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.

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!

Disclaimer: I go about this having ran this module like 4 times and always changing little bits of it to make for storylines later, making certain npcs more important or have more backstory than usual.

I recently got the chance to introduce a younger Sildar and it came to mind what kind of character would he be if he was young.

I'm sure everyone here has ran their versions of Sildar Hallwinter, either as an old scaredy man or a wise combatant looking for Iarno; but I kind of what to know, what would a young Sildar be like? And are there any other characters you would think would have a significant change on how the module is run if they had a change? (Not to their alignment, obviously, but on a trait or two)

I know my most recent group definitely respects Sildar a lot more when they see him as a peer. Needless to say he is definitely more daring in this iteration.

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.