I'm running Lost Mine of Phandelver/Dragon of Icespire Peak right now. When they reached the goblin lair, one of my players - a gnome druid - decided to cast Speak With Animals and chat with the wolves. Gotta say, I didn't really expect that.
Lol had a similar situation where I ran a pyramid dungeon for my family, and my niece, an elven Druid, managed to tame the first mini boss spider and make it her companion XD
@@PMMagro DM Guild has "A Tale of Two Dragons: Phandalin Adventures Tier 2 Conversions" for $4.95 as a PDF that takes about does a decent job of running them back to back, but not concurrently.
1 thing to note is that when players finish the first goblin encounter, there's a chance that they will go straight to Phandalin to finish the quest. In this case, you need to still read chapter 2 to know at the very least the layout of Phandalin.
That’s what my party did during our first run of LMOP. It threw our DM for a loop. We ended up in the Sleeping Giant before finding the Cragmaw hideout
@@brendanblack4455 I thought the story / book itself suggests that if that happens you should have an NPC urge them to go back and inspect the tracks / trail
@@clarencepsaila4743 It probably does, but our DM didn’t really enforce that. He just let us get punished for going somewhere we weren’t supposed to be
I started LMOP with my wife and eight year old daughter. They had no experience at dnd and I have very little and no experience at DM ing. I just played a tag along cleric they found in a Goblin pit so they had heals, damage, and a bit of guidance. They snuck into the boss chamber, killed one goblin, and dueled the boss and his pet. One goblin ran away to gather every single one in the cave for a massacre. The bugbear went down to one hit point and decided to run to the goblins for back up. My daughter ends up decapitating him from behind right in front of the goblin horde. They all fled. So now there is an angry Goblin horde that I have to homebrew in lol
One suggestion I read was that the goblin surprise attack would target the oxen first, which makes sense storywise since the goblins are trying to loot the cart and the oxen would run off with the cart. The second suggestion was just use the average damage for the goblins.
@@itsmebeter3538 that takes a lot of the fun out of the game, makes combat much more predictable / boring - it's nice when there is a real risk of death and it is unpredictable. DND should not be a romantic boat ride to success in my opinion.
@@clarencepsaila4743I agree with you, my playgroup is full of math nerds and all that and they find it way more thrilling if someone can die at any given moment
@@Justnothankyou132 I think this danger of death also drives the adventure forward as the players have to adjust their play and their decisions are crucial. Glad to hear other groups like to play on the verge of death too!
Very true about the lvl 1 hitpoint problem. The party's Wizard got nailed by a Goblin arrow crit on the very first roll of the game with enough damage for an outright kill. I just used DM's privilege to announce that she was just knocked unconscious instead. IMHO, the important part of chapter 1 is getting your player's into it enough that they want to keep coming back for more rather than religiously sticking to the rules.
One house rule that I favor is starting 1st level PCs with max HP as if they were 2nd level characters (and when they level up to 2, their max hp stays the same, but they get all of the other features/benefits of leveling up). I also strongly advise new players to put a 14 or higher in Constitution. For critical hits (or other very high damage attacks, like a breath weapon, or a _fireball_ against low level PCs, etc.) I would use average damage unless the average damage would result in an outright kill; in that case I'd roll to at least give the player a chance. I might say, "I haven't rolled yet, but on an average this effect deals 22 poison damage; how many hit points do you have remaining and what is your max hp?" If they say "uh, 8 currently, and my max is 14" then I say "the poison gas cascades over Parro, filling his lungs... you need me to low roll this for Parro to survive past this turn" then roll in the open. If they say "I have 11 out of 14 hp left" then I say "Parro takes 22 poison damage and falls unconscious; his life is slipping away, but he yet lives." That way you're shading things in the player's favor but not doing it an overly fudgy way, and you maintain a sense of danger and tension. I also try to introduce a one-shot resurrection item early in the campaign, such as through a character background or treasure that they find after one of the very first encounters, such as a scroll (I house rule spell scrolls to make them more viable to use by characters that can't cast the spell normally without risking wasting the scroll), or a mid-level cleric in a nearby town that owes one of the PCs a favor, but isn't willing to risk their own neck adventuring. This curbs my temptation to be fudgy in other ways. I like the one-shot "extra life" concept because it tells the players that they have a bit of a safety net, but it's obviously a limited one. It also poses a dilemma for them if an NPC dies that they'd like to bring back. And if you wait until after someone dies to make the resurrection available, it can feel like a cheap _deus ex machina_ and undermines the sense of danger going forward. Then in the course of play I might provide them an opportunity to earn an additional extra life somewhere around level 3-4. By level 5, I sort of assume someone in the party can cast _revivify_ (using TCE expanded spell lists) and I make sure they have a way to obtain diamonds to cast the spell at least a couple times, otherwise they may have an opportunity to earn more extra lives (such as buying scrolls of _revivify_ from the temple they've been helping out). That, or I just tell the players outright that permadeath just isn't really a thing for the PCs, if that's what the players want or the players are heavily invested in their current characters. I tell them that they will always have a way back, but if the PCs don't have a way to come back under the party's own steam (e.g. one of the other PCs casting a spell like _revivify_ or _raise dead_ or an appropriate life-restoring treasure or favor they've already earned and can easily cash in), it's probably going to cost them in a way that will be a major setback or complication to their other goals, and that the campaign will have significant failure states besides PC deaths. In this mode of play, you can cheat fate but eventually fate will take at least some of what she is due.
Have been using the Lazy GM prep formula for going on a year and about to run LMOP for the first time only ro find the man himself has video's on it! Its a 'Fantastic' day 😅
For one of my first times playing this, it was chaos. One of my PCs arm wrestled Sildar, he and another PC had a romance, and they had a drinking contest with a Redbrand. 😂
What insanely good timing! We had our session zero today for Lost Mines and I'm dusting off my old DM skills and found this (thanks to HowtoD&Ds channel.) Thank you so very much for this series. I wouldnt mind at all if you kept doing other campaigns as well. Fantastic content!!!!
I've just helped them by keeping it easy, but not too easy. For instance one of my players (Tiefling Fighter) climbed up the chimney into Klarg's (bugbear) room. Instead of Klarg, his wolf, and the two goblins all attacking, Klarg dueled the fighter. The Fighter got a good hit in, then was knocked out. Klarg started celebrating and didn't bother finishing the fighter, and this allowed the rouge to use sneak attack and kill him.
The idea of a "benevolent cleric" casting aid to the party at some point before the tough encounters in the 1st chapter is definetely a good advise. LMOP is a great adventure, but the squishiness of lvl one characters can make it hardly enjoyable for a noob party, not used to D&D5 combat tactics. I find "aid" spell a nice and reasonable initial boost.
Thanks for the idea to add a cleric to the opening chapter. I totally wrote my own character from another campaign in to the campaign! My players will definitely know who it is, since they have played with her. So fun!
When we ran this our cleric got washed all the way out of the cave by the pools, but was able to roll really well to sprint all the way back up to the group and rolled a nat 20 while attacking the bugbear, killing him instantly. Funny to see how lucky we were now that I’m going back through and hearing how many people have had a ton of trouble with the bugbear being too powerful
Playing my first ever game of D&D tonight. I'm the DM. I'm exited, didn't expect it when you said this chapter might take 4 hours though🤣. It felt really short when I was preparing it
THANK YOU SO MUCH! this has helped a ton I’m a new DM and it’s my first time running a campaign with completely fresh players and this helped a ton! If anyone has more tips that would be amazing
Thank you for the tip about the benevolent cleric to cast Aid. As a player in this module, our first Goblin encounter resulted in a PC death and I really do not want that for my new-to-TTRPG players. I'm a new DM so this is a great way to give them a boost & potentially add more flavor to the world.
Sooo I used your advice and had Gundren give a "Relic of Aiding" to my party's cleric, telling them "the road can be dangerous." They didn't use it until literally the turn _after_ one of the other party members was murdered with one hit by Klarg the bugbear. I spent a while wondering whether I shouldn't have fudged the roll or done anything differently, but it ended up being the first of many examples that no matter how well you think you know your party, no matter how well you think you know what they are gonna do, they will _always_ surprise you.
A trick that I'm using right now is to award the players inspiration for coming up with backgrounds, having the sheet ready and everything done before the first session (which should be the default, but it happens a lot to me, maybe it's just me). That way, all players have inspiration to use to transform really nasty rolls into possible successes. A crit roll from a goblin can turn into a miss, or only a regular hit, and so on.
my first ever dm session coming up this weekend, im running this adventure with some new players who've never played dnd before. thanks for the handy straight forward tips in this video mate. wish me luck!
Just started running this adventure last night to new players on roll 20 Happy about the pre-generated characters and the classic feel of the adventure especially starting with the goblin arrows encounter Hope to keep my players interested and get into the hobby more with this :) Your resources are very helpful
watching this cause im supposed to run this campain for a few people thinking i've never played it, until i remembered standing behind the muddy barbarian of the group when the party opened the water reservoir and becoming a clump of mud with elf ears xD Thanks for the tips !
Played this tonight with only a party of 3. My first time as a DM, 12 yo has little experience as recently joined a DnD group, but my partner and 10 year old had no play experience at all. The 1st encounter was worrying, as the goblins managed to surprise the party and deal significant damage in the first round and 8 yo rolled a nat 1 on magic missile attack in his turn. Took me out of my comfort zone as a 1st time DM did not want the party to die to goblins in 1st encounter so decided one goblin fall and get tangled in the thicket in its excitement of the success of the ambush to give the party a chance to catch up. Ended the session at the entrance to the cave, so good to have some ideas about a suitable boost before they delve in and find tougher encounters.
Going to use this to run my first campaing as a DM. I stopped playing DnD 6 years ago. Let's see how it goes... I'm not good at improvising and can't be prepared for all the stuff. I will make mistakes, but if it is fun, it is good.
I just downloaded a DM's map of the area that combines the locations from LMOP and Icespire Peak, and the locations are color coded so you know which adventure book they are from....I think I will combine the two adventures
I'm first time DMing for a new group to DND next week and think that the helpful cleric is a great idea! Im also running the campaign for my regular group as a fun secondary adventure. Was thinking for that group, rather than use the cleric, have them be bestowed a magical item that requires it to be unlocked through a puzzle/riddle which if successful will case Aid on them. Limited attempts before it breaks. If they fail I'm hoping their playing experience will get them through.
Guys im literally super fresh to D&D never really played. But I have painted some really rad miniatures. But im am the dm for my group and have never played more less been a dm. Ive been watching so many videos and streams and im still extremely nervous
DMing for my moderately experienced group, I thought the Cragmaw Hideout was well pitched in terms of difficulty for a level 1 group. It set the tone nicely in terms of challenge, with one of the PCs dying to the Bugbear leading to the party falling back for a short rest before handling the rest of the cave system, and then tricking Yeemik into handing them Sildar and thinking they had left before returning to finish the job. With a novice group I think it'd be too tough an introduction to the game and the helpful Cleric seems a good way to balance things in their favour.
I ran a group of 3 (including an 11yo) through the past few weeks and it was only tough on the wizard. He was getting hit with horrible rolls. I only adjusted a few encounters for them. I had 3 goblins ambush them at the trail, and I minionized (1hp) the 2 goblin adds in the Klarg fight. It worked out pretty well.
5e goblins are no pushover, I am running a game for my nephews and their friends and goblins were a threat into level 3 and I even continued to use them mixing in hobgoblins until level 5 when I fully retired them.
I'm getting ready to start with only 3 players. Since all 4 of us are new to D&D, my idea is this: I'll run a single shot adventure (homebrew, thank you, Matt Colville) so we can all learn how to play, and this will get them to level 2. After that, we go into this adventure. Not only is the first adventure a hook into this one (because I'm setting it in Phandalin), but being one level higher than expected should help with the fights. Either way, I will adjust monster numbers on the fly, as needed. Maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew, but it'll be ok, I'm sure.
@@SlyFlourish My worry is to not overwhelm them. Since I've never done this before, I'll have to rely on the standard way to determine encounter balance based on CR and XP. When I get more experience, I'll be able to judge these things better. But for 3 level 1 characters, 4 goblins are way past deadly. For 3 level 2 characters, it's between medium and hard. Add to that the fact that at least one goblin will run away and it sounds like a good encounter to throw at them. Besides, the adventure is made for 4-5 characters, so it will need some adapting. Especially in the goblin cave. Throwing 6 goblins at 3 characters does not sound like a good idea. The upside is that if I manage to not kill anyone by the end of the adventure, I would have learnt a lot, so I'm really looking forwards to getting into it.
@@CristiNeagu I ran this with my kids - first time they’d ever played; they captured one of goblins in zone 1/2. I suggested they try making a bargain with it. They said they would set it free and give it some gold from the cave if it helped them. It brought the party to four. I chose to limit the amount of intel the goblin actually knew so as not to spoil the fun of the caverns - he was an *external* guard, after all…
I dont know if this helps anyone, but if my group is new to dnd, I give them a teacher-npc at hand. As that teacher is there to give them marks for their contribution, they dont fight within the combat, my teachers usually know invisbility and are actually bad at combat for their level, specialising in utility. If the character want they can talk to their teacher and ask for their opinions and I can use the teacher for rp purposes and to unit the group in an interesting way (as new players sometimes make characters, that wouldnt work together) This character can then cast Aid on them if needed or give them bardic inspiration. At worst they can get downed party members out of harms way or stop them if they are going to do something dumb. After all, they can easily make mistakes. I had some players do dumb stuff in other campaigns.
My players were all with darkvision, so no light was necessary. When they finally got to Sildar I forgot about it. But it was after all the fighting, so it was okay. Also, I was worried what could happen to him, if players decided to go to Chapter 2 beforehand. So, I added two halflings to lead the wagon while heroes go for the rescue
at 2:40 good idea, I will add him at the 1st goblin attack getting jumped alone. The PCs hear the attack, move up to see one cleric surrounded by goblins. If they can save him he thanks & aids them
Ran this last night with some new players they really enjoyed the adventure. However I did the aid spell angle with a cleric stuck in the mud with his cart and needed help however of the 4 players only 2 came close enough to talk to the cleric the other two hid. The thought the first encounter was going to be a tpk even when the cleric announced he was following a good god... even after helping he offered a blessing but the monk refused help from another god.... ok well they are going to learn the hard way but over all only had one player get to 0 hp but they were able to get him up before he failed his saves. That and I might of fudged a few goblin attack rolls. Just trying to get them to understand that its not a DM against the players. I didn't want their first D&D Champaign to be a bad experience.
I think the amulet of "mass aid" with one charge is a great idea! As for XP vs milestone leveling, the only other published campaigns that uses XP leveling that I know if Tyranny of Dragons and Dungeon of the Mad Mage,. so it would be kind of awkward to go from XP leveling to milestones. All that being said, players like XP, DM's like Milestones - and I aim to please.
I liked the idea of having a priest cast /aid/ on the party members, but it won't work from the Neverwinter end of things. It will have to be done by the priest in Phandalin, as by the travel rules on page 181 of the Player's Handbook, the wagon/cart will only be able to travel 30 miles per day at its fastest speed: A simple check of the map shows that the distance between the two places is better than sixty miles, and /aid/ has a durational limit of 8 hours. It may not work anyway, as the text in the adventure states that the group is half a day from Phandalin when they reach the Ambush site. As DM I would stretch it for the characters to allow the extra ten or so minutes needed, if they set out from the town on the fastest horses available immediately afterward. Crossing paths with a priest or cleric of 3rd level or higher sometime during the earlier part of the day, and them just casting the spell is so gratuitous. There should be At least have them trade out a horse with one of theirs because he's in a hurry or something. Make it a reward. Personally, crossing paths with a druid (only first level necessary!) and helping them with a small problem, and being given a ten-count of goodberries in return is almost as good.
My first time playing was last night, I DM'd chapter one for a group of friends (also all first timers) and when we got up to the wolves, the Dwarven cleric just yelled "DOGGOS!!!" rolled a 19 animal handling check. This being my first time, I forgot that I was only supposed to add his skill mod, I ended up adding his skill and ability mod for a total of plus 6. So now 'Snow' is a part of the party. Little do they know that snow is actually some kind of reverse werewolf, essentially a wolf bitten by a human. So on a full moon she transforms into a wolfborn, and I'm still thinking how I can possibly toss this into the adventure. Probably going to hold onto it until closer to the end of the module, when they're headed to the final dungeon, they'll camp for the night and she'll transform under the light of the full moon and they'll have to, unfortunately, fight their loyal companion, possibly to death... I'm a monster... What have I become... I justify my insanity by saying it's just to tax resources so they're not OP going into the mines, but it's a lie... I'm just terrible...
Amigo please make a playthrough of this like you did Icespire Peak. And while I'm here bossing you around you might as well do the same for the new starter set. Thanks.
I just ran goblin arrows. The party got caught up in the flood soaking their gear and only light source so they gave up on the cave. Any ideas to persuade them to go back?
Towns folk need those supplies. So just have them talk about how the raids are preventing supplies from arriving and offer a reward to locate the cause and retrieve any goods they can.
Running this for kids who have made it clear that undead are too scary. I’m looking to switch the undead out in chapter 4. Any thoughts on what to use? Like everyone else they get sick of too many goblins and orcs (though I spice up goblins by having them throw acid and other things).
When I was a mega noob, I made the goblins have 20 hp by accident. My party were all noobs too lol, didn’t question it and powered through. Real proud.
I'm DMing for the first time (going to combine Lost Mines with Dragon of Icepire), but we have only two player player characters. I intend to give the players 1-2 sidekicks to help out. Do you think Phandelvar is viable to play with just two main party members?
When I ran this adventure, unfortunately, the Rogue of the party got hit with a natural 20 and max damage and was immediately killed in the Chapter 1 ambush, maybe if I had watched this video, he would have survived 😋 Oh well, he re rolled and rejoined in the Tavern as a mercenary.
You're part of a caravan heading to Phandelver, the caravan leader and an escort led by the caravan's main guard move ahead and run into an ambush. Your PCs are the guards left with the caravan who arrive at the ambush site and end up fighting the remaining bandits (goblins) before discovering the caravan leader and the leader of his escort are both missing believed captured. That sounds about right.
If you go with the included story hook (definitely suggest this route), your group has been hired, by a dwarf Gundren, to escort a wagon of supplies from the city of Neverwinter to Phandalin. On the road, you find 2 dead horses, belonging to Gundren and his bodyguard. A group of goblins ambush the party. The group can follow clues that lead them to the hideout of the goblins. If you wanted to use the helpful cleric that casts aid, you could start the same way, but before they arrive at the ambush, you could introduce a cleric coming down the road that calls out to the group. The cleric warns the group of what he saw ahead, 2 dead horses with arrows in their side about a mile up the road. "This should help you reach your destination" then he casts aid on the party, and continues to Neverwinter or wherever.
I played this today and my friend casted a dark lightning bolt rolled a natural 1 the dm said that it disintegrated everything in a 200 mile radius effectively ending the campaign in the second battle against the goblins in area 2 that dm isn’t allowed to dm anymore
He sounds horrible at playing DnD. Not only is ending the campaign due to someone rolling a SINGLE nat 1 completely braindead, but also that he thinks a level 1(or any low level) could accidentally blow up everything within 200 miles.
Its kind of a no no in general to give players advice on how to play their characters. But I wonder if occasionally letting them know when it might be a good time make certain game mechanics choices, like raging or taking a short rest or may want to conserve spells can really make a difference in how they're able to handle the hideout. But not exploration or roleplaying advice. Especially since LMoP is a lot of peoples first experience with D&D. I'd say just be explicit about what you're doing and why you're doing it. That its just for this first level. Or I don't know, is that totally breaking a cardinal rule?
Milestone makes no sense for LMoP because some players, like mine, will do different things from different chapters. Like they did Castle Cragmaw from Chap 3 long before they finished chapter 2.
I think lvl 1 characters are to weak, later probably to strong as combos and better abilities and batter items stack up. the short rest and long rest is also crazy powerfull when you have zillion things to regain.
@@SlyFlourish some of thing I don't understand are the ability checks like say I make an wisdom check I get a 17 which is +3 in with the modifier and my hero has +1 already do I add that as Well
i played as the prebuilt rogue last night and ended up charming one of the first four goblins. he is now totally smitten with me. on second roll a successful attempt at communication. knows a few words and gestures now and he warns of the hideout and sildars location. we get to cave entrance and i give him meat i stole from the wagon and ask him to persuade a guard to let our friend out. shortrest.exe. success! good goblin reappears with sildar, dragging him by the leg. sildar appears weary and rewards us for his successful rescue. we never even made it in the cave. it was all in the dice lol! good goblin is now fully disguised and playing in the streets of phandalin with the other children with a bell around his neck as we all hit up the shops. is the rogue STILL a member of the redbrands or did he leave? If i am still part of the redbrands i have access to the criminal liaison, if i left or was banished do i still have access to the messenger system?
Sly flourish, I love you voice, tips and content. I can dream LMOP/DOIP as I introduce new players every weak. I gave the adventurers Chwinga instead. The cleric knows these little amazing magical spiritual friends from his past. He can call upon them in times of need(Religion Check). They cast "aid" on the beginning of the day as he or she prays(dc 10), bless just before a combat(DC 13) and prayer of healing just after a combat(DC 15) on the party from time to time. They also Stabilize the party in times of need...Spare the Dying. Bless used the concentration of the cleric
I'm running Lost Mine of Phandelver/Dragon of Icespire Peak right now. When they reached the goblin lair, one of my players - a gnome druid - decided to cast Speak With Animals and chat with the wolves. Gotta say, I didn't really expect that.
I changed the wolves to geese and the mage put them to sleep
Lol had a similar situation where I ran a pyramid dungeon for my family, and my niece, an elven Druid, managed to tame the first mini boss spider and make it her companion XD
How do you combind them? I whould like to do that.
@@PMMagro DM Guild has "A Tale of Two Dragons: Phandalin Adventures Tier 2 Conversions" for $4.95 as a PDF that takes about does a decent job of running them back to back, but not concurrently.
Haha that's great
I'm teaching five friends how to play DnD through Roll20 because of COVID-19. This is immeasurably helpful. Thank you.
Lol same here!
So excited to get some friends playing during quarentine! Hope you guys had fun!
@@ncorva ayyy what the heck, same!
aaayyye me too!! teaching my family XD
I’m teaching two of my friends dnd too
Same, but I am using Tabletop Simulator. Dudes in the steam workshop managed to make all the maps! And it is scripted! WITH FOG OF WAR!
1 thing to note is that when players finish the first goblin encounter, there's a chance that they will go straight to Phandalin to finish the quest. In this case, you need to still read chapter 2 to know at the very least the layout of Phandalin.
Happened to me yesterday, I needed to improvise a lot while reading super fast. Read all, good tip
That’s what my party did during our first run of LMOP. It threw our DM for a loop. We ended up in the Sleeping Giant before finding the Cragmaw hideout
@@LockedAlx I thought the story / book itself suggests that if that happens you should have an NPC urge them to go back and inspect the tracks / trail
@@brendanblack4455 I thought the story / book itself suggests that if that happens you should have an NPC urge them to go back and inspect the tracks / trail
@@clarencepsaila4743 It probably does, but our DM didn’t really enforce that. He just let us get punished for going somewhere we weren’t supposed to be
I started LMOP with my wife and eight year old daughter. They had no experience at dnd and I have very little and no experience at DM ing. I just played a tag along cleric they found in a Goblin pit so they had heals, damage, and a bit of guidance. They snuck into the boss chamber, killed one goblin, and dueled the boss and his pet. One goblin ran away to gather every single one in the cave for a massacre. The bugbear went down to one hit point and decided to run to the goblins for back up. My daughter ends up decapitating him from behind right in front of the goblin horde. They all fled. So now there is an angry Goblin horde that I have to homebrew in lol
Excellent!
One suggestion I read was that the goblin surprise attack would target the oxen first, which makes sense storywise since the goblins are trying to loot the cart and the oxen would run off with the cart. The second suggestion was just use the average damage for the goblins.
i cannot stress this enough: USING AVERAGE DAMAGE IS SO IMPORTANT! DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITJ ROLLING FOR ENEMY DAMAGE EVER!!
@@itsmebeter3538 that takes a lot of the fun out of the game, makes combat much more predictable / boring - it's nice when there is a real risk of death and it is unpredictable. DND should not be a romantic boat ride to success in my opinion.
@@clarencepsaila4743I agree with you, my playgroup is full of math nerds and all that and they find it way more thrilling if someone can die at any given moment
@@Justnothankyou132 I think this danger of death also drives the adventure forward as the players have to adjust their play and their decisions are crucial. Glad to hear other groups like to play on the verge of death too!
Very true about the lvl 1 hitpoint problem. The party's Wizard got nailed by a Goblin arrow crit on the very first roll of the game with enough damage for an outright kill. I just used DM's privilege to announce that she was just knocked unconscious instead.
IMHO, the important part of chapter 1 is getting your player's into it enough that they want to keep coming back for more rather than religiously sticking to the rules.
Sure thing. I remember being a cleric and watch my wizard fellow fall to the ground. My character was like: HAHAHA! YOU JERK!
And I single handedly kill the two goblins that were bothering us in the left side of the road.
One house rule that I favor is starting 1st level PCs with max HP as if they were 2nd level characters (and when they level up to 2, their max hp stays the same, but they get all of the other features/benefits of leveling up). I also strongly advise new players to put a 14 or higher in Constitution.
For critical hits (or other very high damage attacks, like a breath weapon, or a _fireball_ against low level PCs, etc.) I would use average damage unless the average damage would result in an outright kill; in that case I'd roll to at least give the player a chance. I might say, "I haven't rolled yet, but on an average this effect deals 22 poison damage; how many hit points do you have remaining and what is your max hp?" If they say "uh, 8 currently, and my max is 14" then I say "the poison gas cascades over Parro, filling his lungs... you need me to low roll this for Parro to survive past this turn" then roll in the open. If they say "I have 11 out of 14 hp left" then I say "Parro takes 22 poison damage and falls unconscious; his life is slipping away, but he yet lives." That way you're shading things in the player's favor but not doing it an overly fudgy way, and you maintain a sense of danger and tension.
I also try to introduce a one-shot resurrection item early in the campaign, such as through a character background or treasure that they find after one of the very first encounters, such as a scroll (I house rule spell scrolls to make them more viable to use by characters that can't cast the spell normally without risking wasting the scroll), or a mid-level cleric in a nearby town that owes one of the PCs a favor, but isn't willing to risk their own neck adventuring. This curbs my temptation to be fudgy in other ways.
I like the one-shot "extra life" concept because it tells the players that they have a bit of a safety net, but it's obviously a limited one. It also poses a dilemma for them if an NPC dies that they'd like to bring back. And if you wait until after someone dies to make the resurrection available, it can feel like a cheap _deus ex machina_ and undermines the sense of danger going forward. Then in the course of play I might provide them an opportunity to earn an additional extra life somewhere around level 3-4. By level 5, I sort of assume someone in the party can cast _revivify_ (using TCE expanded spell lists) and I make sure they have a way to obtain diamonds to cast the spell at least a couple times, otherwise they may have an opportunity to earn more extra lives (such as buying scrolls of _revivify_ from the temple they've been helping out).
That, or I just tell the players outright that permadeath just isn't really a thing for the PCs, if that's what the players want or the players are heavily invested in their current characters. I tell them that they will always have a way back, but if the PCs don't have a way to come back under the party's own steam (e.g. one of the other PCs casting a spell like _revivify_ or _raise dead_ or an appropriate life-restoring treasure or favor they've already earned and can easily cash in), it's probably going to cost them in a way that will be a major setback or complication to their other goals, and that the campaign will have significant failure states besides PC deaths. In this mode of play, you can cheat fate but eventually fate will take at least some of what she is due.
The first chapter took 5 sessions for my group...
Damn...My group took 7 sessions for chapter 3, so I guess you're winning lol
Oh god
You have a fun group lol
Nice! Mine only took three! 😂
My group got to Sildar in the first session and was in Phandalin by session 2. Total of around 10 hours with dinner breaks and everything
Have been using the Lazy GM prep formula for going on a year and about to run LMOP for the first time only ro find the man himself has video's on it! Its a 'Fantastic' day 😅
So many of these videos are about of some guy just reading the booklet. Here is 10 min of unadulterated advice. Tyvm!!!
I'm a first time DM on a Navy ship with four shipmates who are first time players in a few days, and this was actually really helpful, thanks!
I'm so glad! Thank you for your service!
thank you for your service !
For one of my first times playing this, it was chaos. One of my PCs arm wrestled Sildar, he and another PC had a romance, and they had a drinking contest with a Redbrand. 😂
Sounds like a great game of D&D!
Yep! Best Session 1 EVER!
What insanely good timing! We had our session zero today for Lost Mines and I'm dusting off my old DM skills and found this (thanks to HowtoD&Ds channel.) Thank you so very much for this series. I wouldnt mind at all if you kept doing other campaigns as well. Fantastic content!!!!
“Lost Mine”
I've just helped them by keeping it easy, but not too easy. For instance one of my players (Tiefling Fighter) climbed up the chimney into Klarg's (bugbear) room. Instead of Klarg, his wolf, and the two goblins all attacking, Klarg dueled the fighter. The Fighter got a good hit in, then was knocked out. Klarg started celebrating and didn't bother finishing the fighter, and this allowed the rouge to use sneak attack and kill him.
This was a very good video! I think framing things as watching what the players are doing vs. controlling them will help a lot of new DM’s.
Glad you enjoyed it!
The idea of a "benevolent cleric" casting aid to the party at some point before the tough encounters in the 1st chapter is definetely a good advise. LMOP is a great adventure, but the squishiness of lvl one characters can make it hardly enjoyable for a noob party, not used to D&D5 combat tactics. I find "aid" spell a nice and reasonable initial boost.
Thanks for the idea to add a cleric to the opening chapter. I totally wrote my own character from another campaign in to the campaign! My players will definitely know who it is, since they have played with her. So fun!
When we ran this our cleric got washed all the way out of the cave by the pools, but was able to roll really well to sprint all the way back up to the group and rolled a nat 20 while attacking the bugbear, killing him instantly. Funny to see how lucky we were now that I’m going back through and hearing how many people have had a ton of trouble with the bugbear being too powerful
thanks you so much the thing you said about not worry about the players actions has helped a lot in the campaigns I'm running now
Playing my first ever game of D&D tonight. I'm the DM. I'm exited, didn't expect it when you said this chapter might take 4 hours though🤣.
It felt really short when I was preparing it
Good luck!
Holy crap! Adding the cleric was the first thing i did and wasnt sure if it was a good idea being my first time DMing. Thanks for these tips
A very informative and to the point video for a new DM. Great info here folks.
I am about to run this campaign this will be my first module campaign thanks for the tips
THANK YOU SO MUCH! this has helped a ton I’m a new DM and it’s my first time running a campaign with completely fresh players and this helped a ton! If anyone has more tips that would be amazing
I'm so glad!
6:49 I played game where we used the wolves to get rid of dead goblin bodies. Dark but clever.
mmmm
Thank you for the tip about the benevolent cleric to cast Aid. As a player in this module, our first Goblin encounter resulted in a PC death and I really do not want that for my new-to-TTRPG players. I'm a new DM so this is a great way to give them a boost & potentially add more flavor to the world.
Sooo I used your advice and had Gundren give a "Relic of Aiding" to my party's cleric, telling them "the road can be dangerous." They didn't use it until literally the turn _after_ one of the other party members was murdered with one hit by Klarg the bugbear.
I spent a while wondering whether I shouldn't have fudged the roll or done anything differently, but it ended up being the first of many examples that no matter how well you think you know your party, no matter how well you think you know what they are gonna do, they will _always_ surprise you.
yeah, they have to use it
A trick that I'm using right now is to award the players inspiration for coming up with backgrounds, having the sheet ready and everything done before the first session (which should be the default, but it happens a lot to me, maybe it's just me). That way, all players have inspiration to use to transform really nasty rolls into possible successes. A crit roll from a goblin can turn into a miss, or only a regular hit, and so on.
You play D&D like I play D&D. What is going on in the world when the characters come across it. So much fun. Great video.
my first ever dm session coming up this weekend, im running this adventure with some new players who've never played dnd before. thanks for the handy straight forward tips in this video mate. wish me luck!
I’m preparing for my first dnd session as DM,this is really helpful and keep up the amazing work
Just started running this adventure last night to new players on roll 20
Happy about the pre-generated characters and the classic feel of the adventure especially starting with the goblin arrows encounter
Hope to keep my players interested and get into the hobby more with this :)
Your resources are very helpful
Thank you!
watching this cause im supposed to run this campain for a few people thinking i've never played it, until i remembered standing behind the muddy barbarian of the group when the party opened the water reservoir and becoming a clump of mud with elf ears xD Thanks for the tips !
Played this tonight with only a party of 3. My first time as a DM, 12 yo has little experience as recently joined a DnD group, but my partner and 10 year old had no play experience at all.
The 1st encounter was worrying, as the goblins managed to surprise the party and deal significant damage in the first round and 8 yo rolled a nat 1 on magic missile attack in his turn.
Took me out of my comfort zone as a 1st time DM did not want the party to die to goblins in 1st encounter so decided one goblin fall and get tangled in the thicket in its excitement of the success of the ambush to give the party a chance to catch up.
Ended the session at the entrance to the cave, so good to have some ideas about a suitable boost before they delve in and find tougher encounters.
Yeah. That first encounter is a doozie.
Going to use this to run my first campaing as a DM. I stopped playing DnD 6 years ago. Let's see how it goes... I'm not good at improvising and can't be prepared for all the stuff. I will make mistakes, but if it is fun, it is good.
I just downloaded a DM's map of the area that combines the locations from LMOP and Icespire Peak, and the locations are color coded so you know which adventure book they are from....I think I will combine the two adventures
My 9 year old sister tried to tame the wolves and rolled a natural 20... of all the things that she could have rolled a 20 on
Perfect!
I’m about to dm my first campaign using this. These video will surely help.
I'm first time DMing for a new group to DND next week and think that the helpful cleric is a great idea! Im also running the campaign for my regular group as a fun secondary adventure. Was thinking for that group, rather than use the cleric, have them be bestowed a magical item that requires it to be unlocked through a puzzle/riddle which if successful will case Aid on them. Limited attempts before it breaks. If they fail I'm hoping their playing experience will get them through.
Guys im literally super fresh to D&D never really played. But I have painted some really rad miniatures. But im am the dm for my group and have never played more less been a dm. Ive been watching so many videos and streams and im still extremely nervous
Its natural to be nervous. Remember that your friends just want to have a good time. Keep things simple and dive in!
DMing for my moderately experienced group, I thought the Cragmaw Hideout was well pitched in terms of difficulty for a level 1 group. It set the tone nicely in terms of challenge, with one of the PCs dying to the Bugbear leading to the party falling back for a short rest before handling the rest of the cave system, and then tricking Yeemik into handing them Sildar and thinking they had left before returning to finish the job. With a novice group I think it'd be too tough an introduction to the game and the helpful Cleric seems a good way to balance things in their favour.
I ran a group of 3 (including an 11yo) through the past few weeks and it was only tough on the wizard. He was getting hit with horrible rolls. I only adjusted a few encounters for them. I had 3 goblins ambush them at the trail, and I minionized (1hp) the 2 goblin adds in the Klarg fight. It worked out pretty well.
5e goblins are no pushover, I am running a game for my nephews and their friends and goblins were a threat into level 3 and I even continued to use them mixing in hobgoblins until level 5 when I fully retired them.
I'm getting ready to start with only 3 players. Since all 4 of us are new to D&D, my idea is this: I'll run a single shot adventure (homebrew, thank you, Matt Colville) so we can all learn how to play, and this will get them to level 2. After that, we go into this adventure. Not only is the first adventure a hook into this one (because I'm setting it in Phandalin), but being one level higher than expected should help with the fights. Either way, I will adjust monster numbers on the fly, as needed.
Maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew, but it'll be ok, I'm sure.
The goblin caves are a good start but starting at 2nd level isn’t so bad.
@@SlyFlourish My worry is to not overwhelm them. Since I've never done this before, I'll have to rely on the standard way to determine encounter balance based on CR and XP. When I get more experience, I'll be able to judge these things better. But for 3 level 1 characters, 4 goblins are way past deadly. For 3 level 2 characters, it's between medium and hard. Add to that the fact that at least one goblin will run away and it sounds like a good encounter to throw at them.
Besides, the adventure is made for 4-5 characters, so it will need some adapting. Especially in the goblin cave. Throwing 6 goblins at 3 characters does not sound like a good idea. The upside is that if I manage to not kill anyone by the end of the adventure, I would have learnt a lot, so I'm really looking forwards to getting into it.
@@CristiNeagu I ran this with my kids - first time they’d ever played; they captured one of goblins in zone 1/2. I suggested they try making a bargain with it. They said they would set it free and give it some gold from the cave if it helped them. It brought the party to four. I chose to limit the amount of intel the goblin actually knew so as not to spoil the fun of the caverns - he was an *external* guard, after all…
@@dexiggysjg That's a pretty good idea!
I dont know if this helps anyone, but if my group is new to dnd, I give them a teacher-npc at hand. As that teacher is there to give them marks for their contribution, they dont fight within the combat, my teachers usually know invisbility and are actually bad at combat for their level, specialising in utility. If the character want they can talk to their teacher and ask for their opinions and I can use the teacher for rp purposes and to unit the group in an interesting way (as new players sometimes make characters, that wouldnt work together)
This character can then cast Aid on them if needed or give them bardic inspiration. At worst they can get downed party members out of harms way or stop them if they are going to do something dumb. After all, they can easily make mistakes. I had some players do dumb stuff in other campaigns.
My players were all with darkvision, so no light was necessary. When they finally got to Sildar I forgot about it. But it was after all the fighting, so it was okay.
Also, I was worried what could happen to him, if players decided to go to Chapter 2 beforehand. So, I added two halflings to lead the wagon while heroes go for the rescue
at 2:40 good idea, I will add him at the 1st goblin attack getting jumped alone. The PCs hear the attack, move up to see one cleric surrounded by goblins. If they can save him he thanks & aids them
Ran this last night with some new players they really enjoyed the adventure. However I did the aid spell angle with a cleric stuck in the mud with his cart and needed help however of the 4 players only 2 came close enough to talk to the cleric the other two hid. The thought the first encounter was going to be a tpk even when the cleric announced he was following a good god... even after helping he offered a blessing but the monk refused help from another god.... ok well they are going to learn the hard way but over all only had one player get to 0 hp but they were able to get him up before he failed his saves. That and I might of fudged a few goblin attack rolls. Just trying to get them to understand that its not a DM against the players. I didn't want their first D&D Champaign to be a bad experience.
Mmmm session zeros.
I think the amulet of "mass aid" with one charge is a great idea! As for XP vs milestone leveling, the only other published campaigns that uses XP leveling that I know if Tyranny of Dragons and Dungeon of the Mad Mage,. so it would be kind of awkward to go from XP leveling to milestones. All that being said, players like XP, DM's like Milestones - and I aim to please.
You can choose what to do overall. I recommend milestone leveling. Make your life easier.
I liked the idea of having a priest cast /aid/ on the party members, but it won't work from the Neverwinter end of things. It will have to be done by the priest in Phandalin, as by the travel rules on page 181 of the Player's Handbook, the wagon/cart will only be able to travel 30 miles per day at its fastest speed: A simple check of the map shows that the distance between the two places is better than sixty miles, and /aid/ has a durational limit of 8 hours. It may not work anyway, as the text in the adventure states that the group is half a day from Phandalin when they reach the Ambush site. As DM I would stretch it for the characters to allow the extra ten or so minutes needed, if they set out from the town on the fastest horses available immediately afterward.
Crossing paths with a priest or cleric of 3rd level or higher sometime during the earlier part of the day, and them just casting the spell is so gratuitous. There should be At least have them trade out a horse with one of theirs because he's in a hurry or something. Make it a reward. Personally, crossing paths with a druid (only first level necessary!) and helping them with a small problem, and being given a ten-count of goodberries in return is almost as good.
In my first game as DM my party went back and hacked the leg off one the dead goblins outside and fed it to the wolves to keep them quiet.
My first time playing was last night, I DM'd chapter one for a group of friends (also all first timers) and when we got up to the wolves, the Dwarven cleric just yelled "DOGGOS!!!" rolled a 19 animal handling check. This being my first time, I forgot that I was only supposed to add his skill mod, I ended up adding his skill and ability mod for a total of plus 6. So now 'Snow' is a part of the party. Little do they know that snow is actually some kind of reverse werewolf, essentially a wolf bitten by a human. So on a full moon she transforms into a wolfborn, and I'm still thinking how I can possibly toss this into the adventure. Probably going to hold onto it until closer to the end of the module, when they're headed to the final dungeon, they'll camp for the night and she'll transform under the light of the full moon and they'll have to, unfortunately, fight their loyal companion, possibly to death... I'm a monster... What have I become... I justify my insanity by saying it's just to tax resources so they're not OP going into the mines, but it's a lie... I'm just terrible...
They’re the most befriended wolves in D&D
Thank you for the tips. Please tell me more about this relic of aid (item for improving HP). I did not find it in any DnD website. How is it called?
It’s made up. Just create an object that can cast the aid spell once.
I'm late to the the party... :)
But...how many of you had to deal with your PCs going up the the fissure from the kennel RIGHT TO KLARG?
about half and it was still awesome.
I think climbing the fissure is actually a great strategy for small parties.
Surprise, Yeemik is in area 8 now and Klarg in area 6. My 2 cents for future readers
My players are using the pre-made characters. I can't find who set up the Halfling rogue... Does it say or do I have to make it up?
Begin the adventure lvl 2 would be ok? Then leveling them at the beginning of chapter 3?
Probably!
Watched this video 3 times just to remind myself of that Aid trick
Amigo please make a playthrough of this like you did Icespire Peak. And while I'm here bossing you around you might as well do the same for the new starter set. Thanks.
I just ran goblin arrows. The party got caught up in the flood soaking their gear and only light source so they gave up on the cave. Any ideas to persuade them to go back?
Towns folk need those supplies. So just have them talk about how the raids are preventing supplies from arriving and offer a reward to locate the cause and retrieve any goods they can.
Running this for kids who have made it clear that undead are too scary. I’m looking to switch the undead out in chapter 4. Any thoughts on what to use? Like everyone else they get sick of too many goblins and orcs (though I spice up goblins by having them throw acid and other things).
When I was a mega noob, I made the goblins have 20 hp by accident. My party were all noobs too lol, didn’t question it and powered through. Real proud.
I got a question where do I got the maps for Mine of Phandelver?
For online play I got them on D&D Beyond which has all of the maps digitally.
@@SlyFlourish okay can even print them
I'm DMing for the first time (going to combine Lost Mines with Dragon of Icepire), but we have only two player player characters. I intend to give the players 1-2 sidekicks to help out. Do you think Phandelvar is viable to play with just two main party members?
Two players with two sidekicks should be fine.
When I ran this adventure, unfortunately, the Rogue of the party got hit with a natural 20 and max damage and was immediately killed in the Chapter 1 ambush, maybe if I had watched this video, he would have survived 😋 Oh well, he re rolled and rejoined in the Tavern as a mercenary.
during the "boss fight" i had a premade level 1 character come in cause they were getting their ass kicked
Everyone is doing videos lately about this adventure
Can anyone give a quick scene on this for the story? im new to DM and learning the ropes. how would this part go in the story of casting aid. thanks
You're part of a caravan heading to Phandelver, the caravan leader and an escort led by the caravan's main guard move ahead and run into an ambush.
Your PCs are the guards left with the caravan who arrive at the ambush site and end up fighting the remaining bandits (goblins) before discovering the caravan leader and the leader of his escort are both missing believed captured.
That sounds about right.
If you go with the included story hook (definitely suggest this route), your group has been hired, by a dwarf Gundren, to escort a wagon of supplies from the city of Neverwinter to Phandalin. On the road, you find 2 dead horses, belonging to Gundren and his bodyguard. A group of goblins ambush the party. The group can follow clues that lead them to the hideout of the goblins.
If you wanted to use the helpful cleric that casts aid, you could start the same way, but before they arrive at the ambush, you could introduce a cleric coming down the road that calls out to the group. The cleric warns the group of what he saw ahead, 2 dead horses with arrows in their side about a mile up the road. "This should help you reach your destination" then he casts aid on the party, and continues to Neverwinter or wherever.
Why all the worry about being level 2 earlier, or giving them Aide, can't you just fudge the monsters damage... make it do half damage?
I played this today and my friend casted a dark lightning bolt rolled a natural 1 the dm said that it disintegrated everything in a 200 mile radius effectively ending the campaign in the second battle against the goblins in area 2 that dm isn’t allowed to dm anymore
He sounds horrible at playing DnD. Not only is ending the campaign due to someone rolling a SINGLE nat 1 completely braindead, but also that he thinks a level 1(or any low level) could accidentally blow up everything within 200 miles.
Gay Bowser in his defense it was his first time and he will probably get better at DM’ing in future sessions
Its kind of a no no in general to give players advice on how to play their characters. But I wonder if occasionally letting them know when it might be a good time make certain game mechanics choices, like raging or taking a short rest or may want to conserve spells can really make a difference in how they're able to handle the hideout. But not exploration or roleplaying advice. Especially since LMoP is a lot of peoples first experience with D&D.
I'd say just be explicit about what you're doing and why you're doing it. That its just for this first level.
Or I don't know, is that totally breaking a cardinal rule?
I like to offer suggestions.
4 Hours on the first chapter?… how? 🤯
This game looks so fun, and I’ve tried playing once, but unfortunately I have an attention span of about Five Minutes :L
I've never been concerned if players at my table die. I'm a Darwin DM.
hahaha sly flourish,was that because of drunks and dragons?
Milestone makes no sense for LMoP because some players, like mine, will do different things from different chapters. Like they did Castle Cragmaw from Chap 3 long before they finished chapter 2.
I think lvl 1 characters are to weak, later probably to strong as combos and better abilities and batter items stack up. the short rest and long rest is also crazy powerfull when you have zillion things to regain.
Everyone who disliked are goblins...
Bruhhh I dont understand anything how do u attack what does a a hit by a goblins 5 (1d6 +2) mean
Best bet is to dig into the rules. You can read the basic rules here: media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/DnD_BasicRules_2018.pdf
@@SlyFlourish lol I been reading them for the past 2 days
@@SlyFlourish some of thing I don't understand are the ability checks like say I make an wisdom check I get a 17 which is +3 in with the modifier and my hero has +1 already do I add that as Well
i played as the prebuilt rogue last night and ended up charming one of the first four goblins. he is now totally smitten with me. on second roll a successful attempt at communication. knows a few words and gestures now and he warns of the hideout and sildars location. we get to cave entrance and i give him meat i stole from the wagon and ask him to persuade a guard to let our friend out. shortrest.exe. success! good goblin reappears with sildar, dragging him by the leg. sildar appears weary and rewards us for his successful rescue. we never even made it in the cave. it was all in the dice lol! good goblin is now fully disguised and playing in the streets of phandalin with the other children with a bell around his neck as we all hit up the shops. is the rogue STILL a member of the redbrands or did he leave? If i am still part of the redbrands i have access to the criminal liaison, if i left or was banished do i still have access to the messenger system?
Sly flourish, I love you voice, tips and content. I can dream LMOP/DOIP as I introduce new players every weak.
I gave the adventurers Chwinga instead. The cleric knows these little amazing magical spiritual friends from his past. He can call upon them in times of need(Religion Check). They cast "aid" on the beginning of the day as he or she prays(dc 10), bless just before a combat(DC 13) and prayer of healing just after a combat(DC 15) on the party from time to time. They also Stabilize the party in times of need...Spare the Dying. Bless used the concentration of the cleric