D&D 5E Phandelver to Tyranny of Dragons?

[Mercurius]

This has probably been addressed somewhere, but does anyone know if there is going to be a clear and easy way to go from Lost Mines of Phandelver to Hoard of the Dragon Queen? It seems odd that the starter set adventure goes from levels 1-5, then the first campaign sequence also starts at 1st level. What do they expect people who aren't ready or wanting to design their own adventures or start over at 1st level to play after Phandelver?

 

[Zoombaba]

I thought they want Phandelver to be expandable by the DM.

 

[fba827]

The unboxing video of the starter set specifically talked about this.
1) seeds are mentioned to loosely connect the starter set adventure to tyranny (ie reference to a certain group as a potential encounter in phandelver that would show up again in tyranny.. Trying to avoid spoilers)

2) that tyranny was modular enough that if you took a group from one to the other you could use discretion to ween out some of he encounters to just focus on more of the story for upper end adventures.

Again that show I remember it mentioned in the in boxing video. Apologies for incorrect recollections.

 

[Iosue]

This has probably been addressed somewhere, but does anyone know if there is going to be a clear and easy way to go from Lost Mines of Phandelver to Hoard of the Dragon Queen? It seems odd that the starter set adventure goes from levels 1-5, then the first campaign sequence also starts at 1st level. What do they expect people who aren't ready or wanting to design their own adventures or start over at 1st level to play after Phandelver?

As I understand it, Lost Mines of Phandelver contains four distinct dungeons and numerous other "adventure locations". The first adventure is intended to be somewhat railroady, as it holds the DM's and players' hands through (ostensibly) their first time playing D&D 5e. Strong hints are given for the next part of the adventure, but after that first dungeon foray the adventure is essentially a sandbox, with players free to explore the through-line of the adventure, or do side-quests for their own personal objectives.

Lost Mines of Phandelver is not intended to be a prequel or to lead into Tyranny of Dragons. However, it does have some hooks (through various factions, I believe) into the story. So a group could get started with LMoP, then decide to do ToD at anytime, true sandbox style.

Also, Hoard of the Dragon queen covers 1-7 levels, with early level advancement meant to happen fast. So even if they get into HotD at levels 4 or 5, they'll quickly get to adventures at their own level and above. Advancement slows down at levels 3-5.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

It would be easy enough to sandbox that location between the Mere of Dead Men and Neverwinter as there are lots of canon locations for inspiration. I was even thinking of posting a thread to do this.

 

[Evhelm]

I know this is an old thread, but for those who are looking for options and stumble on it, this has been discussed elsewhere

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?366830-Bringing-characters-from-LMoP-to-HotDQ

 

[Efgar]

I just did this transition in my table, i make my characters face a impossible oponent (a cr 11 dragon i think) on its way to greenest, as they loose the fight, they dont die but get "mentally injured" (aka, dice and hit points penalization) and have to regain its courage by facing their new deepest fear.. dragon related stuff, i know is a cheap solution but also an effective one and have received no complaints so far, note that they will still hit as a truck... if they manage to survive their foes this will give em the feeling that not all the character progress is lost.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

It would be easy enough to sandbox that location between the Mere of Dead Men and Neverwinter as there are lots of canon locations for inspiration. I was even thinking of posting a thread to do this.

Please do
(oh, and what about that Neverwinter entry on your blog )

 

[devincutler]

[SPOILERS]:

I took my 6 PCs from LMoP to HotDQ straight away. They were 4th level when finished with LMoP and I included a note in the dragon cultist encounter in Thundertree that was from Rezmir to Favric asking him to attept to gain allegiance with the green dragon and then report to cult agents in Greenest. This was a direct link to HotDQ and since the PCs elected, wisely, to tackle the dragon last (at 4th level), they pretty much transitioned from LMoP to HotDQ easily and probably wouldn't have even known they had started a new scenario (or that Thundertree wasn't the start of HotDQ unless I had told them.

As far as HotDQ, at 4th level then encounters in the first episode are not deadly like they are at 1st level, and the PCs could handle the whole episode without completely running out of resources. Nevertheless, running all of the episode 1 encounters, plus having the dragon be a bit more aggressive towards the PCs helps. Plus the DM can be liberal with the wandering encounters. All told, even a party of 4th level PCs running the encounters straight out of the box found themselves taxed overall and in a few sticky situations. Even the duel with Cyanwrath should have resulted in a defeat for the PC challenger except that I couldn't roll a hit for the poor guy to save my life.

One nice feature is that because the PCs were 4th level, were given a reason to go to Greenest, and had just defeated a dragon, they had no inclination at all to flee or prevaricate when I described the Huge blue dragon flying over the town.

The PCs are now well into episode 3 and are still 4th level, so the scenario is rapidly catching up to them.

In any event, I highly recommend a direct transition between the two scenarios. Although they are not designed to follow, they transition quite well.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I just got finished joining these two. It's not seamless, but I did pretty OK!

Essentially, I had the PC's join the plot at the point where the caravan stopped at the Roadhouse. From the details of the cult in Thundertree, they picked up on the increasing activity. The map they found in Wave Echo Cave was a map to the flying castle (Phandelver's Pact provided some of the magical gewgaws that power the flight in the ancient times). The party went through Leilon to meet Untharr Frume and he and their contacts in Phandelver (among the Harpers and the Zhents) were looking for Leosin. I had Leosin bound up outside of Naerytar, and put the Dragon Hatchery in the basement (added a few abishai to beef up the encounters down there).

I ditched the portal in favor of having them return to Leilon with Leosin and talk to Untharr. Rather than going to some distant mountains, I'm just going to put the town and the lodge and the castle in the Sword Mountains.

I'm also keeping the Dragon Cult a little closer to their necromantic ways in my version (lets just say Tiamat might be less a goal and more an ingredient for *someone's* attempt to make an undead dragon goddess, *cough*Faluzure...*cough*).

It's working well, though we're only just back from Naerytar, so I haven't used much. I think Leosin and the Dragon Hatchery are the only real parts that affect future events here and in the sequel that I might've "missed" had I not put them in.