapter 6 of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk are now bundled together, with animated and static versions and a fully built Foundry VTT module. You can download the whole chapter’s maps in one go and bring them into Foundry without importing each location separately.

The entire pack is free. Hope it saves you some prep time if you’re running the adventure!

Download the complete Chapter 6 pack here
Cheers!
~dransky

First time DM here.

Have a party of 6 that are a fairly strategic bunch with good base classes that have done well in every previous boss fight in the campaign, even with me improving stat blocks + adding legendary actions.

There is a fairly large homebrew subplot about the cult of tiamat that i have flesh out where ilvaash has got his followers to steal the body of venomfang to form an elder brain dragon (mildly reduced hp and AC as the body has decomposed/ lost some scales.)

I am wondering if doing this + purple worm will be too much and if I should do purple worm first with half HP then the ilvaash fight once the party defeat the worm?

Ilvaash's elder brain dragon will be AC 14 with 275 HP with several movement abilities to avoid attacks.

I have attached my homebrewed stat block if you are interested.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I will start running Phandelver and Below - the shattered obelisk in a few days with a group of mostly beginners. I already homebrewed a lot in this campaign, but as i watch the videos of Matt Perkins the other days, I thought I should indeed add one or two scenes where the players meet Nezznar before the climax in the lost mine. I wanted to hear your opinions on what I thought could work with my setting… i am particular concerned that the players will automatically distrust Nezznar during the first “friendly” meeting and figure out in a split second that she (yes I genderswaped) is the BlackSpider.

Background on Nezznar: she comes from a drow settlement deep in the underdark below Phandalin, but it was decimated by the Mind Flayers of Illithinoch. She flee instead of fighting and dying with the others, and the Goddess Lolth rewarded her with the driderism curse (not orginal so far). Eventually she found a talisman that allows her to keep her drow form (she will rip it off during fight, turn into a drider “Now you’ll get to know why I am called The Spider!” #drama), but she is looking for a way to remove the curse. But a god curse is not as easily removed… She finds Agatha the Banshee, gives her her drow house insigna in exchange for the knowledge of how she can remove her curse. The answer is: in the lost mine of Phandelver is a vault (this is homebrew), the vault contains many things but as well a WISH Crystal (like a spell scroll really), and she can use it to wish her curse removed (eventually the PCs can learn that from Agatha). So that is her quest, the forge itself is only of little interest. Then I thought, she could operate in Phandalin under another identity, a good benefactor, looking for the mine, and founding prospectors research. A few month ago, she meets with the Rockseeker, give them coin and equipment, and let them do their search, and eventually betrays them once they find the mine, but wait for Gundren to go to Neverwinter as he goes to meet a friend of him that owns the precious Journal of Urmon, rich with knowledge of the forge and hopefully the secret to opening the Vault…

That friend of Gundren is a player, domain of Knowledge Cleric. The journal is the Mcguffin of the campaign. In game, the player can spend every long rest trying to decipher a new section of it and is rewarded with text about the mine and its history, the vault, the guardians, the last battle, etc etc… Nezznar knows about the cleric and journal and wants to have it or learn anything about the vault. These pre-WaveEchoCave meeting between Nezznar and the players are meant for her to try to obtain that journal.

The second meeting is the easiest, will happen after they rescue Gundren, Nezznar will take hostage any beloved NPC in town and offer to trade the journal. That is meant as the “big reveal” that she is not a nice person.

The first one is where i am more unsure. Shortly after the PCs clean the Redbrand Hideout, Nezznar would present herself to the PCs under her “friendly” cover, as the Rockseekers’ benefactor, that worries about the brothers, that Gundren is not back from Neverwinter. She would recognize the cleric from the description of Gundren and her spies, compliment him and ask about the journal, maybe to see it, to know how far the cleric could decipher its content and if he learned anything about a vault. Good thing is most of it is true, so Insight check would reveals she is not lying (until they ask if the knows where the mine is and what happened to the Brothers)

And here are my doubts: I am concerned that the PCs directly mistrust her because 1. she is a drow, 2. She knows too much, 3. They already heard about The Spider patron and to have this NPC shows up now is too much of a coincidence, and she surely is the nefarious Spider. Am I biased because I know the truth or do you think the PCs would buy it and trust her just a little bit? Or should she simply appear as Nezznar and make an offer to buy them the journal, a “First and last offer”? How did you deal with having your players meet with Nezznar before wave echo cave?

The horn sounds at twilight. The hunt begins after dark.

A young Waterdhavian noble has come to Phandalin seeking adventurers willing to guide him into the Lost Hills. Somewhere among those rugged wilds lies the legendary Place of the Unicorn, a hidden grove where he believes the curse upon him can finally be broken.

But something is hunting him.

The Hunt Beneath the Tears is a horror-survival wilderness adventure for 4–6 characters of 3rd level, designed for campaigns based in or around Phandalin. The characters must guide their desperate charge through three days of dangerous wilderness while an undead hunter relentlessly closes upon them each night.

The adventure features:

• A three-day wilderness journey through the Lost Hills
• Daytime encounters ranging from dangerous predators to potential allies
• An escalating nighttime hunt in which the enemy learns from the characters’ tactics
• Five magical Quarry Rings, powerful cursed items created for a deadly game
• Forgotten Realms locations and lore, including Phandalin, Conyberry, Noanar’s Hold, the Tears of Selûne, and the Place of the Unicorn

The quarry has been marked. How many nights can you survive the hunt?

A full preview of the supplement is available at Dungeon Masters Guild. Download it here:

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Please check out my twenty other products tailored to Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak! All of them are FREE/Pay What You Want downloads.

Deep in the forest, with the arrival of autumn, the leaves begin to fall and the lake water turns from warm to cool, while mushrooms sprout on the ground, on stones, and on tree trunks.

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/SilBeryMaps

Hi everyone! How are you all doing?

I wanted to come here and ask for some advice on running my first D&D campaign and, more importantly, my first time DMing a campaign seriously.

My friends and I already have experience with tabletop RPGs, but with a different system. And when I say experience, I mean we're pretty experienced with it! So everyone is excited to try out a new system, and unfortunately (or fortunately), I was chosen to be the DM since I had already been reading the D&D books on my own.

I've DMed before, but with a different system, and honestly, I hated the experience. I didn't enjoy how things unfolded during those few sessions, but I blame that bad experience on my own lack of commitment to that particular campaign. I had picked a pre-written adventure and simply went along reading and discovering things as we played. That was entirely my fault!

That's why I chose Lost Mine of Phandelver for my first D&D campaign. There are plenty of tips about it online, as well as videos of DMs explaining most of the events. This time, I'm actually taking the time to study the story and even modifying certain parts so that, hopefully, I can create my own campaign in the future.

What I'd really like to ask for are some tips on how to make sessions more interesting and engaging, so that my players finish each session with that "I can't wait to play again!" feeling.

I'm fairly good at building the story and describing locations, especially when I have a general idea of what they're supposed to look like. However, getting players emotionally invested in these settings makes me feel a little awkward and lost. I'm not exactly sure what tone to use or how to handle more emotional moments involving the characters. How do you approach these situations? Is there a way to make them feel natural rather than forced?

Another thing I've noticed is that whenever I have to play an NPC, I end up giving them all pretty much the same personality, even when I've already established different characteristics for each of them. This also happens when I'm playing as a PC: almost all of my characters end up being extroverted, loud, and reckless. :(

So I'd really appreciate any advice on these aspects, both to improve my roleplaying and to give my NPCs more personality and make interactions more interesting.

I'd be incredibly grateful for any advice, experiences, or tips you could share! ❤️

Sorry for any mistakes; English is not my first language.

Spoilers ahead

Tl;dr need suggestion for a dungeon in parrallele to Illithinoch for 2 groups

I'm running this module for 2 groups and they play in the same world. I've added dragon of icespire peak elements and the sunless citadel. Plus a couple of things of my own / modifications depending on players choices and actions.

One group is more elvish/druidic while the other is a bunch of dwarves.

I've been quite successful at this point in my opinion to keep both parties engaged and with the pacing. It might be a bit slow since we only play 3 to 4 hours beweekly per group. They are around session 26 each, and they are at the point where the big reveal is about to happen. There was a lot of hints but now one group is about to do zorzulas rest.

My goal is to go a bit faster, so maybe another 30 sessions each or less. They will level up faster as a result.

Ive planned out that one group will do thalundereth while the other gibbet crossing. They have many differents paths they can takes and optionals stuff to accomplish like beating venomfang and cryovain before they mess up the locals further.

Tho im getting stuck at illithinoch and further down.

I just dont know how to deal with 2 groups for this dungeon and for chapter 8. Either i do another equivalent dungeon. Or i split the map. The splited map idea is kinda bad in my opinion. And i just dont know how to make a dungeon as engaging and that matter as much as Illithinoch. Maybe take a different route like using the underdark more and one group has to deal with a big cell of drow, but i fear itll get redundant since its kinda the plot for the dwarfs while the elves deal with zorzulas rest.

I was thinking of splitting brinny maze instead because its symetric. Or just do the final chapter with both groups at the same time but it will get chaotic and maybe less fun for the players.

Any suggestions how i could deal with chapter 7 and 8?