My apologies if this has already come up somewhere on the forums, but I feel like someone must have already considered this and come up with a smooth transition and I'm just inept at finding it! I'm loving the new 5e rules, having DM'd for various campaigns from 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0. I'm running the "Lost Mine of Phandelver" Starter Set over Roll20 with a group of four players (most of whom have played with me before). When the Phandelver material is over--assuming they survive (which, given their ingenuity so far, I have no doubt they will!) they'll probably be around level 4, approaching level 5. Unlike in the days of my youth, I don't have time to concoct a new adventure path for them from scracth (much as I'd like to!) and am enjoying the direction the "pure" D&D tracks are taking. I just ordered the "Hoard of the Dragon Queen," but everything I've read makes it sound like a relatively seamless set of 8 levels of adventuring. Has anyone tried to segue from the Starter Set into HotDQ? Any thoughts on bringing a gaming group from one to the other without having to re-roll characters? Thanks in advance.
D&D 5E Bringing characters from LMoP to HotDQ?
- Thread starter Evhelm
- Start date
Mercule
Adventurer
I plan to, but I'm setting it all in Eberron, so my fluff wouldn't necessarily be universal. As far as power level, I plan to use a greater number of "standard" foes in each encounter, per the encounter rules in the DM PDF (and, presumably the DMG). Unique foes will need a bit more love, but that's just an opportunity to fit things into a different setting.
Since the adventure as printed expects to take the characters to 8th level (with the second one taking the PCs to 15th, IIRC), I figure starting at 5th level should let us try out all levels of play in the PHB.
Since the adventure as printed expects to take the characters to 8th level (with the second one taking the PCs to 15th, IIRC), I figure starting at 5th level should let us try out all levels of play in the PHB.
I don't have detailed knowledge of either adventure, so I can't offer personal thoughts. But I do have some vague recollection that one of the game designers in an interview had said that going with the same characters from lmop to hoard (if you did not want to rebalance encounters for a higher party level) then you may want to have the party come in at chapter 4 I think it was. Conversely, you could recalculate the encounters a little to get the stuff from the start as well
Someone asked a similar question on the DnD Reddit about a month ago
http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2efa7r/transitioning_from_starter_set_to_hoard_of_the/
I think this part is the most usefull:
1) Lost Mines of Phandelver supports factions (and introduces them to rank one of them), so their corresponding factions might want them to investigate what transpires in Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
2) One of the treasures at the end has a letter or a link to the Cult of the Dragon. Have Nezznar be an ally or antagonist to the Cult of the Dragon as you see fit.
3) While the party is exploring the Wave Echo Cave, have the Cult of the Dragon attack Phandelver.
http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2efa7r/transitioning_from_starter_set_to_hoard_of_the/
I think this part is the most usefull:
1) Lost Mines of Phandelver supports factions (and introduces them to rank one of them), so their corresponding factions might want them to investigate what transpires in Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
2) One of the treasures at the end has a letter or a link to the Cult of the Dragon. Have Nezznar be an ally or antagonist to the Cult of the Dragon as you see fit.
3) While the party is exploring the Wave Echo Cave, have the Cult of the Dragon attack Phandelver.
I'm not sure if you're concern is story or mechanics, so I'll address both. I haven't done lost Mines, but my players just finished ep 2 of HotDQ and I've read into ep 4 or 5. I tried to write this to minimize spoilers, but I've spoiler tagged it just in case I still went too far.
Bob
Storywise, it just depends on locale. It's DEAD SIMPLE to get them started if they are in the right place. Basically, the adventure starts with them wandering along, seeing the town of Greenest and bad stuff happening, and rushing to help. So as long as they see the town, you're in, and everything rises organically from the first sighting.
If they aren't in the right place, you just need to give them a reason to head down there. One of the suggested bonds in the back of the adventure is that they know a character who's integral to ep 2 and they come looking for him. You could easily fit that into a character's backstory and have him send a letter to the PCs asking for backup in his investigation. Or just come up with any old excuse to be down there. One of my players has this big thing in his backstory where he has to kill "The Great Bear" for his tribe. I started the adventure with them coming back from chasing down a great bear rumor.
Mechanics-wise: This one doesn't seem that hard either. A first level party will get their butts handed to them if they don't try to avoid most of the encounters in the first episode. If your party is bolder with their higher level confidence, you might not need to alter the adventure too much, as hordes of bad guys are bad for anyone in 5e. If that's not enough, adding about 50% more bad guys to any scene will probably do the rest. There's a boss-style fight that is already handicapped for them that you'll need to adjust the handicap for. There's another at the end that I'd just play as is, because the adventure already is written to deal with what happens if they do better than expected.
The second ep has almost no fighting if they do it right. By the third, they are supposed to be 3rd level, so you might just let it ride.
I'd just tell them straight up that you're going to be a little stingy on the xp for the first few eps to sync up better. My players are all very cool about stuff like that as long as I'm up front about it. I did it with Kingmaker in Pathfinder recently, because I wanted to send them through Keep on the Borderlands as a prologue. For instance you could give them almost no xp on the second episode and I doubt they'd even think it's weird. Without doing the math, if you gave them a token xp award for the first episode and nothing but monster xp (no goal oriented xp) from there on until they match up with the adventure, I suspect you'd be on parity with the adventure difficulty by the end of the first book. You might need to fudge that down a bit more, but if your players know what's going on, they will probably be cool with it.
If they aren't in the right place, you just need to give them a reason to head down there. One of the suggested bonds in the back of the adventure is that they know a character who's integral to ep 2 and they come looking for him. You could easily fit that into a character's backstory and have him send a letter to the PCs asking for backup in his investigation. Or just come up with any old excuse to be down there. One of my players has this big thing in his backstory where he has to kill "The Great Bear" for his tribe. I started the adventure with them coming back from chasing down a great bear rumor.
Mechanics-wise: This one doesn't seem that hard either. A first level party will get their butts handed to them if they don't try to avoid most of the encounters in the first episode. If your party is bolder with their higher level confidence, you might not need to alter the adventure too much, as hordes of bad guys are bad for anyone in 5e. If that's not enough, adding about 50% more bad guys to any scene will probably do the rest. There's a boss-style fight that is already handicapped for them that you'll need to adjust the handicap for. There's another at the end that I'd just play as is, because the adventure already is written to deal with what happens if they do better than expected.
The second ep has almost no fighting if they do it right. By the third, they are supposed to be 3rd level, so you might just let it ride.
I'd just tell them straight up that you're going to be a little stingy on the xp for the first few eps to sync up better. My players are all very cool about stuff like that as long as I'm up front about it. I did it with Kingmaker in Pathfinder recently, because I wanted to send them through Keep on the Borderlands as a prologue. For instance you could give them almost no xp on the second episode and I doubt they'd even think it's weird. Without doing the math, if you gave them a token xp award for the first episode and nothing but monster xp (no goal oriented xp) from there on until they match up with the adventure, I suspect you'd be on parity with the adventure difficulty by the end of the first book. You might need to fudge that down a bit more, but if your players know what's going on, they will probably be cool with it.
Bob
Astrosicebear
First Post
The first point of contention is getting them from the far north, waaaay down south. Something close to 1000 miles if I remember the map. Once you solve that dilemna, I would keep them 4th and just go. Sure they might roll easier through the first couple chapters, but it wont lessen the story or impact.
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Yeah, the main issue, as stated above is geography. Lost Mines takes place near Neverwinter, and [minor spoiler] HotDQ takes place southwest of Baldur's Gate. And then traveling towards Neverwinter. Which is like having a campaign near Seattle, transitioning suddenly to San Diego and then start road-tripping to Seattle by foot.
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