Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 FelwredNew Jul 08, 2015 20:40:03	My home group is interested in running lost mine of phandelver as an AL official home game with sponsorship of our local game shop (but still run from home). Some of the players have existing AL characters ranging in level from 3 to 5.   My understanding is that the only official modules that can be run for AL in a home game are Lost Mine of Phandelver (the box set), Hoarde of the Dragon Queen, Rise of Tiamat, and Princes of the Apocalypse.   Here's the question: Phandelver is listed as an adventure for levels 1-5. Can 5th level players run in it? If yes, and a character hits level 6 during it - would that character have to be replaced?   I heard the xp limits are capped so that if we scale the adventure up it won't be full xp (whichever of us DM's it will end up making it ridiculously hard anyway as a matter of pride despite xp). Is this true of all the chapters and what is the cap per chapter?   Thanks!   Fred
#2 Tyranthraxus Jul 08, 2015 22:16:24	Fred:   I recently finished running this for the second time and when I started in the caves section I had 3 new level 1 players and 2 level 2's. Generally exp wise there is enough in each part to get 5 level appropriate players to the next level .So the caves to 2, the mansion/manor to 3, then wilderness quests to 4, and then maybe enough in the Wave Echo to get to 5.   Now if you are running this sceario for  level 5 characters you could always START in Wave echo Cave.  While the encounters there might not be a huge challenge, a DM as per the rules does have some disrection on the challenge of the encounters, generally by adding or removing monsters (obviously more or less skeletons etc). The option isnt really there to add different monsters.  THis of course means that you wont be running the majority of Lost Mine, and the scenario will instead be seen as more of a Dungeon crawl. Id actually suggest bypassing Hoard and going to Princes of the Apocalypse and whilst character will be level 5 (there is simply not enough exp in Wave Echo to get from 5 to 6) you can use your Wave Echo part to include links to Princes. How you do that is up to you. Again.. the main line in Princes starts at level 3, so you will need to do some scaling in some of the cultist locations to match the party level.   THe best way would be of course to have 5 level 1 characters start lost mine but its hard to get that perfect start.
#3 Pauper Jul 09, 2015 8:25:24	Since you're running Lost Mine as an AL-legal home game, that would fall under Casual Play -- there is no tier restriction enforced in AL for Casual Play games.   However, I'd recommend having your players start all new level 1 characters. If you have the level 5 characters join at the beginning, the adventure will be disappointingly easy for the entire party, while if you start at the last set of encounters, not only will the level 1 characters be in serious jeopardy, but the adventure will also be disappointingly short.   -- Pauper
#4 Ravix Jul 09, 2015 14:53:32	I'd personally say no, they should start new characters in that case.   Also, I believe the adventure is for level 1-4 with the characters leveling up 5 at the conclusion.     I would not let a 5th level character participate.
#5 Kalani Jul 09, 2015 18:21:58	L5 characters could not start this adventure. The changes required in order to maintain the difficulty level would be extensive. The highest level character I would allow to participate in this adventure is L4 (although I strongly recommend all characters start at L1-L3 at most). If a higher level character reaches L5 before the rest of the party however, they can continue adventuring with the same party. There is a difference between starting an adventure at L5, and continuing an adventure after reaching L5.   For example: A player starts LMoP with a pre-existing L3 character with ~900 to ~1500 XP, while the rest of the party is L1. Near the end of part 4, lets assume this character reaches L5 - meanwhile, the rest of the party is L3-L4. This character can finish the adventure with the party, and is not excluded just because they hit L5.....
(Reply to #5) Coredump00	Kalani wrote:
#7 Kalani Jul 10, 2015 9:05:40	Coredump00 wrote:
(Reply to #7) Coredump00	Kalani wrote:
(Reply to #7) Coredump00	Kalani wrote:
#10 Kalani Jul 10, 2015 13:30:32	Coredump00 wrote:
#11 FelwredNew Jul 10, 2015 17:16:22	Just wow. For the forum trolls who hi-jack threads to argue minutia - try just messaging the other person. You are wasting the time of the forums overall. Whomever the forum admins are - considering throwing temporary bans at these folks.   I had a simple question and got an answer. At that point the discussion was over. The adventure allows for 5th level characters per AL rules. We likely won't do it based on the input regarding the adventure (although, I do feel like it would be an interesting challenge to see if there is a way I could DM it without changing the module and still make it challenging. Monsters can be smart too and react to what the players do. I may take that as a DM opportunity at some point to see if I can make it really challenging.)   Please close this thread - request of thread originator.   For those with helpful feedback, thank you. For the remainder, tphtphtphtpth!!!   Fred